The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-17

good job of getting down himself he's sure he can help somebody else.'' Through her laughter, how ever, she noticed with what instinctive art the raw countrygir adapted herself to the mans point of view, allowed her vigorous young body to be guided cautiously down the steps, and up the station platform as though she were nfirm old woman, and how she smiled gratefully at the who had poted her safely through this danger expedition.
 Elizabeth labeled the mans answering adorng gaze extensively patronizing' but there thing else in it which had never been in any gaze directed on her, and her smile died away. It oc- cured to her uncomfortably that she might really know less about the problems being those of mean and petty artifces and of life itself ignoble affair; and reflected with some bitterness that undoubtedly Dolly would call that looking at things they really were"
 Afterwards, in meditating the matter. she cluded that this was the turning point that over- come as by last straw by the unspeakable dreari- of Hoosac Junction, she then and there came to her momentous decision; but at the time she was aware only of general sinking of the heart and a forlorn desoation. She wished heartily that her visit in the mountains and she were on her way back to Albany. When the train to Manchester appeared she climbed weari1y in, drop ped int0 the first seat, and took perVerse pleas in not looking out at the mountains they be- gan to shoulder themselves up above the horizon. Dolly had once said of her that for sudden pitch black fits of melancholy nobody could equal per- son like Elizabeth who laughed great deal.
 The moody traveller ignored the people in the car she ignored the lovely summer landscape so that she was quite surprised that evening swhen her neighbor at dinner began the conversation by saying, You may think Pm stranger to you but Pm not. I sat the aisle from you and stared at you all the way from Hoosac Junction up here'' He spoke with gay effrontery which carried offence and waited for her strike the key note of their acquaintance.
 "rm afraid wasn't cheerful object for contem- plation," began Elizabeth with her pleasant imper sonal laugh, q was feeling horribly blue and de- pressed, and wondering if" She again startled to hear quaver in her voice, and stop ped, flushing at the idea of telling stranger what had been depressing her on that journey.
 The young man evidently considered that the key note of sentimentality had been struck and joined the harmony at once by leaning towards her impul- sively and saying in low, intimate tone T saw you looked unhappy and frightened. It made want to take of you"
 These last words resounded loudly in Elizabeth's ears Perhaps Dolly right. She glanced up and down the table. Nobody knew her except her host ess, who desperately pre-occupied with the of large house-party. Her visit in Manchester opened before her like clean white sheet on which she could write herself down any character she chose without fear of detection She looked again at her companion, who, preserving the discreet of expectant si1ences persuaded her dumbly to conf dence, with softly inviting dark eyes.
 She drew long breath and made the plunge
 As she brushed her hair before her mirror that night, she laughed inextingushably at the recoec ton of the rest of the evening, but she half frightened nevertheless at the with which, the plunge once taken, she had sailed away upon known and to her. wholly uncharted seas She tried to imagine Uncle Henry's face if he had heard her dlating the terrors of solitary journey, and ending with pathetic, 'I it's foolish to be so sensitive but can't help it. I'm SO dependent upon others carel"
 The impetus of her start had carried them both along to intimate discussion of the real nature of women, in which Elizabeth, summoning Dolly's mocking spirit to her aid, had proclaimed the sex universally asclihging vine, and herself the fra est of it's tendrils She woke up in the night while she shivered nervously at the thought where she might end if she continued to joke, she laughed aloud at the vision of herself masqueradng in that guise She her fear resolutey out of her mind. The Responsibility of transient relationships both dazzled and treasured her. She would never meet any of these people again she told herself and never in the world would she have such oppor- tunity to see if Dolly was right.
 Morning light brought reaction from her reso- 1ution and after breakfast she sat in the library with Paul Mortimer, her last nights dinner partner, leaning over her shoulder, instructing her how to
 
 down stairs for the purpose)
 Do sign here? she asked "or is it the date that goes that line? I can remember!" Here she sighed prettily over the complications of bus life, and "Oh, my goodness! Do I have to do it all over again the stub as you call it; what funny name! And now, which do I get the money from, the check the stub?"
 At the end of this extraordinary speech she joined Mortmer's plying laugh at her impracticality with wild whoop of merriment whose almost hysterical genuneness she feared would betray her. She, who had run her widowed fathers household since she little girl, to be asking where to sign a check!
 After this important business transaction peted, Mortimer proposed showing her around the golf-course. As long she lives Elizabeth will never forget that morning of instruction in the art of golf Burying deep in oblivion the three silver cups she had won, she gave herself wholly over to Dollys inspiration and under the joyous sun of July "she played the fool, she told herself pacently, Hike born clown" She exclaimed over