Waterbury Democrat., 1901-02-26

 1 She refused to come, but don't you think I nm too aristQcratic for any 1 thing to invite her:''
 1 Stuart looked at Louise in astonish- 1 ment. The words sent the color to his cheek and set his pulses beating. "You knew she would not come," he said in low voice.
 Louise started as if she had been caught in her lie to Rhena. She went back to her seat and was silent. It was at times mad freak with Louise to say or do the unexpected thing. She was not original, but she sometimes took 3 malicious pleasure in startling people.
 'I am glad she refused" said Aunt Royal, who sometimes forgot her diplo- macy in her qualification at things. ''Shc certainly would have felt very much out of place among us." < 'Yes, that's so," said Stuart. provok- ed into q statement he could easily l have made before his conversion. s"She, would have been out of place among your other guests because most of l them are uneducated boors and clowns | in comparison with a lady like Miss l Dwight
 Aunt Royal was speeches.. She could not find anything to say at first. Finally she began in her usual gentle voice:
 T am surprised, Stuart, to hear you speak that way of common Salvation Army
 That was as far as Aunt Royal could get. Stuart interrupted with an en- phasis that petrifed both the women: 2. T win not allow you or any one to speak a disrespectful word of the wo- man I love and who, if God is good enough to me, will some time become my wife.' l With the words Stuart walked out of the room, leaving his aunt and Louise gasping as if q pail of ice Wal ter had been thrown over them. And what they said when they recovered history saith not, and Stuart never knew nor cared. 7 He went away to his room and sat 1 there without turning on the lights He knew that he had precipitated mat ters in the home by his brief but out right declaration of his purpose He did not regret it, but he was q little afraid he had shown the un-Christian spirit in his words or manner. The old
 
 said to himself; he was . new man. The very best evidence of it was his present action. He knelt and prayed to be forgiven if he had spoken wrongly. He was still praying when q servant brought word that he was wanted at 1 the telephone.
 He went down and was informed by the clerk in the office that two of the ho in instructions, the clerk had called up Stuart to come and see them. Stuart told the clerk to hold tho men until he could get down. He went out at once and drove into the town.
 The men who had come to the office were residents of Cornishtown. They had come for help in q case not their own, but that of miner wEo lay sick and in need at the farthcst limits of the settlement.
 Stuart hastily loaded his cutter with necessaries, and with one of the men to direct the way he started out. The night was dark, and a fine snow was falling. The drifts were piled high on either side of the road. Stuart knew he could drive only part of the way. As he went.by the Salvation Army hall he
 
 men standing on the steps. The hall 1 was lighted, but there was no meeting going on.
 Miss Dwight went up to Cornish town this afternoon with some clothes to distribute and is not yet back" the man said in answer to Il question of | Stuart's.
 He drove on with great feeling of -;, It. II Andrews words about the abandoned pits and prospecting holes all about Cornishtown and on the side hills. The thought that Rhena might be i.l peril there quickened the stir Of his biocd. He drove his horse with q reckless dis 1 regard of the speed or the danger. Hue miner who was with him in speaking of it afterward said, Tell you, boys, I thought most I was with the doctor, and I kept saying my little prayer, as everybody does who rides with him.
 When they reached the limit of the road. Stuart left the horse and cutter in q shed behind one of the cottages. The people in the cottage there had seen Miss Dwight come up that after noon. She had stopped minute to warm herself and then gone on.
 When Stuart reached the house at the end of the miners path. it was showing furiously. Rhena had been there before him. She had left her bundle Of clothing, and that was the last that any one had seen of her. Stuart rushed out of the miserable cabin and down the path to the next cottage of the settlement. Nothing had been seen of Rhena oD her sup posed return to town. She could not have passed the two men on their way up. Stuart stood in the little path lis ! tening, with his heart trembling. The great pines sobbed under the rising wind. Far below the lights of Cham picn gleamed here and there through the falling snow. And never had Stu art Duncan loved Rhena Dwight as at this moment when the terror of the fear possessed and choked him that she | had wandered out into the treachcrouS