Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 34, Number 271, 7 August 1909 — Page 6

IN fiction, the school-mistress who forsakes the Groves of Academus for that West so felicitously described as " wild and woolly " is invariably young, beautiful and charming. Miss Cordelia Penley was neither the one nor the other nor the third. Miss Penley was tall. The romancer would have described her as slender; the truth-teller would have aid she was " skinny." Miss Penley's attire was quite in keeping with her appearance ; both were severely Slain. She wore her hair drawn back tightly from her row and tied in a knot behind, which not even the most vivid and generous imagination could have called Greek; her features were not Greek, either. , Alast the inexorable truth must be confessed. She was a homely, middle-aged woman, plain, modest, unpretentious, well enough educated to make an excellent school-teacher. Miss Cordelia, tiring one summer of her boardinghouse, rented a little cottage on the outskirts of the town and lived there alone with a cat and a canary bird. One rainy night in the spring, just as the knight of Miss Cordelia's latest dream was thundering with mailed fist upon the portcullis of the castle, she was recalled from Spain to her cottage by a feeble knock on the door. - While Miss Cordelia was timid, she was not a coward. She quietly stepped toward the door, wondering who it could be, when the knock came softly again. As her speculations could not solve the mystery, she calmly opened the door. A fierce gust of windy rain swirled through the opening, which was partly blocked by a timid, shrinking figure, not at all like the bold knights of Miss Penley's dreams. The man was soaking wet ; his clothes were thin and old ; his hat was a sodden mass. He coughed deprecatingly as he stood before her, staring at her in meek entreaty. "Come in out of the wet," she said, stepping back a little from the entrance. .... She had nothing on earth to fear from this little man who appeared wretchedly cold and miserable. The newcomer needed no second invitation. Closing the door quickly after him, he stood shivering on the spotless threshold of the clean, warm little room. Miss Cordelia, although her heart was full of compassion for the poor man, looked very grimly at him. He therefore resisted the inclination to step nearer to the stove, although he could not check an involuntary movement in that direction. ..,, "You can go over there and sit down, said Miss Penley, pointing to a wooden rocker near the stove. " Thank you, ma'am ; you're very good," replied the little man, bowing not ungracefully, and eagerly availing himself of the permission. .... "'I'm sorry," went on Miss Cordelia, that I have no garments in the house suitable to your sex." "It don't matter, ma'am," answered the man. "This heat'll dry me out soon." "And now," asked the lady, "what do you want? " Ma'am' said the man, deprecatingly, " I'm awful down on my luck. I ain't really a tramp, although I seem so. I was workin back East with an engineering gang and I had a accident and got sick and spent six months in a a hospital. They discharged me from there, cured, although I ain't been well since. I heard that the Arapahoe and Pacific Railroad was doin' some buildin' and I walked here from Kansas City, and I find I'm just too late. The road buildin gang is filled, and they've gone on to the mountain division two hundred miles from here. I haven't had nothin to eat all day; I couldn't get any work, and I haven't got a cent of money. I thought maybe you or your husband could five me a bite to eat and a place to sleep for the night, f you've got any chores to do wood to split, or anything like that, or garden to spade I'll be glad to do it in the mornin'." "I have no husband," said Miss Cordelia, the blood flaming into her cheeks with a sort of shame that she should be forced to such a confession. "I beg pardon, ma'am, I'm sure. A widow, likely? asked the little man so respectfully that no one could take offense at his query. " I'm unmarried," answered Miss Cordelia severely. "You don't say!' was the comment, and there was infused in it just the requisite degree of surprise to escape the charge of impertinence and yet to convey to the listener a sense of amazement that so rare an opportunity had been neglected by the other sex. "I suppose, then, that I can't stay here?" continued the little man dubiously. "How did you happen to come here?" asked Miss Cordelia. ' , " Why, you see, ma'am, I started to walk down the line to the next town and it came on to rain and yours was the last house and, I'm ashamed to sayf I went around to the side of the house and peeped m. And you looked so nice and comfortable, ma'am, settm there all alone by the fire, I said to myself, 'George George Smets is my name, ma'am George, there s a lady that has a kind heart, and if God has distributed things right she'll have a good husband and it'll be safe lor a poor outcast to appeal to them.'" The flattery was of the grossest kind, but there was an air of sincerity about the little man that robbed it of much that was offensive. .Miss Cordelia had been so little flattered, so rarely even noticed, that she swallowed the bait whole. . . "I'm sure," she said, "that that is very nicely said. I should be glad to take you in if I had any men folks around, but it would hardly be" she hesitated "proper. You understand?" " Of course, ma'am, being a gentleman, I see. I'm sorry I troubled you. I thank you for having took me in at all." . Mr. Smets's grammar was hardly as good as his manners. " Well, you sit down here by the fire and make yourself comfortable," said Miss Cordelia, " and I'll go into the kitchen and see if I can find something for you to eat before you go." An old maid's larder is not a very good foraging place to find things for a hungry man. But Miss Cordelia managed to assemble quite a serviceable meal, for she was an adept at the noble science of cookery. When the little man picked up his napkin, snowy, spotless, in his grimy hand, the contrast struck him. "If you please, ma'am," he said, "is there any place I can wash my hands?" " But your coffee will get cold," remonstrated Miss Penley. "I had rather drink cold coffee with clean hands, ma'am, and a pure heart," said Mr. Smets, "than hot coffee without it. I'm as hungry as a dog; I ain't had nothin' to-day. but I'd rather wash my hands." "Youll find a basin and soap and a roller towel in the kitchen," said Miss Penley, who thoroughly approved the pious sentiments of her guest. Then she covered the coffee cup with the saucer and tat down to await her guest's return. He came back in a short time, looking really quite 1resentable. With a little bow, stiffly returned by the ady, he sat down at the table. Miss Penley lifted her hand. " Grace before meat." she said. True, ma'am," said Mr. Smets, "but Tm not a professin Christian; will you say it for me?" Miss Penley rose and repeated her invocation. Mr.

