Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-17
CHAPTER II.-Continued.

He had considerable vitality, however:
he withstood one shock after another and
survived to start again with new vfgor.
In desperation I found some cigarettes
and one match, piled my blankets over
my grip. and drawing the curtains to-
gether as though the berth were still oc-
cupied. I made my way to the vestibule
of the car
l was not clad for dress parade. Is 1t
because the male is so restricted to
gloom in his everyday attire that he bios
SONS into gaudy colors in his pajamas
and dressing gowns? 1t would take a
Turk to feel at home before an audience
in my red and yellow bath robe. a
Christmas remembrance from Mrs Klop-
ton. with slippers to match.
so, naturally. when / saw a feminine
figure on the platform, my first instinct
was to dodge. The woman, however, was
quicker than L; she gave me a startled
glance. wheeled and disappeared. with a
fash of two bronze-colored braids, into
the next car.
Cigarette box in one hand. match in
the other. leaned against the uncertain
frame or the door and gaZed after her
vanished figure. The mountain air flap
ped my bath robe around my bare an
kles. my one match burped to the end
and went out, and still / stared. For
Ing look that was horror, nothing less.
Heaven knows. l am not psychological.
Emotions have to be written large be-
fore / can read them. But a woman in
trouble always appeals to me, and this
woman was more than that. She was
in deadly fear.
II had not been afraid of being ridicu-
lous / would have followed her. But
fancied that the apparition of a man in
red and yellow bath robe. with an I'M
lyav, hot 0c hot lit % hor
and assuring her that he would protect
her would probably put her into hys-
terics. I had done that once before,
when burglars had tried to break into the
house. and had startled the parlor maid
into bed for a week. So / tried to as
sure myself that I had imagined the
ladys distress-or caused It, perhaps
and to dismiss her from my mind. Per-
haps she was merely anxious about the
unpleasant gentleman OF the restaurant
I thought smugly that 1 could have told
her all about him-that he was sleeping
the sleep OF the just and the intoxicated
in a berth that ought. by all that was
fair and right, to have been mine, and
like that I should have him anesthetized
and his soft palate put where it would
never again flap like loose sail In the
wind.
We passed Harrisburg as I stood there
1t was starlight, and the great crests OF
the Alleghenies had given way to low
hills. At intervals we passed smudges
of gray white, no doubt in daytime COM
Portable farms, which Mcknight says
is good way of putting it, the farms
being lot more comfortable than the
people on them.
was growing drowsy-the woman with
the bronze hair and the Mortified face
was fading in retrospect. 1t was colder
too, and / turned with shiver to go in
AS I did So. a bit OF paper fluttered
into the air and settled on my sleeve
like a butterfly on a gorgeous red and
yellow blossom. I picked it up curiously
telegram that had been torn into bits.
There were only parts OF four words or
the scrap. but it left me puzzled and
thoughtful. 1t read, "-ower ten, cal
seve-." Lower ten, car seven," was
my berth-the one I had bought and
found pre-empted.