The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-06-22
CHAPTER I.
Love Of Woman.

anticipations, life would be a success
sion of startling climaxes. 1t 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
matter Of fact the whole thing was
casual and ordinary to the last degree.
1t always is.
Doctor Severance, retired phySi-
clan, who was vice president and
financial man, and Curtiss, the chief
engineer of the bridge company, were
hard upon Miss Illingworth's 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 handshake as her father
and the other two men. 1t was not
until big Abbott, who had been belated
by some sudden demand Of work. came
sweeping down the platform to engage
the attention Of the men that the anx-
tOus Meade had moment with the girl
herself.
Now Helen Illingworth had also been
seeing visions, so that she had been as
disappointed as he. The only real sat
Isfaction that either of them could take
In the situation lay in the fact that the
other was there. 1t was midsummer
and the girl was dressed in some light,
filmy fabric which we'll became her ra-
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 it was exQuisitely appropri-
ate. but 1t never occurred to him that
with great price to a great artist
Helen Illingworth had obtained that
look Of delightful simplicity.
The gown was not wasted on Meade
she decided, as she caught his raptur
GUS glance. She had never looked love-
Tier. She was not fragile, ethereal
woman; quite the reverse. That was
one of ten thousand things Meade liked
aSvat her. She could do all those ath-
letic and pr actical things that modern
young women can Go ami 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 to 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 that soft summer afternoon she
looked as subtly delicate as every man
ReS!d at one time or another have the
woman he loves appear, and as far re-
moved from things strenuous as If in
another world! He was airing 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
drab habiliments stood forth hideously.
That is, he thought so, and the con-
trast somehow seemed typical of the
difference between them as he consid-
cred her.
There was the careless insOuciance
Of conscious power in the be airing of
the engineer which differentiated him
from most of the men with whom she
had been thrown in contact during her
life. The International Bridge was the
biggest thing Of the kind the Martlet
company or any other American struc-
tural plant had ever undertaken. 1t
had been a constant topic Of cOnvers a
ton wherever her father was. She
had heard all about 1t, and although,
strictly speaking, the bridge was the
work of Meade, ST., yet she always
identified II with Meade, Jr. There W as
a feeling In her mind that it was her
bridge and that, through him. she COM
handed 1t. She was q supremely as
sured and entirely confident young
lady, yet with the man by her side she
experienced q passing sense of uneasi-
ness, such as one might conceive the
butterfly would feel in the presence of
q steam hammer.
They were as awkward and con-
strained when left to themselves as If
one aad not been all over the world
on mans jobs for a decade and the
other had not queened it ameng the
incest girls of the land for half as
m any years. And with thoughts burn
eng, passionate, and words embarrass-
hgly torrential at hand to give them
utterance, they only spoke common
places!
How is the bridge getting along?"
asked the girl, repeating her fathers
words OF few minutes before, as
these two fell behind the others march,
ting down the long pl atform, while the
maid standing by the private car with
the porter looked curiously after the
moving group and wondered if that
gray-green, long-legged young man yas
the reason for the New York gown