Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-04-19
there's somethin' back of his eyes that
amt never touched"

there's sOmethin' back of his eyes that
l amt never touched"
Lorinda North kept little shop,
which was the local exponent of metro
politan styles. She was woman who
took life hard. 1t did not come easy to
any of these hard-worked, narrow
lived women, and she had fought
against each hard knock until all the
softness, which may once have been
hers, had been rubbed off. There had
been an old love affair between these
two, but how far it had progressed no
one ever quite knew. Some one had
once ventured to ask Lorinda about it.
"She wasn't going to be an old wom-
ans nurse" she had said. "She'd al
ways made out to make a living for
herself, and she guessed she could still
She wasn't going to live in any mans
house and have another woman boss
it."
Perhaps in these years in which
there had been plenty Of time for quiet
thought she had sometimes regretted
her lost chance of happiness. Surely
they had been lonely years, hard years,
too, and they had borne their fruit in
Lorinda North. There wasn't woman
in the town who did not feel little
uneasy when under the battery of her
sharp eyes. Phineas Harden had been
the only one who had ever pushed open.
even ever so slightly, the door of her
heart; and after she had closed this
little chink, love had gone to easier
pathways, and left the door of Lorin-
da's heart closed hard and fast.
People had speculated somewhat as
to how she would take the news of
Mrs. Harden's death. Perhaps it had
stirred, more deeply than she knew,
the undercurrent of her life. Surely,
Phineas was often in her mind in these
days. Not with any tenderness of feel
ing did she think of the lonely man;
but perhaps because his solitary life
bore so closely on her own did her
thoughts so often turn to him. AS she
looked forward, as she did sometimes
of late, to the years and years stretch
ing out their weary length before her,
a thought, which was at first vague
and underlined, gradually took definite
shape in her mind.
They had both always been regular
church attendants. Through the sum.
mer Lorinda had sat just back of Phin-
cas- Harden's pew, and the time seemed
very long ago when the pew in front
had been empty at the evening meeting
and he had sat back with her.
His mother had been dead Just six
months. The cold and dreariness of the
winter was gone, and it was a soft
night in early June. The windows in
the old church were open, and perhaps
Phineas listened more to the monoton
Gus voice of the minister When he
was little boy he had often wished
that they would have church outdoors
God seemed nearer there. The woman
sat and watched his face during the
long sermon. She looked at it more
carefully, perhaps, than she had evel
done before. But Lorinda North was
not capable of seeing the real Phineas
Harden. All she saw was slight, bent
figure; face with eyes that were APT
to fall a little before the hard look in
her own. She could not know that he
did not meet her eyes only because II
panied him to see the expression which
time had printed on her face.
The long service was over, and there
was sigh of relief as the congrega
ton stood and received the benedic