Arizona republican., 1893-01-18
HER BLINDNESS.

The dining car was in shimmer of light. The dead white of heavy linen, the opal. escent glint of glassware, and the quiet gleam of silver trembed together in the swift motion of the train. Miss Baxter, who had but recently left her berth, dropped into a seat and leaned back a mo, ment, dazed by this lavish waste of color. Meanwhile the insistent sunlight took liberties with the dull brown of her se- yerely brushed hair, ran burning fingers through it and edged it with coquettIsh gold. Then she hastened to draw the cur tain and throw the blue square of shade over her corner of the table, signing as she settled down again, and all the painful scene of the evening before came surging back
 She felt half q notion to lay her head on the table and cry outright. She glanced down instead and fingered her ring-his ring-while her glasses grew misty. She wondered whether she should have kept the ring, now that it no longer meant any thing. The question was still undecided when she pulled herself together with a visible tremor and turned to the menu card. Dining car breakfasts are not timed to wait on the settlement of subtleties in ethics, particularly after the steward has made the Hast call"
 In the few minutes Miss Baxter had been in the car she had not noticed her compan- ions. As she raised her head she was star tied to see familiar face dimly taking shape across the table She had removed her glasses and was about to press her handkerchief to her eyes, but she put them resolutely on again and looked fxedly through their misty crystals.
 'Mr Woodson, where did you come front" she demanded at length, as his well known features gradually took def mite shape before her.
 Woodson did not speak at once He was noticing how her hair would tumble down in wayward ringlets in spite of her efforts to keep it staidly back, and how her cheeks persisted in Gimpling, however resolutely she closed her lips together Then he said:
 'From New York of course. Does my dress suit look as though I'd boarded the train in these rural precincts9 I thought you knew the cut better"
 Do you mean to say that you've been on this train all this while-after-afte last night'" Miss Baxterask with slight ly heightened color.
 Guessed it the first time" Woodson ex- claimed, brightening 'I tell you, Grace, you should have gone into the law instead of art. You'd have been great on cross examination.
 "Never mind, Mir. Woodson; you seem to forget that prefer to make my own ca. reer-we've discussed that before, how. ever. And so you've been on this train ever since have" she concluded reflect. lively.
 "A little longer, in fact. made mis take and got here half an hour eary-read the time table backward-hence these clothes. But now, see here, small girl" Woodson went on with great deliberate ness, shaking out his napkin into his lap and gazing intently into the blurred, blue depths of Miss BaXter's glasses
 See here, now, do you suppose just be- cause girl jilts me'-Miss Baxter here interposed n deprecating gesture-"ycs, l repeat it. Do you suppose just because a girl jilts me, and have reason to believe is going to the ends of the earth to get where she will never see me again, that my sense of responsibility ends till I've seen her safely where she wants to go? No, I've made New York uninhabitable for you, and I shall make what amends l can by chapeTOning you to Colorado or Kamchatka or wherever it is you are 20 ing Now what shall order for break fast?"
 "Harry you're cruel You know Mir Fleming was going out there for the color and I thought it would be good chance to continue my outdoor work"
 "Flemingl That prig Well, I didn't know before that he was going l see there is still more reason why should go now-and stay"
 But forbid you doing any such foolish thing"
 "To tell the truth, Grace, I thought of staying all the time-of going into some other business there"
 "Why, you never told me of it before"
 "Well, never thought of it till after left you last night. Then it occurred to me I might go into the sheep or cattle or something like that"
 At Manitou."
 "Why noti"
 "It's a summer resort"
 50 much the better. I'd only be there in the summer, anyhow"
 "Harry, you're trifler."
 "Well, can peel an orange, anyhow-ii you'll allow me-" Woodson exclaimed taking from her hand the one she was making a sad mess of.
 Harry, I can never forgive you foi doing this" Miss Baxter concluded, after a moments contemplation of the whirling blur of green through the car window,
 "Well, I never could have forgiven my self if l hadn't-snd there it was" he as serted dispassionately, laying the pulpy broken sphere of the orange before her
 It is quite a jaunt from Manhattan tt Manitou, but one morning they exchanged the cushioned weariness of the train foI