Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-05-29

/ step up and taken it. Oddly enough,
the thing had happened back there in
the classroom as she stood before The
professors desk and caught his eye
wavering between herself and the
scrawny girl who wanted to ask a
question about Robespierre. There
had been more than blank, helpless
evaporation in that look of his, and
1t had taught her something. She
couldn't have explained what.
She went swinging along alone. her
shoulders back, confronting the warm
March wind, drawing long breaths into
her good deep chest. She had just
had, psychieally speaking. birthday.
She played a wonderful game OF
basketball that afternoon, and it was
after five O'Clock when, at the con-
clusion of the game and cold shower,
rub, and a somewhat casual re-
sumption of her clothes, she emerged
from the gymnasium. High time that
she took the quickest way of getting
home, unless she wanted to be late for
dinner.
But the exhilaration of the day per-
sisted. She felt like doing something
out of the regular routine. Even a
preliminary walk of a mile or so before
she should cross over and take the
elevated, would serve to satisfy her
mild hunger for adventure.
So, with her notebooks under her
arm and her sweater jacket unfasten-
ed, at a good four-mile swing she
started north. In the purlieus of the
university she was frequently hailed
by friends of her own sex or the other.
But though she waved cheerful re-
sponses to their greetings, she made
her stride purposeful enough to dis
courage offers of company. They all
seemed young to her today. All her
student activities seemed young. AS
if, somehow. she had outgrOwn them
The feeling was none the less real
after she had laughed at herself for
entertaining it.
She noticed presently that it was a
good deal darker than it had any
right to be at this hour, and the sudden
fall of the breeze and a persistent
simmer of lightning supplied her with
the explanation. When she reached
FOrty-seventh street, the break of the
storm was obviously a matter Of
minutes, so she decided to ride across
to the elevated-it was another mile,
perhaps-rather than to walk across
as she had meant to dc.
She found quite a group of people
waiting on the corner Tor a car, and
was crowded. So she handed her
nickel to the conductor over some
body's shoulders, and moved back to
the corner of the vcstibule, which
did very well until the next stop,
where half dozen more prospective
passengers were waiting. They were
in hurry, too, since it had begun in
very downright fashion to rain.
The conductor had been chanting,
Cup in the car, pleased" I'm a per-
functory cry all along. But at this
crisis his voice got a new urgency.
Come on now" he proclaimed. you'll
have to get inside!"
From the steps the new arrivals
pushed, the conductor pushed, and the
sheeplike docility of an American
crowd helped him. Regretfully, with
the rest, Rose made her way to the
door.
"Fare, pleasei" he said sharply as
she came along.
She told him she had paid her fare !;
but for some reason he elected not
to believe her.
when did you payT" ne demanded.
"a block back" she said, when all
those other people got on"
'You didn't pay 1t to me-" he said
truculently. "Come along! Pay your
fare or get off the carr
81 paid it once" she said quietly,
"and I'm not going to pay it again"
With that she started forward toward
the door.
He reached out across his little rail
and caught her by the arm. 1t was
a natural act enough-not polite, to
be sure, by no means chivalrous.
But 1t had a surprising result. The
first thing he knew he found both
wrists pinned in the grip of two
hands; found himself staring stu