The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-02-25
THROUGH A STORY
BY WALTER A. FROST.

Sne Knew that she had acted for
the best, though feeling none of the
citation at hard duty done.
She knew, too, that the remuneration
Tor 1t had been that-had left her lit.
Tie strength of courage, not enough for
q repetition, if he had come back
again.
il But that did not matter now: he had
gone away. and-it may have been
weakness that made her flush family
as she remembered the pain in his
eyes when she had said that she could
not marry him.
How strangely things happen, now
and then! If his sister had not told
her. In that letter. that he would ruin
his career If he married now, for he
was young lawyer and needed all
his strength and thought for his uphill
fight; If that letter had not come lust
before he came
But there was less than no use Of
thinking Of it now. She would have
been drag on him. there would have
come anxieties and responsibilities;
she would have done her best to helm
him, spent herself SO gladly, but--well.
she was only seventeen, and he needed
all his strength and thought for his
career!
To stay in the house meant to think.
though she had said she would not
and, in order to find rest in physical
WEAKNESS. she went out, to walk in
the fast-falling snow.
The sidewalks were unbroken. for
1t was little town, and she found
the effort greater than she had counted
on. Yet she kept on, out the deserted
street under the heavily laden trees,
then back on the other side, past her
home, which seemed hateful, just now.
and down toward the business section
Of the town.
There were lights, here and there,
for the storm had brought early dark
ness on its wings. The wind was
keen, and she stopped for warmth and
light at the little library, absent-mind,
eddy to look over the new books and
magazines.
No. she did not want anything, she
told the librarian. She had come only
to-
And she went out slowly, wondering
what made the older woman SO mer-
cilessly inQuisitive.
AS she turned up the street down
which she had come, she passed a
news stand, buying paper which the
boy proprietor held out to her, then
went on, walking with increasing din.
Guilty in the deepening snow. The wind
again pervaded her, and she stopped
for moment at an apothecary shop.
She opened the paper and idly
glanced down the column, then she
sat quite still. staring vacantly at the
sheet: there had been serious wreck
on the railroad connecting the neigh
boring city with the town, and first on
the list Of those who had passed into
eternity was-"John Travis, Boston,"
She read dully-"identifie by q
business letter in his overcoat."
Il beg your pardon, Miss Dimmis,"
said the clerk, as he kept her nerve
less body from slipping from the chair
Is there anything-Can -" And
almost impersonally, she allowed him
to pour between her lips what seemed
like liquid fire.
Yet it restored her, and after a mo.
ment. age-long it seemed, her brain
was again alive
No" she said in a voice not her |
own and coming as from a great way !
on, there is nothing else. Can YOU |
when," she asked suddenly, does the
next train leave for town."
For an instant the clerk looked at |
her blankly.
When does it Ieave?" she cried
again. Don't keep me waiting. 1t
may be leaving now,"
In ten minutes" was the answer.
II she said more, it was drowned in :
the rush Of the storm, as she passed
from the door.
She was exhausted, when the con-
ductor swung her on the last platform
OF the already moving train, and she
hardly saw and certainly did not feel
the looks which soon changed to frank
scrutiny from mild surprise. There,
In the corner Of the seat into which
she had thrown herself, she had but
one thought. to 60 to him, dead
though he was, and try to tell him
Of her love-
Yes. tell him, for obligation to his
career required no silence now. Now,
she could do no harm.
Only-if only she could have known
In time. II she could have married
him at once, as he had asked her to
DO that afternoon. gone with him to
The death which, though her body ,
lived, had, she knew, no less surely ,
come to her. 4
1t was not until she stepped out at
The station that there came the full I
that she was quite alone. II
and then 1t came from the crowds =
whose self-absorption seemed deliber- 7
ate obstruction to her weary feet. Il
Unused to being there at that hour
md unaccompanied. the great city
seemed to her limitless, the streets a
maze. the lights a dazzling luminance
hostile in itself.
The street cars were crowded, and,
confused, she waited for another and ,,
another. still waited. turned to take a
:arriage only to find that in her haste,
the had not brought money enough to ..
lay the fee swelled b. the raging
storm.