Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-10-27
THE TEST.


glanced uninterestedly at the throngs of
we'll dressed men and women pouring
from the theater, a sea of billowy white
femininity dotted with those black spots
of modern ugliness-men in evening
clothes. The man was thinking, and as
his cab drew up at the stage entrance of
the Apollo. his thoughts were inter
mingled with an anticipation which his
calm face did not betray.
''She will walk out of that door in
fifteen minutes. She will step into this
cab She will sit down beside me and /
will tell her all"
The man in the cab was talking to
himself in a childish and direct logic
that caused him to half smile as he
puffed rehectively at his cigar.
The woman who was coming to him
was the woman he loved, and brought
sudden light into his gray eyes.
And yet tonight | must tell her"
he reflected, bitterly, "Ah, if she mis-
understands"
The light from the stage entrance fell
slantingly into the waiting hanson and
han revealed the form of the meditative
watcher to the stage door man, who had
curiously peered into the cab.
"Oh! good evening, Mr.. Harrington"
he said, obsequiously, as he recognized
in the handsome man in evening clothes
the well known inancier whose undivid-
ed attention to Olivia Marsh, prilaa
donna of the Apollo Opera company, had
caused the natural round of comment
from the behind these men.
GsI,n toll Mics MorGh uo,rs,a 1va i+iprv
She won't be long," he continued, sub
serviently, as Harrington, with a look of
dismissal, gave him the expected tip.
Il must tell her--I must" the man in
the cab was saying to himself. "She is
not the sort of woman who would accept
the present situation"
Harrington thought of the beautiful
woman who would soon be with him-of
her past life, her former social posi-
ton before her voice and an absconding
guardian had led her into the footlights'
glare.
He thought of his first conventional
meeting with her through friends of her
aunt with whom she lived. He thought
of the two months following that chance
introduction, ana he marveled at the
strength and sincerity of the love which
had sprung up in their hearts in the
midst of this artificial world, whose at
mosphere she was breathing every night
He thought of her two years on the
stage and he thought of his own life
and then he wondered.
How would she take it--this woman
whose love was to him a far different
thing from any he had ever known and
whose very strength had kept her free
from the faint that clings even to the
whitest skirts that sweep past the stage
door.
The woman he was waiting for was
the woman he would make his wife if
only
In spite of the free and unconventional
atmosphere in which he had found her,
he had never dared to treat her love as
light and transient thing. OF marriage
they never spoke; but in a social realm
where love is not based exclusively upon
the marriage tie, Harrington imagined
that perhaps Olivia had never given it
a thought
And still, as his heart told him, this
woman commanded all the love and re-
spect of his being.
He had never realized till of late the
depth of her love for him; but she had so
gradually dismissed all admirers-had
come to regard him as her own and her
self as his-that their perfect under
standing was a part of their lives.
And now he wondered how she would
take his confidence Was her love for
him tinged with her conventional bring.
ing up? Was it permeated by this un.
questioned and unrestrained atmosphere
in which she had lately been thrust.
or was it as his own--a love that would
fight for its own salvation at its own
cost?
As the woman stepped into the han.
som Harrington felt conscious nride
in this beautiful creature BELONGING 10
him. His violets were in her corsage her
responsive hand say in his own firm one.
and her eyes looked into his with a
yearnlng that could not be mistaken.
am ready for your great surprise
Jack" she said and her fine dark ewes
giowed with an anticipation as of some.
thng she already OWNED Your note
was most tantalizing, and l cannot wait
any longer"
; 4 ann half afraid to tell YOU. Olivia ,,
he replied, Pm not SO certain OF vonr
, love" '"0'
hen you We're never certain of anv.
T thIng she said, as she leaned toward
him and placed both white gloved hands
on his
: Harrington wavered
Well lets discuss it over our SIM
per- he said. as the hanson drew nm In
front of the Trocadero.
DO YOU know, am alarminglv hun.
! CRY said Olivia, as the waiter bobbe1
Il about, taking her white coat. MY cnri.
, 9s'ty and my appetite are whetted to n
$ beautiful degree - d
: i wish ! could satisfy your curiosity
as easily as your appetite" said HarrinG.
ton, looking over the menu.
ny can't you?' replied the woman