The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1906-03-07
! A FUSS, AND THE RESULT. !
By HADDIE nMAHON
.sHs

By HADDIE rrMAHON.

Certainly ! should say it would be
the last punishment for our sins that
either of us would choose" was Miss
Desmonds soothing reply; after which,
taking up the magazine with which
she was supplied, she became appar-
emily immersed in its contents. and oh
livious of the fact that the world,
much less the small railroad compart-
ment in which she was sitting. con-
tanned such a person as Miles Oyenden.
Pulling a newspaper out of his pock-
ct, with a certain suppressed vicious
ness-a mans feelings are never under
such good control as a woman She
followed her example
Half an hour passed slowly by, and
| then Cynthia moved her book a quar-
| ter Of an inch 10 one side and took
surreptitious peep at the faultlessly
clothed length of limb and clean
shayen, resoluto young face opposite.
What a detestable, bad-tempered fell
low he was, but how good to look at.
She had always been proudly confident
that her Miles was beyond comparison
with any other man. Her Miles! A
little pain shot through her heart as
she remembered that he was her Miles
no longer, and she went back TO her
book with a small weary shiver. 1t
was getting colder. Engrossed as he
| apparently was in his paper, Miles
noticed that shiver--he knew Cynthia's
horror of and suffering from the cold
How unkind and sarcastic she had
been; man can stand almost any
thing from a woman better than sar-
casm; but how like flower was her
small, naughty face rising ont of its
frame of rich furs. How sweet was
the shadowy droop Of those long
lashes, how bright the gleam of the
waves of hair that showed between the
folds Of the now turDed-up veil. From
her dainty shod foot and slender ankle
10 the topmast wave of the veil she
was perfect, with the inimitable grace
and style which some girls possess and
which others, though their dress al
lowance be three times as large, can
never attain. He did not like automo-
bile veils-at least he used to think
he did not-but Cynthia, Cynthia was
different from all other women: she
would look exquisite in a sack, and
how could he ever have been fool
enough to think, much less to say,
automobile wells did not suit her.
That had been the beginning of this
miserable quarrel-such a SHY, sim
pie thing to wreck two lives. He had.
with all mans tactlessness, called
her veil "horridlooking arrange
nent,' when she, as Dolly said, "rath-
er fancied herself in it." She had re-
piled with the obvious home truth that
at any rate, it was fashionable and
respectable which was more than
could be said of certain disreputable
old brown coat beloved of Miles soul.
but the bane of her life; to which he
had injudiciously made answer that
women never could understand the
possibility of things being fashiona-
BILE and unbecoming. Cynthia then
expressed her surprise that he had been
folish enough to propose to her, seeing
that nothing she ever did, said or wore
pleased him-a remark decidedly un-
just and untrue. And he retorted that
the same idea occurred TO him with
regard to her acceptance of his pro-
posal, After which things went from
bad TO worse, until Cynthia found her.
self walking away with head held high
snd vivid spot of carmine blazing
on each cheek through the white gauze
of the luckless automobile veil, and
Miles, left alone, gazed blankly at the
small ring lying on his palm, and tried
to realize what had happened.
And thus 1t had come to pass that
both these young people were flying
from each other, the vision of the
blissful lived happily ever AFTER" to
which they had locked forward with
such glad confidence, receding from
both with equal rapidity.
How foolish and childish it all SEEM
ed now. His eyes travelled to Gym
thia's small left hand, and noted with
sense of loss and hopelessness, the
| forlorn little wrinkle in the third
finger of her gray glove that marked
where her ring had made a bulge,
bulge that he had often fondly kissed.
lnvoluntarily she shivered again and
decided that she could not bear the
cold much longer
You are cold,' he said his pity
for her evident suffering and the over
whelming desire to do something for
her, making him speak. Won't you
take my rug?"
Thank you," she answered, in
tone that was as cold as her small
hands, Il would rather not"
Angrily rewrapping himself il the
rejected rug, he told himself that he
was fool to lay himself open to an
other snub, and decided that she might