Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1893-03-09
MISS BAXTER'S CAREER.
Why She Consented to See It
Through Woodson's Eyes.

Why She Consented to See It
Through Woodson's Eyes.
The dining-car was in simmer of
light. The dead white of heavy linen,
the opalescent CLINT of glassware and
the quiet CLEAN of silver trem bled to-
gether in the swift motion of the train.
Miss Baxter, who had but recently
left her berth, dropped into seat and
leaned back moment, dazed by this
lavish waste of color. Then she hast
ened to draw the curtain and throw
the blue square of shade over her cor
ner of the table, signing as she settled
down again and all the painful scene
Of the evening before came surging
back.
She felt half 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 anything,
The question was still undecided
when she pulled herself together with
visible tremor and turned to the
menu card. Dining-car breakfasts are
not timed to wait on the settlement of
srbtleties in ethics, particularly after
the steward has made the last CALI
In the few minutes Miss Baxter he d
been in the car she had not noticed
her companions. AS she raised her
head she was startled to see familiar
G11o,Iy 70 III, CT, ba
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
fronI?" she demanded at length, as his
well-known features gradually took
definite shape before her.
Woodson did not speak at once. He
was noticing how her hair would tum-
BILE down in hayward ringlets in spite
of her efforts to keep it staidly back,
and how her cheeks persisted in dim
ping, 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 i'll these rural pre-
cincts? l thought you knew the cut
better"
do You mean to say that you've
been on this train all this while-after
- after last night?" Miss Baxter asked
with slightly heightened color.
Guessed it the first time,' Woodson
exclaimed, Frightening. II tell you,
Grace, you should have gone into the
law instead of art. You'd have been
great on cross-eXamination.''
Never mind, Mr. Woodson; YOU
seem to forget that 1 prefer to make
my own eareer-we've discussed that
before, however. And SO you've been
on this tsain ever since I have??" she
concluded, rehectively.
"a little longer, in fact But now,
see here, small girl" Woodson went on
with great deliberateness, shaking out
his napkin into his lap and gazing in
tently into the blurred blue depths of
Miss Baxter's glasses; ''see here, now,
do you suppose just because girl jilts
me"-Miss Baxter here interposed a
deprccating gesture-''yes, I repeat it.
Do you suppose because girl jilts me
and l 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 90
to! No, I've made New York uninhab-
liable for you, and shall make what
amends l can by chaperoninG you to
Colorado Or Kamschatl1a Or wherever
it is you are going. Now, what shall
order for breakfast"
Harry, you're cruel. You know Mr..
Fleming was going out there for the
color, and thought it would be a good
chance to continue my outdoor work."
Fleming! That prig! Well, l didn't
know before that he was going. see
there is still more reason why 1 should
go now-and stay"
But l forbid you doing any such
foolish thing"
ITO 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 be-
fore"
well, never thought of it till after
left you last night. Then it occurred
to me might go into the sheep or cat
tie business Or something like that"
''At Manitou?"
"Why not?"
Its summer resort"
$50 much the better. I'd only be
there in the summer, anyhow.
Harry, you're trifler.'
''Well, l can peel an orange, anyhow
If you'll allow me-" Woodson ex.
claimed, taking from her hand the one
she was making sad mess Of.
Harry, l can never forgive you for
doing this" Miss Baxter concluded,
after moments contemplation of the
whirling blur of green through the car
window.
well, never could have forgiven
myself if hadn't-and there it isl he
asserted, dispassionately, laying the
pulpy, broken sphere of the orange be-
fore her.
1t is quite jaunt from Manhattan
to Manitou.
What color there was! The earth
seemed hung in some rarer medium
than common air. The yellow cactus
blossoms were like flakes of flame. A
scarlet flower fairly burned into the
sight.
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