The Tupelo journal., 1903-02-27

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center of an excited and solicitous
group, and Norwood went below.
He was among the first to land
when the boat entered the slip, but
he fingered on the outskirts of the
throng until the face he looked for
appeared. Although occupied with
her mother, the girls eyes more than
ace roved eagerly over the crowd,
and, with a quickened beating of his
heart, Norwood felt instinctively that
she searched for him. The idea
cheered him-he felt less friendless;
yet he kept out of sight until they en-
tered a carriage and were driven
away.
The events of the past few hours
had added no brilliancy to Norwood's
prospects,; nevertheless, as he turned
toward Market street, he no longer
felt life to be an Improbable episode
disturbing the blessed calm of non
existence. He eXulted in the mere
fact that his will controlled his move
ments-that he was not a thing for
OllS spun VI nv heNSos III IuS
his shoulders to the wind, he thrust
his hands deeply into his shabby
pockets. With an astonished start he
drew them out again. Dangling to
one finger by a glittering chain was
a little purse of gray suede-the kind
ONE affect. For a moment he
looked at it in bewilderment-then
noor,nrr ct,,r0 hin, Ha bod {,,oo
picked it up, once to restore it to its
rightful owner-the second time t.
pocket it himself. In the excitement
he had forgotten it. Opened, it re-
vealed the unaccustomed glitter of
gold and silver, and at the sight Nor
wood realized how famished he was.
He transferred some of the silver to
a breast-pocket, replaced the purse,
and boarded an uptown car.
Some hours later, warmed, fed, and
comforted, he sat down in a decent
room and made an inventory. The
purse contained $40 in gold, some sill
yer, and, attached to Il bit of ribbon, a
little silver Filipino coin. A card in
scribed with Miss Moore's name in
full and a number on California street
offered every facility for the return
of his tr~easure-trove.
That night the young man was too
worn out for reflection, but over his
breakfast the next morning he re-
solved to break a commandment-and
the gold-clothe himself decently,
max a fresh start in life, and in time
liquidate his indebtedness to Miss
Dorothy Moore.
Perhaps his lane had neared a
turn, for a few days afterward he Sc
cured a small clerkship in a wholesale
house; but SO very small was the
clerkship that several months had
former comfortable proportions.
In the meantime, with security
against the necessities of the hour,
youth reasserted itself, and quickened
with the never-satisfied longing after
the happiness it claims as it's birth
right. An illusory picture-born of a
dream and shaped by fancy-in which
Dorothy Moore was the central figure,
occupied much OF his thoughts. He
assured himself that some reason was
due her for the detention of her prop
erty during so long a period, and
wasted considerable time and station
cry in attempting to give one. With
out any conscious wish to stir her
Imagination or awaken her interest,
his few unsigned words of thanks and
explanation yet revealed NOR. of his
darkest hour than he was aware. In
them were sufficient food for c~uriosi-
ty and smypathy-sworn enemies to
fo%rgetfulness. Of his reason for re-
tanning the little Filipino coin he gave
no hint.
A week later a chance paragraph
ir a newspaper Informed him that
Dorothy and her mother had gone to
New York and might shortly sail for
Europe.
In the three years that followed,
Norwood's success pointed the words
of the poet:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune
In the various turnings of his lane,
he made many acquaintance and a
few friends, who occasionally drew
him, unwillingly enough, out of the
routine of business into the social
pleasures of his age and kind. So II