Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-10-04
Written for the Register.l
ON THE DOWN TRAIN.

ladies department OF country talr'
every muscle in repose, every feature
as though carved in marble; while
over the ever-changing crowd, like
two restless, burning search-lights,
roved the big grey eyes. But they
saw little of what was and a great deal
of what was not. From across the
jam of people behind her, she heard
the melting strains of II Trovatore,
while from an engine at the other end
of the grounds came shrill whistle.
And at the well-known, friendly sound,
she smiled, just a feeting glimmer
of a smile, that left her eyes greyer
and graver than before. For with the
blowing of the whistle her thoughts
transported her back to another day,
a day that was equally hot and dusty,
the day she rode in the down train
from R. How vividly it all came
back. The rush of callers in the morn
ing which prevented her changing her
morning dress of blue and white for
her more suitable travelling gown of
grey; the hastily eaten dinner, the
hurried goodbye" of the druggist and
his wife, the stumbling into the bus,
which ratified noisily over the cobble-
stones and threatened to jolt out the
passengers at every corner, and then
the accident-which might have cost
her life or limb-but which in reality
only served to break the ice Of for
mality between herself and a man
whom she had met just short time
previous. At this recollection she
smiled, but this time the smile was
more tangible, though it passed as
quickly as it had come. Then she re-
called his courtesy, the buying of her
ticket and the checking Of her baggage,
while she absently turned the leaves
of magazine. Then came the picture
of little way station, where they sat
side by side on bench, and counted
the number Of cars on the coke and
coal trains as they thundered past, or
fed peaches to some hungry-looking
chickens standing in cages on the mar
row little platform.
And then came their train-the
pokey accommodation-whose slow
ness neither seemed to deplore, but
which they rather enjoyed, for the
track wound along through the cool
pines that grew tall and straight and
fragrant upon the mountain side, and
then dropped, a shining serpent, down
through the valley dusky with green
vines, and then glided on beside the
river, on whose opposite bank several
small boys were fishing, and some cat
tie had come to drink. And while
the train kept on, they had gradually
come to talk of the things they liked
best, and each had found in the other
strain of sympathy. For did not
they both love Thackeray and Kipling,
were not they both well acquainted
with Ivanhoe and Henry Esmond, old
friends with Hamlet and Othello, with
rolicking Tom Moore, and the lovable,
more stately Longfellow? And how
the time slipped away like thief in
the night, until they awoke with a
start, to find that only few hours of
travel together remained to them, and
that the suggestion of a cloud dark
ened the erstwhile brilliant heavens.
And the train stopped at the dingy
Junction-and the girl stepped back,
Just little way, to bow to him as the
train bore him away from her into the
night. Then she passed lightly over
the weary two hours spent in waiting
to make connection with the 9.15
train, the short run to s. and her
arrival home. But her thoughts Jagged
a trife, as she recalled the incident Of
finding his card tucked in the leaves
of her magazine, and how suddenly
blinded were her eyes, as she fingered
the straps on her telescope. And now
it was only thing of memory "hke
driftwood spars that meet and pass
upon the boundless ocean plain" they
had met and parted. But might not
the spars drift together once again ?
She was sure they sometimes did.
But until that future meeting she
would read those books he had men
toned, but which she had not yet
learned to know, so that when she saw
him she would say-but then she