Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1906-03-16

Daroly ~ one vagrant ray Of Light
which left the massed shades piled
strongly about the heavy hair. There
came upon him at that moment, as
with fiood-tide of memory, all the
vague longing, the restlessness, the
incertitude of life which had harried
him before he had come to this far
land, whose swift activity had helped
him to forget. Yet even here he had
been unsettled, unhappy. He had
missed, he had lacked-he knew not
what.
The young woman rose, and stood
out pace or two from the shadows.
She turned her face toward Franklin.
He felt her gaze take in the uniform
of blue, felt the stroke of mental dis
like for the uniforms dislike which
he knew existed, but which he could
not fathom. With q strange, halt
shivering gesture the girl advanced
half step and laid her head almost
upon the shoulder of the elder woman,
standing thus for one moment, the
arms of the two unconsciously en-.
twined, as is sometimes the way with
women. Franklin approached rude
| ness as he looked at this attitude Ct
the two, still puzzling still seeking to
solve this troubling problem of the
past.
There came shift in the music. The
air swept from the merry tune .nto the
minor from which the negro is never
| musically>free. Then in a flash Frank
lin saw 1t all. He saw the picture.
His heart stopped!
This music, it was the wall of
trumpets! These steps. ordered,
measured, were those of marching
men. These sounds, high, comming-
ling, they were the voices of day
gone swiftly by. These two, this
one-this picture-it was not here, but
upon the field of wheat and flowers
that he saw it now again-that picture
of grief so infinitely sad.
Franklin saw, and as he gazed
eager, half advancing, indecision and
irresolution dropped from him forever
Resolved from out the shadows, where
in it had never in his most intimate
self-searching taken any actual form
he saw the image of that unformulated
dream which had haunted his sub
consciousness SO long, and which was
now to haunt him openly and forever
The morning after the first officia
ball in Ellisville dawned upon another
world.
Ellisville, after the first ball, was BY
all the rules of the Plains admittedly
town. A sun had set, and sun hat
arisen. 1t was another day.
To Edward Franklin the tawdry no
tel parlor on the morning after tn,
ball was no mere four-square habita
ton, but a chamber of the stars. Be
fore him, radiant, was that which h
had vaguely sought. This other hal
of himself, with feet running far t,
find the missing friend, had sought hin
out through all the years, through al
the miles, through all the spheres
This was fate, and at this thought hi
heart glowed, his eyes shone, his yer.
stature seemed to increase. He wis
not of Nature and her ways of attrae
ton. He only knew that here wa
that Other whose hand, patheticall
sought, he had hitherto missed in tn
darkness of the foregone days. Now
thought he. it was all happily cor
cluded, here in this brilliant chambe
of delight, this irradiant abode, thi
noble hall bedecked with gems an
silks and stars and all the warp an
wool of his many, many days c
dreamsi
Mr.. and Mrs. Buford had for tn
time excused themselves by reason {
: Mrs. Buford's WEAKNESS, and after th
: easy ways of that time and place th
young people found themselves alon,
Thus 1t was that Mary Ellen, with
l. temporary feeling of helplessnes
l. found herself face to face with the vez
0 man whom she at that time cared leas
D to see.
Ito be continued.)