Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-26
''Gilbert's

in love-"
Mrs Meredith murmured her self-pity in Latin;
Miss Harvey gave her fetching girlish laugh; Miss
Mum looked shocked. Miss Wharton looked in
quiring1y at the speaker
''Yes it's your literary genius said Miss Arm
strong HE was drawn to her by their common
af1icton; he says they are kindred souls. Oh,
could tell you lots more,' she added reassuringy;
1.-The family are wildly uneasy about it. and they
poured it all into my sympathizng ear. They're
thinking of sending him to Cuba-for his health"
Mrs Meredith's assumed its most eloquent
angle. 81 certainly should If I were his mother"
she said "They are people of culture and refine
ment."
Does anybody know anything about her peo-
ple,r asked Miss Mum. The Thomas Jefferson
School had imported Miss Mum from the far north.
Mrs Meredith prefaced an answer by shrug
that spoke volumes. Certainly she said. Her
mother is a dressmaker; the most impossible wom-
an with whom I had Healings. 1 never took
her a second garment" Mrs. Meredith shuddered
over the remembered experience.
Miss Wharton smiled maliciously. ''Keats father
kept livery-stable,' she said "and Byron's moth
er was-impossible"
About month after this revelation Miss Whar-
ton was working at her desk one evening after
school, when Gilbert entered somewhat apologeti-
cally. Miss Wharton watched his difficult progress
with pity He was a fair-faced. gentle-looking
born to a radical physical defect In spite of her
pity she had always found the boy little uncom-
Portable to deal with. He had told her once that.
when he in her class, he could hardly listen
to her questions, for looking at her eyes; conf
dence which had disturbed her less after she learn
ed by accident that he had told Miss Harvey he
could not study while she was in the room for lis
tening to her voice.
Gilbert evidently was laboring under sense of
the momentousness of his errand. Miss Whar-
ton,'' he said appeangly, "do you agree with Car
lyle's opinion of Byron, that we read in class to-
day?"
Miss Wharton mentally gasped. It's hard to
mold moral standards with one haad and aesthetic
standards with the other.
''Yes, believe do, Gilbert,-on the whole. By
ron was great poet, but he was not strong man
was he?'
"Oh but he had such noble impulses you knowg
Miss Wharton couldn't make you understand how
feel about Byron. lists a sort of affinity be-
tween minds I think. And have little
friend-f possible, she worships aim even more
than do" For instant Gilbert paused in de-
1icous embarrassment; but before Miss Wharton's
dazed mind could grasp his reference to Johnny
Ethel, he was pouring further conf iences into her
defenseless ears He was telling her what deep.
noble nature Johnny Ethel had; how she kept
copy of 'The Castaway under her pillow, blistered
with tears and worn out with reading; how she
kept Byrons picture on her bureau, and burned
candles before it on his birthday -ow brayely she
bore her suffering. "And, Miss Wharton" added
poor Gilbert, "she sees my resemblance to Byron
That's reason she's SO good about letting me
come to see her. I don't think there's anybody at
home that really appreciates her, he added PEN
siyey.
lunchroom with her most knowing smile Gil
bert" she announced, has gone to Cuba for MS
health
Johnny Ethel bore Gilberts absence with
siderable fortitude She continued to whisper in
defatigaby across the aisle to adjacent masculin-
ity and to embellish her themes with references to
the golden orb of day" and the 'hymeneal altar
The latter was phrase she never omitted, even
from her theme on Basketball" She always in
sisted that she thought golden orb or day was
''lot's prettier'n just sun.
One day after school, month or two after Gill
bert's departure Miss Wharton received message
from the Principal that Mrs. Potts was In the Of
fee, and wished to speak to the teachers. Johnny
Ethel had been absent that day-an unusual oc-
currence for in spite of her lameness, Johnny Eth
els attendance had been the most creditaDe Item
in her whole academic record.
When she reached the office Miss Wharton found
three or four of the other teachers assembled lis
tening to a yoluble little woman in black who was
plainly on the verge of tears.
ST was just saying Miss Wharton" she said.
turning to the newcomer dstressfully. that
wanted to and tell you all before you seen 1t In
the papers. I've tried so hard to give her q good
education, and I've heard her talk SO mucn a aooue
month, sinc't he's been driving the laundry wag-
"Johnny EthePs married. exclaimed Miss
Willing the practical and kindly-in answer to
Miss Wharton's bewildered face
And to think she'd run away, when I've always
81 suspect you have INDUCED her too much, Mrs.
Potts, said Miss Mum, in her throaty voice with
the funereal nod with which she was won't to en-
phasize her most dismal remarks
81 suppose her lameness made 1t hard not to,
interpesed Miss Harvey, with eager soothing.
Even in her garrulous distress and bewilderment
the mother stopped short staring at Miss Harvey
Her lameness,'' repeated Miss Harvey, in her
brightly didactc way HAS she always been
lame?"
Everybody looked at the mothers blank face,
then at everybody else, and the truth began to
dawn.
"Oh', mourned the mother 81 never knowed her
to complain of being lame but onct. and then had
her to rub herself with arnica liniment-there amt
nothing better-and kept her home from the skat-
ing rink and she never said nothing about it after
ward'
When Mrs. Potts had taken her melancholy de-
parture, Johnny Ethel's instructors gazed at each
other with indescribable faces
"Well,'' said Mrs. Meredith with dignity.
MANY time said Miss Harvey, batting her
eyes impressivey. 81 have said to myself, That girl
can walk we'll as l can. "
YES assented the Principal gathering up his
scattered papers, "she sometimes forgot to limp.
At last Miss Munns intelligence like heavy artl-
lery arrived upon the scene. Then she wash
lame at all!' she ventured, in hushed. shocked
voice.
4 f1oo nocf