Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-05-11
in another o

LII dIlOUuCT room.
But the newcomer hurried to
meet her and clasped her hand.
"Oh," she said, sobbing a little,
I'm so glad! SO glad!"
Edith felt that the girls hands
trembled. Her plain, felt sailor
hat was rusty ON the edges Of the
brim, and her black suit was shah
by, ill-fitting. But she was not a
girl. She was a woman of 81 or,
possibly, %. That was evident in
the pale face, a face which had in
it too many lines, as il the years
had been far more heavy than
happy. Her black hair was done
in exaggeration of the prevailing
mode. Her eyes, Edith thought
afterward, We're nncanny. They
looked old and very worn, as if
they had seen many places and
many different kinds of men and
women. And yet, for all their wis
dom, they looked, also, like depths
of sorrow. The wisdom she had
gained was not such as to quiet
the sobs in her throat OR to make
her hands cease trembling.
For a moment Edith forgot the
others around her.
"Ah," she said kindly, "you
are troubled, aren't you? Come
with me, won't you?"
AS the two women turned to-
ward the door into the hall, the
change in positions made Mary
Leslie face the music room.
Her eyes rested on somebody
beyond the doorway. The click in
her throat was audible to every
body in the room. 1t sounded as
if her leaping heart had crowded
the breath from her body. For an
instant she stood, her face blank
from sheer incredulity. Ever her
wise looking eyes were blank, as if
they had been curtained. She
slipped both her hands from
Edith's grasp and let them fall,
limp, at her sides. Her lips
shaped a slow smile, and light
came back to her eyes. She leaned
toward the music room and held
out her hands. They trembled.
Every bit of her trembled.
To the others the thing was big,
crushing, grim. All of them-even
the society reporters-knew that
they looked on a tremendous
scene, something vital, stark. In
the dead silence they almost could
hear the football of tragedy, so
entirely did the emotion Of the
shabby looking, black clad woman
dominate their minds.
Her thin, white hands trembled
oddly before her for a few mo-
ments before she let them drop
again to her sides. She still leaned
toward the music room.
Why" she said in an awed,
wondering voice hardly above a
whisper, "there's Jack!"
The smile stayed on her lips and
went up into her eyes.
Mrs. Kane was the first to find
voice. Edith's fascinated gaze
was, like the strange woman IS to-
ward the music room.
What did you say?" Nellie
asked, her voice strained.
"There he is-in there" Mary
Leslie answered. She did not shift
her gaze, but she brought both her
hands up to her chest and folded
them there. The gesture looked
like mute prayer.
Mallon, approaching at last
what the scene meant, took one
step toward the doorway through
which the woman's steady gaze
went.
"Mr. Smith, he called out
loudly.
There was a brief pause, during
which the others could see that
Mary,s and Edith s eyes followed
the progress of some one toward
the doorway.
The suspense, cruelty heavy,
! hung on all of them.
Smith appeared in the doorway
and came into the room. His ex-
J preston was one of curiosity. He
looked first at Edith, then at Mary
Leslie. Evidently, he had not