The Press., 1918-11-28

time. When she alighted from the ear Shr bC!ted for the station platform, arriving hot and painting to find m train waiting. She had missed 1t No, she hadn't. The train was chalk ed up seven minutes late. She walk ed down the platform to see If 1t was in sight. Suddenly she heard buzz ing sound quite near to her. gaining force us it buzzed. With a sharp cry of fright she dropped her suitcase. Someone had put an internal machine in it just as they had done tQ the heroine in the novel! She tried to run away from 1t, but her feet seemed glued t' the platform. Then she real iZed what ii washer alarm clock gO- ing off. Her cheeks scarlet. she made q hasty grab for the suitcase. hoping against hope that no one had seen what am idiot she had been. In her haste 10 get out of sight she did not see that another suitcase rested beside the one she had taken up.
 When the train pulled in an eager crowd hastened to board 1t. Mary hated crowds especially on hot days,
 
 forward. She could not restrain gasp as n young man made his way past hrr. Harris EccleStOn! She had not seen him for a year. She was sure it was he. One glance at his suitcase as he was lost in the crowd made her dOuhly sure. It was just the same as hers They had unwittingly duplicated presents to one another the first Christi mas they had been engaged. The thought of their engagement made her furious. What silly girl she had been to imagine herself engaged to such a heArt-brcakcr, she thought angrily. If only she had seen him before the train came in she would have told him just how cOntemptible she thought he was. A whistle from the engine warned her that there was no time to he lost. She boarded the last coach and found A seat.
 Mary usually enjoyed train journeys. but this afternoon she could not settle ner mind t0 enjoy anything. The thought of Harris kept coming uD. They had been q devoted couple until he had been transferred to another city. and even then for months hlS letters had seemed as devoted as ever. But sudden change had hecOme n0- ticeable il his letters. They became fewer and more reserved. Finally she had written him and asked for an ex. plnnatiOn. but he had never answered the letter That told her at once that there was another girl in the case, and after waiting mt nth for a reply Shp sent him his ring. She had not sent m accompanying word, but now she wished she had sent him n letter tell. Ing him her opinion of him. IS would not have looked nice in writ. ing, though, she thought, as she settled back in her seat and tried to enjoy looking out of the window The scenery didn't interest her. She thought of the unfinished novel in her suitcase and reached for the bag and opened it. She nearly tainted from surprise. The suitcase was not her own. It was filled with mans wearing l apparel. Who did it belong to and | where was her suitcase? She remem- bered that she must have made the ] change when the alarm clock went of i on the station platform. She runl- maged through the clothes in hope of 1 finding something to identify the own CT. Right at the bottom she found leather-bOund diary. She opened it i hastily and recognized something | strangely familiar in the writing It | was Harris. Her name was the first to catch her glance. She looked at the date and found the paragraph had been written three months after Harris T have heard today that Mary , Is going about with medical student, but don't believe it." she read. Mary could hardly contain herself. Who had told Harris such contemptible thingF The only medical student she had ever