The national leader., 1889-03-09
AS 1T CHANGED.
att is the unexpected which always happens"

ait is the unexpected which always happens" "
1t was raining hard on that Wednes-
day afternoon, yet people poured into
the cars thicker and faster as the train
went on through Newton, Newtonville,
West Newton, toward Boston. From
the dressy bonnets that peeped through
wells and the opera glasses that were
gripped along with umbrella handles, 1t
was easy to see that the 2 O'Clock
accommodation train was a theater
train. Now a theater train may be
inferior to through express or an
immigrant freight in which to study
types of character, but 1t is neverthe-
less refreshing as one of the few places
where the American forehead loses It's
pucker, and the Yankee eye it's look of
calculation. Questions of life and death
are not written on the faces of these
people who can afford to devote an
afternoon to sham loves and tales. The
ladies enter the Car quite in their after
noon-tea manner. The gentlemen find
out one anothel's destination by the
laconlc queries, 'Irvlng?' sErminie?'
sLord Fauntleroyp' The children chat
ter about probable bargain sales In
candy. The class dearest to the travel
ing public sends its representatives, for
lovers, like the poor, are always with
us.
But in car where all faces are
familiar, there is small chance for
speculation whether man is brother
or dearer one still to maiden, and
so, this afternoon, everybody on board
knew that Eleanor Woodworth's es-
cort seemed to her, as he did to the
rest of the world. d luxury rather than
a necessity. He was the cipher, she the
significant figure. IL was she who had
given the prettiest and received the
pleasantest greetings; of course, for she
was the incest and the richest girl on
the route. Her irreprOachable water
proof and gloves emphasized the fact
that it takes wet day to detect a lady,
for in storm your ordinary woman
puts on her sha bby kids, and wears the
last of the braid off her skirt, and
otherwise looks as If she hoped not to
meet her friends. Tile lines of Miss
Woodworth's face and figure were all
curves, and those of her jaunt feathers
all straight, and there was not an un-
decided thing about her except the hair
that waved up from her neck to her
hat, and which, by the time it escaped
again on the other side, had made up
Its mind to curl.
Anybody could see that she was an
American princess. She carried her.
self as If she had been 10 hundreds OF
matinees, and yet as if she had entbusi-
asm left for the coming one. There
was charm about her which even
strangers felt, for one day. in horse
car, the only passenger besides herself,
white-halred man, stopped on his
way to the door to say, i think you
will have a very happy life, my dear. ,
After these suggestions Of her char
acter, what she said upon leaving the
train will seem in keeping with 1t. The
theater-gOers were streaming up
through the Boston and Albany station
and her escort had his hand on the
newspapers bulging from his pockets.
intending to throw them away and
reduce his form 10 symmetry, when her
blithe voice cried:
oh how can You. with that looking
you in the face?' aud she nodded toward
the big iron bux which bears these
words. Please drop tc-day's papers 1oI
the sick in hospitals
Of course he tossed in his half-uozen
dailies. telling her meanwhile OF a
ministerial friend who, similarly placed,
had dropped in a handful OF tickets
given him for safe Keeping by the ladies
he was accompanying ID "a concert.
Their own matinee tickets were 1or
The Tanning of the Shrew,' ana ,
woman-like. Eleanor halt pitled kaIhd-
rine, and half env ed her surrender to
her master. She felt almost aggrleved
that the man at her side was not an
other PetruchiO. How many times had
he told her that his highest ambition
was 10 he her husbandp That Was the
trouble If lie had had d higher
perhaps-Dut, after all. Katharine was
bridled. and she, Eleanor Woodwork
was free, and why puZz'e over the
problem Of settling down. 30 size
lunched after the matinee wltA no
Qualms of sentiment, and dismissed nei
escort from the matrimonial list as
calmly as she said, NO. she would moi
take anything so lnsipid as Ice cream
when frozen pudding was to be had.
1t was this Wednesday afternoon
pleasure which she had in MIND the
following week when ste went lDCl
town with her father, and IN memory
of which she pun ined his newspapel
for the hospital box, making at Ih'
time, a little grimace to think IL wa
the dressmaker's rather than the inca
ter to which she was going. Later
when waiting to take her train home
she bethought her OF the Harper
BaZar in her bag, and smiling over Jh
whim, she drop ed the fashion booI