Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1917-03-22
CHAPTER I.
Love Of Woman.


II meetings only lived up to their
anticipations. life would be a success
sion of startling climaxes. 1t had been
some months since Meade had seen
Helen Illingworth. He had dreamed
OF meeting her every day and had pic
tured the meeting differently and more
r%apturously after every letter. As a
matter of fact the whole thing was
casual and ordinary to the last degree.
1t always is.
Doctor Severance, a retired physi-
clan, who was vice president and
financial man. and Curtiss. the chief
engineer of the bridge company, were
hard upon Miss Nlingworth's heels as
h stepped down from the car to the
station platform. He saw her. as it
were, surrounded by prosaic men. The
wOman he loved got the same welcome
snd the same h%andshake as her father
and the other two men. 1t was not
until big Abbott, who had been belated
by some sudden demand of work. came
sweeping down the platform to engage
the attention of the men that the anx-
ious Meade had a momen with the girl
herself.
Now Helen lllingworth had also been
seeing visions, so that she had been as
disappointed as he. The only real sat
isfaction that either of them could take
in the situation lay in the fact that the
other was there. 1t was midsummer
and the girl was dressed in some light,
filmy fabric which well became her ra-
diant beauty. Meade could look at n
bit of structural steel work and tell
you all about it. All that he could
have told you about the dress she wore
was that it was exquisitely nppropri-
ntc. but 1t never occurred to him that
with u great price to u great artist
Helen lllingworth had obtained that
look of delightful simplicity.
The gown was not wasted on Meade.
she decided. as she caught his raptur-
Gus glance. She had never looked love
iier. She was not Il fragile. ethereal
woman; quite the reverse. That was
n of ten thousand things Meade liked
about her. She could ~ all those atL.
Ietic and pr actical thinss that modern
young can do aud she could do
them well.
Meade was intensely practical and
efficient. He could ID all of those
things himself and many more and he
liked to do them, and that is one rea-
son why he had been attr acted to her
yet moi for that alone did he love her.
On that soft summer afternoon she
looked as subtly delicate as every man
would at one time or another have the
woman he loves appear. and as far re-
moved from things strenuous as II in
another world! He wis wearing the
rough clothes. flannel shirt, khaki trou-
sers. heavy shoes ard leggings which
were his habituai use at work. Con-
trasted with her fllmy and delicateIy
cOlored fabric his well-worn olive
drab habiliments stood forth ~hideOusly.
That is. lie thought so. and the con |
trast somehow seemed typical Of the
difference between them as he consid-
cred her. ,
There was the careless insouciance |
of conscious power in the be airing Of
the engineer which differentiated him
from most of the men with whom she
had been thrown In contact during her
biggest thing Of the kind the Martlet
company or any other American struc-
tural plant had eve undertaken. It
had been a constant topic Of a.
ton wherever her father was. She
had heard all about il. and although,
strictly speaking. the bridge vas the
work OF Meade. ST., yet she always
identified it with Meade. Jr. There W as
a feeling In her mind that II was her
bridge and that, through him. she COM
manded It. She was a supremely as
sufed and entirely confident young
lady, yet with the man by her side she
experienced a passing ems Of uneasi-
ness. such as M might conceive the
butterfly would feel in the presence Of
a steam hammer.
They were as awkward and con-
strained when left to themselves as II
one had not been all over the world
mans Jobs for q decade and the
other had not queened 1t among the
incest girls of the land for half as
u amy years. And with thoughts burn
Ing. passionate. and words embarrass-
Lngly '~torrential ut hand to give them
,tterance. they only spoke common
"H0w Is the bridge getting alongT"
the girl. repeating her fathers
words Of u few minutes before. as
hese two fell behind the others march 1
ne down the long pl atform. while the I
uaid standing by the private car with {
he porter looked curiously after the q
group and wondered IL that s
raysgrcen. loag.legged young man was &
he reason for the New York g0wni .