Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1894-09-28

bloom rubbed off; the fruit remained
as sound as ever, but the first fresh
ness audglow winch cnticcd the eye
bad departed. Toms opposition had
put given an impetus to her ambition.
twas an incentive to lure her on.
Now that it was withdrawn, the covet-
Ed fruit threatened to prove flat to
the aste.
She felt a horrible conyulsion tug
ging at her throut as she mused. Dear
old Tom! How kind he had always
been TO her How forbearing and
gentle and considerate, and how little
Az had felt the need Of any other
friend as long as She had him! In
Comparison, what was the public to
her TINT she should become its play
Thing? Would it soothe her restless
moods as Tom did, or cater to her
caprice or excuse her shortcomings?
Honor had drawn veil over her
face and at this point in her rehec-
lions the dots on the dainty trihe be-
gan to swim before her tear-blurred
vision. She turned up the collar of
her iaekct, gave the boa at her throat
serious twist, and dropped her soft
chin into the fur with a sensation of
overwhelming shame. She cringed
nnd shuddered before her new self.
ln all her short, bright life she had
never felt seriously unhappy before.
Il She saw happy faces all about her,
and one or two even looked at her
with evident surprise as she ignored
their lifted hats with apparently SUI
lperb Inconsistencies. She walked
on faster and faster, in futile effort
10 avoid the crowd; her head was ach-
ing iutoIerably, and something inside
her brain seemed to be humping like
d trip hammer,
+ New York had never seemed so ag-
gres,iyely on the alert as today. Ac-
ltuaIlv to see them, one would think
Broadway was the Mecca of the uni
verse, as dear to their hearts as the
stone which Mosems travel miles to
kiss.
There was that Markham girl on the
!. Front seat of the Taylor drag. How
Aridiculously happy she had looked
slsee lser engagement TO Dick Taylor.
ways compliment, =, Honor saff 70 her
self 'It is the shallow stream which
is never unruflled
Tom said there was standing joke
at the club about her. Honor re-
membered asking him if it was on ac-
count of her being a standing joke
that she made them all so tired. Tom
could bear any amount Of levity.
She began to wonder in dull way
il any one would ever accuse her of
flippancy again? She felt horribly
passe and jaded. No one except Tom
had ever understood her, anyway,
when she paused to look back upon it,
He had been a friend aad a brother
and lover all in one
Honor walked on as if impelled by
some invincible force, holding back
her tears; while the pain in her
throat mounted up to her ears, and
she was reminded of the time when,
as child, she held vinegar in her
mouth to determine whether she had
the mumps. When She had gone a
dozen blocks farther the crowd had
thinned, ana the street lamps were
now being lighted.
She turned then, and reluctantly
set her face toward home. A square
ahead Of her a street organ was grind
ing ont the refrain of the familiar
''two step which Tom had taught
her.
As long as she lived, she felt sure,
whenever she should hear those
strains of the Cadets March she
would be reminded of the cozy,
hastily snatchei half hours at the
close of the crowded days when Tom 5
fair head was but dim silhouette
against the pale light Of the window,
while his fingers would stumble and
halt in the twilight as he thrummed
his banjo strings, his melodious hum
ming interspersed with his staccato
laughter, and tend n word now and
then for the girl beside him.
Honor paused at the corner, and
gave the man piece of money. His
"God bless you, miss" caused the
corner of her lips to twitch uncertain
ly in her struggle for composure,
When she reached her door it was
quite dark, and she paused with her
hand on the bell, and stood there in
a vague way trying to anaIyze the
despair which controlled her. The
lights were cleaning from beneath
the drawn curtains in the house across
the way. As she gazed across with
heavy eyes the door was opened, and
the colored lights in the hall threw
the figure of man in evening dress
into vivid relief.
Honor watched him as he lighted a
cigar and threw it away. When the
door closed behind him, shutting in
the light Of the hall, she felt like the
peri at the gate of paradise. But a
moment later he reappeared beneath
the gas light in the street, and she
saw him plunge deliberately into the
whirlpool of passing vehicles, and
dodge this way and that in an effort