The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1899-12-20

track than to shunt Dumont off hi,
track. And what would result for Du.
mont? Miseryri
"He seems willing to risk il, ;" she ob-
served.
"Willing-willing / tell yeu it is
his loss of mental equilibrium. In such
case there is degeneration of the gray
cells in the fore part of The cerebrum,
and strange hallucinations are the out
come; any doctor could make it clear
TO you. And you would take advan-
tage of il? can not credit it."
She threw back her head and laughed.
'Don't laugh, mean it, he said
sharply; aud for a space his eyes look
ed into hers.
The long look burned its way through
the something that had interposed ever
bet~ cen them; the fiimsy barrier which
their ignorance and heedlessness had
reared.
Julia" he faltered. The door-bell
pealed.
at is Mr.. Dumont," she said, with
trembling lips. "Must you go?"
Eight days later, Ordway, sitting in
his office in the heavy gloom and dull
ness which for the past week had held
him-Ordway received letter. 1t was
from Julia Martin, and il was brief.
"I am going to Boston this afternoon.
Good-by."
''GOod- byp' he muttered, fiercely
scowling. But all his apathy had fled
on the instant. She was going to Bos-
ton. What did that mean?
He sprang to his feet She was going
that afternoon. "She'll take the boat, ("
he hazarded.
1t was already past five. He seized
his hat and called a cab and drove
swiftly TO Warren street.
She was there. She was pacing the
wharf, dispassionate figure amidst
the hustle of imminent departure. She
greeted him with pensive calm.
81 said good-by in my note" she re-
marked.
He saw with joy that her hair was
wavy.
al have not come to say good-by.
Where is Dumont?" he asked.
"He i. cruising around the Sound
with Mr.. Blair,n she answered, "and
fishing. He had-an attack of his neu-
ralgia, and l told him il would do him
good to go. II thought over what
you said; and saw she affirmed, not
in humility, but in a rigor of pride,
"that it is true. 1t would have been a
mistake. from the first feared it.
And-I almost think he agreed with
me, in his heart. So, after all, | am
not going to have home. am going
to Boston," She smiled bravely.
Those are misstatements," he an
swered-"both."
"What do you mean ,"
"You UiU have home, and you will
not go to Boston," he returned; though
he spoke TO the back of her head, sud-
denly averted. "As reckon it, we
have been fools for four years, and that
is long enough, Julia"
She faced him with valiant resist
ance.
"I won't consider it," she declared;
''it is mental alteration"
"lf you say so; but it is chronic. II is
hopeless"
81 should be cruel to take advantage
of it-inhuman."
mo, no; you are inhuman to con-
fuse me with Dumont, that is all.
What are we dawdling here for?
ComeP'
81 can't" she gasped; my trunk IS
on the boat"
mo matter. 1t is not your trunk, !"
said Ordway, with rude and Joyous
laughter, "that am going to marry"
Her cheeks were tenderly flushed
and her lashes moist.
ave shall always quarrel" she muir
INJURED, family.
"And l." he answered, ''shall alway
come out ahead in the second round" 4"
He defied conventiOhality and the cold
hearted onlookers, and put his arm
around her. And they watched while
the boat pulled off.