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Smets, immediately the "Amen" was uttered, fell to. -When the first ardor of his appetite was appeased, the conversation was resumed. "You said you were not a professing Christian? asked the lady. "No'm," was the reply. " Well, even atheists have to be fed, I suppose, returned Miss Cordelia, somewhat grudgingly. "I ain't exactly an atheist. As far as that goes, I don't deny that there is a God, which would be an assumption on my part I just say I don't know anything about it." " Have you ever read the Bible ? " " No'm." " Then no wonder you don't know anything about it," said Miss Cordelia. "Just so, ma'am," assented Mr. Smets deprecatingly. " If you were to read the Bible, I'm sure you would know something. The bishop says that no one can read the Bible intelligently and disbelieve it. I will give you a little Testament when you go away to-night. Will you promise to read it when you get time?" " I certainly will, ma'am," returned Mr. Smets. " And I'll treasure it as a remembrance of one of the kindest ladies I ever chanced to meet And now I suppose I've got to go." "Yes, I suppose so," said Miss Cordelia. She rose with her guest and they both stepped to the door. The wind was blowing a tornado, and it could not have rained harder if a cloud had burst over the cottage. Mr. Smets shivered and shrank back as he contemplated the blast. Miss Cordelia looked from the warm, light room to the shivering little man and then to the swirling wet blackness outside. She heard him cough and that decided her. " I couldn't turn a dog out in weather like that," she said determinedly. " You'll have to stay here all night." "But, ma'am, think of " "If I can stand it," returned Miss Penley grimly, "I guess you can. There's a spare bedroom yonder; you can go in there and sleep." "I'm not fit to lie in a decent bed," said the tramp, "and I'm not accustomed to it, any way. If you'll let me take some of these rugs, I'll just go in there and lay down on the floor " "Very well," replied Miss Penley, who began to be a little frightened as to the consequences, now that she had taken the step. " And I'll get up, ma'am, and build the fires for you in the morning. I seen where the wood-box was in the kitchen." Then he bowed deeply to her again and turned away. It was morning and broad daylight before Miss Penley awoke. She rose to her feet and laid the horsepistol back in the drawer with a prayer of thanksgiving that there had been no need for its use. Then after some hesitation she stepped to the door of the spare chamber and keeping well out of view knocked upon it There was no answer. She knocked louder, knocked again, and a third time, and then summoning all her courage she peered into the room. It was empty. She went into the kitchen. There was nobody there. Her glance fell upon the dresser. The doors of it were open, the silver was gone! She threw open the door of her own room. Her bureau drawer was open, so was her empty purse; her poor jewelry gone! He had taken everything of value in the house. Stop! There was one thing he had left behind the little Testament she had given him. He had laid it across the top of the coffee-cup. She sank down in the Boston rocker, hid her face in her hands and cried bitterly. The only man who had ever paid her a compliment, the only man who had ever looked at her with an admiring eye, was a thief, an ingrate! Her heart was broken. Again the wind, again the rain, again Miss Penley alone in her little cottage, again a knock on the door. Just twenty-four hours had elapsed since the first knock had come with its portentous train of consequences. With a firm step, a composed manner in spite of a wildly beating heart, she strode to the door and threw it open. Mr. George Smets stood on the threshold smiling and bowing deprecatingly, but with a shamefaced look in his eyes. Miss Cordelia stood like a statue of Fate, towering over him. "Well, sir," she began. Mr. Smets stepped inside, and with' a gesture at once dignified and dramatic drew from the side pocket of his coat a miscellaneous bundle of small silver, including several pieces of jewelry, and laid the articles on the table. From his other pocket, he fished out a damp roll of bills, added it to the little pile, thrust his hand inside his waistcoat and bowed with some of his old grace of manner, and an air of great relief. " Hum ! " said Miss Cordelia, " so you brought them back, did you?" " Yes, ma'am," returned Mr. Smets. " As you see, I ain't a regular thief, ma'am, not but what I ain't done things that I'm ashamed of before now, but I don't believe I ever robbed a defenceless lady what had took me in and treated me as kind as you did. I got clean . away this mornin' after I took your silver and then my conscience We'll allow that even agnostics might have consciences, ma'am?" Miss Cordelia nodded. "Well, whatever it was here" Mr. Smets laid his hand on his breast " it wouldn't let me go no further. The idea come to me late in the afternoon that I'd got to come back. It had begun to rain again and that brought the whole thing back to me, how you'd been kind to me and treated me like a gentleman and how I'd never been brought in contact with such a lady before. An', in short, ma'am, here I am. Here's your silver, your jewelry and your money. I'm 'shamed to have took them and I want you to forgive me and let me go with the memory of the kindest woman and the . finest woman, ma'am, if you'll allow me to say it, that I ever met with." This was too much for Miss Cordelia. In her turn ? she sank down in a chair trembling. What she would have said, or what she would have done, will never be known, for at this most inopportune moment there came another knock upon the door. Mr. Smets started nervously, for the rap was vigorous and authoritative. Neither of them had time or opportunity to do anything, however, for the door was flung rather rudely open, and in stepped the county sheriff, followed by a grim deputy, and, in the background, the bishop. Miss Penley had been compelled absolutely to confide in some one, and that some one was naturally her spiritual adviser, who by great good fortune happened to be at home. She had described, with minute accuracy, her visitor of the night before. She had begged the bishop to say nothing about the affair. But it happened that the bishop, returning from a late call, had passed Mr. George Smets under the lights of a drug store window. He had recognized him from the description, and had observed that he was heading in the direction of Miss Cordelia's lonely cottage. Fearful lest she might be in some danger, he had summoned Bill Sadler, the sheriff, and his deputy, and had followed Mr. Smets. Hence the dramatic entrance of the trio.

