The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-11-07
nTo Miss Elinor Yancour."


meaningless apprehension. With thi
new sensation dominating him, h
hurried forward, and PRESENT..
plunged down a side street, thinkin,
to elude his shadower by quicl
maneuver.
TO his surprise-even to his alarm
he was the next instant aware tina
the man in the fur coat was agai1
walking exactly opposite to him OF
the further pavement.
The continued propinquity of thi
man commenced to affect Mordaun
strangely; a nervousness quiteforeigl
to his ordinary nature assailed him
and he fastened his pace.
But the quicker he walked, tn
quicker walked the stranger. Nor
daunt, exasperated out of patience
crossed deliberately, with the inten
ton of addressing the man, and de
handing some explanation of his per
sistent intrusion. Again, however
the other at the same moment pro
ceeded to cross also, and the two me-
in the middle of the narrow street
Mordaunt stopped.
"Excuse me" he began.
The figure, arrested in his progress
paused for the fraction of a second
and glanced at Mordaunt. His face
was mufled in the collar Of his coat
his features hidden; but Mordaunt
instinctively shrank back, and GU
rious fear gripped his heart. What
words he may have intended to ut
ter froze on his tongue. With silent
gesture the figure moved on, and
reached the opposite pavement.
Again Mordaunt struck sharply
round a corner into a wider street;
not for an instant did he dare to look
over his shoulder. At length he haz-
arded quick side-glance, and shiv-
cred. In spite of his fur coat he felt
a sensation of cold. Resolutely set
ting his face toward the college walls,
which now doomed grayly out of the
darkness in front Of him, he fastened
forward. Then, as he approached the
college, sudden uncomfortable i'm
pulse. of flight caused him to break
swiftly into run. He hammered,
painting, at the college gate.
"Quick!' he cried. "Quick!" And,
as the door swung open: "Don't let
that man IMP he added to the aston
ished porter, and fled across the quad
rangle.
At the staircase leading to his
rooms he paused to take breath, and
for the first time the absurdity of his
conduct struck him in its practical
light.
To take fright at The figure of a
harmless pedestrian whose way had
CHANGED to lie in the same direction
as his own was indeed comical cir
cumstance.
He assembled the narrow stairs, still
chuckling to himself at his own re-
markable exhibition of weakness. He
reached the landing upon which his
rooms were situated, paused again at
the threshold of his sitting-room,
threw back the great fur collar of his
coat, and, with the laugh still on his
lips, flung open the door and walked
in.
The mellow light of a large shaded
lamp shed pleasant and soft radi-
ance over the apartment. At the fur
ther end of it another door commu-
nicated with Mordaunt's bedroom. Be-
tween this door and the lamp stood
big armchair, in which it was his
habit to read at night. Mordaunt
entered, and the smile faded from his
lips. He took one step only, stopped
short, and his jaw fell, for in the
armchair, directly confronting him,
sat the figure of the stranger from
whom he had just fled.
The stranger looked up, and their
glances met. The room in that in
slant seemed to reel before Nor
daunt's eyes. He stared through a
mist at the face of the person sitting
in the chair. The recognition was
instantaneous; the stranger was a
stranger no longer, and, with panicin
his heart, Mordaunt uttered stifed
cry, and, turning, rushed headlong
from the room.
Down the long flight of stairs, out
into the darkness, and across the
snowy quadrangle he ran, pausing
only when at length he reached the
chamber of a friend who lived at the
further end of the college. Outside
the door the oak was sported, but
needless of this grave
academical barrier, burst open the
1oor and nrecinitatnd binso1f ;r+o