Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-08-07
CHAPTER VI.

IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH.
as the carriage containing the unhappy
bride Whirled swiftly onward toward
Forty second street, Mildred sat bolt up
right on the back seat, her hands clasped
in her lap, her lips tightly compressed,
and her eyes fixed and staring before her,
but seeing nothing.
She had merely said, in answer to the
hackman's careless Where to, miss?"
"The Grand Central Depot" and then
had sunk into a state Of apathy. from
which she was at length aroused by the
stopping Of the carriage, the opening of
the door, and the waiting drivers bust
ness-Iike Here you are, miss.
She accepted his pFOtfered assistance,
and, as she stood upon the sidewalk,
hastily took out her pOrtmOnnaie and
dismissed him with liberal fee. Then,
after a hasty glance around, she went
into the waiting-room by the ladies' en-
trance.
The window of the ticket Office was
open. She hurried toward it.
When does the next train that stops at
Riverside leave here, if you please, sir?"
she asked, in low and trembling voice.
Eleven thirty-hVe, " answered the ticket
agent, glibly.
that?"
The distress and bitter disappointment,
made plainly manifest by the tone in
which the words were uttered, fixed the
agents attention, and being human, he
was affected.
mo, miss" he said, not unkindly, "the
train you should have taken has been
gone some little time.
There is no other that stops at River
side until eleven thirty five, but the nine
thirty train, which Will leave very soon
now, stops at Cos Cob, and that, you
know, is only Just across the river.
oh, thank you, sir; I will take ticket
to Cos Cob, and having secured it she
seated herself in an obscure corner to
wait until the door should be opened and
she should be permitted to take her seat
in the cars.
From the very moment she had de-
scended from the carriage, by that mys-
terious intuitive feeling which, in a
greater or less degree We all possess, she
had been made painfully aware, without
seeing any one, that she was being close
ly watched.
Now, for the first time, she mustered
courage and looked about her.
All at once her eyes rested upon a man
at no great distance from her.
He was leaning, in a studied attitude,
against one of the huge huted columns,
and his gRze-indeed, his whole attention
seemed fixed upon herself.
Mildred shuddered, why, she knew not.
She had never seen this man before,
and there was nothing about him to sug-
gest that he was in any marked degree
different from other men; and yet her
pure womRnly instincts made her shrink
from his gaze
Minute after minute passed, and still
he stood there, with eyes, apparently, for
nothing but her face.
At length the gong sounded, the door
was thrown open, and q loud voice called
out:
@Nine-thirty! New Haven way" and
with a feeling of intense relief Mildred
rose and hurried forward.
For one instant she was stopped at the
door while she showed her ticket. and
then, after being directed to her train,
she hastened onward
At last she had found the right car and
secured q seat.
Tbe one directly in front of her was
not occupied.
In that next forward was a middle-aged
lady and q beautiful young girl.
About my own age, thought Mildred,
Gand, indeed looks very much like me.
@I wonder who she can be? OH I hope
hers viii be a far happier lot than mine. Z"
Then, as she sank back into a corner by
the window:
@She has her mother with her! OH if
I can only reach my home and throw my
self into my mothers arms, before Eu-
gene finds me, shall be SO --