Gilpin observer., 1904-03-03
barely BY one vagrant ray of light
which left the masaed shades nfled


which left the massed shades piled
strongly about the heavy hair. There
came upon him at that moment, as
with flood-tide of memory, all the
vague longing, the restlessness, the
incertitude of life which had harried
him before he had come to this far
land, whose swift activity had helped
him to forget. Yet even here he had
been unsettled. unhappy. He had
missed, he had lacked-he knew not
what.
The young woman rose, and stood
out a pace or two from the shadows.
She turned her face toward Franklin.
He felt her gaze take in the uniform
of blue, felt the stroke Of mental dis
like for the uniforms dislike which
he knew existed, but which he could
not fathom. With a strange, half
shivering gesture the girl advanced
half step and laid her head almost
upon the shoulder of the elder woman,
standing thus for one moment, the
arms of the two unconsciously en-
twined, as is sometimes the way with
women. Franklin approached rude
ness as he looked at this attitude of
the two, still puzzling, still seeking to
solve this troubling problem of the
past.
There came shift in the music. The
air swept from the merry tune into the
minor from which the negro is never
free. Then in flash Frank
lin saw it all. He saw the picture.
His heart stopped!
This music, it was the wall of
trumpets! These steps, ordered,
measured, were those of marching
men. These sounds, high, comming-
ling. they were the voices of a day
gone swiftly by. These two, this
one-this picture-it was not here, but
upon the field of wheat and flowers
that he saw it now again-that picture
of grief SO infinitely sad.
Franklin saw, and as he gazed,
eager. half advancing. indecision and
irresolution dropped from him forever.
Resolved from out the shadows, where
in it had never in his most intimate
self-searching taken any actual form,
he saw the image of that unformulated
dream which had haunted his sub
consciousness so long. and which was
now to haunt him openly and forever.
ball in Ellisville dawned upon another
world.
Ellisville, after the first ball, was by
all the rules of the Plains admittedly
town. A sun had set, and a sun had
arisen. 1t was another day.
To Edward Franklin the tawdry ho-
tel parlor on the morning after the
ball was no mere four-square habita-
ton, but a chamber of the stars. Be
had vaguely sought. This other half
of himself, with feet running far to
find the missing friend. had sought him
out through all the years, through all
the miles, through all the spheres!
This was fate, and at this thought his
heart glowed, his eyes shone, his very
stature seemed to increase. He wist
not of Nature and her ways of attrac-
ton. He only knew that here was
sought, he had hitherto missed in the
darkness Of the foregone days. Now.
thought he. it was all happily con-
cluded, here in this brilliant chamber
of delight. this irradiant abode. this
noble hall bedecked with gems and
silks and stars and all the warp and
woof of his many, many days of
dreams!
Mr.. and Mrs. Buford had for the
time excused themselves by reason of
Mrs. Buford's WEAKNESS, and after the
easy ways of that time and place the
young people found themselves alone.
Thus 1t was that Mary Ellen, with
temporary feeling of helplessness.
found herself face to face with the very
man whom she at that time cared least
to see.
Ito be continued.)