Tombstone epitaph., 1917-05-27
CHAPTER |.
THE EDITOR.
Love of Woman.

IT meetings only Eyed up 70 thelr hnticipations, life would be a success sion of startling climaNes. It had been some months since Meade had seen Helen Ilingworth. He had dreamed of meeting her every day and had pie tured the meeting differently and more rspturously after every letter. As a matter of fact the whole thing was casual and ordinary to the last degree. IL always is.
 Doctor Severence. a retired physi- clan. who was vice president and financial man. and CurtisS, the chief engineer of the bridge company, were hard upon Miss Illingwo-ths heels as she 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 and the same h: ndshake as her father and the other 'wo men. It was not until big Abbott who had been belated by some sudden demand of work, came sweeping down he platform to engage the attention of the men that the anx- ious Meade had 1 moment with the girl herself.
 Now Helen III ngworth had also been seeing visions, s, that she had been as disappointed ns he. The only real sat isfactiOn that Q ther of them could take in the situation. lay In the fact that the other was there. It was midsummer and the girl was dressed In some light. fiiny fabric which well became her ra- diant beauty. Meade could look at bit of structural steel work and tell you all about 1t. All that he could have told you about the dress she wore was that it was exquisitely appropri- ate. but 1t never occurred to him that with a great price to Q great artist Helen lllingworth had obtained that took of delightful simplicity.
 The gown was not wasted on Meade. she decided. ss she caught his raptur- Ous glnnce. She had never looked love Her. She was not fragile, ethereal woman: quite the reverse. That was one of ten thousand things Meade liked about her. She could do all those ath- letic and pr actieal things that modern young women can do and she could do them well.
 Meade was Intensely practical and efficient. He could do all of those things himself and many more and he liked ito do therg. and that is one req son why he had . .en attr acted to her; yet not for that alone did he love her. On thpt soft summer afternoon she looked as Subtly delicate as every man would at one time or another have the soman he loves appear, and as far re moved from things strenuous as if in another world, He was wearing the rough clothes flannel shirt. khaki trou- sers. heavy shoes and leggings which were his hal ltual use at work. Con- trusted with Ter filmy and deiicately colored fabric his well-worn olive drab habiliments stood forth hideously. That is. he thought so, and the con- trast somehow .ieemed typical of the difference between them as he ccnsid- cred her.
 There was tin careless insouciance of conscious poy'er in the be earing of the engineer wh ch differentiated him from most of thI men with whom she had been thrown ln contact during her life. The Interra 1onal Bridge was the biggest thiro / he kind the Martlet company or any other American struc- taraI plant had Ner undertaken. It had been a consts n: topic of conyers a. tion wherever h'r father was. She had heard all ab ut it. and although. strictly speaking, the bridge was the work of Meade. ST., yet she always Identified 1t with i' ade. Jr. There W as a feeling in her lind that 1t was her bridge and that, through him, she com u,as.ssi t. Sas Sis q supreineiy as- sured and ent .i.T confident young lady. yet with tf rIan by her side she experienced a pa sing sense of uneasi- ness, such 1 or night conceive the bu.tcrGy wo, Ii f. :. in the presence of a steaIn han lei
 They were as awkward and con- strained whe, le' to themselves as If ooe had not tesl all over the world m mans jotJ fr a decade and the sshsr bad sJ: Dssnsd It among the