Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-08-08


I minutes thew were due at Grantham-
What n the young lady did no tresuine
her garments before the train stopped
M that station2 To say that It would
be highly embarrassing for him to be
discovered alone with her under sucn
conditions would only be to put IL
feebly. For, though there was noun
ing absolutely improper in the young
Iodv's nresent state of undress, except
conventionally, still, in these matters
the conventional standard was every
thing.
And Mr.. McParson was conscious
that IL he himself were to discover
brother elder of the kirk alone in rail-
wav carriage with a young lady, whose
hair was down her back and the bodice
of her dress off, revealing particular.
lv white neck and a nicely rounded
nair of arms, he should regard that
brother elders conduct with decided
suspicion.
Five minutes passed, and the young
lady slumbered peacefully on, while
MFR. McParson felt with a sinking heart
that he was being helplessly hurried
forward to his doom.
GOOD heavensT he groaned miser-
erably, IL wish she would now take it
into her head to dream that she was
getting up, and would put her clothes
on again. What would not give at
this minute to have the controlling Of
her fanciesP
He consulted his watch again. Mat
ters we're getting more and more des-
perate In less than a quarter OF an
hour they would be at Grantham.
Then. all of a sudden, an idea flashed
across his mind which made him bring
his hand sharply down upon his knee
and exclaim determinedly;
"'Pon my word, I'll try it. It's
desperately unlikely to succeed. But
| do believe it's the only chance. And,
at any rate, it can do no harm" "
After a minute or so Of close re-
Election, during which he bit his nails in
fla most agitated and excited manner,
Mr.. McParson prepared to put his idea
into effect. He had heard that the
sleeping fancies of people in the young
lady's state might sometimes be shaped
or modified by external circumstances.
And he now intended to make a des.
perate effort to influence his slumber-
ing companion through these means.
His first experiment was to rap
sharply with his knuckles on the door
of the compartment, anxiously watch
ing the sleepers face as he did so. With
a thrill of excitement, almost of tri-
umph, he saw her lips move, and heard
her drowsily murmur, Come in.
This preliminary success stimulated
him to persevere with his intention.
And with a look of grave and breath
less anxiety, which showed that he was
quite unconscious of the irresistibly
comic part he was enacting, he raised
his deep voice to piping falsetto, and
said, with as good an imitation of a
chambermaid as he could manage;
Time to get up, ma'aml Here's
your hot water, ma'am"
His desperate and unlikely designs
succeeded beyond his widest hopes.
The slumberer threw off her rug, rose
and stretched herself; then, after going
certain inexplicable move
ments which Mr.. McParson guessed to
be imaginary ablutions, she proceeded
carefully and deliberately to do her
hair up. This step completed, she
1onned her dress bodice, then her trav
cling jacket, and, finally, her bonnet;
lhe old gentleman watching her as she
went through these several grades of
ler toilet with an ever increasing sense.
Of relief, triumph and self congratula-
lion. And certainly there is no deny
ng that he owed his escape from a
most embarrassing situation entirely to
his own ingenuity.
The jerking caused by the application
of the brake to stop the train, as it ran
into Grantham, at last really awoke the
young lady. She sat up, rubbed her
cJCS, anu bIelIS0 GlOOub AlC1 III a IcbLC0
sort of manner, appearing rather star
tied to find another passenger in the
But she soon regained
her composure, and regarded Mr..
McParson with a perfectly unembar-
rassed gaze-a thing which she would
have found difficult to do had she been
ever so dimly conscious of the figure
which she had presented to him a
quarter of an hour ago.
AS for the worthy Scot, he was much
too thankful for his escape to run the
most remote possibility of further risk
30 he left the carriage at Grantham,
and continued his journey northward
in another compartment, hugging him
self not little on the ready wit which
had won him salvation from an ap-
parently inevitable fasco. o.-London
Truth.
Rapid Bridge Building.
The quickest bridge building on Iec-