Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1912-03-28

On, money, WANT you more tHan
anything else on earth, but I'm a
soldier, dearie, mere lieutenant in
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 ii | did, we'd
starve. They wouldn't accept my
resignation, but they'd be willing to
courtEartial me and dismiss me from
the service in disgrace. Then you
wouldn't want to marry me--and |
shouldn't have any way OF supporting
you if you did. Oily know one
trade, and that's soldering"
Don't call it 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"
lie could not afford to shatter such
a devout illusion or quench the light
of faith in those beloved and loving
eyes He tacitly admitted his ability
to be promoted commander-in-chi in
a year or two. He allowed that gilt.
tering possibility to remain, used it
as a basis for argument.
Then, dearest, you must help me
to do my duty"
She clasped his upper arm as II it
were an altar and she an lphigenia
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 a look drenched with graf.
itude. Then he said, matter-ot-factly:
Wen see how much time We have
when we get to-whatever the name
of that street is."
The car jolted and walled on ita
way like an old drifting rocking
chair. The motorman was in no hur-
ry. 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 or
at"
They hastened to debark and found
themselves in a narrow, gaudily-light-
ed region where they saw a lordly
ansfer-distributor, 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 a
wrecked aeroplane, Ior he grimly
asked how long it would take them to
reach the railroad station.
Well you'd ought to make 1t in
forty minutes" the transfer agent
sald-and added, cynically, If the car
makes schedule"
Good Lord, the train starts in
twenty minutes!"
green car to Wexford avenoo-there's
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.
I'll 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 1t
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-ofi
military superiors. An hour ago they
were young lovers in all the Tilt and
thrill of elopement. She had clung to
him In the cleaning OF their tax.cab
as it sped like genie at their whim
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 journe,
across the continent, a stroll along g
lovers lane, the Pacific ocean gar
den lake, and the Philippines chair
of Fortunate Isles decreed especially
for their Eden. And then the taxi
cab encountered lamppost. They
thought they had merely wrecked
motor car-and 10, they had wrecked
q Paradise
The railroad ceased to be a lovers
lane and became lingering torment
the ocean was a weltering Sahara
and the Philippines Dry Tortugas
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