The Press., 1907-11-06

her heart stirred by strange pity fol this tired little up state girl, who sometimes. amid all the artificiality and sordidness of her city life. man aged to hold on to her old ideals Shs
 was so different from the other in mates of the club-a bit silly abou novels and music and flowers, hut stil so shy and sweet.
 It was great night on the bay mOonlit ana sparRllng, after a 0ay of relentless heat and humidity, and not a night for disaster at all But one overlook them-a fiery sheet of flame beside which the suns rays of the day just closed were merciful. Melinda heard just one long. hoarse cry, saw one great flash of light. felt an arm jerk her to her feet. and then every thing was blank. This may have been because the day had been so long and hard or because the girl had never in all her reading days thought of what one ought to do when fire broke out on a crowded boat.
 Something cool and lovely was tric- kling on her forehead. her eyes, her cheeks, her lips. She was floating on a cloud. No, she was lying on wet sand, and the assistant matron was murmuring:
 "No, no, she's not hurt. It was just the shock. She will be all right in a minute. But you, you wonderful, wonderful boy, to save us both!"
 Oh, yes, the fire. the trampling feet, the brief glimpse into the great beyond she remembered it all now. And some one had saved them. There was a real knight in New York after all.
 She wanted to open her eyes and see him, but the lids were so heavy, so heavy. But she knew he was straight and tall and dark and pale and slen- der. All knights must be. And then the other voice said brokenly:
 You know I never had a chance to tell her loved her. She was so back ward and shy and always seemed to be looking right past me, She ain,t like other girls l know-and you're sure she'll come around all right" &-
 Something in the voice made Melin- da's eyelids turn light again. They popped open, and she looked straight into the anxious eyes of the elevator boy.
 "Oh, then it wasn't knight after all," she murmured as the assistant matron began to chafe her hands once more.
 Melinda was sitting on the edge of the bed in the assistant matron's room.
 ''I suppose they don't have to be tall and slender and pale and interesting if their hearts are all right and knightly. And Billy's heart is all right. He don't have to run an elevator, you know. His mother has quite a little money, but he's going to be an electrical en- gineer or superintendent of big build ings or something of that sort, and he says he wants to know everything from running elevators to running men, and then he can support me and mann ma too. But when his mother came in to see me today she patted my hand and kissed me on both cheeks and said there was no reason why Billy and l should have to wait that long, because she thought there was love enough in my heart to keep two mothers going, and she had no daughter. She's just lovely, his mother is. and you'd know she was just the sort whose son would be knight"
 And the assistant matron remem- bered stern, white face she had seen for just an instant on that dreadful night. felt once more the grip of his firm, strong hand and murmured, "YeS, of such stock do real knights spring."