Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-04-24

| dS IL was hCu oh thC Sh
velope "Please deliver Immediately. "
And the plotter drew from his pock
ct. with ostentatious care, missive
which he and Clifford had prepared
together, and which, with great inge-
nuity, had been made to look as IL II
had passed through the post.
But Miss Bostal glanced at the let
ter and shook her head.
"There is no one with my father"
she said, "and don't know any one
of that name. But if you will come
into the drawfng-room I will ask
him"
"Oh, no, not for the world. We
could not think of intruding. We
must have made mistake" STAN.
mered Otto, while Clifford hurriedly
passed out by the little wooden gate
into the road.
In the meantime, however, Colonel
Bostal, having heard the voices. had
come through the narrow passage
from the garden to learn the meaning
of this unusual sound. The matter
was explained to him by his daughter,
amidst further apologies from Otto.
The colonel, a withered-looking, gray
faced man of about sixty-five, in a
threadbare and patched coat and q
battered Panama hat, remembered
the name at once.
Jordan? Jordan? Yes, of course,
I know him." said he at once. "a
little fellow. with long mustache.
Yes. he often walks home with me as
far as the bridge, but there he always
turns back and excuses himself from
coming any farther"
Otto locked perplexed by this infor.
nation, but over Miss Bostal's thin,
pinched face there came O little. pale
smile.
"Try the Blue Lion" she said, rather
primiy.
- Otto grew stiff.
MY friend is no frequenter or tav.
erns." said he
"Try the Blue Lion" said Miss Bos-
tai again.
Her father burst into little, dry
laugh.
The Blue Lion has good many
freQuenters who are not frequenters
of other taverns," said he. Nell Cla-
ris, the niece of the man who keeps It.,
is Il protege of my daughters, and the
pretticst girl in the place
A light broke over Otto's face. But
Miss Bostal looked grave.
Il shall have to speak to her very
seriously" said she. with little
frown. "She encourages half the
young men OF Stroan to waste their
time out here"
But the colonel smiled and shook his
head doubtfully,
ITS no use speaking to pretty
girl," said he, with decision. you
will only be told to mind your own
business. And there's no harm in
Nell"
Il know that" retorted his daughter,
not spitefully, but with spinster's
stern solicitude. 81 shouldn't be so
much interested in her if l didn't
know that she's a good little thing.
But she's giddy and thoughtless. I
shall really have to advise her uncle
to send her back to school again"
''She won't CO." said the colonel.
And if she would, old Claris wouldn't
part with her. We must rely on the
effect of your sermons, Theodora."
Father and daughter had carried on
this dialogue without including the
visitor in the conversation, so that
Otto, who prided himself upon being
an acute observer, had an opportunity
of peeping into the rooms on each side
OF the passage, as the doors were
open, without moving from where he
stood.
He was much struck by what he
saw; by the carpets worn so thread
bare that there was no trace Of the
pattern to be seen on them; by the
carefully darned table-covers, the
worn-out furniture. All was neatly
kept and spotlessly clean; all showed
pinched poverty which there was nc
attempt to hide
He withdrew with more apologies
rs soon as the short discussion be
tween father anu daughter was ended
and rejoined his friend outside.
"Well," said Clifford, as Otto turned
toward Stroan in silence, "and wha
kept you so long talking to the severe
looking lady,"
II wasn't talking. | was listening,
answered Otto. "and working out II
my mind romance, pitiful romance
of the kind that Is not snowy enough
for people to care to hear about
"What! Do you mean to say tina
Jordan's fallen in love with that ma
ture and lean spinster" asked Gift
ford in establishment.
ooh, dear. no. He's fallen in love
I've found that out; but it is with th'
usual maid of the inn-nobody half 81
interesting as Miss Bostal"
Interesting"
! "Yes. / have an idea that the lear
{ spinster Is heroine. Not the sort O
heroine one troubles oneself about, o
course. But while they were talkin,
about certain Nell who is evidentl.
the object of Jor,lans priceless bu
transient affections just now, l looked
: into their rooms, their poor little din
! ing-room, their bare, long drawing
room, and l saw such history O
? pinched lives and sordid struggles a
i. made me long for pen and paper"
= Clifford groaned.
t TT doesn't take much to make vol