The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1907-05-03

stern. and HeIlle added hastily: aOr I'd
stay at the factory until you got your
raise. and then maybe we could fni
another place. Anyhow. we'd Be put.
ting money IN bank
Tom Graham bent over and took
both the girls hands IN his.
s'NeHie. dear. I've some old fashioned
ideas about marriage and-you. i don't
want you t. live in hotel after we're
married. with nothing to do but listen
to the gossip Of Mrs. Conroy and her
sort want home
Nellie flung aside his hands angrily.
.'oh. well. OF course. If you want d
home and not wife you might hire
one Of the Mccarthy they're
past forty and won't make gossip-to
keep house for you. But as for me. /
don't marry until see something be-
sides dIshwashing in a 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 IN Illuminating mes
sage flashed through his being. If he
forced Nellie into marriage that ap.
peared distustcful 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 lie did not propose to
wreck two lives in II futile attempt to
try out the love In u cottage plan. Nell
Their 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 a number
of other girls from the shoe factory. ut
second class hotel. Somehow Tom
felt she had changed from the day she
stepped over the hotels threshold, and
he glared back ut its brightly lighted
barroom and dimly lighted parIor as he
stood out in the middle of the street.
Tom was telegraph operator at the
depot, and his cottage was not far from
the tracks. The main street of the
town led past both, so Tom seldom
missed seeing Nellie each night aud
morning us 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 her
steps. More often. however. lie was at
his post In the depot. He hoped against
hope that she would drop him forsiv-
ing line or fling him a 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 it. con.
Guiding with graphic description OF
the wonderful new frock which Ne;ns
had ordered from the city
That afternoon the weather changed
suddenly. The snow came down first
in a soft swir!ing cloud. then with
crisp, needleiikc lns!stence. Tom threw
more coal into the depot stove and made
a quick run home 10 take the gerani.
ums out Of the window. When he
came back TO the station he knew that
a blizzard was closing down on Ridge.
field. He wondered how Nellie would
get home, and then Syracuse called.
and he had TO put his thoughts on his
work.
1t took all his strength to reach the
cottage across the track. His first in.
stinct was to close all shutters and
draw the curtains. but he remembered
his mothers custom OF setting lamp
in the window for those who might be
abroad on stormy nights. Such coy
little kitchen as it lighted, with a fire