The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-11-22
END OF A ROMANCE.

| LNU VI n hOMANOIs
November's raw air warned negligent
householders that it was time to lay in
their winters supply of coal, and ev-
erywhere up and down the wind swept
length of the city's residence streets
rattling coal troughs barred the pedes-
TRANS path and discharged their black
| torrents into Unsuitable sidewalk sout-
| ties. Mrs. Matthews, who lived on quiet
but highly select Prospect street, had
ordered ten tons Of coal put into her
cellar, and the first instalment had ar
rived-a two ton load-got to the crest
Of the steep, narrow street by much
hard pulling on the part of the horses
and stentorian shouting on the part of
their Irish driver.
Mr.. Coal Manp cried Mrs Mat
thews from the up stairs bay window.
"Be sure you close the coal scuttle when
you go. Don't leave 1t open. 1t is so
large somebody might fall in.
"Yis, num-" assented the driver,
raising his grimy face and smiling in
the dazzling way that distinguishes
coal beavers and negroes. Then, with
a perversity as sublimely unconscious
as that of inanimate objects themselves
he went away when he had finished his
task, leaving the iron lid of the scuttle
leaning against the side Of the house.
Three or four minutes later small,
dapper, nicely dressed young man step
20 80 kL0
Matthew'S and turned to make his final
adieus to lady, slightly faded, but
still young, who had accompanied him
to the threshold. He backed away, bow
ing and holding his hat politely and
jauntily few inches above his head.
just as the final Thank you; Goodbye
had escaped his lips and the door had
closed upon the lady the young man
whirled around, lowered for fateful,
strenuous instant upon the yawning
edge of the coal hole and disappeared
Mr.. Dennis Murphy, happening to turn
his head at the same moment and be-
holding the sudden ingulfment of the
young gentleman, uttered but the two
words, 'tHowly murtherp' and flashing
his steeds into clumsy, galloping flight
disappeared with terrific clatter down
the cobble paved hill.
But Mr.. Murphy was not the only
witness of the tragic disappearance Of
the young man who had emerged from
80. Miss Minerva Matthews had stop
ped for a moment at the little table in
the bay window to get book of verse,
from which she wished to make quo
tation. AT the precise moment when
she laid her hand upon the volume, her
eyes, carelessly lifted after the unob-
servant manner of one in deep thought,
had beheld young man sink apparent
ly into the earth, directly in front of
the quiet, respectable house In which
she and her mother and her maiden aunt
kept themselves aloof from the world.
Miss Minerva did not scream. She
simply said, Mother |" But the man
ner in which she uttered that word was
infinitely more startling than any mar
ticulate outcry could possibly have
been.
Mrs. Matthews came scurrying out
of her room with face as closely ap-
proximating an animated Interrogation
point as might well be-
"Motherl A man has just fallen into
our coal souttlei'
Mrs. Matthews gasped convulsively
and collapsed into chair. Twice she
tried to frame articulate words, but the
shock had been too great. She could
only choke and clinch and unclinch her
slender, transparent hands. If those
same delicate hands could have closed
just then upon the brawny throat of
Mr.. Dennis Murphy, they would have
left him little breath indeed for protes-
tation.
Minerva saw that her mother was
practically helpless for the time being,
and that whatever was to be done in
the emergency must be done by herself.
Even at the height of the second story
she could hear the unwilling and I'M
welcome intruder laundering and STUN
bling and rattling about in the dark coal
bin as he aimlessly sought some egress
81 will go down to him, mother l
will explainl" she cried. ooh, the care
lessness of that detestable coal man p
Miss Minerva Matthews fled down
stairs as fast as she could go. But ais
she opened the door at the head of the
cellar stairway she stopped for mo-
ment and shuddered from head to foot.
1t was like the initial plunge of the
swimmer into cold water. After that
the worst Of the terrible shrinking was
over. She picked up her skirts and
darted down into the twilight of the
cellar.
The coal bin was large one and was
boarded up to within a foot or two of
the beams overhead. There was verti-
oally sliding door in sections, two of
which-there were three of them-had
been dropped into place ere the arrival
of the coal. The big bin was therefore
practically "a tight box" and the
young man who had fallen into it, not
understanding its construction, was
most securely imprisoned. Itwas vastly
to his credit ESQ Minerva thought) that
he did not raise terrible cutlery, de-
manding to be released. Surely he must
be young man of the best breeding 10
oonfine himself so considerably to I'M
demonstrative excursions around the
coal heapl
The young lady flew to the bin and
removed the top section of the door, AS
she did SO she found herself face to
face with most woebegone, smooohed,
demoralized and bewildered young man.
For moment the two young people
stared at each other speechlessly. Then,
as if moved by simultaneous impulse,
both spoke:
''Oh, am SO sorryp'
II beg your pardon most humbly for
my carelessness.
Then they both laughed weakly.
Minerva snatched the remaining SEQ
tion of the door away, and the young
man slid totteringly out upon the cellar
floor, with small avalanche Of released
coal.
ut was all our faultp' cried Minerva.
eve ought to have watched that
wretched coal man and seen that he put
the cover over the souttle.''
"No. it was my fault" objected the
young man. 81 ought to have had my
eyes about me. had no business to be
walking backward on the street. l.
but, really, Miss
Matthews, interposed Minerva,
noting his questioning hesitation.
Really, Miss Matthew'S looking at
his grimy hands and besmirohed linen,
g feel so disreputably dirty that am
going to ask you for the love of human
ity to get me an old pan or basin to