The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-27

A knock sounded on the principal.
door. That's Florence" she thought
and she sighed in the same breath. Ths
principal had secretly liked Florence
Raimund. the best of her 200 girls, FOL
three years, and sometimes she suspect
ed that Florence knew it. Miss Wing sal
at her desk. 1t was a large desk of oak
always kept in blameless order. No one
could recall seeing more than one letter
at a time lying or the blotter Any
others, vet unread, lay in the wicker
tray to the left; the letters read but not
answered were in the wicker tray to the
right; the answered letters were in ap-
propriate pigeonholes or in ashes. Miss
Wing being a firm believer in fire as a
confidential agent. About the desk huns
the most interesting object in the room
to the schoolgirls; in fact, ii would he
hard to gauge justly the influence this
one, mute, and motionless, had over their
young imaginations; or how far it was
responsible for the rose-tinted halo that
beyond doubt glorified the principal for
them. The object was a picture, the
picture of A young man in the uniform
of captain in the German cuirassiers.
His thick light hair was brushed back
from a fine and candid forehead. A
smile creased his cheek under the war
like curl of his mustache. 1t was a smile
so happy and so friendly in its happi-
ness that il won the beholder. The eyes
We're not large, but even in the black
and white of a photograph (the portrait
was an ordinary cabinet cartel they
seemed to sparkle. The young fellows
figure was superb, and held with mill
tary precision and jauntiness. One said,
NJ he w nj
man is good fellow" Viewing him
more closely, one might add. And he is
in love"
The picture was framed handsomely in
A gilded frame. On the desk below an
exquisite vase of Venice, lifted single,
perfect rose. For fifteen years a flower
had always blossomed thus. Miss Wing
had hung the picture herself fifteen
years ago. Then she was the new prin-
cipal and the school was but half its
size. and the village people exclaimed at
trusting "such girl with so much re-
sponsiblity During those fifteen years
the new building had been built, the
school had grown and fourished. and
the gray had crept into Margaret Wings
bright hair. She had so often put on
mourning for her near kindred that she
had assumed il as her permanent Garb.
To the certain land ecstatic) knowledge
Of the school she had refused divers Of
fers Of marriage from citizens of good
repute and substance. But during all the
changing years the picture had kept its
place and the fresh flowers had bloomed
below. No girl could remember the desk
without the picture, and when the old
girls visited the school their eyes would
instinctively seek ii in its old place. al
ways with a little moving of the heart.
Yet no one ever alluded to il to the prin-
cipal. and no one, not her most trusted
teacher. nor her best loved pupil, had
ever heard the principal speak of it,
The name Of the pictured soldier, his
story his relation TO Miss Wing, Miss
Wings nearest kindred and friends knew
as much about ali these as the school
and that was nothing. Nevertheless, the
school tradition reported part of name
on the authority of a single incident
Years ago an accident happened to the
picture 1t was the principals custom 10
carry it with her on her journeys. how
ever brief: always taking it down and
putting it back in its place herself. On
this occasion the floor had been newly
polished and in hanging the picture her
chair on which she stood slipped and
she fell while the picture dropped out
Of her grasp One of the girls, who was
passing. ran to her aid. but she had
have il in her hands before she allowed
the girl to aid her 10 rise-a circum-
stance. you may be sure, not likely to
pScape the sharp young eyes. Neither
did these same eyes miss the further
circumstance that the jar had shifted
the carte in the frame and a line OF
writing. hitherto hidden. was staring
out at the world. The hand was the
sharp, minute German hand, but the
words were English. The girl took them
in at an eyeblink as she handed the
picture TO Miss Wing, Thine for ever
Max" Miss Wing made no comment;
perhaps she supposed that the girl had
not seen. perhaps-in any case she was
silent.
OF course the new light flooded the |
school gossip Immediately. But there |
never came any more: every new Glrl
was free to work her own viii on MISS /
Wings romance. Was MAY dead? 1
Had they parted because Of an act on |
the woman's part? Surely he could not |
have been false, to receive that daily I
ohlation of flowers. 1t was more likely |
that she thus expressed an imperish- !
able regret Youth. ever fanciful. played |
with all manner of dainty and plantive /
on the theme. Its very mys- /
ferry was its poignant charm, since each |
tender young soul created new ro- |
nance and a new appeal Elusive ana |
il lowered on the edge of these /
Young lives like the perfume of flower \
And its influence was the more potent |
that IL asked for nothing. 1t is not too |
much TO saw that the spectacle of that |
gentle and reticent faithfulness was the |
strongest element i'm the school atmos-
phere. Certainly, because of IT, Miss
Wing had greater power over her sChol- /
ars She was a woman of ability ana
gentle force, a little precise, able to feel
deeply but not able to express her SYM
nathies or her pain. Without her mys-
terious sorrow, she would have seemed
To Young girls a thought too admirable
they would have been chilled by her viz
tues. but as 1t was, their perception that
she had suffered, that she had been
loved. and had loved eternally, opened
their hearts. They would have admired
her now they adored her.
Rv degrees, and insensibly to her.
self she became the confessor OF her
iittle world After they left school
her girls brought her their perpleXities
If the heart Wives came to her with
,ruel dilemmas which they shrank
from revealing to their own mothers
,erhaps because the mothers could
not be trusted to plead for the erring
husband so well: for a woman who
lives complains, not to be justified her
self. but to hear her lovers miscon-
3uct excused and his love proved
,gainst her doubts. Before they left
school. the girls confessed their faults
md failfngs and strivings of con-
science with the same eagerness with
which thew asked counsel in their in