Middletown transcript., 1893-02-25
A RAILWAY COMEDY.
BY J. T. NEwCOMB.

A RAILWAY COMEDY.
BY J. T. NEwCOMB.
It was only case of Incompatible
ity. They grew quarrelsome by de
grees and over little things, At frs
they made up laughingly, with a quick
caress and tender word. They wer'
real quarrels and they hurt. but they
were short, and when she came bach
iuto his arms after them she seemed
even dearer than before. Then came
the slower, sullen trouble. Begin
ming anywhere, the old animosities
kept coming up again and again.
'Thele, Nell" he would say, wearily,
i've are at it again. We better stop.''
And the caress that marked their re-
sumption of amicable relations was
forced instead of impuisive, and they
got it over as quickly as they could.
And then they grew bitter. He stayed
away from home as much as he could,
and she forgot to take care of her per-
sonal appearance, and she cried SO much
that her nose was always red when be
did come home.
One day he got up from the table
with an impatient fling and went into
the library, shutting the door with a
lam. Presently the door opened slowly
and she came in, looking very quiet
and a little paler than usual. He was
standing with his back TO the open fire,
and he did not move as she came To
him and put her hands on his shoul
ders.
''John," she said, ''this is awful.
Can't we help itp"
He looked at her heavily for mo-
ment, and then deliberately took down
her hands and pushed her slowly away
from him.
Yes, Nell," he said roughly, ''we
might help it, but your soft ways won't
help you any now."
She looked at him in silence and then
turned aud went quietly out of the
room. He put on his overcoat and
went down town. When he came back
in the evening he had made up his
mind to tell his wife that he was
ashamed of himself, but be did not Gnd
her. He found little note instead. |
There was a lunch spread out for him |
on the table, but he did not eat any of |
it. The note said she had gone home
10 her mother. She did not think she
could make him happy, and she was
sure she was not happy herself. She
thought it better for them to live apart
than go on as they had been. John
tramped up and down the little library,
smoking a cigar savagely, with his
hand thurst deep into his pockets. BY
the end of the year the cigar and the
restless nightly walk had become
habit.
1t was little more than a year later
that he received letter from her. 1t
WAS very short and gentle. She thought
it would be better for both of them if
they were free. She did not think it
was right for her to keep his name.
The letter was gentle. That was all.
She had written it out and pruned it
and cried over it, and then she had
copied it on fresh sheet of note-paper
so that none of the tears blotted the
page that he saw.
John walked the floor a little later
than usual that night, and he smoked
an additional cigar. He wrote two or
three letters to her. The one he sent
said that she was no doubt right. She
might make any change she saw fit
and he would not oppose her. A little
laler the papers were served on him.
He was sitting in his study one even
ing, when he suddenly remembered
that the tria was set for the next day.
He was not to be present. He had
planned an excursion somewhere, but
now he wanted to go-n)t to enter a
defense, but as spectator. 1t was the !,
closing scene of his life-tragedy. All ,,
the actors come before the foOtlights as !,
the curtain goes down. He felt that
he ought to be there. He took an early
train the next morning for the city,
where the trial was to be held. He
bought parlor-car seat but went into
The smoker first to finish cigar. .
She had taken the same train from r
her fathers home two stations back. Z
She was going down alone and her {
father was to meet her as the depot. !
She was glad to be alone, she thought,
As she leaned her head wearily against
her hand on the window ledge. 9
When he came in from the smoker l
Ie took the only vacant seat. 1t was
ust behind hers. They recognized
zach other, of course. There was
hesitation, and then each :
,owed gravely. IL was perfectly nat I,
lral for them to bow, and yet it seemed
trange to both of them. He sat down 1;
behind her and took up a newspa er.
She had not seen him once in all the =
,ear since they separated. She wished I
he might turn around and look at him.
'he wondered if the little gray patches
lround his ears had grown any grayer
,r larger and whether the thin places a
N his temples we're growing quite bald. :
Is they had threatened to do. She re-
that once she had promised
o kiss the place, to make the hair 6