Okolona messenger., 1912-05-09
CHAPTER XII.
A Chance Encounter.


her husband that the agitated couple
In the next seat had Just come from
q wodding.factoTy, end had got on
while he was lost IN tobacco land, the
people in the seat on the other side
OF them we're engaged In little
drama Of their own.
Ira Lathrop, known to all who knew
him as a woman-hating snapping-tur-
tie, was so busily engaged trying to
drag the farthest invading rice grains
out of the back OF his neck, that he
was late In realizing his whereabouts,
When he raised his head, he found
that he had crowded into seat with
an uncomfortable looking woman, who
crowded against the window with old
maidenly timidity.
He felt some apology to be neces-
sary, and he snarled: disgusting
things, these weddings!" After he
heard this, It did not sound entirely
felicitous, so he grudgingly ventured:
Excuse me-you married.
She denied the soft Impeachment
so heartily that he softened little:
You're a sensible woman. l guess
you and I are the only sensible peo-
PIE on this train"
seems-sO," she giggled. 1t
was the first time her spinstershlp
had been taken as material for a com
pliment. Something in the girlish
giggle and the strangely young smile
that swept twenty years from her
face and belied the silver lines in
her hair, seemed to catch the old
bachelors attention. He stared at her
so dercely that she looked about Tor
way TO escape. Then a curiously
anxious, almost a hungry, look soft
ened his leonine jowIs into a boyisb
eagelness, and his growl became q
sort of gruff purr:
Say, you look something like ar
old weetheart-ei-rriend-Of mine
Were you ever in Brattleboro, VT?
A flush warmed her cheek, and q
sense OF home warmed her prin
speech, as she confessed:
Il came from there originally"
$50 did l." said Ira Lathrop, lean
ing closer, and beaming like BIZ
sun: II don't suppose you remember
Ira Lathrop?"
The old maid stared at the bachelo
as II she were trying to see the DO,
she had known, through the mask tina
time had modelled on his face, An'
then she was girl again, and he
voice chimed as she cried
"Why, Ira!-Mr LathroD!-is
you?'
She gave him her hand-both he
hands, and he smothered them in on
big paw and laid the other on 10
extra warmth, as he nodded his say
age head and roared as gentle as
sucking dove:
We'll, well! Annie-Anne--Mis
, Cattle! What do you think OF that?
They gossiped across the chasm
; of years about people and things, an
knew nothing Of the excitement S
close to them, saw nothing of Chicag
slipping back into the distance, wit
its many lights shooting across til
windows Ike hurled torches
Suddenly Q twinge Of ancient jea
ousy shot through the mans hear
recurring to old emotions.
80 you're not married, Ami
Whatever became of that fellow wi
used to hang round you all Il
timer"
Charlie selby?" She blushed at Il
name, and thrilled at the luxury
meeting jealousy. "Oh, he enterc
the church. He's a minister out
Ogden, Utah"
Il always knew he'd never amou
to much," was Lathrop's epitaph {
his old rival. Then he started wi
a new twtnge; you bound for Ogde
too?"
"Oh, no." she smiled, enraptur
at the new sensation of making a mi
anxious, and understanding all in
flash the motives that make coquettt
Then she told him her destinatic
I'm on my way to China"
"China" he exclaimed. Som |
She stared at him with a ne
thought, and gushed; "Oh, Ira-a
you a missionary, too?"
Missionary? He'll, mol" he roarC
Excuse me-I'm an importer-Anl
IL"
But the sonorous swear reverber
ed in their ears like a smitten BIZ
and he blushed for it, but could I
recall Il,