The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-11-06

! was hob AuilJ Jane. ana Jnen go
back to her work p
But one sentence respecting n clue
he was following up held her fast.
Could ii be herself he was looking for 7
Baltimore was in the South, so why
not open her lips and declare that she
was here in New York waiting for him
to come to her? Yet what if she
should be wrong and the "cue" should
turn out TO refer to something else-a
matter of business =? AT this instant a
peculiar clicking in the instrument
warned her that the wire might be
switched off any moment and her op-
portunity be lost.
"Herry,' she called out softly.
1t was the name he had asked her
to give him twenty years ago, and it
now came to her lips and passed from
! them into the instrument almost be-
fore she realized 1t was spoken.
"Agnes! Is it you? Where are
you? Street and number instantly be-
tore the connections"
She heard no more. but in gasp
called out the Runkels address, then
hung up the ear-piec, and dropped
into the chair with lace az white as
snow. Yet even now the instinct TO
work was strong within her, and not
manymnutcs had elapsed before her feet
were again on the treadle, and the whrr
OF the machine once more filled the
room. Now, however, its accompany
ing rythm in her brain was not all in
the past tense, for, "Did he hear me
Will he comet Will he comet kept
mp its ceaseless throb till it seemed as
if the words must be stitched to
every seam of the shirt she was hem
ming.
But as time went by the little dress
maker tried to prepare her heart for
disappointment.
81 may have dreamed it all while
listening to the playing of the March
Through Georgia. so many blocks
away" she said to herself. "lt's 20
years since we parted and he was 20
then aud | l6. Absence, they say, is
the tomb of love. and though, of
course, with me" Here Miss Myers
she had given that morning.
This time, however, it was not the
telephone, but the front door bell that
had startled her.
81 must open it myself-there's no
body else and she hurried out to the
stairs. dare say it's only the milli-
ner's boy with Miss Heen's bonnet"
oBut was it for the sake of the ,nilli-
ners boy that little Miss Myers paused
to give her hair a smoothing before
the hatrack mirror in the balls And
surely no milliner's boy was ever so re-
celved on his business rounds as this
one, when the door uas opened and
closed-nobody remembered how or
by whom-on n tableau that would
have delighted the soul cf gossipy Miss
Rlcket over the way, could she but
have seen it.
Yes, it was "Harry," twenty years
older, to be sure, but handsomer, if
possible, than ever, with not gray
hair in his head nor Il wrinkle on his
face, and with such a passion of love
IN his deep blue eyes that little Miss
Myers was fain 10 hide her own from
the dazzle OF it and nestle close in
those strong, perfecting arms.
"And have you really been looking
tor me ever since? asks Agnes pres
emily.
'l es, ever since l came back from
Europe ten years ago" is the reply.
81 was sent there by the doctors to re-
cover from the effects of a wound. and
| wrote you nearly dozen letters then
l knew, though, it was only because
you never received them that they
were not answered. But when came
back ana found all traces of YOU lost,
| sometimes thought you had hidden
yourself purposely because-because l
had done my duty to my country.
Yet | never abandoned the resolve to
lind you and have the truth from your
own lips, and now, thanks to the gale,
| have done SO, and learned how bless
edly was mistaken"
THE gale repeats Agnes, ques-
tlonngly, and then he goes on to ex-
plain how the wind had entangled
the telephone wires, and that it was
by the merest chance they had been
able TO speak TO one another.
sand | have interrupted your trip"
says Agnes few minutes later, looking
up with a smile.
a., "Not for long responds he, add
ing, sand when it is resumed it must
be wedding journey"
OF course there was great excite
mr't when the family returned and
heard of the romantic happenings dur
ing their absence. Mrs. Runkel was
most hearty in her congratulations,
and Belle Immediately christened that
May wind storm "the lovers gale"