The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-09-13
SELECTED STORY.
" Stranded"

to something better. No, Jack, you
don't love me; for love is unselfish, and
you think only of yourself"
Jack Clavering "a strong-limbed,
Saxon-haired young fellow--turned to
the window, and for little while gazed
in silence upon the summer world ou.-
side.
But he saw neither the blue sky nor
the green earth. He did not hear the
south wind whispering among the
budding iilacs, nor the robins singing
in the apple trees pink with bloom.
Those honest blue eyes were blind
with tears wrung from the bitterness of
his spoiled and cheated young man
hood.
The words of his needless, ambitious
young wife had stabbed him to the
heart.
"You think only of YOURSELF"
She-his adored Kate-could say
that when he would have lain down his
life for her sakel
He turned presently.
Hero as he was, he had concealed
every sign OF what was warning within
him.
" will not oppose you, Kate, if you
are really in earnest about the matter
But it will make great change i'll our
lives! Have you thought of thal?" he
asked her.
/" have thought of everything" she
answered eagerly. 'Of course we must
sell this odious little house and lot, and
you Can transfer your business to the
city while l am studying. And after
ward, when | shall be established on
the stage, you will go with me where
ever | 60"
''The life wouldn't suit me-" he
said. If you are determined upon
career as an actress, you must
get along without me altogether. You
will go the way you have chosen, my
Kate, and | will go mine"
For a moment she looked grieved
and reluctant.
But the new ambition was stronger
than the older love, and such separa-
ton did not seem so terrible after all.
She went to him and put her arms
around his neck.
But the parting will be without
anger, and it will not be for always?n
she asked him.
"We part without anger, certainly"
was his reply.
And so il was settled.
And in few weeks Kate had begun
her new life in the city and Jack was
jOurneying westward, whittier he
scarcely knew and hardly cared.
The curtain had rolled down for the
last time. The play was over.
There had been no applause, no re-
calls. The company had played that
night to nearly empty house.
1t had been the same night after
night, in town after town, and city after
CITY.
In rose satin and filmy lace, glitter
of Jewels, the worth of which would
not have purchased her nights lodg-
ing, the star swept her shining court
train across the stage on her way to her
dressing-room.
One of her companions met her in the
wings. The girl was crying hysteri-
callv.
"Oh, Kate!" she sobbed, {" that
wretch has gone! He has disposed of
and left us to shirk for ourselves"
"You don't mean the manager" said
Kate. aghast.
Dub l. lQ5t uO Iutdu lIJG u1du-
ager, the heartless scamp! He has bor-
rowed money on the stage properties
just enough to take him home, | sup
pose-and he went away the instant he
could get the receipts in his hands to-
night. And here we are in this horrid
place without 80 much as a dollar
among us all"
1t was all too true. Their manager
had forsaken them, leaving the unfort-
innate company stranded in that re-
mote little western town.
While leaving the theatre, in the ex-
element Kate happened somehow to
become separated from her companions.
She walked on, thinking that some of
them would overtake her. And pres
emily she stopped on bridge spanning
narrow stream which flowed in slug
gish current through the rambling little
city.
She had stood there long time wait
ing, gazing down into the dark, rolling
water and absorbed with her despond-
ent thoughts, before it occurred to her
that the others must have preceded her
from the theatre building.
And there was little probability that
any of them would come back to search
for her.
But what did it matter?
1t was a calamity in which each one
must help herself or himself.
And doubtless they had all by now
settled themselves somewhere for the
night, at least.
They had all of them, even the little
soubrette who had sobbed so disconso
lately, been members of the profession
longer than she.
They were used to its ups and downs
its shifts and expedients. And mos
of them had experienced exactly thu
same predicament before.
Now, in her distress and perplexities
Kate concluded they had forgotten al
about her.
''There isn't one of them who care
enough for me to miss me, to wonder
what will do, or what will become 0
me-" she thought, as she stood there OIL
the bridge alone in the night gloom
Sand this is the career / once fancie'