Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1902-06-05
ABILENE WEEKLY REFLECTOR ABLfht KANSAS JUNE 02TW PAGES
ONE AHEAD.

She was an unusual woman, and car
ried herself superbly, whether mount
ed for gallop, floating in simmer
ing maze Of tulle In the ballroom, or
crossing the dining hall in blue ging-
month and he did not notice her until
ham. Yet they had both been there a
one lazy afternoon In the heart of the
summer.
He sat smoking and thinking at q
bend of the piazza, where he could see
and not be seen. The hills were blue
and dreamy, and only sigh came
from the pine forest below the hotel.
She was lying in a hammock with a
book. The veranda was deserted, and
she was reading aloud something ia
withdrawing, in fact, in voice full
of feeling, a quatrain from his own
poems.
They were his first poems-and 1t
was pleasant sensation. She closed
the book, placed her hands behind her
head and, looking far away toward the
northern mountains, repeated the last
line in a voice that fell through the
soft silence into his heart, and thrilled
him in a manner unknown before.
Shakespeare presents the supreme
egotist Of all fiction in "Othello," and,
with an egotism like OthellO's, he first
noticed this woman in a personal way
when he found she was interested in
him-or, rather, In his little stories In
rhyme. He noticed then the round
white arm from which the sleeve fell
away. He noticed the exquisite out
line of her figure and the curve of her
chin and throat, and he felt the mel
Ody of her voice, and all-n0t for her
self-but because she loved his poem.
That night, when the music sighed
and thrObbed, he danced with her. 1t
was his first waltz for years. She had
read his poem and partly for that he
liked 1t. Perhaps partly, too, that the
woman was a poem In herself.
One evening, soon after, they watch
ed together storm coming down from
the mountains. All the winds Of heaven
were let loose. The pine trees fought
like demons and fell back with q sob
when the wind passed over. The
thunder doomed like mighty cannon
and the lightning played in the noun
tain tops.
As he watched her, her face was
transformed. The glory and the gran
deur of it all had made her forget him.
Suddenly there was long moment OF
silence in which he could hear her
deep breathing, and then came the rain
and hail and bowling Of the wind.
She was leaning far out into the
darkness, and as she drew back hail
stone struck her cheek, causing her to
cry out. He caught her to his heart
and for one moment forgot himself
and why he had cared for her.
In less than a year he was thinking
of it all one evening, as he silently
smoked in the freight of his library.
He leaned back and laughed aloud.
"That was sensation, truly. And
how nearly, after all my experience, all
my vows made at the altar of ambi-
ton, did lose myself for a woman
but such woman! | shall never see
her equal again. There comes the post
man. s--invitations-how
they do run after an eligible! Letters
from Kitty and from Ruth-sweet
girls, both of them. And-good..! A
card from the publishers announcing
the prize winners Of the last contest.
| wonder if it's first or second place
come In fora thousand dollars would
not be so bad just now-by Jove"
He started to his feet and held the
paper at arms length. He read 1t
again. The name of the first prize
winner was her name. He wasn't men
toned, either, for second.
well" he unused over his pipe, "she
wasn't such a goose, If she was in love
with me once
And n-sOmehow-his thoughts
slipped away from the lost prize and
he fell to dreaming of blond head
with face uplifted to the storm one
wild summer night, and he resolved to
see that face again.-E1.