Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1901-09-14
A Night In a
Diligence.
BY ROSA
MULH0LLAND
S<:H<<@@<>@1~~: >. % 80. . %

The diligence was in waiting at the
door of the hStel at Coir \ tall, slim
figure appeared in the doorway, an uplift-
cd face lightly framed in erratic treSscs
Of brown gold hair crowned by a sombcr
Tam O'Shanter travelling hat The girl
stood confronting an iron gray world
built up of mountains and stormclouds.
Really going to face the weather."
said voice from behind her, and chilly
looking lady came forward, rubbing her
hands in self congratulation.
Elizabeth-that was the name in the
copy of Browning in her bag-thought of
the number of guineas in her purse and
OF her promise to the Princess Pompilia
to arrive at the Palazzo Pompliani at
certain moment.
II am really going" she said. az storm
on the Alps will be rather glorious"
She got into the diligence and put her
face out to smile goodby. Strong brows,
an intelligent, inquisitive line of slender
nose and mouth with elastic curves
suggested that this must have been a
very piquant face before the shadow of
thoSty Ut OtHpI, StOTluClOuuS lei on IL.
Only yesterday she was a queen in her
own world, queen of her fathers heart
and home. Now she was suddenly de-
throned and bankrupt, her girhood
crushed under the ruins of her fathers
fortunes and the tragedy of his death.
She knew that like things had happened
before in the world she had lived in
Elizabeth opened her bag and rum
mayed for magazine. but it was the
Browning that came to her hand 1t was
not merely as Browning that she was
taking the book across the Alps with
her, yet she would hardly have acknOwl-
edged that it was for the handwriting Of
the word Elizabeth in the front page cor
ner. She held the book close, though she
did not open it, and her desire for the
magazine appeared forgotten.
Night came down early; the weather
darkness FASTENED its fall. At a point in
the road long whistle signaled the driv-
er OF the diligence, who thereupon came
TO stop. \ man opened the door of the
vehicle, made step to get in, but drew
back again.
"Only one LADY," he said in English.
"Then l shall not intrude l shall do
very well outside, driver"
Elizabeth felt guilty, though relieved.
AS the vehicle swung on and she lay back
in her corner she was disturbed by an
echo, something in the ring of the voice
that had spoken Mt the door out of the
darkness. She had pushed the Browning
away from her. Now the storm came
down i'll earnest, dry scattering wind,
freezing as the breath of icebergs The
diligence rocked and swung. 1t seemed
to her that at any moment coach and
horses and freight might ride off on the
gale down the precipice.
As the night wore on and the cold grew
more intense she heard the outside travel
er coughing, the man who had equal right
with herself to the shelter of an inside
seat. Was she going to he so selfish or so
prudish as to give over this fellow crea-
ture to suffering, perhaps danger, for the
qualification of her preference for pri-
vacy! She watched her opportunity and
communicated with the driver.
Twill you tell the gentleman" she said
In German, that the lady requests him
to come inside of the coach?"
safe hating place was chosen. and
the outside passenger got into the com
Portable interior. He thanked the lady
and retired into an opposite corner, and
his few words We're spoken in German.
There was no mistake about the voice
this time. What had seemed ii mere
echo on the wind from her own brain
had become a reality. The impossible
had come TO pass. She smiled little
panied smile in the impCnctrabc dark
ness of her place and her wrappings. SO
far was he from discovering her that he
had taken her for a fraulein. The com
pliment to her German did not console
her for the position in which she found
herself.
The man slept, but Elizabeth was
wakeful The storm was undated. One
or two wild looking stars looked through
rents in the masses of wind cloud. a
line out Of that Browning book which she
had pushed behind her beat Oh her ear
amid the rattle OF the wheels and the
click of the horses hoofs-
Who knows but the world may end tonight!
Yet another hour passed. and the
wheels and hoofs still kept the road.
The man woke, stirred, sat up and struck
a match.
Excuse me-" he said. 81 want to see
what o'clock it is"
Taken by surprise, Elizabeth allowed
her open eyed face to be revealed by the
puny flame, which also lit up for the mo-
ment the clean cut features of the fell
low traveller, a resolute mouth and chin,
thinking forehead and clean gray eyes
holding more latent tenderness in their
depths than do the eyes of most women.
"Eliz-r'
The tiny phosphor flash vanished. The
two sat in darkness as before, and the
mountains Numbered.
Elizabeth passed in an instant through
an exercise which to woman is some
thing like what the buckling on of armor
must be to a man.
"DO you think the match was extin-
guished before it fell? A diligence on
fire in Il storm in the Alps would make
quite n thrilling paragraph for the Lon
don morning papers"
81 believe it is safe" said the man,
and the slight shake in the voice that
had named her was gone from it. How
do you do, Miss Wethered?"