Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-02-26

nearn aDOuL nlm.
 What did you hear"
 "Dey ben consid' able stir on de aidge O town. I reckon" he answered grave ly, ''an' dey ben havin' some trouble out at de Beach
 Beaver Beach, do you mean?"
 "Yes'm. Dey ben some shootin' go- in on out dat way"
 She sprang forward and caught at his arm without speaking.
 "Joe Louden all right" he said reas- suringly. Ain nunfum happen to him. Nigh as I kin mek out f'm de talk, dat Happy Fear gone on de ram. page ag'in, an dey hatta seat fer Mist Louden to come in hurry"
 CHAPTER XIV.
 x s upon a world canopied with A storm, hung with mourning
 / N purple and habitetl in black. A did Mir. Flltcroft turn his morning face at 8 o'clock antemeridlan Monday as he hied himself to hts daily duty at the Washington National bank. Yet more than the merely funereal gloomed out from the hillocky area of his countenance. Was there not. r faith, a glow. a vesuSian shiinmer. beneath the murk of that darkling eye? Was here one, think you, to turn the other cheekl Little has he learned of Norbert Flitcroft who conceives that this fiery spirit was easily to be quenched! Look upon the jowl of him and let him who dares maintain that people-even the very Pikes them selves-were to grind beneath their brougham wheels a prostrate Norbert and ri1e on scatheless! In this his own metaphor is nearly touched: "I guess not. They don't run over me. Martin Pike better look out how he tries itr'
 So Mother Nature at her kindly tasks, good Norbert, uses for her unguent our own perfect inconsist- ency, and often when we are stabbed deep in the breast she dstracts us by thin scratches in other parts. that in the itch of these we may forget the greater hurt till it be healed. Thus, the remembrance of last night. when you undisguisedly ran from the wrath of Pike, with pretty girl looking on (to say nothing of the acrid Arp, who will fling the legend on thou sand winds), might we'll agonize you now, as, in less hasty moments and at a safe distance. you brood upon the plteous figure you cut. On the con- trary, behold! You see no blood crim- soning the edges of the horrid gash in your panoply of self esteem; you but smart and scratch the scratches. for getting your wound in the hot itch for It is an Itch which will last (for in such matters your temper shall be steadfastl. and let the great Goliath in the mean time beware of you! You ran last night. You ran-of course you ran. Why not? You ran to fight another day!
 A bank clerk sometimes has oppor- tunities.
 The stricken fat one could not un- derstand how 1t came about that he had blurted out the damning confes- sion that he had visited Beaver Beach. When he tried to solve the puzzle. his mind refused the strain. became foggy and the terrors of his position acute Was he. like Joe Louden, 10 endure the ban of Canaan and, like him. stand e1communicate beyond the pale because of Martin Pike's displeasure2 For Norbert saw with perfect clearness today what the judge had done for Joe. Now that he stood in danger of a fate identical this came home to him. How many others. he wondered. would dO as Mamie had done and write notes such as he had received by the hand of Sam Warden late last night.
 Dear sir-tA.s from Mamie. who. in the Canaanitish way. had been won't to ad- dress him as ''Norb---Iy father wishes me 10 state that after your remark yes- terday afternoon o7 the steps. which was overheard by my mother. who happened to be standing in the hall behind yo-- and your behavior to hirseif later on he considers it impossible to allow you to call any more or 10 speak to any mem Der Of his household Yours respectfully.
 MAMIE PIKE
 Ensures and restorations bore wit ness to considerable doubt in Mamie's mind concerning Yours respectfuIly.- but she had finally let 1t stand. evident ly convinced that the plain signature. without preface. savOred of an intina- cy denied by the context
 Dear sir repeated Norbert be- tween set teeth "1npo<sible to allow rou to call any nore-- These and other terms of his dismissal recurred to him during the morning. and ever ind anon he looked up from his desk i his lips moving to the tzls of thoee aorrid phrases. and stsres out at the