The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-09
THE ADVERTISERS # # M x # DAILY SHORT STORYS /


udTk Feu on ms brow deepeHeu. AL last, when hc felt cooler, he showed the sheets across to her and glanced care lesely at the thin face bent over the machine. A moment later he was standing in the hall waiting lmpa- tiently for his order.
 T wonder if she would die rather than admit to me that she was hu- man being. This heat is killing her and yet the only way to make her rest would be to take her by the shoulders and put her out of the office." Then his order came and he went back 4 her. She was still rather white about the mouth.
 Wont you try some?" he asked placing a dewy glass at her elbow.
 Thank you"
 Ut is so hot" he commented.
 Tt is indeed" she assented rather absently.
 Hamlin tried hard to think of some thing else. Her tea was Nanishlng with a speed that bespoke more than natural thirst.
 Like as not she has had fever on her all afternoon" he reflected.
 "I had a pleasant dream last night" he remarked as she put aside her glass.
 SHt IcluI P''A'NiJ'
 "Dreamt we were standing on clin watching a storm al sea, the spray, and all that. It was delicious. We were standing together
 "A strange dream for such warm night" the typewriter remarked evil dently oblivious of his last words and his ensuing consternation
 eHe' got up and moved away to bow a blind and resume his restless walk. What the dickens had he been think ing about alinthis time' What an in- poss iiJie position it was anyway. In real life when a man puts his arm around a woman she cant lean her cheek against his sleeve. But his arm had not been around her. His hands were in his pockets, It was as though she had come to talk to him like a tired child. certain of support. Why had ne walked before he could look into her eyes? Common sense jared him; there was not much of the tired child in that alert figure with its weary eyes and preoccupied smile, but he set 1t impatiently aside. Great Ned! What had he been thinking of for the last two years! Why, there were times when he had barely been civil. And now-now it might he too late. He | checked his uneasy walk beside his 1s- sistant's chair.
 See here,I can't get that idea Of | the sea out of my head. Let's knocS | off work and make a dash for fresh | air. I can have my horse around in a moment. It's only ten or fifteen miles,"
 "Why, 1t would kill the horse" the typewriter ejaculated, struck aghast at | the idea of taking pampered animal on such an expedition with the thec- mometer at one hundred in the shade
 "Oh. mo-" Hamlin insisted. '[t ic | getting cooler. We could take 1t easy going out, watch the sun set in the water and drive back by twi isht Doesn't it sound peasant?"
 "Very pleasant"
 Docs that mean you will go?'
 "No. thank you. I had better fin ish this work"
 "Oh, hang the work" he exclaimed impatiently. Haven't I devoted my. self to work body and soul, for thc last thirty years. Am I to have no-h ing in this world but grind and grime.
 The typewriter evidently regarded this outburst in the light of an apos trophe addressed to no one in partic ular and composedly clicked off thu last lines and drew out the sheet; he fingers a little unsteady, fever shaker perhaps. the sheet slipped from theil grasp and futtered to the floor Jus as she leaned sideways to reach i ! Hamlin stopped to recover the neatly written document: a collision was in evitable, Ter cheek brushed his sleeve Hamlin thrust his hands into hi pocket and clenChed them slowly.
 "I had meant .to wait" he began abruptly. "to make myself wait unti I could see you in some proper pla oa- or write, but it is no use now. w were together, you were leanin, against me. If I could realize tha dream I would he the happiest--"
 "Oh. wait" she pleaded.
 But l can't" he returned. Don you know that love holds a power 0 attorney over all a mans actions? ] you had gone with mo I meant a wait the beach would have been better thai this dusty litter of law. I suppose yol understood couldn't care" H paused goomily and for the twenty second time took out his watch.
 The woman with the tired eye moved impulsively; for an instant he chek rested carressingly against tn loose linen sleeve of his office coa then she started up and went quick. to the door.
 Just one moment" Hamlin plea 1od folding his arms and standing deter minedly where she had left him "Please-dear. I'll bring the hors arouMS?"
 The typewriter turned at the rnei door. Well" she agreed hurriedly.
 Hamlin's heart broke in to gla, song. The eyes he loved were n longer, tired. .+. '." by Miriam Crutschank.