The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-01
THE SONG THAT WON.
BY mrLLEa BUTLER.

BY MILLER BUTLER. 1 Copyright, 1905. Daily Story Pup. Co.l Her merry laugh crushed him. She did not mean 1t to be cruel; perhaps, in truth. it did not seem altogether so | to him., But with his hand slipping 1 from the gate. and his face turned to the darkening village sfreet. he satd: "Good-by. Miss Maxwell. a1f come again" ss@
 I "When you come again, you mean, she interrupted softly, accenting the s'when," and with a haif-serious, half- | jolly expression on her beautiful faces when you come again bging your song with you, MT. Smith, and I'll try hard to warble it, though you know I can't sing
 | "Especially such music-save the mark--as I writei Goodbye" l ,.why don't you let Alice sing 1t? But he was gone.
 Poor John Smithw she murmured sympathetlcally. as she closed the gate and returned to Fred Remington and Alice Trumbull on the porch.
 \ Smith walked straight to the rail- way station, and twenty minutes later, yielding reckiessly to a half-revenge- l full, half desperate impulse, was whirl- | ing eastward to Baltimore-"and to Europe, I've good mind to make it!' he growled.
 Did John kiss you. Mary?" laughed Miss Trumbull, he her fair friend seated herself.
 | T don't think rso," answered Rem | ington for her. I heard no good, old | fashioned sound of smacking lips" | Johns all right" returned Miss l Maxwell, blushing. 'even If he can't write music. There are worse weak nesses in men than the conceit that | they are geniuses." 1 John smith did not make his .cus- tomary call the next Sunday. He was five hundred miles away from Dan- vile and Mary Maxwell. She waited for him impatiently-he had not miss | ed a Sunday for weeks. She was next to provoked to see, instead, Fred Rem Iington coming up the front walk. Fred was devoted, too devoted, she now be- | gan to think. She was sure John Smith had thought go for many a day Perhaps she Had carried her simulated Indifference toward John and her agree ableness to Fred too far. on that last visit.
 She fretted bit over Smiths failure to come and, when another week had passed and another Sunday, and yet again a Sunday, she grew unhappy and wrote to him at his home. It was lonly the usual polite little note. Johns
 mother knew the handwriting we'll what fond mother doesn't know the
 hand of a sweetheart whom her boy has intimated he might like some day
 to introduce as a daughter-in-law?
 Mrs Smith wrote a line to Miss Maxwell that John had gone East and
 expected to sail for England, and pos-
 sibly, to South Africa.
 There followed sad days for poor
 Mary, She had had sudden revela7
 tion of herself. She had never dream
 ed she cared so much for plain John
 smith," as the girls all styled him.
 Now she knew. If only she had
 known on the night she had parted
 with him at the gate!
 Not a line reached her from him,
 either directly or indirectly. Mrs.
 smith had gone to California to visit
 a sister just bereft of husband, and ! Mary was left to bear her trouble alone
 and keep her secret within her own bosom - ..., Remington began to sue furiously. If amused. then sobered, then anger
 ed her. one day after an unusually persistent visit, she gave him the nit
 ten and told him in plain words she
 was waiting for John Smith to come back. .. .o..or-