The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-02-21
SELECTED STORY.
Submission.

merely had learned what she wished to
know. The acquisition of this knowledge
was to be the purpose of her future life.
Among the many well fixed ideas in her
very clever little mind the best fixed was
her ability to care for and direct herself
She was Independent of intellect, which
she worshiped, and of body, which she af
fected to despise There was no reason
why she should not become n Hypatia--
even if HNDatia was beautiful
True, there was her guardian, Amos
Grantley-it was to his home in the east
ern metropolis whittier she was now bound
but so long as she did not exceed her al
lowance he would never interfere with her
plans. AS for his wife and daughter, they
treated her with that deterrent affection
which prodigy intuitively demands.
Miss Driscolls itinerary took her over
little travelled road through II sparsely in
habited country. There were but few pas
sengers in the car with her-indeed there
seemed but few on the train, judging from
che leisure which the negro porters found
for card playing and reveling in n rear
section. For some reason they were IN
ruly and boisterous, but Winnie didn't
mind their conduct, for she ignored it.
She bore with her folio work on philos-
ophy, and it was an Rgis against distrac-
ton. AS for the lack of society, she was
vastly pleased. People who have never
written surely could not compare with
those who had. Coquetry was beyond her
litany. She needed no deliverance from it.
The modern young man she condemned as
the shadow of an ideal. Had hers been
the days of Wallace or Nelson, or even
Ellsworth, she might have deemed love
subject worthy of mature deliberation.
But as it was she was skeptical of its ex-
istence and contemptuous of its nature if
Il did exist.
There was young man on her very car,
an unobjectionable, unassuming young
man apparently, since he kept his seat and
also read. That was right. 1t would be
hypercritical to blame him for being
where he doubtless had right to be.
Therefore let him go into oblivion with
the porters. Winnie did not even trouble
herself, for it would have been trouble,
to scan his face. For one thing she was
nearsighted "A defect which gave a
dreamy charm to her eyes-for another,
she was quite too interested to risk losing
her place.
One day in the loneliest part of this
lonely journey there was much jolting and
stopping and backing of train and shrek
ing of engine. Any ordinary young WON
an would have put her head out of the win
dow, to the detriment of her hat, but Win
ME considered neither the commotion nor
her bonnet. If there had been a collision
ahead and all running ON time was disar-
ranged, she presumed that the trainhands
understood their business. She certainly
did hers, which was to improve her mind.
However, toward evening, when they
reached an isolated hut called the "junc-
ton" and the car in which she rode was
Bhunted ON a siding, and the train went
on without it, and there were no sights
nor sounds of the train on the bisecting
road, which was to annex and draw it,
then Winnie deigned to make inquiries,
for she had not planned to camp out,
which produced both chagrin and alarm.
She learned that the connection had been
missed and that the car must remain
there for "a hours. She perceived that her
informant, the porter, was insolent and
intoxicated, and that several of his asso-
ciates, in similar condition, too, had con-
trived to be left with him. But Winnie
had the stout heart of inexperience. Her
personal dignity had always sustained her
in the crises of school life She therefore
relied upon veil as if 1t were a shield.
When the porter roughly announced that
''those who wanted to eat had better up
stump lively to the hotel a mile distant
down the crossroad," she shrugged her
shoulders and said she wasn't hungry,
thus proving her allegiance to the state of
pupilage, and resumed her reading. The
rest Of the cohpany-two fat and selfish
middle aged men, intent on cocktails; an
old couple with an irritable grandchild
and the modest young man-departed.
None of them needed her except this lat
ter, who advanced and hesitated and stop
ped, and then discouraged by her indiffer
ence, went his way
So the girl was left alone, as she thought,
and the lights blinked and glimmered,
and the night came down, not darkly, but
like mountain mist. From the wood is
sued the murmur of insects and the ripple
of brook, a lulling sound of which she
was conscious, as one who listens to sing
ing is conscious of an unobtrusive accom-
paniment. But of sudden her thoughts
leaped from the page to herself-her phys
zeal self, now revealed as shrine most
precious, most sacred. Within that peace
ful lullaby other sounds were obtruding,
faint indeed but awesome from their very
obscurity. Was there not a stealthy stepS
oh, WAS there not a stifled breathingS
Winnie sprang to her feet and looked
about She caught one glimpse of a dark,
crouching form, one CLEAN from wickedly
glowerng eyes. She flung her heavy vol.
sped through the car to the ground and
along the road.
The way was winding, threading the
wood with the eccentricity of embroidery
In the west the twilight struck on a gilt
tering object high in the air. 1t was the
ball on the flagstaff of the hotel, and to
Winnie star of hope. AS she ran she
prayed, and as she prayed she listened
At first there were wrathful cries and
heavy following treads Then these faded
away, and with the silence came reassur>
ance. She was safe. Perhaps her danger
had never been real. But, oh, how fright
ened she was, and, oh, how hard she strug-
gled onl A great sorrow for herself en-
thralled her-such poor frail, little thing
alone in the gloomy wood But was she
alone9 o God into what evil had she rush
edp For as she turned bend that led
through veritable thicket from either
sidea burly form sprang out and seized Fer.
Then Winnie screamed-she who had
ever ridiculed such weakness-a thrilling,
piercing cry that asserted its potency. For,
oh, there was an answering shout-such a