The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-04-28

81 hope you will be happy" 1 sighed.
HAfter all, life is very short, and love
Is the scarcest and sweetest thing in
it."
AS descended the weary stairs, part
light, part dark and emerged into the
street, discovered in my heart just a
little envy of this great happiness in
store for Cornelia. Before l reached
home contrasted it, with some degree
Of bitterness, with my own life Of
constant work. My room was like a
cave for loneliness when entered It.
The rosiness of her prospect left it's
impression upon me. 1t remained to
such an extent indeed that before the
week was over 1 climbed those stairs
once more to her three roomed fat.
regretted my distFust Of her.
wished By some slight personal service
to compensate before she went away.
found the nat closed. At my knock
the woman who lived in the adjoining
fat opened her door and thrust out her
head.
It was a frowsled head, not yet well
combed, and it rose from a collarless
throat.
"Are you looking for Miss Hard
manT' she asked.
EYES," answered.
"She has gone home to the west" she
said, ''She went home yesterday"
ITO the west!' exclaimed. Il
thought
She fractured my sentence by com
ing into the hall. She shut the door
and stood braced, her back against it.
''Thst poor girl!i' she lamented. 81
never felt so sorry for anybody in my
lie as did for that poor girl"
''Why?" 1 questioned.
She had paused Electrically, await
ing this question to roll the history OF
Cornelia's wretchedness on her tongue.
"She was the strangest girl I ever
saw" she began explaining. "She new
er told you anything. You had to find
out everything for yourself.
81 never saw anybody so still mouth
ed as that girl was. She didn't tell me,
but found out that If it hadn't been
for heE people. in the west she would
have starved here in New York Once
IN a great while she got registered let
tiers. They had money in them. She
had to sign for them. That was how l
knew they had money in them. She
never got any work from the newspa-
pers-at first maybe a little, but not
afterward think she got so infatuat-
ed with the little German she couldn't
write. Writers are like that sometimes,
they tell me.
"She went without everything after
the German went away. She let him
have some money because his father
hadn't sent him quite enough, he said.
l heard them talking about it in the
hall. That left her almost Rsnniless.
She never complained, but you could
hear her talking to the iceman and the
milkman, apologizing to them. Some
times she kept perfectly still in her
room when they rang, pretending she
wasn't there"
She shifted from one foot to the 9TH
er. Apparently Cornelia's history was
to be strung out indefinitely, at least
so long as 1 cared to stand and listen
to it
cut It short.
"But what about the young German
she was going to marry?" asked.
She shrugged her shoulders.
''He went away" she said, land
never came back. He never even wrote
to her. She didn't say so. No, but ]
watched the mails. l saw that there
never was a letter with a foreign post.
mark; not once. You never heard her
complain. She talked to me Of going
to him, Of having her dresses made in
Paris, Of going to the baths in the sum-
mer time. OF his father, his mother and
bis sisters.
ITO hear her talk you would think
she was to be the happiest woman in
the world, but the walls are thia, and
I could hear her crying in the night,
Many and many a time have walked
and heard her crying in the night"
She shook her head and sighed.
You couldn't guess it from the way
she acted" she finished. "but he never
wrote to her even once after he went
ovovB