River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-01-10

/ DAG BiIl DI AtE lloth dIDlHc hupN9 now
to be. For awhile she was desperately
/ uncomfortable. She did not wear
the glasses in the Office, but the dread
I possessed her that on her trip to ami
/ from luncheon she ignored "the girls
who likewise found vent for their
youthful energy in office work. Her
reading and she read a good deal
was done surreptitiously. She, who
had always walked so fearlessly. and
with football so assured, began to hest
tate at street crossing or the step Of
a curbstone. She dreaded lest she
should make a descent of unpreJnedi-
tated abruptness. If she had known
! anything about Dundreary she would
! have sympathized with MIN in his dread
lest he should sit down before he knew
he sat down! When al night she took
/ off the glasses she insisted she required,
/ she was ashamed to confront her own
sweet reflection in the glass. The con-
! seriousness of hypocrisy weighed heavi-
/ ~ upon her, but the moment of contri
/ ton was belated in its arrival
/ 1t is possible its advent would havt
were Il not for the fact that Ned Del
mere was back from his vacation. and
/ had not come to see her She knew he
/ had returned. The fact was duly chro1-
icled in the little suburban paper And
Allie Lyme had met him and said he
was handsomer than ever-had mus
tache-think of that!
Lorraine thought OF that, and OF
good many other things. Between the
embarrassment Of her glasses and TIE
detection of her devoted young lover
She grew positively thin and hagrard--
as far as 10 may. Ned, who had been
her shadow since they had graduated
together from the high SCHOOL, Ned,
who had impoverished himself taking
her to theaters and sending her flowers!
Ned. who had written her loads of the
loyeliest rhymes and nonsense from the
northern wilds whittier his firm had
allowed him to go for rest and recup-r-
aticn. Was he deserving her? She had
answered his every Letter. To be sure
her replies were little airy, gossamer
things bright and shifting as cloud Of
butterflies But she had written moth
ing that could oiTend-estrang him.
| She heard of him, now here-now
there. She began TO think that he had
never really cared for her. And she
was not one to wear the willow publicly
for any man, She would accept Roy
Millard's invitations She would 20
boating with him in the park She
would
Ding-dong! Ding-dongl Ding
ding ding!
She looked around wildly Too late!
The cable car finging frantically
around the corner had crashed into her
resentful meditations! Going back 10
the Office after luncheon, wrapped Ia
the childish abstraction Of passionate
pique, her sight dimmed by the fash
ionabse pince-nez, she had stepped un-
heedingly before the modern jugger-
maui.
A Babel OF hoarse cries arose. She
shut her eyes-stepped backward.
All right! In herel No-I'm not
hurt-!n here"
sounded somehow like her moth4r's-
just as comforting, as full of tweet
and compassionate protection. Then
the people, and the car, and the big po-
liceman, and the blanehed visage Of
the motorman, and the sharp. iuquisi-
tive eountenanee of the newsboy all
merged in waves of blackness which
whirled, eddied, swept into cornu-
copia of illimitable perspective, and
went down with the roar of overwhelm-
ing waters!
When reason asserted itself she was
in the little emergency room back of
the drug store.
"What happened?" she asked, and
struggled 10 sit up.
Keep still a little longer, dear
heart!" whispered Ned Delmere.
She drank the cordial he held to her
/ lips, She looked him straight in the
| eyes. Tell met she entreated.
lie explained how the accident oc-
CURED. You were not hurt" he con-
cluded "The man stopped his car Just
as it touched your gown. You tainted
from fright. That was all.n
/ AN" she exclaimed. NO! I should
not have become bewildered were it not
for those dreadful glasses. Iwore them
because | thought they were becom-
ing. | really could not see with them."
You won't have TO wear them
again" he laughed. ''They were splin-
tered under the wheels where they
fell But-Loraine! Why would you
not recognize me when l got back from
the north2 I stopped YOU on Dearborn
street. You held your head very high.
4 am not acquainted with you, sir,
/ you said, and passed on"
did | say that to you?"
Indeed you did"
''Well," She set up, clasping her
hands. She drew a long breath. "Was
/ i; the mustaehe--or the glasses-oT
both? Yen know Id neyer"-her eyes
finished the sentence her lips had be-
gun.
| "WoHldn't you?" eagerly. He was on
his knees beside the druggists lounge
IF you only knew how I've suffered :"
Il -