The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-03-02
A
Coincidence
By RUTH GRAHAM

Edwin Young was man Of very
deep feeling. An engineer by profes
sion, while engaged on the work OF
making a preliminary survey on pro
posed railroad he was accustomed tc
stop overnight or for meals at farm
houses. During this time he might
have stopped at dozen houses In each
of which he had seen from one to a
dozen persons.
One day some time after the survey
had been completed he received a note
signed Mary Warheld." 1t was writ
ten in the handwriting Of woman
and confessed that he had stayed al
the house in which she lived while the
railroad was being surveyed and she
had fallen in love with him. He prob
ably would not wish to find her and
II he did he could not do so, for she
did not at the time she wrote him live
at the same place. Her love was eat
ing her life away. Nevertheless she
would not be so unfeminine as to ask
him to love her. The only satisfac-
ton she allowed herself was to inform
him of her love
Young was just the man to be i'm
pressed by a circumstance which nine
in ten men. though they might feel a
bit fiattered. would cast aside as a
matter of no moment whatever. He
had no desire to find the writer of the
note, for he was a man of culture,
while she was doubtless with little or
no education. But he thought about
this girl who was dying for him and
wondered If she used the word liter
ing. At times he was tempted to hunt
her up, but in his calmer moments he
saw plainly that such a course would
likely lead to serious consequences.
Young, who had left the home of his
parents, went to live in a boarding
house in the city. 1t was near an i'm
portant school building, and several
women teachers boarded there. IT is
said that III the profession of teaching
there are no prizes. Teachers don't get
teachers-any mark in the world. New
erthe.ess their lives are on an intellec-
tual plane. With those In this house
where Young boarded he became init
mate One or two of them showed him
sufficient favor to warrant his making
love to them. The one he fancied most,
Miss Virginia Martin, seemed rather
shy of him.
Perhaps It was because Of this shy
ness and that Miss Martin was the
prettiest Of the lot that he liked her the
best. There was in her something of
that emotional nature which was in
him. though emotional does not as
correctly express it in her case as in
his. She was, rather, one of those per-
sons to whom the phrase still waters
run deep" applies.
Young, after dinner in the evening,
would be a great deal with the young
ladies, and very soon they, discovering
which way the wind blew, would one by
one go off to their rooms, leaving him
and Miss Martin together. That was
the beginning of 1t. The end of it was
an engagement between them.
But before the engagement Young
ceived signed MARY Warf1eld" and
that it had made a marked
impression on him. Then he asked her
II she thought he was by any higher
law than is usual in such cases bound
to this poor girl. who had anonymously
her love for him. Miss Mar
tin couldn't see that he was. He told |
her that he had made no effort to find
Mary Warfield, and Miss Martin said |
that he had acted wisely. The only
doubt. he told her, that he had In pro-
posing TO his fiancee was a fear that at
SOME future time he might receive an
appeal from Mary Warfield which
would act upon his emotional nature
thus creating a barrier between him
and the girl he nved, later to be his
wife. Miss Marlin said it was to be
hoped no such event would occur.
All went well between the lovers,
though now and again Young would ,
appear moody. Miss Martin on such
occasions smilingly accused him of
of Mary Warfield. He would
neither affirm nor deny the charge, but
the girl present. the smile she gave
him and perhaps a kiss banished the ,
one who was dying for him.
When the summer vacation came on .
Miss Martin prepared to spend it at .
home, for she did not live in the city /
where she taught. Young was to take
1 couple of weeks in August for his
OWN rest and was to spend it at her
home, making the acquaintance of her
family.
Miss Martin would have it that the
matter between them was to be drop
ped from the time they parted till he
had met her relatives He was obliged
10 spend six weeks without word
from her. Then he Joined her. He