The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-31
SELECTED STORY.
How Bingham Mis- sed His Chance.

and heard less anu leSS Olleu LIS VueIIy
if not exactly tuneful whistle.
But to all their good advice and ear
nest protests Jack turned deaf ear,
smiled a little, and kept at his tasks
the steadier.
None of his friends properly appre-
ciated Jacks unusual devotion to la
Dor, for none of them knew its incen-
tive-thst he was in love. She was
dainty little thing, always admired by
men and rather looked down upon and
at the same time envied by her own
sex; at home the pet of her parents
and in society an imperious and ex-
acting Young belle. Just the kind OF
girl, in short, with whom it was the
height of folly for Jack to be in love,
and consequently the object OF the
most ardent alteration on his part.
Preserving measure of clear head
edness even in his worship, acH plain
Nv realized that as the head OF house
hold where economy was necessary his
idol would prove a melancholy failure.
Resolving, therefore, to earn enough
money to prevent her from worrying as
to ways and means, he worked early
and late, steadily and hopefully. The
copy he turned out was good in spite of
its volume; his regular salary from his
paper was increased, together with his
duties; and his income from outside
work reached an astonishing figure.
Still, the money did not come fast
enough to suit the impatient lover,
who thereupon began to worry and
fret. Now the man who works with
his brain sixteen hours a day, and
worries and frets in addition, has not
a long career of usefulness before him,
be his motives what they may.
Jacks eyes gave way first. Specks
and blurs floated in them, and through
them jumped pains that drew his head
down on his folded arms in spite of
himself. His feet and hands grew
heavy, as if his blood had turned to
lead. Six months before he had gone
up or down the Office stairs in three
Jumps. Now they seemed to grow
longer every day, and often he stopped
half way with a queer little catch in his
side. Presently the pain that gnawed
at the back of his eyeballs refused to
yield even 10 sleep. Then Jack grew
afraid, but did not let his fear keep
him from his work.
He was not sure CT himself in those
days, and adopted the precaution of
reading over aloud whatever of i'm
portance he had written. One day it
came about that as he read, his tongue
seemed suddenly swollen and useless,
and he could not utter the words his
mind framed. He turned to his type
writer and placed, as he thought, the
heading he desired on the article he
had written but could not read.
When the foreman in the composing
room saw "The Love of Ethel" intro
ducing a column of interviews on the
tariff, he laughed at first, and then,
remembering Jacks looks of late, grew
grave. Soon he made pretext for
consulting Jack-but not about the tar
if article-and saw in a moment that
the mischief was not caused by whiskey.
Soon the managing editor came and
Jack was led away to cab, babbling
thickly about Ethel, his work and the
money he had saved; money that prov
ed godsend in the long months that
follow ed. For Jack was an orphan,
his friends were careless, happy-go-
lucky Bohemians, and brain fever is an
illness that demands the most skillful
of physicians and the most careful of
nurses. So when Jack came to HIM
self again, very pale and thin and quiet,
he knew that his precious store must
be drained low.
That troubled him little, however,
compared with his torturing doubt of
Ethel. Why did he not hear from her?
Why did not she come to him now that
he was 80 much better? The kindly
doctor had noticed Jacks trouble; by
a quiet inquiry had discovered what
probably lay at the bottom of it; and 30
had an answer ready for Jack when
the latter screwed up his courage to
ask for Ethel. She had been as i'll as
he, they told him, and like him was
now slowly but surely recovering. And
Jack must not worry about her in the
least, for the doctor would bring him
news from her every day.
So Jack kept obediently quiet among
his pillows, listening intently for the
doctors footsteps, and flushing like a
girl when the news was good, as, some
how, it always was. One day the
brown-eyed nurse brought him great
bunch of roses, bought at the price OF
her weeks salary, and told him Ethel
had sent them. When she saw how
Jack buried his face in the roses and
kissed their petals lingeringly, as il
they were Ethel's lips, wave OF angry
hate surged in the nurses heart for
the girl who could play with such q
love, forget it and forsake it. The
wave receding, left it traces in the
trembling of the cool white hands thai
smoothed 80 deity his hot pillows and
brushed 80 gently his thick, wavy hair
But not word escaped her lips, anG
Jacks evil day might have been pu
off indefinitely had it not been fol
Evans, the blunderer. When Jacl
grew we'll enough to see his friends fo
few minutes at time Evans was ont
of the first to call, and with his usua
ill luck plunged directly into condol
ences. Jack did not quite understand
at first, but Evans, houndering ahead
soon made it clear to the invalid tina
Ethel had not been ill; but that, on thu
contrary, while the issue Of his illness
had been still doubtful, she had thrown
him over and had announced her en-
gagement to another.
AF,or tbat Iack want hack into thi