Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-08-28

L
were riveted upon
her. She wore closely fitting gar
ment of Russian sable, which envel-
oped her completely, and a large
beaver hat with dropping plumes, and
from the single fra diamond at her
throat to the ti,.s II her dainty Suede
boots she looked the model of fash
ionable beauty. She was the only
woman on the car, and before she had
fairly settled herself comfortably, all
the men had mentally pronounced their
opinion of her looks and style, and
hazarded a conjecture as to her age.
Her attendant, forid man of middle
age, received the slight degree of at
tention justified by his seeming only
an adjunct of the moment. AS he left
her, he put into her hands bunch of
costly roses, which she received with q
smile and laid upon the opposite seat
the instant he was gone.
OF the score of passengers, two or
three knew her by sight, for she was,
in a way, a public character, but as it
happened, none were really acquainted
with her, and before long even those
most deeply interested in her appear
ance yielded to the apathy peculiar to
sleeping cars, and subsidized into their
newspapers or their rugs, preparing to
wear out the evening until bed time.
Margaret amused herself in watch
ing the flying snow and in reverie.
Too used to travelling to even care to
look about her, she yielded to the
prevailing somnambulistic influence
just enough to dream without sleeping.
At twenty-eight she was her own
mistress, earning an Independent in
come through the use of her beautiful
voice. The teaching days and the
drudgery of the class room had passed,
and as concert singer she was favora-
bly, known in more than one W Western city
noted for its critical taste. After a
successful winter in Milwaukee and
Chicago she was now on her way to
fulfil an engagement in Balti-
more, which promised more
than anything in which she had yet
engaged. She was in the heydey of
her powers, admired, in radiant health,
conscious of her beauty and talent, and
entirely satisfied with life. What did
it mean that, as she looked from the
window with proud smile on her lips,
some tantalizing thoughts should in.
trude themselves, and the mind so en-
tirely self-poised should feel, for the
first time in years, the weakening in
fiuence of some emotional fancies. 1t
was her boast that she was never lone
ly, never sad, that her whole heart was
in her work.
By nine o'clock Margaret, enveloped
in down wrapper of dark red, lay
counting sleep in her section, Over
her was spread the fur ulster, none
too warm above the blankets, even for
her warm blood The thermometer
outside would have registered zero, and
whiffs of icy air found their way every
now and then into the car. Every
thing was quiet save her thoughts
which began to utter themselves with
loud, importunate voices, as if answer
ing some call without, independent of
her control. 81 have happily been
able to say all my life that I don't
know what nerves were," said Marga-
ret to herself, ''but begin to think
that from some inexplicable cause I am
nervous.
Orchard Allen |" She started as if
the words had been spoken in her ear.
Swiftly memory flew back ten years,
and she saw herself standing bare-
headed at the gate of her
fathers house in the Highlands
of the Hudson where her child
hood had been passed; and beside
her, bending tenderly to catch her
ightest word, the form of her first
lover, then poor, obscure young lieu
tenant in the army. With an indiffer-
ence scarce tinged with pity, since it
hardly occurred to her in those days
that men could really feel, she had met
his pleading, affection with az enthus-
iastlc outburst of her ambition 20 lead
the artists life, to spend her energies
in self-development, and show what a
woman wholly devoted to an intellect
nal and artistic career might become.
They had sung in the choir together.
had mingled their voices in moments
when, inspired by devotional ecstasy,
it seemed that the two spirits united
into one, in that mysterious fellowship
which belongs alike to religion and to
love. And yet she had no feeling for
him above regard; no feeling for any
one, for anything but art.
f'You must not think / am deficient
in womanly sensibility," she had said
to him, with one of those soft glances
of the meaning and effect of which she
was entirely careless and unconscious.
"But some women must remain spin
sters, you know, and / think I am
meant to be one of the sisterhood."