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Mr. George Smets found himself trapped. He rose to his feet, white-faced and nervous, but not without a certain dignity. Miss Penley simply sat and stared from one to another of the quartette. i "Wal," drawled Mr. Sadler, "I guess we got you dead to rights now ; got you with the goods on. Come along." Mr. Smets moistened his lips nervously, looked at Miss Cordelia, bowed profoundly to her, straightened himself up, threw back his shoulders, and turned to the sheriff. "All right," he said, with a well-feigned effort at cheerfulness, " I guess what vou say goes." "Stop!" said Miss Penley suddenly. "What is the matter with this " she hesitated "gentleman?" "Why, Miss Penley," exclaimed Bill, greatly surprised, "the Right Reverend here said you took this low-down outcast in last night and he stole your money and silver, and " And then Miss Penley did the strangest thing that she had ever done in her life. "The bishop is mistaken," she said, trembling nervously, biting her lip between the words to keep it still. " I I gave those things to Mr. Smets." "Gave 'em to him!" exclaimed Sadler. "Yes, sir."

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"stop!" said hiss " Miss Cordelia I " exclaimed the bishop, in a shocked tone. " Please, please, bishop," interrupted Miss Penley, in a voice full of entreaty. Whereupon the bishop, after a long look at the unfortunate woman, retired into the shadow and stood musing frowningly. "It is quite true," continued Mi9s Penley, turning to the sheriff. " He came to me last night," ran on Miss Penley unhesitatingly. " He told me his story. He wanted to get out to the end of the railroad where they are building the new division. I gave him what money I had and found it wasn't enough and I gave him the silver, too. So you see," she went on, "you have no cause to arrest this gentleman." There was a pause before the appellation, hut a less perceptible one than before " No, I s'pose not," returned the sheriff dubiously, "unless I rope him down on general principles as a suspicious character." " He isn't a suspicious character at all," said Miss Cordelia. " He's he's an old friend of mine," she went on desperately. Mr. Bill Sadler was not satisfied, it was quite evident. He stood looking from one to another. It was the bishop himself who came to the rescue. " I guess we have come on a fool's errand," he said, smiling and including himself in the folly. " Miss Penley has no charge to prefer agaipst this" the bishop looked at Mr. Smets and with some hesitation followed Miss Cordelia's lead " gentleman," he added. " No, not at all." said Miss Penley eagerly. " So we had better wish her good-night" "An leave her with this here desperaydo?" interrupted the sheriff. " You needn't think, bishop, because he's a little man, that he ain't dangerous ; the littlest , COPYSIGHT, av

