The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-11-29

to face 1t squarely in her soberly expen-
sive garments. her unchallcnging-alm
apoogctic-honnet and her hygenic boots
a certain broad humanity in the mouth
and decided CLINT Of humor in the eye
saved the face from downright ugliness,
Orwell, nearly saved il.
At three minutes TO , n young man Of
about twenty-five. very short. very fair
and bloodlesS. with a stoop, and a yellow
orchid in his huttonholc. entered the same
room from the other side. He too looked
about him with quick. light eyes, wherein
corresponding CLINT of humor fought
with an impressive mouth
They did not appear to see one another
at once, these two. although the room
held no more than its usual half dozen
people. But they moved toward each
other. from statue to statue. with slow,
casual steps, and deep interest appar-
emily in the antique. till they met Then
they glanced hurriedly over one another
and passed on in opposite directions.
Both continued this slow prowl round the
room until they necessarily met again.
This time the woman stopped, fastened
her shortSighted eyes on the mans but
tonhole, and said with a rush, Il am
John Giddens."
He looked tiXedly at the orchid in her
cape and said, And am T.. +. Cornish"
She held out her hand. their eyes met
sQuarely. the glints struck and they stood
there laughing Historically, two i'll
shaped civilization Suilcd modcrns among
the cold slories of the ancicnts.
Questions and explanations followed in
quick alienation. Why had John Gid
nj. Il
correspondence?
Don't you see that thought you were
womanE' she explained frantically.
Don't you see what a sublime situation
| was going To bring about-to work up
to the point of romance, almost of love.
and then meet bonnet to bonnet and
watch the effect? Tablcau. How |
should have scored, And what valua-
bic experience. To find out how another
woman would really write To Il man, and
oh, it would have been perfect But
why you should pretend to lie a woman
And +. +. Cornish had To explain how
the idea, once given To him. had seemed
irresisthly suggestive; how lie. too. had
determined To represent himself as a
young and beautiful girl that he might
waIioW in the moment of diSIlusionment
again the same idea. you see" he ended
But after one hours talk, sitting face
to face in that silent company, each had
said and heard enough to realize that
theirs WAS indeed an unprecedented in
telectua sympathy. 1t was eXtraordi-
nary. No two friends of half a century 5
standing could have played better into
each others hands, taken each others
illusions with quicker grasp enjoyed
each others utterances with more I'M
jealous admiration.
1t was almost unconscioUsly that she
told him such fragments of her life as
could interest him: how sheer boredom
and social reaction had started her pen
in middle life. and how her age and her
wealth made her fearful of rdicule and
determined her TO conceal her identity.
And. equally unconsciously, he gave her
glimpses of his lower middle class setting
in Hampstead. his attacks of literary de-
spair, his sister, who painted screens and
bellows. his struggles against i'll health.
Yes, there was the intellectual affinity
In its finest tlower-spontaneous beauti-
full, urging eternal union. Only-there
were likewise the facts of his twenty
and her forty years, his 5 feet and her
feet IL. his probable consumption and
her certain mother; and, far above all
the fact of their common humor, illumi-
Mating all these and holding them to their
tacit pact of mere friendship-a friend
ship which lasted them their timc.-King