The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-05-30

stalked the bridegroom, jealous OF
SLOW tying bonnet strings.
The farewell kiss was imprinted
upon Helens hand, and out of the
window and down the ire escape
sprang John Delaney, Africa bound
\ little slow music, if you please
faint violin, just a breath in the clari-
net and Il touch of the cello. Imagine
the scene. Frank, white hot, with the
cry OF man wounded to death burst
ing from him; Helen, rushing and
elinging to him, trying to explain. He
catches her wrists and tears them
from his sh0UldorS-on twice. thrice
he sWayS her this way and that-the
stage manager will show YOU how
and throws her from him to the floor
huddIed, crushed, moaning thing.
Never, he cries. will he look upon her
face again, and rushes from the house
through the staring groups of aston
ished guests.
And now, because it is the thing in
stead of the play, the audience must
stroll out into the real lobby of the
world and marry, die, grow gray, rich.
poor, happy or sad during the inter
mission of twenty years which must
precede the rising of the curtain again.
Mrs Barry inherited the shop and
the house. At thirty-cight she could
have bestcd many an cightecn-rear old
at beauty show on points and gen
eral results. Only a few people re
membered her wedding comedy, but
she made of it no secret
One day middle aged money max
ing lawyer, who bought his legal cap
and ink of her, asked her across the
counter TO marry him.
I'm really much obliged TO you.
said Helen checrfully, but ! married
another man twenty years ago. He
was more a goose than q man, but l
think | love him yet. l have never
seen him since about half an hour aft
er the ceremony. Was it copying ink
that you wanted or just writing tluid:'
The lawyer bowed over the counter
with old time grace and left a re
spectful kiss on the back of her hand.
Helen sighed. Parting salutes, how
ever romantic, may be oVerdone. Here
she was at thirty-oiGht, beautiful and
admired, and all That she seemed to
have got from her lovers were re
proachos and adieus.
Business languiShcd. and she huns
out Room to Let card. Two large
rooms on the third floor We're pre-
pared for desirable tenants.
One day came ltamOnti, the YioinIat
and engaged the front room above.
Ramonti, with his still youthful lace
his dark eyebrows. his distinguished
head Of gray hair and his artists ten
perament-revealcd in his i-ht, cay
and sympathetic manncr-was Il W.
come tenant in the old house near
Abingdon square.
Helen lived on the floor above the
store. The architecture Of it was sin
gular and quaint. The hall was large
and almost square, Up ou" side Of if
and then across the end pf it ascend
ed an open stairway to the do0r above
This hall space she had furnished as
a sitting room and office combined.
There she kept her desk and wrote her
business letters, and there she sat Of
evenings by a warm fire and a bright
red light and scWcd or read Ramonti
found the atmosphere so agreeable
that he spent much time there, dcscrib-
ing to Mrs. Barry the wonders of Paris.
whore he had studded with a nortipu-
larly notorious and noisy fiddler.
Next comes Iodger No. .. a hand
some, melancholy man in the early
forties. with a brown. mysterious beard
and STRANGELY pleading haunting eyes
He, too. found the society of Helen a
desirable thing. With the eyes Of
Romeo and Othcllo's tongue, he
charmed her with tales Of distant
climes and wooed her by respectful
innuendo.
From the first Helen felt a mar
veIous and compelling thrill in the
presence Of this man. His voice
somehow took her swiftly back to the
DAYS of her Youths romance. This
feeling crew. and she gave way 10 if
and II led her to an instructive belief
that he had been a factor in that 70
nance. And then with a woman's
reasoning (oh, yes. they do, some
ttmaSl she leaned over common SvIlO-