Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29


EG1 asked for her ticket Then she found
l|M@N that her car had been shifted to the
NM INT.ES spur that eight miles to the viii
4Ns/ MIE,N lage of Thurmont. mountain set
N6SN CSSY Element out of the way of the world
and largely out of its knowledge
There was no return train that night; but Hope
Oliver refused to worry and lost herself IN thinking
of the many things that had so strangely happened
In the big Office she the third assistant secretary
The day before she had her first long session with
Sterling Prentice. She had come in contact with
this wonderful man who did thingsl She had
doubted the stories Others had told of his natural
and seemingly unconscious domination of all around
hirn-untl she sat under his influence. One secre-
tary away, another had gone off for the day be-
she to begin her vacation. She was to
start in the early morning and reach her home at
Rosmore for the midday dinner. But the work
Sterling Prentice gave her knocked her plans awry.
That afternoon she thought he would never stop
debating: and yet somehow she wanted him to
keep in spite of the consciousness that 1T meant
arduous extra work at the very flag end of her busy
year. There something vital and vibrant in the
something that made her forget the tredness and
rnonotony of the other days; and SO she worked on
into the night. and at the office early in the
morning, and when her train was leaving she was
turning over to him the results of her toll
Quickly he took the sheets, read them so rapidly
that he seemed only the lines. and at the end
merely looked up with a half smile and said. All
right 1t not much in words. but the little ap
probation greater reward than she expected
She went back to her room. Presently the chief
secretary, Stoddard stood by her desk and said
very formally, Miss Oliver, your work for Mr.
Prentice is quite satisfactory, and hope that you
will have pleasant vacation.
few minutes afterward she carrying her
suit to catch the one O'Clock train for Rosmore
And now
''All out!" exclaimed the conductor who
directly to her and said, Il have my doubts about
the hotel, miss, but it is the only thing of its kind
around here
She found the Usual village inn, i'll smelling and
cheap. She mad. effort to enter the Ladies
Entrance, but the fumes of the place penetrated
even what called the parlor. and she retreated
to the drug store on the opposite corner Here she
left her luggage for she had decided to do what she
had done when she first arrived in New Iork,-make
her way to her church for information and guidance
As she walked UP the street she in a vista of
cool trees and clean homes and yards full OF flowers.
and the few quiet people she were in delectable
contrast to the cheap citizens who talking
politics and drinking vile liquor at the hotel. She
found the little church; but it closed.
Worse than that no one responded when she
that the preacher was in the city. She was in a
quandary, indeed when she happened to see farther
up the avenue sight which tempted her
In few minutes she stood before an old colonial
holding its hospitable porch and running down by the
ample and devious paths were noble rows of bushes
aglow with roses. To complete the picture was an
old lady dressed in white with white cap on her
head her face full of sunshine and nvitatior-arld
quite before she realized what she doing Hope
Oliver making her way to this gracious old lady.
Il hope you will pardon me, she said; i am in
distress. By mistake | to Thurmont
instead of continuing to my home in Rosmore, and
there is no train back until morning. l thought
might spend the night at the hotel but it seems
altogether wretched and impossible | tried to find
the pastor of the church, but they tell me he
Perhaps you will be so good as to direct me to a
boarding house | am not at all particular, that
it is safe and respectable
Cordality beamed from the old ladys eyes as she
said, My dear. shall be very glad to help you and