Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-04-17
Euening Story
A FINGER OF PROMISE.
BY Susan E. cIaooett.
Copyright, 1917. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.)

Tired in body and soul, Louise Tomil.
son dropped into chair and stared
blankly out of the Washington hotel
window. She was conscious of nothing
outside of the immediate problems
threatening the life she had carefully
regulated for tweive years or more
Her unseeing eyes rested upon an ethe
real thing arising from out the sur
rounding darkness. softly white and
pointing upward as if in promise "a
beacon of hope after years Of silent en-
durance. had she but known it.
She had stopped in Washington on
her way to New York instead Of going
there after the New York opera season
as was her custom. What possessed
her to alter her usual schedule she
could not have told and as she sat by
the window in the darkness Of her
room she wondered IL she had been in
f1uenced by the chance remark she had
overheard as she changed cars at st.
Paul. She was conventional woman
and resented having her world turned
topsy-turvy. But that was what had
happened Her emotions had gained
the upper hand and whichever way she
looked she was confronted by mem
cries that left her shaken. She had
been aroused by the casual mention OF
a name, buried with other memories
when she had broken her engagement
many vars before.
Her father had looked upon it as a
boy and girl affair that would be for
gotten and thankfully forgotten, after
the lapse of years. He reasoned that
travel, the development of her musical
talent. and, later the social life to
which she was entitled would play so
large part in her young life that for
some time to come there would be no
room for other interests He should
have judged her differently. She was
one of these women who cannot forget,
but who bring their force OF will to
bear against individual happiness when
that happiness means the misery of an.
other. She knew that she was the one
spot of brightness in her widowed faith.
er's life. He could not 60 with her to
her prospective home in the north OF
Ireland, neither could the man she Low.
ed give up his interests to come to her.
There was but one choice and she
made It,
Judge Tomlinson had been dead five
years the autumn Louise had come to
and as she sat, with her
'inseeing eyes conferred upon that fin.
ger Of light far off In the heavens. her
mind was slowly going over the few
words that had passed between herself
and the man who still had the power
to arouse emotions she had thought
were past, but that now held her in a
grip, the intensity OF which she re-
sented
They had met that evening at dinner
She was late. Moving swiftly across
he reception hall to greet her hostess |
the lace Of her gown caught in the sig. |
net ring Of man who moved aside to |
ct her pass. Impatient at the deten-
ion. she spoke quickly as he endeavor-
I'd to untwist the delicate thread /;
1T does not matter Break them,
please"
81 would rather you would unfasten
t at your leisure" he said. and slipping
he ring from his finger, he offered II
o her. ,
Annoyed by the incident, but unable
o wait longer she pushed the ring
within her glove and moved away with
,ut a glance into the face Of the man
beside her.
He was seated next to her at the
able. by one Of those fateful happen
ngs that come about in the most natu.