Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-08-19

as q tacile though watery solution OF
his trouble. Then he thought how fine
it 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 an
etEer girl would have him; secondly,
Miss Finch might not become an old
maid; and finally, he loved Miss Finch.
At last he said to himself, 81 know
what I'll do; I'll disappear"
And he did.
No young man could have been better
situated for indulging in this popular
modern pastime 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 pecu-
/ lation, or disgraceful reason for his
dropping out OF sight; and the mystery
of the thing would be complete.
In fact, when it became known that
he was no longer in the village, the
theory of suicide was the one immedi-
ately adopted. for the usual reason that
there was no evidence to sustain it. Sui
cidep And howp For what motiyep
Nobody could tell, but it was settled
that the cause must have been disap-
pointment in love, although all testi-
mony on the subject went to show that
for day or two before he was last seen
the missing young man had been in
exceptionally good spirits. 1t was pro-
posed to organize search after him,
and even to drag the river and the
ponds; but Postmaster Pound an
nounced that this would be useless.
"Atlee left message" he said, ''stating
that all such doings would be labor
thrown away" in confederation of
which he produced paper signed by
his late clerk. 1t could not be learned,
either, that any one had seen him near
the water, or, for that matter, anywhere
about the railroad. The lastperson 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, 1 think, that she betook herself to
the railroad this windy day for trip to
town. An old man with copious white
hair, gold-bowed glasses, and fiat
crowned felt hat, who sat placidly at
one of the car windows, reposing his
hands on cane which he kept remarka-
bly, perpendicular, was good deal
struck by her fresh and sweet appear
ance as ne saw her blown along by the
wind to the depot; and, as luck would
have it, when she entered the car-nue
to her instinct of preferring age to
youth, and finding all the seats half
filed by very dapper young men, or very
dirty and disagreeable middle-aged ones
Bertha selected the unoccupied por-
ton of this very seat where the old man
was meditating, and nestled down into
it as cozily as q young martin In the
maternal martin box. 1t was in keep
ing with the slight recklessness of her
general character that she should i'm
mediately extract paper novel from
her pocket, and begin to read, despite
the industrious 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 atfabiy modu-
lated that she felt as if it could hardly
be the voice of a stranger. 1t was the
old man speaking to her.
"Yes,n she assented, pleasantly; 81
thought it would blow me away"
+" You air rather a mite of body to
fight it out with such a breeze" re.
marked her new acquaintance. But
it don't seem to hurt ye, to judge on it
from the roses in your cheeks. Lord, I
remember in the days when | was
courtin' how / used to like day like
this. 1t made my gals face shine just
SO; and amt too old to take pleasure
in it yet"
Bertha felt her face "shinen still
more than before at this speech, which
she rated as trihe familiar, coming
from stranger But then the man had
white hair, and, after all, it was not un-
pleasant. She smiled, with some en-
barrassment, but said nothing, and re-
sumed reading, while her fatherly COM
panion seemed to become absorbed in
reco.lections of his youth. Before long,
however, he said 's suppose it hurts
your eyes good deal, reading in the
train, don't itP'
sit does sometimes" she admitted,
somewhat annoyed at this second open
ing Of o conversation, for her story was
interesting. But determining to resign
herself, she laid the book down
abruptly, and looked straight at the old
man, who returned her gaze geniallY
from the midst of his whiskers and
spectacles.
F." So you live in GlyddonP" he in
quired.
yes"
:" I'm acquainted there some. I used
to live there
"You dldr' exclaimed the young girl,
Frightening up at oncs.
The old man began asking questions
about various people in the village, and
finally mentioned Atlee. 'sHe came
from the place where five-Woodruff,
Vermont-and folks thought he was a
likely enough young man when he
started down to Glyddon. How's be
doing nowP"
Poor Bertha blushed and shook with
as much feeling of guilt as if she had
personally superintended the closing or
Guys career with violent death.
Somehow this bland, fatherly old per-
sons interest in him gave her a new
perception of the mystery and awful
ness of his fate.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "hadn't you
heardP"
What! he amt deadln responded her
neighbor, with a quaver in his voice.
But Immediately he added: "No, he
can't be. / should have heard OF it. Per-
haps you mean he's marriedP"
At another time Bertha would have
laughed at this absurd juxtaposition.
and even now had the impulse to
answer, No, it's not quite so bad as
that But the mention of marriage
came too near her last interview with
Guy to make it wholly comicaI, SO she