Cheyenne record., 1917-05-10
CHAPTER !.
Love Of Woman.

-t-
Love Of Woman.
II meetings only lived up to their
Antcipations, life would be success
sion of startling climaxes. It 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
rapturously after every letter. As a
matter of fact the whole thing was
casual and ordinary to the last degree.
1t 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 nlingworth's heels as
she stepped down from the car to the
station platform. He saw her, as it
were, surrounded by prosalc men. The
woman he loved got the same welcome
and the same handshake as her father
and the other two men. 1t was not
BY some sudden demand Of work, came
sweeping down the platform to engage
the attention of the men that the anx-
ious Meade had moment with the girl
herself.
Now Helen nlingworth had also been
seeing visions, so that she had been as
disappointed MS he. The only real sat
isfaction that either 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,
20 hrln to1, all 1,nn Hn
diant beauty. Meade could look at
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 1t was exQuisitely appropri-
ate. but 1t never occurred to him that
with . great price to = great artist
Helen nlingworth had obtained that
look Of delightful simplicity.
The gown was not wasted on Meade,
the decided, as she caught his raptur-
ous glance. She had never looked love-
iier. She was not a fragile, ethereal
woman; quito the reverse. That was
one Of ten thousand things Meade liked
about her. She could do all those ath-
letic and pr actical things that modern
young women can do and she could do
them we'll.
Meade was intensely practical and
efficient. He could do all Of those
things himself and many more and he
liked ito do them. and that is one rea-
son why he had-been attr acted to her;
yet not for that alone did he love her.
On thet 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 us II in
another worldi He was wearing the
rough clothes. flannel shirt, khaki trou-
sers, heavy shoes and leggings which
were his habitual use at work. Con-
trasted with her fllmy and delicately
colored fabric his well-worn olive
That Is, he thought so, and the con-
trast somehow Teemed typical Of the
difference betwein them as he consid-
cred her.
There was thu careless insouciance
Of conscious power in the be airing Of
the engineer VIII oh differentiated him
from most Of thn men with whom she
had been thrown In contact during her
life. The Interna innal Bridge was the
biggest thire It ne kind the Martlet
company or any ether American struc-
tural plant had Ter undertaken. 1t
had been o consts Mt topic Of convers a.
don wherever h,r father was. She
had heard all ab Nt 1t, and although,
strictly speaking, the bridge was the
work Of Meade. ST., yet she always
identified 1t with II, ade, Jr. There W as
q feeling in her mind that 1t was her
bridge and that, though him, she COM
manded 1t. She MIS- supremely as
sured and ene sl:r confident young
lady, yet with tn Hian by her side she
experienced a pa. sing sense OF uneasi.
ness, such a. or might conceive the
butterfly would 4, i in the presence Of
. steam hammer
Tnsy were ~ awkward and con-
strained when le 10 themselves n II
one had not teeli all over the world
On mans joh1 ffr Q decade and the
SeAs had sst ttsnsd It among ths