The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-04-16
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A Password to Paradise.
BY GWENDOLEN OvERTON.

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There are number of ways in which
you can test woman's beauty and prove
that 1t is vain. You can see her after she
has danced until dawn and drives home
in the cold, blue light. You can drop in
upon her when her ncgligee is such in
reality and not a matter Of rutfles and
lace. You can see her rise dripping from
the surf, no daughter of foam and fire,
but creature Of dunk locks and purple
lips. Or you can look ut her after she
has gone twice round the links in the
blazing sun and the dust fraught wind.
All these are likely to convince you OF the
deceitfulness Of beauty. But some w0-
men are SO fair as to bear each and all of
these tests. Yet il you were to put them
in smoky, close sleeping car anywhere
! between, say, Tucson and Yuma, at the
middle Of an August day, they might
then become, as every one else, so ugly
that 1t would increase your uglness and
bad temper to be forced to look at them.
When woman under these last condi-
tons is still pleasant to contemplate, You
may set it down that her charms are real
and enduring.
Harrington did so In the case of the
girl in section 2. He was in section 6
himself, and her back was turned to him,
but she faced the beveled mirror, so con-
siderately built in the end of the car, and
! he sat so that he could watch her re-
fiected In 1t. Besides which he could see
her back hair which was brown and
looked soft and which escaped in wisps
that curled up tighter and tighter as the
day grew hotter and hotter. Harrington
thought about French novel he had
once read, whose heroine had "boucles
f0lles qll frissoient autour de 50 nuque."
he had always liked that idea, but had
never seen it realized until now.
There were only four people in the
Pullman-a man and woman who were
not interesting, Harrington and the girl.
Harrington entered the train at I'll Paso,
The girl was there already. The only
mark on her traps was a silver tag strap
ped to her satchel, and Harrington had
not been able to get within reading dis
lance of it. He had tried hard enough.
Neither had he been able to screw up
ms courage to the point of questioning
the conductor. He did not believe in dis
cussing women with the first conner. SO
he put his feet up on the opposite seq t
and leaned back and watched the bouclcs
lolles, and noted how prettiy her skin
flushed, and what a nice shadow her
lashes made on her cheeks Life would
have been far pleasantcr thing il he
could have talked to her.
The prospect beyond The cinder guard
was 50 monotonous. That, of course, is
putting it very much more mildly than
Harrington did. "Ben Bolt" began to
run in his head, which is bad enough in
itself, but when it times itself to the te-
rumpety-lump, te-rumpety-rump, te-
rumpety-rump Of the wheels, is enough
to drive sober man to drink. The only
reason Harrington did not drink now was
because he had already had one bottle
OF beer and he was afraid of the opn-
ion Of the girl. Besides. it flushed his
face. And tremhled with tears at your
frown'-rhe wheels were turning more
slowly. There was that ugly hush of
uncertainty, of interruption in the natu-
raj sequence of things that falls when a
train slows down in the midst of the
prairie. The sensation of dying must be
ia'hc' Inv IL Inc tralh stoppeu, anu inc
alfpfake Missed. Then all was silence
that let you hear the blood running in
your veins until there was the crunch of
footsteps on the cinders beside the track
Harrington put up his window and
looked out. group Of men STOPPING
about Il wheel of the forward car and
the ringing taps of hammer upon iron
tod the story. 1t was hot box. Har-
rlnston said Hang it, and drew in his
head. Pretty soon he got up and put OH
his hat and loitercd out. When he had
joined the group, he glanced along at his
car. The girl was leaning out OF her
window. lie felt that in time OF cmcr-
gcncy one should not handle situation
Ia somers and Peter Gray. He put
MS hands in his pockets, which is al
ways the way you show that you are
Just being casual and ohhand and max
ing no particular point of it, and saun-
tered back along the cindrr bed until he
stood beneath her window. Then he
raised his hat and told her it was hot
box. She said, Thank you very much"
and hoped 1t would not delay them and
was very sweet and civil about it, but it
was borne In upon him, for all that, that
It would not be expected Of him to con-
tinuc the conversation. "'And Peter
axes the north again, and Somers takes
he SOUTH" he murmurcd as he contin-
led on down TO ask the conductor how