The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1911-01-05
|AQuick Wooing
By F. A. Mitchell
Copyright, 1910. by American Press
Association.

Summer was ended; autumn was dy-
ing. A gentleman entered a Gene
tary, called to one Of the workmen
employed there, led him to a grave
and directed him to take up certain
plants that needed to be housed in
winter. The matter having been at
tended to, the gentleman started to
walk to the gate and thence to 60
home.
The day had been dreary, but sud
denly a soft red glow spread over the
city Of the dead. The gentleman stop
ped. A short distance down the ave
nue. on which he was walking, at a
point where 1t entered another avenue,
he saw in lot inclOsed by an iron
fence a young woman in deep mourn
ing kneeling beside a grave. Her face
was lowered so that he could not see
It, at least but a part Of 1t, and the
hands were clasped in an attitude of
prayer. The picture was tinged by
the heavenly light that came from the
setting sun.
How often and by what singular
incidents are revolutions effected in
us! This man had buried his wife
two years before and had buried with
her, so he thought, his heart. He had
since met women by the dozens who
would have been glad to take the
place she had left vacant Not one
of them had appealed to him In the
slightest Perhaps there was that in
all of them which Jared upon his re-
lations with the dead. They seemed
to him to be Of the world. while he
was bound to one who was not of the
world. In the picture before him he
saw a counterpart of his own condi-
ton. 1t was life, but life reaching
out for another existence-a link Of
sympathy by which he might regain
his hold upon that chain Of human af-
fections which is changing throughout
our lives.
He went on. but stopped again. this
time within a short distance OF the
mourner. There, uncovering. he stood,
his head bowed. his hands crossed be-
fore him. his whole attitude bespeak-
ing reverence till the prayer was fin
ished and the lady rose from her
knees. Then for the first time she
saw a man standing with head bowed
so low that he was evidently not
aware that she had finished her prayer.
She announced the fact by slight
cough.
"Madam" said the gentleman, put
ting on his hat, 81 am sorry to have
Ss,%v al ut nnV,t Vrhhv, ~
that the world SHOULD. leave you abso.
lutely alone thaS you maF commune
with one who has gone before you.
Having intruded. could but act as
would were l in a temple consecrated
to the communion between the quick
and the dead"
II am touched, l assure you. with
your reverence and your sensibility to
our most sacred feelings You must
be one who has suffered"
Her face, being turned toward him,
showed one of those especially femi-
nine faces in which Italian artists for
centuries have been striving to portray
the mother of God. And above her
brow was something which to the OBJ
server took the place of a MadOnna's
celestial circlet. 1t was widows
cap.
When November is fading into its
successor, December, the night comes
on apace. The red light in the west
died and seemed to take with it all
that was left of the day.
Madam" pursued the gentleman,
at is quite a walk to the cemetery EN-
trance, and the twilight is already
gone. l beg Of you to permit me to
see you at least to carriage"
Zone whose delicacy of feeling l.
have SO recently witnessed may see
me anywhere" replied the lady.
And so this man who had not low
cred the band that he had put on his
hat for his dead wife two years be-
fore by a single inch walked beside
the lady in her spotless widows cap
for nearly a mile, each too reverential
of the others feelings even to mention
the bereavement that had brought
them to the cemetery. When they
reached the gate it was quite dark.
The gentleman called a carriage, put
the lady into it and, being invited to
enter, did SO and rode to her home.
Here were two people both of whom
were living for the dead because they
needed something to break the current
that held them under its control. What
no beauty in shining silk could do for
the man this woman In somber black
and under widows cap had done for
him. What no other man could do for
this woman this one by a single act.
indicating that he knew her feelings
and sympathized with them, did for
her. Nor was it something to grow
between them. It was instantaneous
Each had long been needing a break
from an unnatural brooding, and when
the break came both grasped for II
eagerly.
1t was quite dark when they drew I'D
before the lady's home. II feel so IN.
debted to you" she said, that wish
you to come in, even If for a moment
He feared he would intrude. He was
urged and gave way. He went into
the house, remained to dinner and
passed the evening When he left If
was midnight, but he departed with n
lighter heart than that with which ba
had entered.
Spring came, but the usual yerna,
planting that these two had remem. I
bered for years was forgotten. There
were flowers, but they were not laid
on graves. They were orange blossoms