The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-09-10


the regular army, and I'm the slave
OF the government. I've gone through
West Point, and they won't let me re.
; sign respectfully and if l did, we'd
starve. They wouldn't accept my
resignation, but they'd be willing to
cOurtmartial me and dismiss me from
the service in disgrace. Then you
wouldn't want to marry me-and 1
shouldn't have any way of supporting
you If you did I only know one
trade, and that's soldering"
Don't call it a trade, beloved, it's
the noblest profession In all the
world, and you're the noblest soldier
that ever was, and in year or two
you'll be the biggest general in the
army"
He could not afford to shatter such
of faith in those beloved and loving
eyes He tacitly admitted his ability
70 be promoted commander-in-chfef in
year or two. He allowed that gilt.
tering possibility to remain, used it
as basis for argument
Then, dearest, you must help me
to do my duty"
She clasped his upper arm as If it
We're an altar and she an Iphigenia
about to be sacrificed to save the
army. And she murmured with utter
heroism:
Il will Do what you like with
mel"
He squeezed her hand between his
biceps and his ribs and accepted the
offering in look drenched with graf.
itude. Then he said, matter-of-factly:
Well see how much time We have
when we get to-whateyer the name
of that street is
The car jolted and walled on its
way like al old drifting rocking
chair. The motorman was in no hur-
~. The passengers seemed to have
no occasion for haste. Somebody got
on or got off at almost every corner,
and paused for conversation while
the car waited patiently. But eventu.
ally the conductor put his head in and
drawled:
Hay! Here's where you get on
at"
They FASTENED to debark and found
| themselves in a narrow, gaudily-light-
ed region where they saw a lordly
Observation-Disclosures, a profound schol.
ar in Chicago streets. He informed
them that the minister's street lay
far back along the path they had
| come; they should have taken a car
in the opposite direction, transferred
at some remote center, descended at
some unheard-of street, walked three
blocks one way and four another, and
there they would have been.
Mallory looked at his watch, and
Marjorie's hopes dropped like
wrecked aeroplane, 1or he grimly
asked how long it would take them to
reach the railroad station.
We'll, you'd ought to make it in
forty minutes" the transfer agent
said-and added, cynically, IF the car
makes schedule
Good Lord, the train starts in
twenty minutes!"
Well, l tell you-take this here
green car to Wexford avenoo-theres
usually a taxicab or two standin'
there"
Thank you. Hop on, Marjorie"
Marjorie hoped on, and they sat
down, Mallory with eyes and thoughts
on nothing but the watch he kept in
his hand
During this tense journey the girl
perfected her soul with graceful
martyrdom.
III go to the train with you, Har.
ry, and then you can send me home
in taxicab.'
Her neither lip trembled and her
eyes were filmed, but they were brave,
and her voice was so tender that il
wooed his mind from his watch. He
gazed at her, and found her so dear,
so devoted and so pitifully exquisite,
that he was almost overcome by an
impulse TO gather her into his arms
there and then, Indifferent to the i'm
mediate passengers or to his far-or
military superiors. An hour ago they
were young lovers in all the Tilt and
thrill of elopement. She had chung to
him in the cleaning of their taxicab,
as 1t sped like a genie at their within
to the place where the minister
would unite their hands and raise his
own in blessing. Thence the new
husband would have carried the new
wife away, his very own, soul and
body, duty and beauty. Then, ah,
then in their minds the future was an
unwaning honeymoon, the journey
across the continent, stroll along
lovers lane, the Pacific ocean a gar
den lake, and the Philippines a chain
of Fortunate Isles decreed especially
for their Eden. And then the taxi
cab encountered a lamppost. They
thought they had merely wrecked a
motor car-and 10, they had wrecked
a Paradise.
The railroad ceased to be a lovers
lane and became lingering torment;
the ocean was weltering Sahara,
and the Philippines a Dry Tortugas
OF exile.
Mallory realized for the first time