Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-06

but Just left him.
Il am 50 glad. she said with her
pretty. shy air 80 proud to be able to
help yuu. / Il try hard never to he any
thing bur your interpreter.
He laughed aloud and held ont his
hand. That : IA good name for you
Mrs. Conway. he said. Il can never
say my typist does this or my stenog
rapher does that You re not my sec
retary. and it would sound pretentiUus
10 call you so. But interpreter that $
splendid name for you. | shall always
call yUu 10y it. .
And so he did She went that very
evening and looked al various rooms in
the neighborhood. fixing on some IN 4
quaint ont Of the world nook which
they call Parsun' : Green. | don I mean
all that intricate bewilderment of small.
featureless. Iuean little streets which
lie between Fnlham palace and the
cemetery, but corner on the other side
of the railway line a corner which then
was still rejoicing il tall old trees and
spacious wide fronted houses, snch as
kept du III VI
which came as IA surprise 10 the stranger
wandering through the neighborhood.
And then began "a long spell Of hard
work. Vet work that was intensely en-
T joyable in character. 1t is almost in-
{ possible adequately 10 describe the
effect which this way of earning her
I living had upon Mary Conway. She
/ was still quite Young, little more than
a girl, and during I'LL her early years
romance and the joy of life had never
/ had any chance of growing and flourish
ing within her.
There is nothing of romance about
/ the life of board school mistress. more
/ especially when under the continual in
fuence of mother who never forgot
/ her gentility or that her daughter was
I the child ot a gentleman. The board
( school mistress who can love and be
| loved again hy Young man whose
! sphere Is the same AS her own, "A Young
J man whose aims and ambitions are on
I level with her own, can revel in ro-
nance as entirely AS the hero of novel
( or the lord of the manor. a young girl
may spend her life in the stuffv class
room of the state schools and yet invest
/ her lover with all the tender and idyllic
romance of "A knight of old, but if she
/ is cut off " class grade from inter
/ course with those men among whom
she i thrown by circumstances all the
romance which may be in her heart is
of necessity bottled up for sheer want
of al outlet.
Mary Conway. frail and delicate of
being as she was, gentlewoman to her
finger tips girl in whom all the signs
of good breeding were present to a very
marked degree, was of nature in
which romance was indigenous, and I'M
til the time when she became associated
in work with Alan Stacey, the novelist,
no sort of outlet had afforded itself,
and all the natural love in her heart
had been pent mp until it was filled
nigh to bursting and was ready to over
flow at the first kind word from SYM
pathetic soul, at the first touch of
kind hand, at the first glance of pair
of magnetic eyes.
In Alan Stacey. Mary found not an
employer, hut an idol. From the first
day she worshiped him. l know that it
is not commonly accepted idea that
woman should love IL man at first
sight In sense she did not do so. and
vet she idolized him. The possibility
that one day she might he something
more to Alan STACEY than his interpreter
never for Il moment entered her head.
But she loved him with Il dim, farcff,
almost religious, feeling He was so
brilliantly clever both in his work-fOr
where We're such vivid, brilliant. haunt
ing human books to be found as those
which bore his name and in himself.
There We're times when lie worked at
fever heat untiringly, restlessly, almost
passionately; times, when the fit was on
him, when he almost wore her ont call
ing ON her to come early and to stay
late times when they snatched their
meals and when she Went home to her
bed dog tired and brain Weary
Yet always with the same charm and
sweetness of way: Mrs Conway, l
must get on with this while the idea is
alive in me You'll help he through
it, won't yoU!" or Need you 90? l
know it's time, Int cannot we take
little holiday when its done? Surely
il best to make hay while the sun
shines.
AT such times Mary Conway would
willingly rather have died than have
failed him. At others he would laze
through the days, letting his work slip
into brilliant. easy gossip, telling her
his ideas, his hopes his aspirations,
making her look over his great collec-
ton Of stamps, help to arrange his au
tographs, discussing furniture or the
next smart little tea party that he
meant to give, and apparently wholly
unconscious that she took any more in
terest in him than the man who waited
had done.
What was your father?" he asked
her suddenly between the pauses Of his
work one day when Christmas was
drawing near.
"A clergyman. He was curate of
Elphinstowe, she replied
''Ah. you We're Young when he died:"
''Yes. quite Il child.
And Your mother?''
''She died after | was married.
81 SEE. Forgive HE for asking. But I
Were you long married! We'll of course
you couldn have been, You are still so
young. But did you lose
Il lost my husband only "a few /
months after our marriage. = Mary said.
rising suddenly. from her place at the
little table where she worked and going