Griggs courier., 1888-08-31


which rose and wheeled aimlessly about
against the darkening sky. The cry was
taken up and answered far out on the
marshes. There was Il sudden commotion
about the barge, lanterns flashed outside,
and by their light she could see dark forms
moving about. But she-she was sinking,
sinking
When she camo to herself she was in her
own little room. 1t was very quiet and
comfortable. Her landlady fitted in and
out, with look of honest concern on her
careworn face So the world was not so
hard, after all. She-the Gorgon-seemed
glad that her delinquent lodger was alive,
and said no word about the rent overdue.
Somebody had pulled the lounge, on which
she lay. up to the stove, and there was fire
there, the first for many weeks, for her own
fuel had given out in February, and she had
been freezing ever since-freezing heart and
body. And what was that brewing on the
stove, that sent such delicious fragrance
through the rooml
''Now, my DEAR" said the Gorgon, pour
ing something into a clumsy earthen cup
and handing it to her, ''just you take this
cup of coffee and bit of hot roll, and it'll set
you up in no time. You've been looking
peaked and mis'able this long time. Folks
that feeds themselves don't take no proper
care. I've been thinking, this long while,
that If you'd just take your living along of
me and give pianny lessons to my Sairy
Ann-but hardly dared ask it, you being
sich fine player and she having no instru-
mcnt unless you'd maybe let her come up
and practice times when you was in and
could watch and see she didn't dirty the
pearl keys or spile it-'' Homely and
lo1;
on her thin cheek us she checked herself in
her bold presumption.
''Didnt dare ask IT." Miss Vanderpool
would have acted as the child's nurse.
scrubbed floors, washed dishes, if she had
asked it. The backbone of her pride was
broken. But what was the woman saying
now!
"And now, if You'll let me tidy up bit
and make things halfway decent for the
gentleman's been waiting to see YOU this
long time"
"The gentleman! What gentleman!" Miss
Vanderpool was not used to callers. The
landlady answered her inquiry:
why, who but him that saved you! Him
that brought you here in his arms, looking
like dead and all covered with midland a
pretty sight you We're, Miss Vanderpool.
And awful work it was cleaning you up, if
you be lady.''
What made Miss Vsaderpool's face aflame
and her heart beat so! 1t might be any one
OF thousand men. There was no reason.
no reason in the world, she told herself,
why it should be any particular one.
Yet. as luck would have it, it was John
Ashton No, not luck. Chance rarely favors
| such men as he. All that they have is won
by hard endeavor, and persistent faith, and
ySyotR tRhf hfJ,ln T ,,f,ly SC 10
buffet them, to call out all the slumbering
forces in them and show the stuff of which
they are made. He had turned and followed
Miss Nanderpool at a respectful distance
that afternoon he had met her on the street.
1t was getting late, and he had some old
fashioned notions now almost out of date
preJudicial to woman S going about at night.
unprotected, upon the streets. When he
saw the lonely direction in which she was
tending he had followed still more resolute-
ly, for he knew the character of the men
along the water front better than she. And
who could tell whom she might meet in that
wretched place at such an hour: When she
stopped to look seaward he had gone down
| over the marsh. both because he had some
instruction to give to his foreman and
because he feared she would discover him in
| turning back. He had been first to hear the
| wild, beseeching cry and to realize it's pur-
port; to start out with party of men pro-
yided with lanterns, planks, ropes, every
| thing needful: to man a boat and row fierce
| ly up the slough, flooded at high-tide, d-
| rectly to the spot where a human life--so
| precious to him. was going out: to throw
himself out upon the morass. bracing him
self on the planks they had brought, and
| finally. like the true knight he was, to
gather the unconscious girl in his arms,
covered with mud as she was and wrapping
| his coat about her. bear her to the place she
| called her home.
| But John Ashton was not the man to claim
any recOmpeuse for the service he had
rendered. The more serious her peril. the
greater the risk he had run on her behalf,
| the more need that he should be delicate
| and distant in all his bearing toward her:
that he should try to make her forget he
had eve:' pressed any claims upon her. He
would not have come now mad he been his
own free agent. She saw that the moment
| he opened the door, and shrank from her
| own thoughts. He surmiseG the look upon
her face and interpreted it in his own way
| So she disliked him So much that it CALLED
| her to think that he had put her under such
obligations. Well, we'll! If he had had
| time to consider. it might have been better
| to have left it to one Of the men, or, at least
| to aveconceaed his own connection with it,
''You are feeling better, Miss Wander
| pool!"
There was not "a note in his voice beyond
the ordinary requirements of courtesy.
She answered him in kind.
"Quite we'll now, l thank you. Won't you
be seated motioning him to chair
II thank YOU" But he still remained
standing, his hat in his right hand. his LETT
hand-was it her fancy. or We're the fingers
clenched:-hanging easily beside him.
| Il came he said. in matter fact
way, ''about matter of business tried
| to speak to YOU on the street to-day You
were not willing to listen. You were right.
1t was not the proper place"
You mistook. 1t wasn't that was
prccccupied: couldn't have talked then
with any one" she explained. hurriedly.
and in low voice. He scarcely noticed
| her words aad did net at all comprehend
| them, but went on, in formal. business
way:
"A matter of business. | was authorized
to conduct some negotiatons with YOU
| They concern the Nanderpool estate
Weak as she was and broken as she was
she could not suppress a little laugh, only
half nlirthful. but wholly sarcastic The
| \aniprOoo What ha1 @bora l,aan n E