The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-06

he said to her. but we saw saw the the sweet t light In her eyes and she answered him and presently hooded and cloaked she left the dance with Fletcher.
 The tall, dark stranger sat on the box with the cabby, and as 1t was a long way out to the Metcaif home from the full hour to reach it. What they said what they talked about on the way no one of us will ever know, But when they reached the door, Fletcher handed her great bunch of roses and bade her good night night nov, ,.v .,o u.,.u. ... aro. with the story of the dedication of Mercantile Bank, He had been the | peoples idol the papers said, and he had fallen from the, pedestal on which he had people, Edward Metcalf if was "a a brought gh on on | the stand at the trial and testlhed against l Fletcher. At the club he said, I told you Sreutnd dG snd hls soathing remarks were dance. Just to think, he said bitterly, | Of thief having the nerve to take my sister h9me as If nothing had happened. an officer on the cab"
 We were all too excited to say much, and yet we all admired, secretly, the shown In the manner in which he had | taken his arrest
 | Fletcher was sentenced to two years l hard labor; Edward Metcalf remained in ! town, swaggering threatening what he would do to Fletcher on his release, and Eleanor went abroad with her parepts.
 The world soon forgets these things and after a few months 1t was talked of no more.
 "One day last spring l had occasion t2 t visit the penltsntiary at Kewanee. Fletcher and asked to see him, T was | shown into his cell l found him read- igg onob Les ,, AissrSsbles in ,t the @ ogipal nal
 Were I poRsa ts 'ae ncety See Rat Raa any hs sotlety belle might envy,
 He greeted me with the same cid Ches-
 teriieldlan manner, with just a touch of notice that he did not once speak of | EleanoF-aitheUgh l should have felt it sacfilege for him to have mentioned her the gossip et having been her sweetheart
 "Finally dlsglsted with his evident sang froid, left him, and as l went down the narrow corridor that led to the | entrance. ] met woman coming swiftly l down the hall toward me. She turned | her face frem me as l passed her, but
 saw that IL was Eleanor Mstealr; Eleanor
 Metealf, whom every one believed to he
 In Europe; Eleanor Metcalf, the cold, the proud, the pure.
 "I was stunned for a moment, and | even when l reached the fresh outer alr and sunshine, l was still bewildered and | thought that l must have been dream | Ing. Yet l could not mistake that regal
 figure, that proud noise of the head, | these beautiful eyes.
 1 After a stiff drink or two I tried to | forget, and from that day to this I have never mentioned the subject before, | 'It seems strange that this topic should | have come up today, for the morning paper tells of the suicide of young hd- Three months ago Theodore Fletcher vas released from .prisenl two weeks i dfterward Eleanor Metcalf married him and they went west to live; cant you | fellows deduct a logical conclusion from l what l have told you?
 You knew the AIetealf pride, of which | Eleanor possessed more than Is usual-I | mean pride in her family love for her parents and her high ideals of a ehild'f | duty. You all knew tea tld Metealf. his weakness, his pertidy--and you all knew | Fletcher"
 1 paused long enough in my narrative I t5 notice the little futter of excitement aEd understanding from each of ml | friends at the table.
 l Charlie Yates held un his glass. l Here's to Fletcher, boys"
 And no toast was ever more heartily ! given.