Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1909 — OVERCOMING HER PREJUDICE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OVERCOMING HER PREJUDICE.

The Wooing of a Big Man and a Mite of a Woman. a. By OLIVE ADAMB. [Copyright. 1909, by Associated Literary Press.] He had always declared that he would not marry a small woman. No diminutive creature of scanty stature could ever grace his home. She, on her part, had been quite sure that she disliked big men. No weighty giant, towering far above her, could ever capture and hold her heart. Yet fate threw them together, and neither one felt comfortable. They seemed strangely antagonistic one to the other, and yet there was something in their Innermost selves that was kin. He, busy day after day in his law office, found his thoughts and fancies continually, unaccountably, straying to the memory of her delicate htlad and yet more delicate fingers. She, painting away, as always, wondered why, the recollection of his big frame and strong featured face should haunt her. She, half indignant, tried to conquer the persistent recollection by working harder than ever. He, in a way wiser, yielded to his strange fancies and paid her a studio call. Her greeting was cordial, but they were long silent. At last he invited her to take a walk. The dusk was falling. The avenue gleamed with myriad lights presenting an alluring vista. For nearly an hour they walked, she taking hasty steps to each of the long, swinging strides into which he had naturally and unconsciously fallen. By pnd by. unreasonably irritated, she came to a sudden halt. "There can’t be much sympathy between our natures,” she said sharply. “They say that people who can’t keep

step comfortably are out of tune somehow. We're not even Walking in the same key.’’ “Let’s try again,” he laughed, with gay good humor, “I’ll accommodate my steps to yours politely, as I should have done long ago. See how nicely I can do it.” He minced along with determination, keeping time with her tripping steps. The effect was so ridiculous that she yielded to impulsive laughter. “No, no,” she cried, still smiling, "we won’t try your plan any longer. Let’s be natural and ‘gang our ain gait’ in peace.” “The truest friendships are built on that plan,” he answered with meaning, but she was ( silent. As for the man. he no longer desired to conquer the new, strange fancies. They had become too sweet. She was wondering why his quiet glance could cause her heart to dance. But the walk was pleasant, and other Walks followed. They spent one long, perfect autumn Sunday in the country, walking through the golden hours and fields together. Night found them a long way from the city, far too distant to walk home again. They waited at a little wayside station for the train that should bear them thither. Both were silent, wrapped in the dreamy, trancelike happiness that is too eloquent for speech. Presently, however, she broke the soft silence with her thrilling laugh. “What is it, little comrade?” for so he had elected to call her. “We haven’t quarreled once today over keeping step,” she said, still smiling. “I wonder what has come over us.” “Love,” was his unexpected answer. But she shrank farther away in the sheltering darkness, and his heart felt a strange chill. The next moment the train rushed noisily down upon them, and in the crowded, uncomfortable day coach they occupied they were again silent. She sat so still beside him that he fancied she was asleep, and her head, on a level with his shoulder, leaned against the red plush seat back. Her pure, clear profile was outlined against the dark window. He watched her with the hungriness of suddenly recognized worship. He did not know that she, wide awake in all but outer seeing, gloried in his glance. She would not, could not. give up her profession for marriage, but still how good it would seem to rest in his love. And then suddenly there was a wild shriek from the engine, a Jarring collision, a horrible, grinding stop and an utter desolation of blackness. She knew that something awful had happened, that she was losing control of her senses, but this was all. When she opened her eyes the black

iky, star studded, impenetrable, was above her. The man of whom had been her last conscious thought caiqp between the sky and her puzzled gaze. Then she saw the long train, dim. shadow-like, uncertain, stretched out darkly before her. She knew that lights flashed about, voices cried? moans shook the.silence. And then, with a sharp twinge of suffering, she knew that the wreck had caused her to be injured—that she could not rise. Perhaps—horrible thought!—her spine had been seriously disabled and she would never rise again. “My darling!” said a voice softly, a voice she knew well, yet had never heard with this strange, wonderful intonation. A wave of ineffable gladness met and conquered the rising tide of distress and agony. Again she swooned. This time the hospital had been reached before she came to. For weeks she lay there helpless, facing the terrible uncertainty in regard to her. future. There were times when it was feared that her days of activity were over. Through it all he was her constant stay and the rock on which her wavering hopes rested. To the lonely woman with no living relative his tender, gentle companionship was sweet beyond expression. She was still determined—more than ever determined now that possible invalidism lay before her—never to marry, but she would not allow herself to realize how and where she was drifting. To have realized and acknowledged the truth would have meant his banishment, speedy and unrelenting, and she simply could not bring herself to face this new and pain filled life without his ocntinual solacing presence. Fate, smiling, took the case In hand. “I shall not be helpless or even lame,” Marcia told him joyously one day after long months of waiting. “But I shall be even smaller than ever, they tell me.” ■ He. who had come outwardly scathless through the ordeal, smiled as he bent over her. “Dear love,” was his tense whisper, “you will be just as high as my heart.”

It was a frail bride, pale, slender, leaning hard upon the arm of her husband lover, who stood at the altar a few weeks later—a bride who looked especially small and diminutive beside the big man who had just thankfully claimed her. And into the eyes,of this bride, joyously happy in her complete surrender, crept a whimsical gleam as she Realized this fact.

HER PURE, CLEAR PROFILE WAS OUTLINED AGAINST THE DARK WINDOW.