Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-08-23

me and give pianry lessons TO my Sairy
Ann-but hardly dared ask it, you being
SIGH q fine player and she having no instru-
ment 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
rough as she was, there was a delicate flush
on ner thin cheek as she checked herself in
her bold presumption
'Didn't 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
Drozen. But what was the woman saying
nowl
And now, if you'll let me tidy Up bit
and make things halfway decent. for the
gent!eman's been waiting to see You this
long time"
''rae gentleman! What gentieman!' Miss
Vanderpool was not used to callers. Tae
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 4
pretty sight You were, Miss Vande-pooL
And awful work it was cleaning you up, il
you be lady,"
What made Miss Vanderpool's face afame
and her heart beat so: 1t might De any one
of a 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
Ashsoni No, not luck. Chance rarely favors
such men as lie. All that they have is won
by hard endeavor, and persistent faith, and
logged watchfUlness. Luck is more apt to
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 Vanderpool at 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fashioned notions, now almost out OF date,
preiudicial to woman 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-
", for he knew the character of the men
along the waterfront better than she. And
who could tell whom she might meet in that
wretched place AZ 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 its pur-
port; to start out with party OF men pro-
vidcd with lanterns, planks, ropes, every
thing reedful; to man boat and row fierce
ly up the slough, flooded at high-tide, di-
rectly to the spot where 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 rec0mpenSe 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 ever pressed any claims upon her. He
would not have come now had he been his
own free agent. She saw that the moment
he opened the door, and shrank from her
own thoughts. He surmised 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. We'll, well! 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 have concealed his own connection with it
"You are feeling better, Miss Wander.
pool!'
There was not note in his voice beyond
the ordinary requirements of courtesy.
She answered him in kind.
''Quite well now, thank you. Won't you
be seated" motioning him to chair
~ thank you" But he still remained
standing, his hat in his right hand, his left
hand-was it her fancy, or were the fingers
misunderstanding easily beside him.
Il came" be said, III a matter -of-fact
way, ''a5out matter of business. 1 tried
to speak to you on the street to-day. You
were rot willing to listen. You were right
1t was not the proper place"
'You mistook. 1t wasn't that. I was
preoccupied; l couldn't have talked then
with any one," she explained, hurriedly,
and il a low voice. He scarcely noticed
her words and did net at all comprehend
them, but went on, in formal, business
way:
"a matter of business. l was authorized
to conduct some negotiations with you
They concern the Vanderpool estate"
Weak as she was and broken as she was,
she could not suppress little laugh, only
half mirthful, but wholly sarcastic. The
Vanderpool estate! What had there been OF
it, since she came into possession of it, but an
inextricable tangle of debt and litigation,
lapsed contracts and forfeited rightsl
Now that we have got ready for work
we are in position to negotiate for the
tide-lands. There are seventy acres belong
ing to the Vanderpool estate. l am en-.
70, bo foll
He drew a paper from his pocket and
named sum which took Miss VanderpooPs
breath away. Enough to restore the lost
glory of the Vanderpools. Enough-more
than enough-to buy back the old home
where her mother had died and she was
born; enough to restore her to the life OF
afiuence to which she had been bred !;
enough to place her forever above the reach
of the petty privations and racking cares that
had sat so heavily upon her but yesterday.
She raised herself up on one elbow and looked
at him. Her eyes, always large, shone with
an unnatural brilliance. He thought her
exulting over her restoration to wealth and
power.
Il won't ask you for ar answer now" he
said; perhaps you would better consult a
lawyer. May say to the company that you
will give your answer in writingw
He was moving toward the door, not even
waiting for her answer, for he had deter
mined to give her no opportunity to refer to
the events of the day. He was arrested by
a single word:
'1Johnr'
No woman ever speaks in such a way to a
man she does not love, but the men do not
always understand. John Ashton did not
understand. He came back and stood by her
side looking down doubtfully into The shining
eyes raised to his own, then quickly turned
away. It was only a man, after all, and he
had some bitter recollectiOns to steel him