Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-08-03
CHAPTER: VI.

AS The carriage containing the unhappy
BRIDE whirled swiftly onward toward
Folty- second street, Mildred sat lolt up
right on the back seat, her hands clasped
in her lap, her lips tightly compressed,
and her eyes fixed and stirring before her,
but seeing nothing.
She had merely said, in answer to the
hackman's careless Where to, miss
The Grand Central Depot" and then
had sunk into state of ap pthy, from
which she was at length arou ed by the
stopping of the carriage, the opening Of
the doOr, and the waiting drivers busl-
mes s-lke Here YOU are, miss. D."
She accepted his plOllered assistance,
and, as she stood upon the sidewalk.
hastily took out her portmOnnaie ana
dismissed him with a liberal fee. Then,
after Il hasty glance around, she went
into the waiting room by the ladies en-
trance.
The window of the ticket Office was
open. She hurried toward it,
when does the next train that stops at
riverside leave here, if YOU please, sir?"
she asked, in a low and trembling voice.
Eleven thirty-fyo, " answered the ticket
agent, glibly.
"Oh! so late? Is there none before
that"
TIE distress and bitter disappointment,
made plainly manifest by the tone il
which Il words were uttered, fixed the
a-ent's attention, and, being human, he
WAS affected.
"No, miss, he said, not nnkindlg, the
train .ou should Lave taken has been
gone some little time.
There is no other that stops at River
sidc III til ele, en- th ry-tive, but the nine
thirty train, which will leave very soon
now, stops at Cos Cob, and that. you
know, is only Just across the river"
"Oh. thank YOU sir; | will take aticket
10 Cos Cob" and having secured it she
seated lerself in an obscure corner to
wait until the door should be opened and
she should he permitted to take her seat
in the cars.
From the very moment she Ind de-
scended from the carriage, by that mys
teri us iutuitivo feeling which, in a
greater or less degree we all possess, she
lad cen made p infully aware, without
seeing any one, that she was being close
ly watched. .,
Now, for the first time, she mustered
courage and looked about her.
All at once her eyes rested upon man
a. no great dist nee from her.
lie was leaning, in a studied att tude,
against one OF the huge huted columns,
and his gaze-indeed, his whole attention
seemed fixed upon herself.
Miidled shuddered why. she knew no..
She had never seen this man before,
and there was nothing about him TO sug-
ecst that he was in any marked degree
different from other men; AMI yet her
pure wOmanly instincts made ber shrink
nom his gaze
Minute a4ver minute passed, and still
he stood there, with eyes, apparently, fo'
nothing bat her face.
At length the gong sounded, the door
was thrown open, and loud voice called
out:
"Ni1e thirty! New Haven way, and
with n feeling of intense leief Mildred
rose and hurried forward.
For one instant she was stopped at the
door While she slowed ler ti"ket. and
then. after being directed TO her train,
she has.ened onward.
At last she had found the right car and
s6cU'ed seat.
TIE one directly in front of her was
not occupied.
in that next forward was middle-aged
lady and beautiful young girl.
About my own age, thought Mildred,
"an i, indeed looks very much like me.
Il wonder whoSbe can be? Oh! hope
hers vii he far happier lot than mine.
Then, as she sank lack into corner by
the window:
She has her mother with her! Oh! if
[ can only reach my home and throw my
self into my mothers arms, lie ore Eu-
gene finds me, | shall be so --