Smyrna times., 1895-01-23
4 TRAIL OF LOVE.
HOW ONE MAY FIND HAPPINESS If HE
FOLLOWS THE RIGHT TRACK.
BY STIRLING KANE.


time | was fifteen was sparkling the
girls, and they took me captive often
and easily. lay awake at night think
ing of the house l would build for
pretty Monette Silby. When she tossed
me sky-high, ! contemplated suicide
for whole week. Then ! met Maria
Prudens, and my spirits revived. l
declared my love to her in fOrty-eight
hours, only to be laughed at and told
that she had been engaged year So
l went on, love affair after love affair,
each one more painful than its prede-
cessor, until l was twenty-five, when
common sense called and half ques.
toned: Morley Montague, are you
going to court every girl in Christen.
dom2"
Then the susceptibility that encoUnt-
cred such frequent inspiration began
mad rush to the other extreme. l
somersaulted oyer into woman hater.
Curls, waves, roses, dimples, smiles
all woman witChery was lost on me. |
had gone up the gamut of female love.
illness, had sounded every note, and
my heart pronounced the tones tire
some, uncompensating. carried my
was nothing more to learn about wo-
man, and it became selt-evident pro.
position that celibaoy was my doom. |
accepted it cheerfully, and, like all
such graduates began to riducule and
depreciate wOmen-yOuth's playthings,
mans sCOrD.
1t was December. The first snow
lay on the ground, and the clear, cold
rays of a golden sunset were falling
over all the untrOdden whiteness. The
business of the day being over i wound
up affairs at my Office and started for
my home, which lay on the outskirts Of
the town. Turning from the main
street to the road that led to my home,
| | observed that l was the FIRST pedes-
trian along that highway since the
snow had fallen. No; there is another
track. Some one has gone ahead of
me. And such a track A wOmaR's
It must be 8 child's, it is SO tiny snd
perfect Yet something told me it was
a woman's, and felt sudden myste.
rious interest in it. With head down
and eyes following this track l reached
my own gate, and. behold, the walker
turned ip there
Having settled into bachelorhOod, l
was not sure that / wished to meet a
strange woman, and knew there was
no foot in my own family that, even by
tight squeezing, could be reduced to
the size of that track. So l made q
sudden dart to the side door, entered,
and. meeting my mother, inquired
who's here '"
"Who's here ?" she repeated How
do you know any one is here?"
"Why, haven't / followed a woman'I
track all the way from town, mother
And never saw such beautiful foot
tits not any prettier than the
owner" my mother replied, but sup
pose you'll object to meeting her, you
care SO little for ladies, so I've ordered
q small table laid in the breakfastrOOm
and you can take your supper alone, i
you wish"
"WelI, finding myself so coldly anC
easily disposed of, | felt uncertain as t
whether it pleased me. But l asked
with a woman. hating nOnChalance
"WhO is the beauty with such perfec
foot ?"
"She is Miss Enid GlOriana Brand,
school friend of your sisters"
"How does she happen to be here
mother ?"
"She is going to visit her aunt il
Fairville, and stopped over to spenC
the night with Felicia. As she lives il
the city and does not often see tn,
snow in its purity, she preferred to wall
up from the train. She's lovely crea
ture. I'm 80 sorry you won't make he
acquaintance, Morley"
II don't know but will, mother. l
she's as pretty as her foot, Why
Mother laughed apd said in q ton,
that piQued me "Ha, she's SO charm
ing and SO stylish she'd never look at
country town beau like you"
Now, people may lay themselves OF
the shelf and be willing to be over
looked, but they are not so ready t,
have other people cOnsign them int
oblivion as unworthy, and, then Il
think of q woman looking upon me y
a country beau determined TO NEE
Miss Enid GlOrianA Brand-her nam
was longer than her foot. 'Twss won
derful with what hasty, spasmOdic yea
l dashed to my room aud got into tn
best of well-stOcked wardrobe. Mis-
Gloriana could not say the suit was
country cut, for it came from her owl
city.
rushed into the parlOr with som
little diffidence, it must be said, deter
mined, however, to impress the visitor
if possible. and escape the indifference
which my mother predicted she wOul
feel toward me. My salutatiOn l &C
companied with compliment, -
knew aone beautiful Cinderella hR
entered my home, Miss Brand l di
not find her slipper, but saw the i'm
print of her foot in the snow, and fel
that | was fortunate in being able
follow her step"
Well, now If you had seen that sweet
Rirlish face blush, look down uncOu
sciOusly to her feet, " hicb were peer
ing from under q handsome dRrksblu
skirt, aud then break into ripple {
> confused laughter, you would under
stand how it was that in an instant
repented of all the uDkind things ha
ever said about girls, even about thOs
that had Tilted me. She was SO modes
she hardly knew how to answer m'
while | sat half dared as she thanke
me for my gallantry, looking first 9
her face and then at her feet, admirin
one so much | would have been willin
to PROSTATE myself at the other.
did not take my supper In tn
breakfastro0m, and SO completed
monOpOlized Miss Enid Glorian
throughout the meal and evening IN
/. sister Felicia got jealous, and pOute
? of upstairs. That suited me exactly
Knowing the fair Enid GloriAna wOul
be under the roof but a few hours, an
feeling that providence had not onl
taken me mysteriously by the hand,6
q was pulling me vigorously in q certal
direction, said with great boldness
''Miss Brand, may / tell you what
said as followed your tracks from tn
village?"
ei "You may" she said, 1t was SOM
., thing pleasant"
l. NV, but her smile was winning an
d annihilating
q "YOu may judge Of that" l replie'
g ''I said if the woman was as pretty
ls her foot, she can have me. She is J ST
sr il beautiful, and I'll stick to it,"
Sister Felicia, the wretch, came in
q that instant, and Enid GlOriana cOul