Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1888-05-24

two of the younger clerks smiled, Per.
haps Oliver saw it. If so he did not
mind. He waited moment more.
"You-you could not tell ME where
she is now?'
The superb female smiled nightly.
"Not very well, since I have told you
that 7 don't even remember the name"
"No, of course not stammered poor
Oliver.
Who was he after? Seemed to be
pretty badly cut up" heard someone
laugh as he went out.
Stumbling little in his hulking
countrymans walk, he passed along
the great, strange, noisy street once
more. Hurrying hundreds, each unit
of them all on his own interests-his
own absorbing concerns-intent, brush
ed by him unheeding.
Where should he look now Never
in these five years of toll, Of patient
striving for one idea, had this thought
occurred to him, that when he too late;
that she might have gone beyond the
ken of those who had known her.
| He walked about the streets vaguely,
aimlessly all the day, and when the
thonroughlarcs shone with the white
glare of electric lights he continued his
footsore wanderings.
Presently he noticed sign offering
nights lodgings besides fight of stairs
leading into large house. He consid-
cred a moment, and then went in. lie
engaged room, then took his money
out OF his pocket, and put it under his
pillow. He would spend nothing on
himself. He might find Hilary yet
But where? Oh, my God ! With a
sudden icy terror of premont;on shoot.
ing through hlm he turned his head in
to his hard, thln coarse pillow. Where
X
1t was small room, it spaces manag-
ed and utilized in the spirit of compact
snugncss which characterizes the cheap.
ell metropolitan fiat but it was nice
room. Its grace and almost elegance of
arrangement made up for its exiguity.
And the pretty woman who poured tea
for the one visitor gave last bright
charm to the apartment which the gen
lleman was not slow to appreciate.
He was rather horil person, to
whose good looks the touch Of forty
years had given certain appearance Of
added prosperity, and perhaps porapous
ness. The appearance of prosperity
was quite Justified. Mr.. Vannest Nc
Farlane had all the material things
which man need wish for.
Perhaps he took them--his unim-
peachible position, his gentle blood, his
inherited and accumulated wealth.
rather as tribute to his personal ex.
cellence and respectability; but, all the
she same, he was a man Of many good
impulses and some generosity. If he
were very prudent in some respects one
could not but acknowledge that he had
the right to such prudence, situated as
he was.
"Yes, l have a great sympathy with
some of these fellows, observed Mr.. Nc
Farlane, slpplng his tea. st spathet'
lc the struggle they go through when
they are launched into the maelstrom
Of city life. Some swim. but many sink.
Yes-poot fellows! I've seen a good
many cases Of the kind
The bright young widows face dark
ened with an alluring sympathy.
Yes, she asscnted with soft little
mnrmur.
Some have come under my especial
notice.
Yes? l dare say you haye given
many struggler helping hand, too,
said the young widow.
She said it quietly, not impulsively.
If she had forced the enthusiastic note
at all, Mr.. McFarlane's delicate taste
would have taken urabrage.
This was exactly what Mr.. McFar-
lane greatly appreciated in the charm
ing little woman in the black dress
He made no allusion to himself on the {
score of her probate original statue. {
He did not know exactly what it was;
but he imagined, without wishing to in
luire very far back, that it was some
thing rathsr simple, while respectable
Fe did not think he should at all
have cared for the acquaintance of the {
lefunct Mr.. Lawton, who had been a {
frank, fresh young dry goods clerk, with I
great limitations us to his intellectual t
outlook, and evidently greatly his i
Young wife's inferior. c
Mr. McFnrlare could not bpt consiI-