The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-02

| IL, tnere was no need of hurrying home.
He knew there was no crush of business
around his office door in May He would
| stay while and look this mystery in the
face until he was disillusioned. Besides
4 he wanted to find out what McLeods visit
meant. He had vague feeling of uneasi-
ness when he recalled the way Mcleod
| had assumed about the generals house.
| He had told Sallie he must hurry home
/ on the mornings train for no earthly
reason than that he had intended to do
| so when he came.
| So after breakfast he wrote her little
note.
| my Dear Miss Worth: My train left
me. Will you have compassion on a
stranger in a strange city and let me call
to see you again today?
! CHARLES GASTON."
He waited impatently until he heard
his train leave, and then told the boy to
make tracks for the generals house.
| A peal OF laughter rang through the
! ball when Sallie's dancing eyes read that
note.
| oh. the story teller!' she cried.
| And this was the answer she sent
| back:
4
| you buggy driving all by myself over a
lonely road up the river l do this in
acknowledgment of the gracious hattery
you pay me in the story you told about
| The train. OF course l know you waited
| till the train left before you sent the
note SALLIE WORTH.
| Now, l wonder if that young rascal
of boy told her l wrote that note an
hour ago. I'll wiring his neck if he did.
Come here boy!"
The negro came up grinning in the
hopes OF another quarter.
| Did you tell that young lady any
thing about when l wrote that note?'
| Ma sab! Nebber tole her muffin. She
des laugh and laugh fit ter kill herself
| des quick as she reads de note"
| Castor smiled and threw him another
4 tip.
| "Yassah, she's a KNOWN lady, sho's
| you bawn, l been dar lots er times fo'
dis!'
CASTOR was tempted to ask him for
whom he carried those former messages.
| He walked with bounding steps, his being
| tingling to his finger tips with the joy
OF living. The avenue leading the full
length of the city toward the generals
house was two miles long before it
reached the woods at the gate. 1t SEEM
| ed only step this morning.
Sallie greeted him with the kindlest
grace.
| I'm so glad you stayed today, Mr..
| CASTOR. should have been really chag-
rined to think l made so slight an inn
preston on you that you could walk de-
| Gberately away on pre- arranged sched-
ule. l am not used to be treated so
lightly"
He tried to make some answer to this
| half serious banter, but was so absorbed
in just looking at her he said nothing
She was dressed in morning gown of
a soft red material trimmed with old
| cream lace. This combination of
| red and creamy white, with the
| bodice cut low showing the lines
of her beautiful white shoulders
| and the great mass of dark hair rising in
| graceful curves from her full round
neck heightened her beauty to an extra
! ordinary degree. AS she walked the
clinging folds of her dress outlining her
queenly figure, seemed part of her very
being and to be imbued with her soul.
| He was dazzled with the new revelations
of her power over him.
| Have you no apology, sir for pretend
ing that you were going home this morn
ing?' she said, seating herself by his
| side.
You didn't ask me to stay with fer
| vor."
1T ought not TO have been necessary
Didn't you really know l was not
going?"
Yes"
| I'm glad
He smiled, looked down at the pattern
of the carpet and did not speak for some
minutes. His soul was thrilled and sat
| isfied liz her presence. AS he lifted his
eyes from the floor they rested on the
piano.
| "Will you play for me, Miss Sale
Auntie says you play delightfully."-"
"Auntie2 Who is auntie?"
MRS. Durham, my foster mother, OF
course. Excuse my unconscious as
sumption of your familiarity with all my
antecedents. / can't get over the i'm
preston that l have known you all my
life.
"Ell play for you with pleasure. ST
there in that big arm chair. I'm sorry
| tired you so early in the day with my
|
And before he could protest her fingers
were touching the piano with the ease o.
the born musician.
He sat enraptured as he watched the
sinuous grace with which her fingers
oaressed the ivory keeps and heard thei1
answering cry which seemed the breath
of her own soul in echo.
Suddenly the music ceased and she
turned her face full on his before he could
brush away big tear that rolled down
She flushed, closed the piano, and quiet
ly resumed her place by his side.
"And, now, you haven't told me how
we'll | played. You're the first younl
man so careless"
Then I'll tell you now. You CAV,
those strings a soul for the first time
for me, beautiful, living, throbbing, tina
spoke a message of it's own. Such musi'
seems to me the grasping of the infinite
| by hands that touch the impalpable ant
bringing it for a moment within the
sphere of matter that kindred soul ma!
he ar and see and feel"
She started to make some reply but he
lips quivered and she looked away across
the valley at the river and made no an
Swer.
hfto,, dinnar thpv went for a drive Sh,