The Mew Comer

man kin hold a gun big enough to pot a buffalo, an some of the smallest men that I ever seed was loose lightnin' in a gun play." " I think you can safely leave us," said the bishop. " I am sorry indeed to have called you out on such a fruitless occasion." " Oh, no apologies necessarv. Right Rev.," said Mr. Bill Sadler genially. "Wal, good-night, Miss Penley," he continued, beckoned to his deputy and plunged out into the night. " Ma'am," said Mr. Smets, suddenly throwing himself on his knees before Miss Penley and seizing her hand, which he bent over and kissed fervently, "you're an angel from heaven. Sir," he said to the bishop, keeping tight hold of the astonished woman's hand, in spite of her efforts at withdrawal, "I was a thief. I did take that stuff. She didn't give it to me." "Rise, sir, rise!" said Miss Cordelia. In fact, by a violent effort in attempting to free herself, she literally pulled Mr. Smets to his feet "I know it," said the bishop gravely. "And I have lied," cried Miss Penley, "lied to the officers of the law ! Lied before a priest of God ! " "Why did you do it?" said the bishop. " I-well-bccause " "She did it 'cause she's the best woman that ever

penley suddenly I lived, sir. I could go down on my knees and worship her. I've been a worthless sort of man. I've been nothin' like I'd ought to be, and I've taken things that did not belong to me, but I never robbed a woman before, and I never returned a kindness as I done last night. I don't know I haven't met up with ladies like you before, and I just had to come back. That's all. Now, I'd been quite willin' to go to jail for it; in fact, I'd feel better if I had. I'd feel as if things might be evened up that way. Bnt I'm goin' to be a decent man, and perhaps I can earn your respect as I've received your kindness." " I don't know how I'm ever going to "be forgiven," said Miss Penley gloomily. " Forgiven ! " exclaimed Mr. Smets warmly. " The kind of lie that gives a man a chance, that saves a man's soul, that comes from a woman's kind heart, don't have to be forgiven; that's applauded." "I told her, bishop," he continued, nodding gravely toward Miss Cordelia, "that I was an agnostic; that I didn't know whether there was a God or not, but seems to me I've had a revelation to-night and perhaps I'll have more of 'era. I will if she don't cast me oft." "I sha'n't cast you off," said Miss Cordelia faintly, in the pause which followed Mr. Smets's appeal. She hardly knew what she was saying, but she felt that she must say something. "There's a train," said the bishop, "at 11.45. Fll be glad to give you money for your fare." " No," said Miss Cordelia quickly. She rose, crossed over to the table and picked up the little roll of bills which Mr. Smets had placed there. "Here is your money," she said, extending it to him. " My money ! " exclaimed Mr. Smets. Certainly. I gave it to you. And' 111 keep the silver for you until you return," continued Miss Cordelia. 99

"Forme?" "Certainly," said the bishop; "she gave it to yva, did she not?" "Well, ma'am and sir," said the bewildered Mr. Smets, "there's only one thing for me to do. Sh called me a gentleman and you called me a gentleman. Them words were sweet to my soul, but 1 ve got to show that I ain't a gentleman as much as I am a man. Miss Penley. I'd like to have " and for the first time he faltered, " if you'd give me if I might have " But Miss Penley drvined what he wanted. "The Testament!" she exclaimed, and on the in stant she put it in his outstretched hand. " May God bless the reading of His Word to JOO, sir," said the bishop. Amen ! " answered Mr. Smets, kissing the book a if he were taking an oath. He made another of his inimitable bows, full of grace, but this time with a strange sort of dignity about it and then marched out into the rainy night Oh, I'm a wicked, wicked sinner,' said Miss Penley, jinking down in the Boston rocker and burying her face in her hands. "My dear child," said the bishop, laying his hand tenderly in benediction upon her bowed head, "white perhaps I cannot entirely justify you in your action, yet I am sure your motives My dear Miss Cordelia, it was magnificent God bless you ! " The bishop could not trust himself to say another word. He turned and marched out of the door. Another year, another spring, the same house, tha same woman. Night time and the rain again. Another knock on the door. There had been timidity in Mr. Smets's knock, assurance in Mr. Bill Sadler's, benediction in that of the bishop; the characteristic of this knock was self-respect. Miss Penley was a connoisseur in knocks. Call it telepathy, explain it how you will, but Miss Penley was certain that the hand which tapped the door could belong to no other than Mr. George Smets. Miss Penley stopped before the mirror a moment, smoothed her hair, already smooth, sighed at her apEearance, whose plainness had never been so evident to er, and then opened the door. There was Mr. Smets. "Good evening. Miss Penley, he began. "Come right in, Mr. Smets," answered Miss Cordelia. "You must be awfully wet" "No," said Mr. Smets, stepping over the threshold and closing the door, " I have a rain coat and I'm quite dry. thank you." 4 - He took off his rain coat Miss Cordelia noticed that be was very well dressed. "Won't you sit down?" she said faintly. "Before I sit down. Miss Penley, I've got something to say to you. You see this" he reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a worn little Testament. " My Testament ! exclaimed Miss Cordelia. "The very same, ma'am, and I want to explain that its shabbiness don't arise from carelessness and mis handlin. It's been read to pieces." "I see" said Miss Penley softlr.

