The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1907-08-29

HE SAW DARK FIGURE HUppLEp ON
HIS DOORSTEP.
do the work together night and norn-
ing somehow and take our dinners at
the hotel on Sundays"
"Not much," replied pretty NeAie
Dinsmore, patting the carpet nervously
with her beaded slipper. "I'd be a
fright in no time trying to work day
and night. AS sson as you get twenty
week, twice what I'm getting now,
I'm ready to give up my job. After
having ten week to spend just on
myself there's no use talking about
the two Of us living on $3.50 per, with
taxes and insurance to pay and the cot
tage needing painting. If you really
loved me, you'd sell the place. Tim
Sullivans dying to buy it. Then we'd
furnish up couple of rooms here in
the hotel and live in style. Mrs. Con-
roy'd give us a special rate
"Of $14 week, leaving $3.50 for
clothes and incidentals."
"Well. there's the money you get for
the place" Graham's face turned
stern, and Nellie added hastily: "Or I'd
stay at the factory until you got your
raise, and then maybe we could find
another place. Anyhow, we'd be put
ting money in bank"
Tom Graham bent over and took
both the girls hands In his.
Nellie, dear, I've some old fashioned
ideas about marriage and-you. don't
want you to live in hotel after we're
married. with nothing to do but listsn
to the gossip of Mrs. Conroy and her
sort. want home
Nellie flung aside his hands angrily.
"Oh, we'll, Of course, If you want Il
home and not wife you might hire
one of the Mccarthy sisters-they
past forty and won't make gossip-to
keep house for you. But as for me. /
don't marry until l see something be-
sides dishwashing in shabby cottage
before me"
Graham was very white now. In the
days gone by they had played in that
shabby cottage" oh, how happily! 1t
had been Nellie's one refuge from an
unhappy, fearful mother, who had first
driven her husband to drink and then
followed him to premature grave.
Something like an Illuminating mes
sage flashed through his being. II he
forced Nellie into a marriage that ap-
peared distasteful to her, she might be-
come as dissatisfied and fearful as her
mother He rose abruptly. He could
not picture Nellie In tears, but there
were little lines around her mouth at
this moment that he did not like. He
loved her, but he did not propose to
wreck two lives in futile attempt to
try out the love in q cottage plan. Mel
ther would he give up his tiny ances-
trail home, sole legacy Of loving par
ents.
Nellie had been happy there only a
few months before, when she had
boarded with his widowed mother, but
when the latter had died Nellie had
taken up her quarters, with number
of other girls from the shoe factory. at
second class hotel. Somehow Tom
felt she had changed from the day she
stepped over the hotels threshold, and
he glared back at its brightly lighted
barroom and dimly lighted parlor as be
stood out in the middle of the street.
Tom was telegraph operator at the
depot, and his cottage was not far from
I'm Gt
town led past both, SO Tom seldom
missed seeing Nellie each night and
morning as she went to and from work
Once as she passed the cottage he was
washing his few dishes, and he saw
her toss her head and quicken hel
steps. More often, however, he was q,
his post in the depot. He hoped agains,
hope that she would drop him forgiv
ing line or fling him nod of friend
ship as she passed the depot. Instead
each week he heard more of Nellie's
social popularity. The boys at the new
suspender factory organized club and
gave dance. Nellie was the belle OF
the evening. Miss Mccarthy, who had
come over to the cottage to do some
scrubbing, told him all about 1t, con
Guiding with a graphic description Of
the wonderful new frock which Nellie
had ordered from the city.
That afternoon the weather changed
suddenly. The snow came down frs
in a soft swirling cloud. then will
crisp, needlelike insistence. Tom threw
more coal into the depot stove and mad'