Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1906-09-26
While They
Waited ~
BY Virginia Leila wentI
Copyright, 1905. by C. II. sutcHne


"Pshawv he exclaimed irascibly, and
then to the sleepy looking, contented
ticket agent. When does the next
train leave for New York;
1.-TWO hours,' replied that individual
laconically.
Maverick Oliver wasn't a man to cry
over spilled milk. He sat himself
philosophically down In shady recess
OF the waiting room and extracted a
notebook. He would look over some
memoranda he had jotted down for his
solicited article for the Review and
then take stroll along the country
hedges. There seemed TO be rather
attractive bit of woodland just beyond.
How long must I wait for connec-
lions for RoseclffY
Something in the womans voice, half
contralto, half alto, made the man with
the notebook suddenly start. He'd
been so engrossedly coming his men,
oranda that he had scarcely noticed
the incoming train, with all its attend
ant hustle. Now, however, a single
woman's voice made him start and
caused the Review article TO be as far
from his thoughts as the military af-
fairs of nations r. G.
The woman's back was turned to-
ward Oliver, but he knew IL was Flea
nor. Who else in all the world had
that queenly carriage, that soft slope
of shoulder that bewitching mass OF
colled chestnut hair?
For Rosecliff?" came the ticket
agents monotonous voice as he caress-
ed his wrink led forehead with the
back of his hand. "A half hour,
ma'am. Trains sixteen minutes late"
The woman turned impatiently away
from the window.
IL was then they came face to face
You cried Oliver springing up.
She stood there in the barren waiting
room, filling its emptiness with the
richness of her charm. TO the mans
hungry eyes she was food Of the most
satisfying as we'll as of the most deli
cate sort.
She did not hold out her hand. Never
theless she encountered him not in her
old imperious fashion, but with a smile
including him in some mood too large
to be wholly personal.
How you have changed, Eleanor
he cried involuntarily.
Are you, too, waiting for train?''
she answered softly in return. I'm
which direction do you go?'
'South-to New York." said Oliver.
"And you;"
ITO Rosecliffe. fourteen miles east"
oliver took her umbrella and tiny
suit case from her. and then they
walked slowly up and down the plat
form together, man and woman, in
stead of husband and wife, held apart
by some strange fat they had both ac-
cepted.
In the fields, all around, the butter
cups were golden and the wild carrot
was in white, lacelike flower Over
in the woods beyond some song birds,
waking from their summer siesta, were
beginning to MARBLE. A group of trav-
cling men was lounglng on the railing
at the far end of the platform. ex-
pectorating coplously to punctuate the
points in their stories.
Oliver busted the platform steps at
the other end of the walk with his
handkerchief, and the woman sat Sc
renely down, her delicate profile out
lined against the clear blue of the sky
like some exquisite cameo. She had
always been beautiful, though. 1t
wasn't that which made the man ex-
claim again Nrepressibly:
you've changed so. Eleanor IT was
true. 1t was no mere fancy Of his
imaginative writer's eye that discov-
cred new meanings in the face before
him. 1t had undergone vague but
very gracious transformation.
Changed" repeated she with a
curious tenderness. eve tried to
change-tried, do you understand?
Since last winter. when we agreed to
s"rarate. I've been trying-so hard,
Maverick-to take control of my own
stunted nature, turn it where it
twists
Dear" broke in Oliver. with bit
ter humility, I'VE were both to blame
both. do you hear? And I'm afraid
you've been cleverer than / If you've
unsnarled things where they failed to
fit the pattern. I've not changed much,
I'm afraid"
Under her black lashes the woman
smiled at him with a reverence he
might have translated chad he been
high plumed) as some loyal acquies-
ceDce in his former state What Oil
yer felt now, however, was curiosity in
his young wife, not in himself So
Tell me-" he burst forth. what has
changed you SOP
She rolled up her absurd little hand
kerchief into a string and, throwing 1t
over her knee, pulled it unconsciously
by both ends, gazing steadfastly into
the blue distance above divers head
81 don't know whether ] ought to
tell YOU" she began.
Oliver recalled that delicious little
habit she used TO have of tempting the
fates shyly. of hestating when she
meant 10 be right down outrageous.
"Of course you ought" he urged.
You always do in the end, you know,
and il will save time" Under her
playfulneSS he had allowed himself to