The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-07

eWhy dIdn'f you 9ive it 70 me taS- | night?" rne sInresnolu He was clad in pur- l pie dressing gown that suggested some woman had picked it. Surely no man | could have fallen victim to that riot Of color
 "Come in,'' said the hermit in a tone so co1orless it called added attention l to the gown. Miss, you have the | that soap box davenport, gentlemen. I WelI?'
 He stood facing them in the middle i of his hermitage.
 8"We have come to p1ead''- began 1 Miss Norton, turning her eyes at their full candle power on the hermit's l bearded face.
 .I beg pardon, miss, interrupted MT. Peters, but it ain't any use. i've l thought it all out-in the night watches.s as the poet says. I came up here to be alone. I can't be hermit and a cook too. can't and be true to myself. No, you'll have to accept my resigna- ton, to take effect at once He sat down on an uncertain chair and regarded them sorrowfully. His long, well shaped fingers clutched the cord of the purple gown.
  you to give up the hermit business for a short time-maybe only for few days. I should think you would well come the diversion Mr. Peters shook his head vigorous 1y. The brown curls waved fippantly | about his shoulders.
 "Afy instincts ? he replied, "are away from the crowd I explained that to I you when we first met, MT. Magee" 2 ssAny man, commented MT. Max, fought to be able to strangle his in- stincts for a good salary, payable in 1 advance
 seYou come here,'' said the hermit with annoyance, stand you bring with you the sentiments of the outside world-the world [ have foresworn. Don't do it. I ask you" q don't get you.'' reflected MT. Max. 'tNo, pal, don't quite grab this her init game. It ain't human nature, say. Way up here miles from the little brass rail and the sporting extra and other things that make life worth iv- ing. It's beyond me- | st1'm not asking your approval re l piled the hermit. 'sAll ask is to be let alone
 
 'sMr. Peters and I have been friends, you might say, for three years It was three years ago my awed eyes first fell upon him, selling his postcards at the inn. He was to me then the true TO- i nance, the man to whom the world means nothing without a certain wO- man 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 re- fuse a lady in distress You will come for just little while, won't you, MT. Peterp?"
 But Peters shook his head again.
 q dislike women as sex,'' he said, 'but I've always been gentle and easy with isolated examples of 'em. It ain't my style to turn 'em down. But this is asking too much. I'm sorry, but got to be true to my oath-I got to be hermit
 Maybe sneeFed MT. Max, "he,s got good reason for being hermit. May be there's brass buttons and blue uni- forms mixed up in it-''
 ssYou come from the great world of suspicion answered the hermit, turn. ing reproving eyes upon him. @sYour talk is natural. It goes with the life you lead. But it isn't lr1e'' 1 And MT. Max is the last who should fnsinuate.'' rebuked MT. Magee. Why only last night he denounced suspi- cion and bemoaned the fact that there is so much of it in the world.,'
 ssWell he might.'' replied the hermit. Suspicion is the keynote of modern life, especially in New York He drew the purple dressing gown closer about his plump form. ''I remember the last time I was in the big town seeing a>crowd of men in the grill room of the Hoffman House. One of them, long. lean, like an eel, stopped down and whispered in the ear of a little fellow with a diamond horseshoe desc crating his haberdashery and pointing to another man near by. No, I won't says the man with the diamonds T don't introduce nobody to nobody. Let every man play his own game, I say That's New York. That's the essence of the town. T introduce no- body to nobody.
 tTo be Continued.9