Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-05-15
THEY TWO.

He worked in the treasury all day, and
sat up nights till the small hours, study
ing law.
She wrote specifications in the pension
Office and sent her earnings home to her
invalid mother, and copied law papers on
the caligraph in her room of evenings to
pay her board.
He had room that opened upon one
end of a long veranda with morning
glories climbing over it.
She had room opening upon the other
end of that veranda.
His name was Paul
Hers was Rita.
That was all.
Until one Sunday morning when the
early sunbeams struggled in through the
latticed vines and lay in golden flecks
on the floor Then there was a pink
morning glory sparkling in shower of
dewdrops, and white drapcd maiden
trying to reach it, leaning over the rail-
ing.
But the flower was in a capricious
mood, and when she would almost reach
it it would take advantage of a sudden
breeze and swing away beyond the tips
Of her fingers.
Paul, standing in his doorway, wit
messed her Intellectual attempts to cap
ture the perverse flower, and, seeing her
looking wistfully at it, was visited BY an
impulse to come to the rescue. She
might think that he was impairment.
What of it2 She could only dismiss him
with that frigidity which he supposed
she knew how to command when Occa-
sion required, and he could most Likely
survive the shock So he went slowly
down the veranda.
''Will you allow me?"
He broke the rosy blossom anu y,
sented it with the bow that his dancing
master had taught years agone. He
aired it only upon extraordinary occa-
sions. And she thanked him shyly, and
warm color crept over her face like the
reflection of the morning glory.
Then he said he thought that morning
glories were very pretty, and she said
she thought so too. Which argued a
gratifying harmony of taste.
Then the bells rang aud she went away
to church, and he returned to his law
books. For, regret to say, Paul was
not devout youth, even under favora-
BILE circumstances, and just then ne was
preparing for examination. But he
stopped for q moment before opening
his Kent, to remember the warm flush
that tinted the maidcn's face.
He did not sec her again for q long
time, but he heard the click of her ma
chine as her nimble fingers few over the
keys, and he wondered sometimes if she
had no pleasures, as other young ladies
have. He grew almost to hate the inno-
cent little writing machine.
Once in the soft light when it was too
dark to work and not dark enough to
light the gas, he heard her singing, in a
soft contralto voice, 1.-THE Day is Done.
And one morning when he got up be-
fore dawn to study lease for a term
Of thousand years to attend the inner
itance, and went early to beakfast by
reason of the exhaustion consequent upon
his mental exertion, he sat at the same
table with her.
Then the stained table-linen became
in his eyes the snowiest and purest of
damask. The steak, which could have
been severed only by dynamite explo-
sion, was as ambrosia to his palate. The
cold coffee, with sour milk and red ant
in it. was nectar from the goblet of the
gods. When the surly man at the next
table suggested to the waiter that he
might bring him some butter thatpwas
made subsequent to the Norman invasion,
he thought anybody must be very unami-
able to imply that there. could be q de-
feet in that Olympian banquet.
Shortly after he saw her going down
street in the rain, wearing a gossamer
waterproof. He watched her moment
and thought how pretty she looked.
And when man thinks a woman looks
pretty IN gossamer, the chances are
that he is far gone indeed.
A few days later he sent her q review
which contained an article he thought
she would like: and then when she came
out on the veranda one afternoon to
hang her birdcage among the vines. he
happened to be out looking for the hot
wave that had been predicted for that
day, and he asked her what she thought
of the essay on Provencal poetry. Then
they discussed the songs Of the Trouba-
dours, and she spoke Of the readiness
with which the languages lend them
selves to lyric verse. And If Blackstone
did not receive the undivided attention
that evening which Is his lawful desert.
he excused the neglect, because 1t was
entirely due to laudable interest In the
poetry Of Provence
Paul was on the deck Of the City of
Washington one Sunday morning going
70 Alexandra. when he saw Rita stand
ing BIZ che railing looking out on the
water. She was "a the sun. and he found