A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike

owing duties that keep a man of mature years, capable of much better things, attending roll-calls, drilling two sets of fours addressed by courtesy as "company," grilling on the rifle-range, and co

general took Forrest in to the Secretary of War, and there was some significant talk, the result of which was the intimation that he should again be assigned to temporary duty at department head-quarters in Chicago in order to give him opportunity to write out his notes. Long before this, Forrest's essays on grand tactics and certain papers on military history had won much favor among the studious men in the army, and it was with pride and plea

t had taken to continual meetings and to such drink as he could get treated to or credit for, and still the mother condoned, the wife complained, and Jenny carried the family load. Mart loved to tread the rostrum boards and portray himself as a typical victim of corporation perfidy and capitalistic greed. The railway company from which he had seceded refused to take him back, and other companies, edified by the reports of his speeches in The Switch Light, The Danger Signal, and other publications avowedly devoted to the interest of the down-trodden operatives of the railway and manufacturing companies, thought that in a winter when many poor fellows were out of work through no fault of their own, beyond having exercised the right of suffrage the wrong way, the few vacancies should be given to men more likely to render faithful service. Mart's wife, impressed with the idea that she must do something, took in sewing, and took the sewing to ask Jenny to show her how, whic

And then he wanted to show it to Wells, who waved him off in annoyance; and then he looked as though he would like to interest the other occupant of the room in the matter, but s

ly out through the door-way. This merely transferred the scene of it and involved a third party, for there, just outside the ground-glass partition, ostensibly hunting for a book in the revol

, bright and intelligent as was the girl when she chose to talk, both Wells and Forrest had found that when she preferred to be silent it was useless to question. But here, skulking in the anteroom, where reading was out of the question, where, however, one might easily hear what was going on in the private office, here was Elmendorf again, and though Donnelly's foot-falls were audible to all as he came pounding up the stairway and turned from the corridor into the office rooms, not a sound of others had been heard. The main stairway-that which led to the great reading-rooms of the library proper-was on the southern front. Only those

"you know as well as I that no woman on earth is liable for the

u, anyhow?" But Donnelly was shifting rather unsteadily

floor the fellow was strong within him. "An old fellow campaigner of mine, Sergeant McGrath, has

Lieutenan

n honest girl,-you, an old soldier and an Irishman,-the first soldier and the first Irishman I ever knew to be guilty

I tuk it to the house-I thought mebbe she could inflooence Mart, but I'd never have come here wid it at all, sorr, b

o put you up to such a

rked his bibulous propensities with distress, I merely suggested to Mr. Donnelly that perhaps if he could get Miss Wallen's ear he might possibly induce her to exercise a restraining influence upon h

when everybody could see it, sorr, and

id Mr. Forrest, turning contemptuously

endorf, as the lieutenant disappeared within the sanctum

orrest had stood to his guns across the room, making much pretence of being busy with the atlas and his notes, but time and again his eyes wandered, following his thoughts, to the other two,-Wells rapidly dictating, his stenographer with bowed hea

girl's a lady, by Jupiter! You've no idea how she's studied and developed ever since she

orrest, quietly. "Elmendorf was back of th

Mr. Forrest,-he's had his fill,-but look out for that ot

ly, if he did not see her, where Miss Wallen was; he always supposed the library closed at nine o'clock, and was not aware, he said, that anybody except the janitor was permitted to remain there later. He knew very well that the librarian was sometimes there until nearly midnight. He knew well that it was there and in the evenings, mainly, that Miss Wallen worked at the transcript of Forrest's reports. "At least," as he said to himself, and suggested to others, "that is the ostensible purpose of her frequently prolonged visits." He often walked by the lighted windows of the sanctum and occasionally slipped into the dark hall-way, so the watchman later said. The same irrepressible propensity to meddle in the affairs of everybody in the household where he was employed, in the councils of the various labor unions, in the meetings of political associations, in the official duties or off-hand chats of the men at military head-quarters, in the management of the Lambert Library, seemed to follow him in his casual intercourse with this obscure little household. One night when towards ten o'clock Miss Wallen came blithely down the corridor stairs, she was surprised to find the tutor awaiting her. "As I know Mr. Forrest to be otherwise engaged to-night, Miss Wallen, I have ventured to offer my services as escort," said he, and though she shrank from and could not bear him, there was no reason at that time for denying him; but when he presently began talking of Forrest in his suggestive, insinuating way, and excusing his references to the lieutenant on the ground of his extreme regard for her widowed mother, her impoverished but amiable relatives, and her own refined, intellectual, and accomplished self, she shr

r, if you please-- How can a woman wear a hat in winter? Yes, it's on quite straight,-quite as straight as though you had a glass in front of you. Now the overshoes. No, pardon me, Miss Wallen, you're not going to put them on yourself. Sit down, if you please, or stand, if you don't." And down he dropped on one knee and in a trice had stowed away the thin, worn little boots, with their frayed button-holes, within the warm yet clumsy Arctics. "You are sensible to wear such things as these," he said. "The snow is falling heavily, and I mean to walk you home to-night. Now the gloves.-Yes, you may have your own way there, as I shouldn't know how." And, so saying, he seemed calmly to have

nd command, there was something so complete in her faith in him, something so like girlish admiration if not hero-worship surging up in the throbbing little heart beneath that worn old winter cloak, that much of her old bright, buoyant, merry self came back to her. "If I can't be a man," said she to herself, "I'm the next thing t

he, gravely, "and that is why I have made it my business to intrude upon your time and

nd out of work," sh

he ge

ys he

can

as a strike, and he went out. They wouldn't take him back then because he was so foolish in his talk; and they can't take him now, fo

house and your mother to care

and all! She had borne the weight of the whole establishment upon her fragile shoul

y you have paid that house-rent and all th

ans

not to think me intrusive. I have never heard of such a case before. Why, Miss Wallen, I'm appalled when I

c., at home," said she, whimsically; "very much

hes? Can't he mend them himself? My-my-poor little

e, "when I look around me this winter and see all the want and suffering on every side-the absolute dest

d me to this," thought he. They were within two squares of home, and at the corner was a large family grocer

s. You are going on to tea, and

it, and you have

s, at the Virginia, and my appetite's a

d by her soft lips, saw and realized what was passing as the salesman answered and she shook her head. Turning to another clerk, he pencilled a number on a card he handed him and gave some orders of his own. Presently she stored her change in the little portemonnaie and picked up her bundles. Promptly he relieved her of them, and again as they

our brother? I've an idea of a place he

ent. "No, Mar

e is she? Wha

g, and can't do

clothes, or stop--

aid she, with a quiet smile

you their support-and-this has

gets odd jobs

This is beyond anything I ever dreamed of; and-don't come to the library to-nig

k entrance-way, edged a little farther forward, watched him as he restored the bundles, watched him as he took again her hand, then lifted his hat and bowed over

in cautious, querulous tone, th

im! I can feel his

his room-she took refuge

uld, on a sta

at the Allisons' and escorting Miss Florence to the opera, and which hurried him miles away on a mission whereof only two other men at head-quarters knew the purport,-t