Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-03

ulhary breast or very ordinary girl old
so all unconscious Of the intense pathos
which underlay this very ordinary exist
ence.
Vaguely Louisa knew that somewhere,
beyond even the land OF dreams, there
lay. all unknown. all mysterious, a glori-
by girlish imaginings, and the sensitive,
creating thoughts of poets, by the gal
Looping phantasies of Superseded brains,
and the vague longings of ambitious
souls-a universe wherein dwelt alike the
memories of those who have loved and
the hopes Of those who suffer But when
she thought Of 1t all, she did SO as one
who from the arid plain gazes on the cool
streams and golden minarets which the
fairy Fata Morgana conjures on the.
unreal and altogether beyond her ken.
She Shut her eyes to the beautiful mirage,
her heart against its childish yearnings.
Such things did not exist. They were
notz2or hee-Louisa Harris. The little
kit(9epmaid at the court who. on Sunday
evdd8hgs went off giggling, her chubby
face glowing with pride and the result
of recent ablutfoas, on the arm Of Jim
the third gardener Knew more about that
world of romance than we'll bred, well
born young ladies ever dreamed Of in
their commonplace philosophy
And Louisa Harris had always shut
down the book which spoke Of such i'm
possible things, and counted herself one
Therefore now, with Luke's letter i'm
her hand, in which he tells her in a very
few words that he loves her beyond any
thing on earth, and that he only waits
the day when he can call her his own.
his very own dearly loved wife. why
should Louisa-prOsy. healthy minded,
healthy-bodied Louisa-suddenly imagine
that the whole world is TRANSPORTED p
that the hotel room Is q kind of ante
chamber to heaven ?-that the red velvet,
fysvn 1l,1
rOseate hue, and that the bronze Psyche
with the broken thigh is the elusive fairy
who, with MOrganalike wand. hath con-
jured up this mirage of glorious visions,
which mayhap would vanish again be-
fore long?
She went up to the window and rested
her forehead against the cool pane. She
might be ever so strong, she could not
help her forehead feeling hot and her
eyes being full of tears-tears that did not
hurt as they fell.
Outside the weather was indeed prosy
and commonplace. Rain was coming
down in torrents and beating against the
newspaper kiosk over the way, on the
roofs OF tramways and taxi autos, MAX
ing the electric light peep dimly through
the veil of wet, drowning, by its inces-
SAINT patter to which the gusts of No
vember gale made fitful If loud accom-
paniment, the shouts of the cochers on
their boxes, the rattle of wheels on the
whistle for cabs emanating from the
porch Of the brilliantly lighted Palace
Hotel.
1t was close on half-past 6 by the clock
OF the Care du NOrd opposite. The ex-
press from Ostend had just come in
very late, OF course, owing to the gale
which had delayed the mail boat. Louisa
straining her eyes. watched the excited
crowd pouring out Of the station in the
wake of porters and of piles of luggage,
jabbering, shouting and fussing, like an
army OF irresponsible pigmies-men In
blouses, and men In immaculate bowler
hats. women wrapped in furs, clinging to
gigantic headgear that threatened to
leave the safe refuge of an elaborate
couture or Of we'll fixed gargantuan hat
pins, midinettes In fashionable skirts and
high-heeled shoes, country women in wool
shawls that tapped round their bulky
forms like the wings of an overfed bat,
all hurrying and jostling one another in
mad endeavor to avoid the onrush Of
! the innumerable taxi autos which in un-
countable numbers wound in and out of
the slower moving traffic like the cratic
thread Of some living, tangled skeif.
just the everyday prosy life Of q small
but ambitious capital struggling In the
midst Of an almost overpowering sense of
responsibility toward the whole OF Eu-
rope in view OF its recent great colonial
expansion.
Louisa gave an impatient sigh.
Even the strong ones Of the earth get
wearied Of the daily round, the common
task. at times. She and aunt were due
to dine at the British embassy at
O clock, 1, was OILY hah-past 8 how, anu