The Monmouth inquirer., 1923-07-19


girl. as handsome as paint.
..Then sir. / knew all interference
was useless-like, so ! said no more.
oh, it was a shamel"
CHAPTER III. A COLLISION.
After that there was no disguise
about it. The banns were put up
and Miss Ellen walked about as
proud as any peacock. She had won
tie game and was, | may say, in an
unmaidenly hurry to marry Tom
Perhaps she was afraid of losing
him If she didn't immeditely secure
him At any rate no time was lost.
BY February the day was fixed, the
banns having expired, and no one
offered any impeachment.
tom Deane seemed to me to
agree with rather than originate
these arrangements. He was evil
IDENTIFY dazzled by the young woman;
she had bewitched him but he was
not 50 demonstrative as he had been.
She had quilted The Den and gone
home to her fathers farm while the
wedding was preparing.
II talked to Tom. and gave him
my mind. He made no defence! he
only said,
why doesn't Phoebe write,
thent She's thrown me over. Let
her 60
You haven't any proofs, Tom,
/ said. But things have gone too
far to turn, I suppose
I'll marry Nell. We've arfang-
ed the whole thing. There's to be
a train wedding. We're going to
Rushtock by rail. on the main line,
in trucks hung out with ribbons and
flags, a regular show Wen let EN-
see a freman's wedding" he says.
Fortunately the wedding day
dawned fair and frosty. AS the
morning passed the sun came out,
and at eleven o'clock when the we'd
ding train started the weather was
crisp and bracing-a bright sun, and
hardly a cloud visible. The train
was a sight Any one went who
liked to pay a shilling. We had the
train of ballast trucks draped with
flags and with seats fixed across.
There was a band in one truck and
the engine was the Frefiy. Tom
and his intended occupied a COM
partment In an otherwise empty
carriage next to the engine. A live
- ooxo~a-r ~ra uyara r0o Tsbaro
was refreshments and music, ban
ners, singing, and the weather love
".
-No one was late. We had four
trucks, one an, and the carriage
a gecond-class carriage-in front.
We had to travel on the branch line
to the junction. cross there, and so
over the up-metals for q while to
the down road. Tom seemed in bad
spirits, his fun was forced-like, he
didn't seem easy, and | fancied that
he was sorry for what he had done.
None of Ellen's fellow servants had
been invited, but she was as happy
as a queen, and would have made a
splendid queen, as she stood at the
door Of her railway carriage. regal
like.
Il was sitting in the rear van with
Charley Down Ct could tell you
something about him, sir, tool,
when l happened to put up my head
to the glass roof. and saw steam in
the air at a distance.
We shall be stopped in a min
ute, Charley says l.. There's a
train yonder,
It's going our way he said,
We follow the mail. Its all right
80 we went Jogging along pretty
fast, and all the platelayers and sig
nal men stared at US greatly, and
cheered us. The engine driver was
putting us along very sharp, when
as we got near the junction the sig
nal suddenly went up bang In our
faces. We hadn't such brakes nor
in~terlocking gear in those days as
now, so 1t was some seconds before
the train could possibly pull up.
we got on the main line-Just
on 1t. The engine carriage, and two