Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-31

the right of way where for a day
and a night parched sagebrush,
brown tumbleweed and such scant
growth as flourished in the arid up
| lands of interior British Columbia
had streamed in barren monotony,
hot and dry and still.
, She was near the finish of her
journey. Pensively she considered
be there? What manner of folk
and country? Between her past
mode of life and the new that she
was hurrying toward lay the vast
gulf of distance, of customs, of class
even. 1t was bound to be crude, to
be full of inconvenience and I'M
couthness. Her brothers letters had
partly prepared her for that. Invol
UNFAIRLY she shrank from it, had been
shrinking from it by fits and starts all
the way, as flowers that thrive best
in shady hooks shrink from hot sun
and rude winds. Not that Estella
Benton was particularly flower-like.
On the contrary, she was a healthy,
vigorous bodied young woman
scarcely to be described as beautiful.
yet undeniably attractive, obviously
daughter of the we'll to do, one of
That American type which flourishes
IN families to which American poll
ticians unctuously refer as the back
bone of the nation. Outwardly. gaz-
ing riverward through the dusty
pane, she bore herself with utmost
serenity. 1nwardly she was full of
misgivings.
All of which is merely by way of
stating that Miss Estella Benton. was
young woman who had grown up
quite complacently in that station of
lie in which to quote the Philistines,
1t had pleased God to place her and
that chance had somehow. to her as
tonished dismay, contrived to thrust
a spoke in the smooth rolling wheels
of destiny. Or was it destiny? She
had begun to think about that. to
wonder If a lot that she had taken
for granted as an ordered state of
things was not, after all, wholly de-
pendent upon chance. She had
danced and sung and played light
heartedly accepting a certain stand
ard of living, a certain. position in a
certain set, a pleasantly ordered
home life. as her birthright, a nat
ural heritage.
Just so. But a broken steering
knuckle on a heavy touring car set
things in a different light, many
things. She learned then that death
is no respecter of persons; that big
income may be lived to its limit with
nothing left when the brain force
which commanded it ceases to func-
ton. Her father produced perhaps
fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a
year in his brokerage business. and
he had saved nothing. Thus at one
stroke she was put on an equal foot
ing with the stenographer in her
fathers office. Scarcely equal either,
hn cfn III, L,
bread and was technically equipped
for the task, whereas Estella Ben
ton had no training whatsoever ex-
cept in social usage. She did not yet
fully realize just what had overtaken
her. Things had happened so swiftly.
SO ruthlessly, that she still verged
upon the incredulous. Habit clung
fast. But she had begun to think,
to try and establish some working
relations between herself and things
as she found them. She had dis
covered already that certain theo-
ries of human relations are not
soundly established in fact.
She turned at last in her seat The
Limited's whistle had shrilled for a
stop. At the next stop-she wonder
ed what lay in store for her just
beyond the next stop. While she
dwelt mentally upon this her hands
were gathering up some few odds
and ends of her belongings on the
berth.
Across the aisle large, smooth
faced young man watched her with
covert admiration. When she had
settled back with bag and suitcase
locked and strapped on the oppo-
site seat and was hated and gloved
he leaned over and addressed her
genially.
Getting off at HopyardP" Hap
pen to be going out to Roaring
Springs?"
Miss Bentons gray eyes rested i'm
on the top of his head,
travelled slowly down over the trim
front of his blue serge to the polish
ed tan oxfords on his feet. and there
was not in eyes or on countenance
the slightest sign that she saw or
heard him. The large young man !
flushed vivid red.
Miss Benton was partly amused, |
partly provoked. The large young
man had been her vis-a-vis at din
that morning. He had evinced a !
yearning for conversation each time, |
but it had been. automatically con-
fined to salt and other condiments, |
the weather and the scenery. Miss |
Benton had no objection to young |
men in general. quite the contrary, |
but she did not consider 1t quite |
the thing to countenance every ami
able stranger.
Within a few minutes the porter |
came for her things. and the blast !
of the Limited's whistle warned her |
that It was time to leave the train. |
Ten minutes later the limited was a |
object down an aisle slash
ed through forest of great trees, |
and Miss Estella Benton stood on |
the plank platform in Hopyard sta
ton.
Beside the platform were ranged |
two touring cars. Three or four of |
those who had alighted entered these. !
Their baggage was piled over the !
hoods. huckled on the running |
boards. The driver OF one car ap-
preached her. Hot Springs he
inquired tersely.
TO be Continued 4