The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1906-10-23
While They
Waited r.
BY Virginia Leila Wentz
Copyright, 1905. by c. H. sutcuro

rig. leaving it in the hands of a freckle
faced boy. and rushed up to the ticket
office just as his train was pulling out
from the station.
"pshaw!' he exclaimed irascibly, and
then to the sleepy looking, contented
ticket agent, when does the next
train leave for New YorkY
1.-TWO hours" replied that Individual
laconically.
Maverick Oliver wasn't 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
solicited article for the Review and
then take a stroll along the country
hedges There seemed to be a rather
attractive bit of woodland just beyond.
How long must / wait for connec-
tons for RosecliffY
Something in the woman's voice, half
contralto, half alto, made the man with
the notebook suddenly start. He'd
been so engrossedly coming his mem
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 B. G.
The womans back was turned to-
ward Oliver, but he knew it was Flea
nor. Who else in all the world had
that queenly carriage, that soft slope
Of shoulder. that bewitching mass of
,oiled chestnut hair?
For Rosecliff" came the ticket
agents monotonous voice as he caress-
back of his hand. "a half hour,
ma am. Trains sixteen minutes late"
The woman turned impatiently away
from the window
1t was then they came face to face.
Your 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, Eleanorg'
he cried involuntarily.
'Are you, too, waiting for a train? 2"
she answered softly in return. "In
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 fiat 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 slesta, were
beginning to MARBLE. A group of trav-
cling men was lounging on the railing
at the far end of the platform, ex-
pectorating copiously 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 irrepressibly:
you've changed so, EleanorY' 1t 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 give tried to
change-tried, do you understand?
Since last winter. when we agreed to
separate, I've been trying-so hard,
Maverick-to take control of my own
stunted nature, turn 1t where it
twists
Dear" broke in Oliver, with a bit
ter humility, I'VE were both to blame
both, do you hear? And I'm afraid
you've been cleverer than 1 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
high plumed as some loyal acquies-
cence 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 so?"
She rolled up her absurd little hand
kerchief into a string and, throwing it
over her knee. pulled it unconsciously
by both ends. gazing steadfastly into
the blue distance above divers head.
II don't know whether l ought to
tell you," she began
habit she used to have of tempting the
fates shyly, of hesitating when she
meant to be right down outrageous.
"Of course you ought he urged
You always do in the end, you know.
and it will save time" Under her
playfulness ne had allowed himself to
grow light hearted.
''Well, then she began. but her
voice trailed off vaguely. Her cheeks
took on pinzer bloom; she forgot the
handkerchief and finished her tSc1gLt
with mature dignity that became her
like the armor of her sex.
Our little boy, Maverick-our little
boy has changed me-"
All, Our boy Oliver broke off
abruptly for something had suddenly
clutched him by the throat.
The woman hastily bAshed her tears
away and went ON practically:
You'd be proud OF him. Maverick
such strong. agile limbs-and he has
the will of a little savage
Let me see" Oliver said brusquely
stoopiag over the platforms edge ant
plucking a buttercup stalk that had
lmbitiously grown up from the gravel
"He must be eleven months row.''
Yes. He was five when-when you
last saw him." She kept her eyes de
liberately fixed upon the high railroad
trestles in the blue distance. do yor
know, he's been such a help to me
I've told him all the things | wanted
! to tell you--told him that his mother
had been vain, silly, gfrlish tyran1
who, coming straight from the convent
wanted to have everything this worlt
had to give-money, fame, position
all those things that are bought in th'
market place-and had wanted to buy
them with his fathers conscience"
Over the trpstles the smoke of the