The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-01-18
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
FACE IN
THE
C K O w ID
BY * effb Gordon
right, 1906, bp u c. Mcclure

him when the train stopped at the
Fifty-third street station in the morn
ing-the tall, broad shouldered man
with the aggressive chin and deter.
mined mouth. She felt vaguely dis
appointed when she did not see him,
Insenslbly he became the touch OF
romance in the dreary monotony Of
her days, five and half out of seven
of which were spent in Wall street.
place where the advantages of being
a woman are not glarlngly apparent,
Often during the tagging afternoons
Of summer, when business was dull
and the hands Of the clock approach
ed 5 but slowly, she would sit resting
her face on her hands and wondering
about him. Who was he2 What was
he? Was he married or singlef
The noise OF the street blow, dulled
by distance until It was as dreamy as
the humming OF bees at MONDAY,
droned softly in her ears sort OF lly-
ing melody, and her thoughts defled
office hours and went far alield in
fantastic search for the reality about
him among the crowd Of possibilities.
Over and over she gave him local
habitation and name, but these
changed always with her mood. No
name that she could hit upon seemed
to express his personality, and she
finally discarded them all and thought
of him only as The Man.
The weeks melted into months, but
her interest in him did not flag. Rath-
or 1t became deeper as time went on.
CuriousIy enough, 1t was what might
be termed the nonessentials that baf'
fed her. About the man himself-his
character and what he would do In
any given emergency she felt the
same assurance that she did about her
self.
She had decided that he was law
yer, though precisely why she thought
80 she could not have told. Then one
day she saw him with a child, a girl
Of ten, who bore certain fleeting re-
semblance to him.
Iie was married, then An almost
imperceptlble sigh escaped her. Then,
as the absurdty Of the matter dawned
upon her, she laughed softly TO her.
self. What difference? Josephine and
Marie Louise had never dampened her
affection for Napoleon. She even be-
gan to feel a mild interest in the lady.
Sometimes for two or three weeks
at stretch they would not encounter
each other. II was after one of these
breaks that, watching him as he en-
tered the car, her interest and salts
faction at seeing him again shone all
unconsclously in her face, and his
glance was arrested by It.
AS the faint color touched her cheeks
under his gaze he looked casually
away. For moment he had thought
her some half forgotten acquaintance
from the welcome that he had sur
prlsed ID her eyes, but her quick an
noyance as she returned to her readlng
forbade that idea.
She did not look toward him again,
but more than once HIS keen, blue eyes
rested upon her as she sat there, slim
and straight, with masses Of pale
brown hair piled upon her small head.
After this he, too, began to watch Of a
morning A habit is very easily form
ed!
Then for weeks he disappeared. The
girl wondered anxously what had be.
come of him. Had he gone abroadf
Mayhap he was lll-or dead! AT the
thought she shrank like one hurt, for
he had become, in whimsical way,
a part Of her life He had become as
near and dear us only ideals can be,
When he did appear one morning,
towering above a crowd Of lesser men
like god, there was a new gravity in
his face which held her attention even
before she noticed that he was in
mourning.
That, then, was what these weeks
of abaence from business meant Sick
ness and suffering and death. His
wife undoubtedly, from the sorrow aud
oppression that he showed. The quick
sympathy that she felt hovered In her
soft, wide eyes as they rested briefly
upon his face. And he, reading that
look, felt a curious thrill.
Long since he had begun to regard
her with sort Of tacit, silent friend
ship. "The little girl with her soul in
her face" as he once described her to a
friend, shaking his head deprecatlngly
at the thought of a woman like her
having to wrestle with the world. She
seemed to him too exquisite for the
ups and downs of such life,
He watched her surreptitiously now
wondering idly who she was and
whether he should ever meet her
There was a way--he might follow her
and bestow a quarter ON the elevator
boy, and the thing would be done, But
the coarseness of such methods re-
PEELED him. She seemed the sort Of O
woman who would resent that kind Of
thing.
Moreover in his heart of hearts and
in spite of his bigness and worldliness
he was fatalst, If it We're writer
from the beginning It would occur
No man could dabbe in the affairs Of
fatel
1t was nearing the end of the thlrt
year. He took the same train now
with a regularity which made her sus
pleious. The results of chance were
never so unerring. Intention was ap
parent.
But through 1t all save at unexpected
moments when the curtain would III
for second and an unintentiona
glance betray deeper knowledge they
regarded each other with the battling
impasslve eyes We keep for the un
known. No twentieth century romance
ever moved so slowly.
Then Billy Stoughton, who In this
particular case was the instrument OF
fate, awakened one morning with an
unaccountable but Imperative yearning
for Broadway. Five years earlier an