Catoctin clarion., 1917-02-01
REIMBURSEMENT
By ALICE WEBER.

Auu NlOlkuu Wu6 Tying w ~ "~-~
Of herself and finding 1t the hardest
proposition she had ever attempted. 1t
was q struggle to reach out for COM
mon sense after the blind unreason or
affection, and there was nothing to help
except the newness Of the life about
her. 1t was as If she had gone back
to the very beginning Of things. In
way she had. She and her father were
living outside French village In
weather-beaten house across the bor-
der from New Brunswick, with a COOK
stove, two beds, rough table and
couple of chairs. Her father was like
q boy in this environment and did the
cooking, while Ann made determined
effort to find glimmer Of light. other
wise called sanity, in the darkness that
encompassed her.
When she reached st. Attegat, dur
ing the early days Of June, she had
been too Indifferent to care for the
Quaintness of her surroundings. Her
father had been alarmed about her
health, and the family physician, un-
able to discover cause for her illness,
had sent her where he knew the air
was sweet and pure.
As she sat listless under the shadow
of sugar maple, Ann thought OF his
words. She had honestly tried to bring
herself into touch with the life about
her, but health was as yet too far away
for her to have any other feeling than
one of Indifference.
Her life was primitive In the ex-
treme. She was miles from a rail-
road and the mail came but once
month. She and her father were de-
pendent upon neighbor, Mr.. Chandler,
for that and he had brought 1t for the
first time that evening. There were
no letters. She had expected none, but
the longing of the spirit cannot always
be subjected to pride and there were
times like the present, when 1t seemed
as If nothing mattered but the sight
of the man she cared for. And she
had given him up. The cruelty of 1t
was that she had learned she was but
the means to an end, had stumbled
upon the knowledge within a week of
her wedding day.
In the COrcoran art gallery she had
paused beside the entrance to one Of
the rooms when the murmur of voices
caught and held her attention.
mo, l do not love her." she heard.
Fortunately ! am interested In no
other woman. else 1t might go hard
with me. Her father is wealthy. She
is rich in her own right and ! will be
able to crafty ambitions hitherto mere
ly Dreams" AS he finished speaking
two men came face to face with Ann
and she looked directly into the eyes
of the man she had expected to marry.
Pride came to her aid in her effort to
adjust herself to her new outlook upon
life, but In the end she was bundled
off to st. Attigat, and here she met
Mr.. Chandler, with whom her father
found congenial companiOnship. He
had way of watching her that was
disconcerting, and this, In time, made
her conscious she was not good to look
at. She became oversensitive about
her lack of color and one day rum
mayed through her trunk for her van
ity box and was chagrined not to find
1t.
This incident marked q change. I'm
perceptibly the outdoor life was max
ing difference in Ann. She took
long walks and would stroll off for
hours alone. One evening she did not
return. Chandler, with her father,
found her on the edge Of the river
with twisted ankle and dislocated
shoulder. She had slipped from the
rock where she had been fishing, she
told them later.
When they discovered her Mr.. Nor
gan promptly went to pieces. She was
all he had, and II anything happened
to her he was Of no more use than a
baby. Mr.. Chandler carried her home
had been bundle,of rags, she thought,
In the moment when q glimmer Of rea-
son made her try to recover her dignity
and slip from his arms. 1t was then
he gave her little shake and told her
to lie still.
Just the merest Jingle, but 1t sent
needles of fame all over her, and she
knew nothing more until she was on
her bed with the two bending over her.
Between them she was made COM
Portable; yet she was not comfortable
in her mind. She could not under
stand the odd look In Mr.. Chandler's
eyes when she had first opened her
own, and now, after month Of mac
tivity, she was still puzzled. She had
not seen it since. He gave her under
standing and pleasant friendship, but
that was all.
And she had begun to care. The
thought troubled her. Was she lacking
In constancy that she could so soon
forget one man for another? But as
she looked back upon those feverish
days, she told herself she had been In
love with love. That, she knew, was
not the real thing, and she had discov-
cred this, here in the midst of na-
ture-had learned to distinguish be-
tween the false and the true, and with
all her heart she prayed that the thing
that makes life perfect would come to
her.
And 1t came unexpectedly, as so
often happens. She was alone, trying
for the first time to walk about the
house cllnging to whatever offered sup
port, when she heard footsteps. Turn
ing hastily, she saw Mr.. Chandler
standing in the doorway with arms out
stretched. He said no word and she
did not speak, but with shining eyes
ana hoi.xhtonod noIor cho u,a.,od