Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-10-31

A white cloud reflection encirciing his
head made him look prematurely veneer
able, and Bertha confessed to herself that
he was really handsome.
"Well, I'm going home now" she
said, presently. You wait here. l
think-:t will be better"
Upon this Guy became sarcastic.
How long shall wail?'' he inquired.
"About thirty years, I suppose, til my
hair turns gray"
''If you like" said Bertha Finch, not
| daunted in the least.
otis nothing to you, See" the young
man replied. bitterly, suddenly feeling
J very suicidal
"What! waiting thirty years?' laugh
ed she. "Oh, yes, that would be a very
serious thing to me. But don't sup
pose SHALL
She had turned back to say this, but
as she resumed her retreat Immediately,
/ he was lett alone in another moment.
Guy debated with himself what he would
do. He was terribly stung by what he
considered Bertha's heartessness, and
for a moment or two the idea of throw
ing himself into the river, where he had
Just seen his own image lying so seduc-
lively. occupied his mind as tacile
though watery solution of trouble.
Then he thought how fine 1t would be to
marry another girl, and let Miss Finch
mature into an old maid. But to this
there were three objections. IN the first
place it was not certain another girl
would have him; secondly, Miss Finch
might not become an old maid; and fla
ally he loved Miss Finch. At last be
said to himself, II know what III do:
I'll disappear"
And he did.
No young man could have been bet
ter situated tor INDUCING in this popu-
lar modern pastilhe. He had no family
in town; his accounts were correct to a
cent; his habits were irreproachable.
There could not be, consequently, any
distress to parents, or suspicion OF specu-
latlon, or disgraceful reason for his drop
ping out Of sight; and the mystery of the
thing would be complete.
In fact, wien it became known that he
was no longer in the village, the theory
of suicide was the one Immediately
adopted, for the usual reason that there
was no evidence to sustain it. Suicide?
And how? For what motive? Nobody
could tell, but it was settled that the
cause must have been disappointment in
love, although all testimony on the sub
iect went to show that for day or two
before he was last seen the missing young
man had been in exceptionally good
spirits. It was proposed to organize a
search after him, and even to drag the
river and the ponds; but Postmaster
Pound announced that this would be
useless. "Atlee left message" he SAID,
"stating that all such doings would De
labor thrown away" in confederation of
which he produced a paper signed by his
late clerk. 1t could not be learned, eth
er, that any one had seen him near the
water, or, for that matter, anywhere
about the railroad. The last person who
had had sight of him had met him on
the street toward evening; Atlee had
passed on into the dusk, and that was
the last seen of him.
1t was with some idea of relieving her
mind, Think, that she took herself to
the railroad this windy day for a trip to
town. An old man with copious white
hair, gold bowed glasses, and flatcrown-
ed felt hat, who sat placidly at on of the
Car windows, reposing his hands on a
cane which he kept remarkably perpen-
dicular, was good deal struck by her
fresh and sweet appearance as he saw her
blown along by the wind to the depot
and as luck would have it when she en-
tered the car true to her instinct of pre-
ferring age to youth, and finding all the
seats half filed by very dapper young
men, or very dirty and disagreeable mid
dle-aged ones--Bertha selected the unoc-
cupied portion of this very seat where
the old man was meditating, and nestled
down into it as cozily as a young martin
IN the maternal martin box. 1t was in
keeping with the slight recklessness OF
her general character that she should i'm
,nediately extract paper novel from her
pocket, ana begin to read, despite the in
dustrious efforts of the train to joggle
her eyes out OF her head and the print
out of the page.
WINDY day, young lady, SAID mild
voice in her ear, so affably modulated
that she felt it could hardly be the voice
of a stranger It was the old man speak
ing to her.
eyes," she assented, pleasantly; ~
thought it would blow me away"
"You air rather mite of q body to
fight it out with such breeze" remark
ed her new acquaintance. 'But it don't
seem to hurt ye, to judge from the roses
in your cheeks. Lord, 1 remember in
the days when 1 was a-courtin' how I
used to like day like this. 1t made my
gals face shine jest so; an I amt too old
to take pleasure In it vet"
Bertha felt her face SHINE still more at
this speech, which she rated as a trife
familiar. coming from stranger. But
then. the man had white hair, and after
all was not unpleasant. She smiled with
some embarrassment, but said nothing,
and resumed reading, while her fatherly
companion seemed TO become absorbed
in recollections of his youth. Before
long he said: 81 suppose it hurts your
eyes good deal reading in the train,
don't it2"
"It does, sometimes" she admitted,
somewhat annoyed at this second open
ing of conversation, for her story was
interesting. But determined to resign
herself, she laid the book down abruptly,
and looked straight at the old man, who
returned her gaze genlally from out the