Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-02


annoyance, land you bring with you the
sentiments of the outside world the world
| have forsworn. Don't do it, ask you"
81 don't get you, reflected Max. mo,
Pal, don't quite grab this hermit game. 1t
amt human nature, | say. Way up here,
miles from the little brass rail and the sport
ing extra, and other things that make life
worth livng-it's beyond mel"
I'm not asking your APPROVAL replied
the hermit. All ask is to be let alone"
"Let me speak" said Miss Norton. "Mr.
Peters and | have been friends, you might
say, for three years. 1t was three years ago
my awcd eyes first fell upon him, selling his
postcards at the inn. He was to me then
the true romance, the man to whom the
world means nothing with certain woman
at his side That is what he has meant to
all the girls who came to Baldpate. He isn't
going to shatter my ideal of him-he isn't
going to refuse a lady in distress. You will
come. won't you, Mr.. Peters,
But Peters shook his head again. 81 dis
like women as a SEX he said; "but I've al
ways been gentle and easy with isolated
examples of EN-. 1t amt my style to turn
EN- down. But this is asking too much I'm
sorry; but | got to be true to my OATH
got to be a herrnitH
"Maybe," sneered Max, hes got good
reason for being a hermit. Maybe there's
brass buttons and uniforms mixed up in it.
"You come from the great world OF sus-
picion," answered the hermit, turning re-
proving eyes upon him. "YOur talk is natu
raj: it goes with the life you lead. But it
isn't true
"And Mr.. Max is the last who should in
sinuate," rebuked Magee. "Why, only last
night he denounced suspicion, and bemoaned
the fact that there was SO much of it in the
world
"Well he might, replied the hermit. "Sus-
picion is the keynote of modern life-es-
peciallv in New York. He drew the purple
dressing gown closer about his plump form.
Il remember the last time | was in the big
town, seeing crowd of men in the grillroom
of the Hoffman House. One of them-~lOng,
lean, like an eel-stooped down and whis
pered in the ear of little fellow with da
mond horseshoe Decorating his habcr-
dashery, and pointing to another man near
by. No, | won't, says the man with the
diamonds. | don't introduce nobody to
nobody. Let every man play his own game,
1 say That's New York. That's its es
sence. Il introduce nobody to nobody"
TT seems odd, remarked AIagee, ito hear
you speak of the time you walked on
pavements.
81 haven't always been on Baldpate
Mountain, replied the hermit. "Once too
paid taxes and wore a derby hat and sat in
BARRIERS chairs. Yes, | sat in EN- in many
towns, in many corners of this little round
globe. But that's all over now
The three visitors gazed at Peters with
new interest.
New York." said Max softly, as a better
man might have spoken the name of the girl
he loved. Its great little Christmas tree.
The candles are always burning, and the
tinsel presents always look good to me.
The hermit's eyes strayed far away,
down the mountain and beyond. New
York." said he, and his tone was that in
which Max had said the words. "a great
little Christmas tree il is, with fine presents
for the reaching. Sometimes, at night here,
| see it as it was four years ago-I see the
candles lit on the Great White Way hear
the elevated roar, and the newsboys shout,
and Diamond Jim Brady applauding at a
musical comedy's first night. New York;"
Max rose pompously and pointed a yellow
finger at the Hermit of Baldpate Mountain.
al got YOU he cried in triumph. I'm wise!
You want to go back"
A half hearted smile crossed the visible
portion of the hermit's face. 81 guess I'm
about the poorest liar in the world, he said.