The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-10-14
P VI.
Continued.

But in the more decorous parts OF
the city through which she passed,
where the sameness of the archlctec-
ture suggested a monotonous pro-
priety. as if the people had hit upon.
one pattern for their mansions and
their manners, from which they dared
not trust themselves to diverge an
inch, because they knew that unless
they bound themselves down by iron
rules there would be no depending
on them-in these solitudes there
were no living creatures abroad save
the occasional policeman and the
universal cat, something machine
like in the steady gait of the for
mer making him seem less like a hui
nan being than a part of the con-
structive force of The city; and
something uncanny and not account
ed for in the presence of the cats,
in their fittings to and fro, in the
way they peered up through area
ratings, or dropped on velvet paws,
mistaken, from incredible heights,
or wandered with confidence round
lodges so narrow thai, when such
small space suficed, it would scarce
ly have been marvellous if they had
gene en- without any foothold at all;
their gambols, too, their demoniac
disagreements. and the walls with
which they announced the success of
some of their enterprises, as if, like
man himself, they were doomed to
disappointment even in the gratih-
cation of their fondest hopes, realiza-
ton falling so far short of anticipa-
ton as to be a punishment in it.
self-all this. seen and suggested to
Gertrude as she passed, made their
presence another sign of solitude. an
addition to the strangeness in which
the night and stiffness had already
muf1ed the well-known world past
recognition.
But still, curiously enough, she
had not expected to find anything I'M
usual at home. Her thoughts We're
quite busy with what she saw; her
imagination had not at all outrun
her rate of progress; and now, when
the cab pulled up at her W door,
it was with quite a shock that she
recognized the strangeness here also.
Her OWL home had lost the in
dividuality that made it home. 1t
vas one of a ROY of tall houses with
large porticos, and looked now exact
ly like the rest, with close-drawn
blinds. hiding curtain or flower stand
or other triie that might have been
familiar. without a light even in the
hall, with nothing to distinguish it,
in fact, except the number.
She got out Of the cab and stood
for a moment looking up at the
windows. and felt that they in turn
looked down at her with a sort of
answer in every pane, and in the
blank, the unresponsive, the unwel-
coming silence. "He has not come"
She knew it in her heart before
she rang. and yet she rang, and rang
again. and fancied she heard a foot
fall in the empty house, was sure he
was there, was coming, would open
the door, and all would be right
again directly.
But oh! the change of such a re-
turn to her happy home! The con
trast between this cruel uncertainty,
this cold repulse, and the tender love
with which she had been received at
other times; it made her feel like an
outcast.
Leslie! Leslie!" she cried, and it
seemed to her as if she had not until
that moment at all realized the full
extent Of her trouble.
The cabman, a stout old fellow in
'"nultitudinous wrappings, with a face
Which mad apparently assumed fat
as a disguise, so completely were the
features obliterated by it, and a voice
that ~resembled the squeak and
rumble of his own cab wheels, had
stood on the pavement watching her,
and now he observed: "It seems
they're all from home"
Gertrude turned to him. HE MAY
be at his chambers" she said. Drive
ME there" and gave him the address.