Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-11-07


~ NJ as she walked COM
@ N~ posedly to her berth
Nv in the middle of the
NJ car, the eyes of
~ every person present
were riveted upon
her. She wore a closely fitting gar
ment of Russian sable, which envel-
cped her completely, and large
beaver hat with dropping plumes, and
from the single fine diamond at her
throet to the tips of 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
hazarled a conjecture as to her age.
der attendant, "A horid man of middle
ige, 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 way, public character, but as it
happened, none were really acquainted
with her, and before long even those
most deeply interested i'll her appear
ance yielded to the apathy peculiar to
sleeping cars, and subsided 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
ipok about her, she yielded to the
prevailing somnambulistic influence
Just enough to dream without sleeping.
At twenty-eight she was her own
mistress, earn;Gg an Independent in
come through the use of her beautiful
voice. The teaching days and the
drudgerv of the class room had passed,
and as a concert singer she was favora-
bly, known in more than one Western city
noted for its critical taste. After a
successful winter in Milwaukee and
Chicago she was now on her way to
sulhl an engagement In Balti-
more, which promised more
than anything in which she had yet
engaged. She WAS in the heydey OF
ner 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
fuence of some emotional fancies. /!
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 a down wrapper of dark red, lay
courting 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 don't
know what nerves were," said Marga-
ret to herself, "but 1 begin to think
that from some inexplicable cause l am
| nervous"
''Richard Allen!" She started as il
| 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
| lightest word, the form of her first
lover, then a poor, obscure young lieu,
| tenant in the army. With an indiffer-
ence scarce tinged with pity, since ii
hardly occurred to her in those days
that men could really feel, she had met
his pleading affection with an enthus,
iastlc outburst of her ambition to lead
the artists life, to spend her energies
In self-development, and show what
woman wholly devoted to an intellect
ual 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 tc
love. And yet she had no feeling fol
him above regard; no feeling for any
one, for anything but art.
"You must not think l 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
sBut some women must re-'ain spin
sters, YOU know, and I think l an
meant to be one Of the sisterhood
You do not know yourself. IE'
I,.y will come when ambition will seem
nothing to, you; when the homely
things. the real things, will take Oh
their true value to your eyes, and
career will seem mere artlficlallty
nat has nothing to do with what l:
best and sweetest in life. )"
The words had passed her by ns a
| lie phrase, evoked from disappo!nt
nent. And she and Richard Allen In
parted, he going to his post on the I'm
, Arizona, and she to Italy to study
md vet nothing passes from MS CT
.:relv. Here, without warning, with
,.t her intention, the little scene cam
before her eyes; and she saw sRail