The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-09-21
a Chance Encounter,


her husband that the agitated couple
a wedding-factory, and had got Oh
while he was lost IN tobacco land. the
people in the seat on the other side
Of them were engaged in a little
drama OF their own.
Ira Lathrop. known to all who knew
him as a communicating swapping 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 1 are the only sensible peo-
pie on this train"
'It-seems-so," she giggIed. It
was the first time her Sponsorship
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 fiercely that she looked about for
way to escape. Then a curiously
anxious, almost a hungry, look soft
ened his leonine jowls into boyish
eagerness, and his growl became a
sort of gruff purr:
Say, you look something like an
old sweetheart-er-frien mine.
Were you ever in Brattleboro, VIZ"
A flush warmed her cheek, and a
sense of home warmed her prim
speech, as she confessed:
Il came from there originally"
$50 did t. said Ira Lathrop, lean
ing closer, and beaming like a big
sun: 81 don't suppose you remember
Ira Lathrop?"
The old maid stared at the bachelor
as if she were trying to see the boy
she had known, through the mask that
time had modelled on his face. And
then she was a girl again, and her
voice chimed as she cried:
why, Ira!-Mr. Lathrop!-is 1t
you?"
She gave him her hand-both her
| hands, and he smothered them in one
| big paw and laid the other on for
extra warmth, as he nodded his saw
age head and roared as gentle as a
sucking dove:
We'll, we'll! Annie-Anne-Mis
Cattle! What do you think of that?''
They gossiped across the chasm OF
of years about people and things, and
knew nothing of the excitement SO
close to them, saw nothing OF Chicago
slipping back into the distance, with
| its many lights shooting across the
windows like hurled torches.
Suddenly a twinge Of ancient jeal
ousy shot through the mans heart
recurring to old emotions.
80 you're not married, Annie
| Whatever became of that fellow who
used to hang round you all the
| timer"
Charlie Selby?" She blushed at the
name, and thrilled at the luxury OF
meeting jealousy "Oh, he entered
the church. He's minister out in
Ogden, Utah"
81 always knew he'd never amount
to much" was Lathrop's epitaph or
his old rival. Then he started with
a new twinge: You bound for ogden
too?"
"Oh, no." she smiled, enrapturet
at the new sensation of making a mar
anxious, and understanding all in {
flash the motives that make coquettes
Then she told him her destination
I'm on my way to China
"China!" he exclaimed. Som T.
She stared at him with a new
thought, and gushed: "Oh, Ira-art
you a missionary, too?"
missionary? He'll, no." he roared
Excuse me-I'm an importer-Anne
| IL"
But the sonorous swear reverberat
ed in their ears like a smitten bell
and he blushed for it, but could no
! recall it.