The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1903-05-07

occupants of Archer's tenement had
time to pose as the students of the
psychological. There was n ripple of
dull excitement as the dark, set-lipped
young man from nowhere, carrying
q small trunk and a puZZling air of
refinement, was seen going conscious
~ up the common staircase; but it
fixed out the first time he was heard
te drop his voice when the landlords
agent called. Down on his luck, ask
ing for few days grace, a sympa-
thetic chord was struck at once.
After that only one person troubled
about him and his fugitive ways, and
that was Gyp, the delicate, deformed
girl in the lowest room, who was paid
TO keep the stair and landings re-
spectacle, and who was at the beck
and call OF anyone in the tenement
wanting an odd job done cheaply.
He bad the Sky parlor, so high up
that the invalid who rented it before
him had been known to pause for
breath on the staircase 20 times. Gyp,
with the keen intelligence of her kind,
was bound To note what farcical
amount of furniture had been carried
up, and how solemn the scent of cook
ing found its way through the door
chinks. She knew his name must be
Frank Meredith. because letters--a
rarity. in the tencment-came fire.
quently for him. They were mostly
in long envelopes, and once or twice,
when she carried them up, she had
been struck L., the twitch of his lips
as he took them and hastily closed
his door again. Strangcst OF all, lie
was man who could live without
work aud without friends. Regularly,
at dusk, he went out for about an
hour; for the rest of the day he fol-
lowed the Head of the invalid and sat
alone in the quiet room. Doing
what? Heaven alone had an inkling.
Twice week she washed the stair
ease down; and she often paused over
that top landing and wrung out her
flannel half u dozen, times unneces-
saIi;l3;;- saI;3;- IL hepes Of hearing something.
Once he had opened his door softly
and caught her at it,
"Oh, ] beg your pardon!" he wais.
pered. Fancy that language
wondered what the scrubbing noise
was"
Gyp didn't scrub that bit again.
Finally her feelings took the form of
a vast wonder and pity; because.
with her woman's intuition, she d.
vined many little things that only a
woman would notice. He was not
mad; he was not criminal in hid
ing-his face told that. He could
only be a man with a mystery.
One night she saw him step sharply
out as usual. AS it happened, she
was just about to run on one of her
own furtive errands. Gyp had no
motion of weighing impulses. She
followed him at little distance. He
put two or three long envelopes care
FULLY into the pillar box and then
vanished through doorway. 1t was
n branch of the public library, and
no place for Gyp. There were two
hushed rooms. She ventured uncer-
tainly in. Ostensibly engrossed by n
medical directory, she watched
through the glass partition. He had
turned to a certain corner of news
paper and was staring as if fasci-
mated. Just as he made to tear him
self away the lights blazed up discon-
certingly. Both noticed something
she that he was two shades whittier
than usual, and he that she had been
watching him. He ficked back the
sheets and walked out, with a pink
spot on either cheek. Again the inn
pulse was open to criticism, but a
minute or so later she found herself
scanning that printed corner. Her
lips began 10 work-as they always
did when she read. There it was
something that helped to solve the
mystery, and at the same time thick
cned it:
IF Frank Meredith will only COM
municate with known addresses he
will learn that bygones are bygones
IN the fullest sense. Ethel heart
broken"
lHdb ntAl lllSIlliilg, us She sSb utT
rail steadily down on the top land
ing, his door clicked; he looked out.
IT made her imp. She had been
picturing the face of Ethel" in her
soapsuds, and her lip curled.
81 hope as you didn't think -"
she began, and stopped, glowing with
strange confusion. Ten to one he
had forgotten all about it.
'What's that?" he asked, absently.
In her trepidation she stopped the
water all around his feet. She was
ssed to men who would have nailed
town her clumsiness with an oath;
Sus this one only stepped back.
II was going to say all along" she
ytammered, III you'd ike your room
Sust swept out ] could DO 1t al under
sae. It's no trouble, and-and II mus>
want IT,
Under one? You're kind" he said.
Il don't know-perhaps II does. Did
gou mean now|
"Just a. you like. I mean it, no
noubls," she repeated u-...-...I-l