Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1915-03-24
Cosgrove's|
Comedy
An Incident of Travel
BY EPES WINTHROP SARGENT
Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co.


train at Philadelphia for New York.
The weather was pleasant, and, after
he had finished his newspaper, he
leaned back in his chair and looked
out through the window.
Why is 1t that man Is more i'm
pressible while travelling than during
the ordinary routine of life's duties,
pleasures, rests? Animal trainers say
that IL they wish to train a dog they
try various dogs till they find one
whose attention they can secure. Per
haps this is so with Cupid The little
god waits till he gets man In con-
tiguity with woman when he has
nothing else to think about. At any
rate, many man has met his fate on
a train.
Clinton Cosgroye mentally gave
thanks that the girl across the aisle
was so absorbed I'm her newspaper.
Cosgrove could not do much reading
on the train. The shifting lights made
his head ache.
A crowd Of noisy drummers, jubilant
over their nearness to New York, were
filing the cafe car with the smoke
from their cheap cigars and had rem
dered the place unbearable. It was
pleasant to sit back In his chair and
study the girl opposite.
Cosgrove enjoyed mysteries, and
here was one ready at hand to beguile
the tedium of the trip to town.
To begin with. she was rather more
than pretty and, moreover, possessed
an air of distinction that added to her
physical charm. She wore her fash
ionably tailored gown with the air Of
one used to good dressing, vet the
hand bag that rested at her feet was
worn and shabby-a relic of the days
when paper limitations of alligator hide
were "quick sellers" In the shoddy
shops.
She occupied her seat in the chair
car as though she were used to such
conveniences, yet the woman who had
fectionate farewell, with the wish that
the Job" would come quickly, sug-
gested the day coach rather than the
Pullman.
Almost before the train had pulled
out she was engrossed in a New York
paper, turning, after brief glance at
the headlines, to the want" advertise
ments. She was so interested In these
that she was not conscious of Cos
groves steady If polite scrutiny.
For a man who spent the major por-
ton Of his waking hours in an en-
deavor to get the best of the Wall
street gamble Cosgrove possessed an
Imagination Of singular fertility and
delicacy. ard from the meager facts
apparent he wove romance about the
girl.
From between his half closed eyelids
he observed the mass of golden hair
that crowned the shapely head and
shaded the high, white brow. He re-
joiced In the purity of her profile and
the soft coloring of her skin and noted
with an artists appreciation the 1.-THE
lines Of her slender figurerand the per-
lection Of detail In her Dress From
every point Of view she was admirable
Then his thoughts reverted to the
mother, with her coarse, red hands, her
dorid coloring. the rusty hat and the
plaid shawl surrounding the skirt of
some rough dark stuff that long since
had faded from any definable tint
From the comparison the inference
was obvious.
The girl must have inherited her re-
flnement frcm her father. He could
picture the. very type Of broken down
fellow Of good family-glad to wed a
woman Of coarser fiber who would put
him on pedestal of adoring love, con
tent to slave over the tubs and scrub
bling bucket that he might enjoy the
leisure that was so clearly his due.
Those fellows seldom lived long. Usu-
ally they drank themselves to death.
Then the love that had worked uncom.
plainingly for him had worked for the
baby.
She should be lady as her father
had been p gentleman. He could i'm
agine the sacrifices and privations that
had been endured that this tender girl
might be reared to a life of gentility.
Now her education was complete.
and she was faring forth to New York
In search of job. Perhaps a few
months in an office and then the stage
would claim her for its own.
Show girls of her rare distinction
were eagerly sought Somehow he did
not like to think Of this flower girl en-
quilted In the vortex of Broadway
And SO, as the train sped through
the Pennsylvania valleys. Cosgroye
speculated on the outcome Of the
quest. He started guiltily as the por-
ter gave the first call for lunch and
the girl rose quietly to go forward to
the diner. The meal meant the price
Of days work for the toll worn hands
Of the mother. yet it seemed perfectly
right that she should go.
She had carelessly thrown the paper
pn the seat and with an assumption
Of indifference Cosgrove reached for it.