"And I want to tell vou," continued Mr. "that I ain't an agnostic no more, not me. ma'am." " The bishop has always said that the reading of God's Word would convince any one," said Mis Penley. " Yes'm," returned Mr. Smets dubiously. "Irs s powerful help, but I reckon you've got to have a personal stimulus of some kind to sort of help you along and lead you up to beginnin' to read h, and then to keep you at it" " I suppose so," answered Miss Penley. " You're the stimulus for me," said Mr. . Smets, "You and this book. You done it." However his manners and morals had improved, his grammar had remained stationary. "I've had some talks with the bishop and I'm going to be baptized to-morrow in the little church here. Him and me has arranged it, and you're to be my sponsor." "I shall be very glad." answered Miss Penley, with) a strange sinking of the heart "But that ain't all," interrupted Mr.- Smets. "If it rests with me, there's goin' to be a another religious ceremony." Miss Cordelia's heart stopped beating for the moment. She did not dare to say a word. "You see," continued Mr. Smets, with elaborate explanation, "I've been a different man since that day you saved me right here in this very room. I aint drunk a drop, or swore, or done a mean thing, so far as I know it since I went out to that camp. It's because of you an' God," he continued gravely, without a thought of irreverence. "You called me a gentleman, but I want to tell you I'm a man now. and. Miss Penley, if if " for the first time Mr. Smets faltered " if youH take me, I'm your man." "Mr. Smets," exclaimed Miss Penley in a voic4 choking with emotion, " I'm very proud of your gratitude." "Gratitude!" exclaimed Mr. Smets. "Why, great tiMvmcl ma'am thi ain't oratitude at all! I'm lovin you. I think I was took with you the minute I seen) you through the window that night lookin' so quiet and) good and comfortable in here. Will you marry ma now. Miss Penley?" "I'm forty years old," said Miss Penley, "and Tm so plain and homely and " "I take it," Mr. Smets interrupted quickly, "thai that means youll have me." Miss Cordelia said nothing. She had no experienoa to draw upon to meet crises of this character. The next moment Mr. Smets boldly stepped closer to her, took her in his arms so far as five feet six could taka five feet eleven and bent down her head until he could kiss her fairly and squarely upon the lips. " The other ceremony which I referred to," said Mr Smets, "is our weddin'. I've got five hundred dollars saved up from my year's work, and I've got a steady job. I'm one of the junior assistant engineers on th railroad." The happy Miss Cordelia slowly bent her head and her back until she could lay her cheek on his shoulder It was a new, a strange, a delightful situation. And again there came a knock upon the door. Mr. Smets would have sworn had he not been SJ brand snatched from the burning, a child redeemed, and Miss Penley would have perhaps forgiven him in view of the untimely interruption at such a moment. But Mr. Smets tore himself away from Miss Cordelia, strode) to the door, threw it open savagely and admitted the bishop. "Ah." said the bishop, smiling senially. "I couldn't resist coming around to see if the arrangements for too baptism of our friend here were agreeable to you and " "Bishop," cried Mr. Smets. "the baptism is to bm followed by a weddin'. You see, I come back for that silver of mine, and of course I couldn't take it without takin " Mr. Smets paused " Cordelia, too," b added softhr. "Bishop, said Miss Penley blushing, "I know yOOl think I'm an old fooL" " My dear woman," said the bishop kindly, "I fhinU you are going to be as happy as you deserve to be, and I could hardly wish any one more than that" By

Margaret Beaucjhsiinnipi