The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-31


would buy, 1 think, although he
might have overlooked the crochet
needle. What was the dear, queer
woman thinking about9 And who
and what is she? And how shall l
learn her address? | can't keep all
these things. They must have cost
great deal of money-much more,
perhaps, than she could afford to
pay"
AS she spoke she opened the card
case and discovered small card in
one of the pockets. It bore the sim
pie legend of it's mate-Miss Hope
Abbott-but on the reverse side
there we're few lines penciled in
fine angular hand.
ITO Miss Ruth Herrick," they read,
from one who has always respected
and admired her and her work, and
who has followed her illness with
affectionate sympathy" And then
further down, there was line which
had evidently been added hastily, as
an after-thought-"T did not mean to
be cross that day."
did not mean to be cross that
day!" repeated Ruth Herrick, slowly,
"What day." She knit her straight
black brows in the effort to recall
some memory of an Office visit from
some one who was cross-from some
one who was named Miss Hope Alb
bot. 81 shall have relapse in ex-
actlY five minutes" she announced
finally, unless solve this mystery"
But she did not solve it. To all
appearances Miss Hope Abbott had
vanished absolutely. In vain Miss
Herrick sought information from her
newspaper friends. In vain did she
herself, after her return to her work
on the Searchlight, devote much of
her time and skill to attempts to dis
cover the identity of her mysterious
caller. The newspaper woman who
had never ''let go'' when she had
gathered up the threads of big
''story," was forced to admit to her
self that she was wholly at sea in this
case.
She did, indeed, secure a clew from
Tim, the Office boy, lordly youth
whose business it was to usher callers
courteously into the presence of the
man they had not come to see. Tim
remembered Miss Abbott as woman
who had called at the editorial rooms
of the Searchlight with original
poems; which she had confdingly left
in his keeping. He described her as
tall, gaunt woman of middle age,
very plainly dressed, and with ex-
ceedingly pleasant manners. So ia
vorably, indeed, did Miss Abbott i'm
press Tim that instead of Immediate
ly losing her original poems, as was
his custom, he had kept them to re-
turn to her when she came again as
she had left noaddress. These poems
he brought to Miss Herrick's desk,
and she recognized at once the angu-
lar writing she had seen on the card.
The manuscripts were yellow and
dust-covered. Apparently Miss Alb
bolt had no intention of retaining
them. Miss Herrick looked over the
original poems. They were crude
efforts, hopeless from the editors
point of view. She sighed as she re-
turned them to the boy, and realized
that this clew led her no nearer to the
present whereabouts of the writer.
She did not Immediately forget
her unknown friend. If she had been
inclined to do 80 the little scissors
on her dressing-cas and the stamp
box on her desk would have served
as daily reminders. She still made
so many inquiries among her friends
that Ruth Herrick's Miss Abbott"
was jokingly referred to in news
paper circles as journalistic "Mrs.
Harris" at isn't mere curiosity
that moves me-" Miss Herrick ex-
planned to the smiling ones; "I'd like
to find her. don't believe she has
too much money, Notwithstanding
her reckless way of making gifts"
AS the months went on, the whirl
of Metropolitan news getting swept
into the background the memory of
her strange caller. 1t was almost
year after her visit that Miss Herrick,
sitting at her desk one stormy winter
day, stopped her work long enough to
glance at the copy of the evening
paper which boy had just placed at
her elbow. Her eye fell on the
"scare- head" of sensational story on
the first page. 1t set forth in heavy
type the fact that woman had just
starved to death in a lonely little cot
tage in small town in New jersey
She had been an educated women
an ex school teacher. She had lived