Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-02-24
THE EVENING STORY 2
WAS 1T BROWN?
BY NELLIE cRAvEY GILMORE
Copyright, 1910, by Associated Liter
airy Press.

Copyright, 1910, by Associated Liter
airy Press.
AS long as she lived Sylvia would
never forget that dizzy walk home
from The hospital in the singing, pour
ing rain; the savage pleasure she eX-
perienced in the cruel way it whipped
her hot cheeks and half froze the
angry blood, curdling flercely through
her rebellious little body.
She had been fool to go there, OF
course. And she faced the verdict of
her own common sense with the Keen
est sense of humiliation she had ever
known. To be refused abundance 70
the room where her lover presumably
lay diving because she could not give
an affirmative answer to the attend
ants inquiry as to whether she were
"anything to the patient was bitter
enough Of itself, but to come race 10
face with Chalmers mother and Alline
Bester, about to enter where she had
been denied, and to be met by
naughty stare of surprise from each,
made her young blood boil.
AS a matter Of fact they were eV-
erything to each other. Both she ana
Chalmers know that far better than
any spoken word or circlet OF gold
could signify, but no formal engage
ment existed between them, and she
could not be the first to proclaim
their love.
They told her at the hospital that il
he lived through the night the chances
were he would recover The follow
ing day paragraph in the paper
stated that young Chalmers was pro-
nounced comparatively out Of danger.
A succeeding item limited at his ap-
preaching betrothal to Alline Bester.
And within a week the young fullback
was on the rapid road to recovery.
The day before Chalmers was dis
charged from the hospital Sylvia, her
mother and father sailed for Japan.
Nine weeks later Sylvia sat reading
with overnight, indignant eyes the
following letter from her lover:
Boston, Mass, Dec 3.
Dear Little Girl-Why did you run
away without one word of farewell
Is it possible that, after everything
you can still be in the dark about how
feel toward you? Have | been mis-
taken in assuming that you felt the
same?
"My last conscious thought before
that frightful accident was of you; my
first on reawakening to the ratlona
world was of-you. My very first ac,
on being released from the crucible
of nurses and doctors was to hasten tt
) Wildmere, only to find you thousands
of miles away-and not one word OF
line of explanation.
"The governor and my mater were
So cut UP about the accident that
have concluded to retire from the
gridiron for the present. Thus you see
everything considered, l return to col
lege a very detected and gloom!
. soph Will you not drop me lint
from the far off orient that life ma.
seem something less than blank
dear, and the world habitable plac
instead of one vast, aching wilder
l ness? AS always,
5 BILLY"
Sylvia read the letter several time
with variety of emotions. Then sh
/. crumpled it up and tossed it into tn
trash basket. Afterward she went owe
4 to her writing desk and penned
: cloudy polite little note in reply tina
effectually shut off any possible e1
cuse for further correspondence
, When the letter was sealed; the Iii
tie .resolute line of her lips relaxe
t into uuivering and she broke into
g storm of tears.
Early in the following autumn tn
Marburys returned to America.
1t was on a glorious Novembe
v morning that Sylvia came in, flushed
: from downtown expedition, and hui
g ried straight to the little white sittin
+ room in their new apartments at
:, fashionable New York hotel.
+ Without stopping to remove her ha
r she turned her bag upside dow
emptying the contents on small ony
l. table. There were several new pos
$ cards, half dozen newspaper eli
pings. a few half-tones-of Brow
: She opened her scrapbook and paste
: them all in with painstaking finger
Never had there been man lii
Brown on the Yale gridiron. Evel
IS day added fresh laurels to his alread
e brilliant record. He was worshippe
y Of his classmates, idolized by the tea
II and adored by the girls.
II From the wreck of her shattere
u hopes, Sylvia had risen to Join in tt
universal IelO WI ollP' vi liCi iIuill
y was panel of the invincible Brown
in her bureau drawers were immune
able likenesses and unlikenesses. 81
carried his picture in a tiny lock
al about her neck, and on her desk W;
~ a porcelain painting Of him.
. She glanced smilingly at the doz'
Il different caricatures each newspap
had proudly named as the only tr1
l. likeness" Of the mighty one. The
, with a queer little pang at her hea,
es she opened the secret compartment
"a her desk and drew forth an old pilot
g graph Of Billy Chalmers. She look
into the handsome. serious eyes lol
and earnestly; a little sob caught
her throat How she had loved hir
re Could 1t be really true, she asked hi
r self, that he had changed SO much
Of and cared for that other(?). car
RI enough to marry her, as report said
~ A sharp rap on the door interrupt
No the painful train of thought and S
via rose and turned the knob, scho
ing her face into unconcern. 1t was