The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-18
He GENTLEMAN
FROM INDIANA
BY BOOTH HARRINGTON.
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.

open for him 1T a touch. He could
not help seeing how the Freshmen
looked at him, how the Sophomores
jumped off the narrow campus walks
TO let him pass; he could not help
knowing that he was the great man
of his time. so that The Great Hark-
less came to be one of the traditions
OF tine university He remembered the
wild progress they made for him up
the slope that morning at Winter Har-
hor, how the people looked on, and
laughed, and clapped their hands. But
at the veranda edge he had noticed a
little form disappearing around a cor
ner of the building; young girl run
ming away as fast as she could.
See there!" he said. as the tribe set
him down. You have frightened the
populace." And Tom Meredith stopped
shouting long enough to answer. It's
my little cousin, overcome with emo
tion. She's been counting the hours till
you came--been hearing of you from
me and others for a good while; and
hasn't been able to talk or think of
anything else. She's only fifteen, and
the crucial moment is too much for
her-the Great Hark4ess has arrived,
and she has fled"
He remembered other incidents of
his greatness, of the glory that now
struck him as rarely comical; he hop
cd he hadn't taken it too seriously
then, in the flush of his youth. May
be, after all, he had been a big-head-
ed boy, but he must have bottled up
his conceit tightly enough, or the other
boys would detected it and abhorred
him. He was inclined to believe that
he had not been very much set up by
the pomp they made for him. At all
events, that day at Winter Harbor
had been beautiful, full of the laugh
ter of friends and music; for there
was a musicale at the Casino in the
afternoon.
But the present hour grew on him
as he leaned on the pasture bars, and
suddenly his memories sped; and the
voice that was singing Schubert's SER
enade across the way touched him
with the urgent, personal appeal tina.
a present beauty always had for him.
1t was a soprano; and without trem-
olo, yee came to his ear with a GER
tain tremulous sweetness; it was soft
and slender but the listener knew it
could he lifted with fullness and pow
er if the singer would. 1t spoke only
of the song, yet the listener thought
of the singer. Under the moon
thoughts run into dreams, and he
dreamed that the owner of the voice,
she who quoted THE Walrus and the
Carpenter" on Fisbees notes, was one
to laugh with you and weep with you;
yet her laughter would be tempered
with sorrow, and her tears with laugh
asa.
When the song was ended, he struck
the rail he leaned upon a sharp blow
with his open hand. There swept over
him feeling that he had stood pre-
cisely where he stood now, on such a
~trr1N ~ 4
heard that voice and that song, had
listened and been moved by the song,
and the night, just as he was moved
now.
He had long known himself for a
sentimentalist; he had almost given
mp trying to cure himself. And he
knew himself for a born lover; he had
| always been in love with some one
| In his earlier youth his affections had
been so constantly inconstant that he
| finally came to settle with his self
respect by recognizing in himself a
| fine constancy that worshipped one
woman always--it was only the shift.
! ing image of her that changed! Some
| where Che dreamed, whimsically in
| dulgent of the fancy; yet knocking
himself for it, there was a girl whom
he had never seen, who waited till ne
should come. She was Everything
Until ne found her, ne could not helE
adoring others who possessed little
| pieces and suggestions of her-heI
! brilliancy, her courage, her short up
per lip, like a curled roseleaf." or hel
dear voice, or her pure profile. He had
no recollection of any lady who hao
| cutie her eyes
lie had never passed a, lovely
stranger on the street, in the old days
without thrill of delight anC
warmth. If he never saw her again
and the vision only lasted the time II
takes a lady to cross the Sidewalk
| from q shop door to a carriage, hi
| was always a little in love with her
| because she bore about her, some.
| where, as did every pretty girl he evel
saw, a suggestion of the far-away di.
| Vinity. One does not pass lovely
| strangers in the streets of PlattVille
| Miss Rriscoe was pretty, but not a.
| all in the way that Harkless dreamed
| For five years the lover in him thai
had loved so often had been starved
| of all but dreams. Only a twilight anC
/ dusk in the summer. when, strolling
| he caught sight of a woman'S skirt
far up the village street-half-outlin
| in the darkness under the cathedra
arch of meeting branches-this roman
Ger of petticoats could sigh a true low
ers sigh, and if he kept enough dis
lance between, fly a yearning fame,
that his lady wandered there.
Ever since his university days tn,
image of her had been growing NOR,
and more distinct. He had completed!
settled his mind as to her appearance,
and her voice. She was tall, almos