The advocate., 1894-03-28
[CoPYRIGHT.l.
COPYRIGHT
The Dead Line.
By GIDEON LAME, D. D.

pathetic eyes looking up at him as dur
ing that brief interview after his lecture
that night; and he was afflicted with a
consuming desire to see her once again.
No woman had ever before disturbed
him thus. He tried to summon his
philosophy to his assistance; but, for
some reason, his philosophy, which had
never failed him before, seemed to
have no application to this case. In
vain would he say to himself: 'I'm
only a blacksmith, and she is the gen
eFal managers daughter. What if
should meet her again; what OF it?
She probably wouldn't even recognize
me-" Lena's eyes went right on
haunting him just the same. What
allied him? Doubtless some OF my
readers, being this side of SO, are still
youthful enough to guess. AT any
rate, John correctly diagnosed his case
at last, although the remedy was not
apparent, and he was terrified at the
startling discovery that he had become
the slave of so hopeless passion. That
he should ever be so mad as to fall in
love with so inaccessible being as the
general managers daughter would,
previous to its actual occurrence, have
been secuted by John Cotterell as an
impossible absurdity.
Let the reader understand, however,
that John did not feel thus because OF
any lack of self-respeCt. He knew, as
men Of intellectual strength always
know, that he was the superior of the
mediocre men who moved in Miss
Graham's own social sphere, and either
of them, upon any occasion calling for
such instruction would have learned
this fact so thoroughly it would never
have been forgotten, in this world, at
least. When John considered his love
hopeless and absurd because of the dis
tance between him and Lena, he meas
ured that distance as society measures
it. His reflection was: "What would
people-what would even Mrs. De-
lorme, with all her first century social
ism-say if the truth were known or
even suspected, that blacksmith in
the railway shops was in love with the
railway managers daughter?"
But what would have been his aston
ishment at that moment had he known
that the general managers daughter
was under a similar spell, and that
every man she saw she judged by his
resemblance, or lack Of resemblance, to
the blacksmith she had met at Mrs.
Delorme's, Her situation was worse
than his, for her meeting with him
produced an immediate practical effect
upon her life, while no change OF rela-
tiOns came to John as a consequence
of his fascination. Lena had a lover
who was an almost understood bride
groom when she left home for this
fateful visit. She did not love him;
she had not hitherto known love at all;
but he was eligible, moved in the best
society, and was the prospective heir
of much wealth; so her father had re-
peatedly urged her to accept the young
clod should he propose, and that he
was about to do. This Glove affair, "
as conventional society has agreed to
call a negotiation preceding the sale Tor
so much money and position OF all the
poetry out of young woman's lie,
was quite well known in the family,
and Mrs. Delorme had been told all
about it. Hence, after the departure
of the Daughters of Joanna the night
after Lena'S arrival, her aunt very nat
urally alluded to this Glove affair"
"By the way, Lena, how are you and
Charley getting along" ,
"Oh, / just despise the little imbe'
cile. / can't endure him. But papa
expects me to marry him and had al
most persuaded me to accept him when
| begged to come on this trip"
"HaS he propOsedY
"Not to me. He has proposed to
papa, and leaves papa to do the rest, L
suppose. The callOw youths father
has also talked it over with my pater-
IL ..nnn.,A. LIT hnrnt,'t hnd the honor