SHORT STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13938, 21 December 1908, Page 4

SHORT STORY.

THE TRI-STATE MEET. When Gloria Kane, only child of the political boss* of a Western State, decided to go to college, she selected Woodbridgo, partly because it was so far from home. At home she suffered from the notoriety attacmng to her father's name. Not that she behoved what his enemies said of him. She knew that Abraham Lincoln had been misrepresented, and she thought that Timothy Kano's public services put him into Lincoln's class. Her mother had died at Glorias birth, and the girl lavished all her love and worship on her father. It was V a Presidential year. At Woodbridge, on the morning after election day, Jessica Radnor, looking up from a newspaper whoso headlines she was skimming, laughingly inquired: ' "By the Gloria, is this Boss Kane any relation of yours? He's from tho same State, I see." ' ~ "My father is Mr. Timothy Kane. Gloria spoke tho name with the air of a patriot flinging a banner to tho breeze. " Oh !" murmured Jessica. Tho door opened and Susy Pratt rushed in. . "Say, Gloria," she began, "when you re speaking of disputable characters it s just as well to put on tho soft pedal. Out in tho hall just now one of tho boys heard your voice, and asked me how Boss Kane managed to get solid with the coeds. I told him wc wouldn't have a man like that on tho promises, and—" ■ Jessica shot a warning glance at Busy Pratt. don't.understand. _. her father "You don't understand. It's her father Gloria was referring to." The warning glance was lost. And her father has tho same name as that Democrat that's mixed up with every crooked deal out West? Well, Gloria, you have my sympathy! Can't you make your father appeal to the Legislature to change his name? The complications must be awful, with that other man at large and the newspapers full of him." She laid her hand caressingly on Gloria's shoulder. Gloria, her head raised high, and the colour flaming in her cheeks, flung off Susy's hand and faced her liko a queen. ■ "You leave my fathor alone I He the best man on earth. These vile newsHer voice broke on the word and she fled from the room. In consternation the girls gazed after her, and then stared at ono another helplessly. For a moment no ono spoke. Susy sank down on a divan and buried her,face in her hands; suddenly she looked up and solemnly declared: "Tho next time I come _to earth lin going to bo deaf and dumb!" This broke the spell. One,' or two girls giggled nervously at the picture Susy's words called up, and all of them tried to comfort 1 "You didn't mean to," they reiterated, till Susy turned on them. "Of course, I didn't mean to! I wouldn t have done it for anything in this world, but it's done, all the same. I have broken Gloria's heart. That girl just idolises her father. Kan© isn't an unusual name, you know. From what she said I took for granted ho was a philanthropist, and never once suspected him for that notorious Boss "But you can apologise," insisted someSusy slowly shook her head. "If I had copied her best gown I could apologise, but in a case like this—" She flung out her hands in a despairing gesture. . Thereafter Gloria avoided the girls as much as possible and devoted htrself to her college work. From the start she took high rank in all her studies, but in declamation she was exceptional. When she stepped upon the stage at the Saturday morning rhetorical exercises she eft behind tho shyness that ordinarily affected her. She was perfectly at home, her presence was commanding, and with tho first words she spoke her listeners recognised that hero was a born orator. , **• . Woodbridge stood much in need of timber of this sort. One hundred years before the university had inaugurated the In-State Meet, which still remained the foremost oratorical event of northern New England, but Woodbridge herself, the oldest as well as the smallest of the six universities in the group, had never since anti-bellum days carried oft' a prize. ' By unanimous vote of the- committee Gloria Kane was chosen to represent Woodbridge at the approaching meet. For weeks before the contest the whole college watched Gloria with the anxious scrutiny that ill other communities is bent upon the football team. Here there was no squad of stalwart giants to share the responsibility, here there were no substitutes who, mayhap at the eleventh hour, might turn defeat to victory; everything depended on one girl. Co-education had never been popular at Woodbridge, but whatever chagrin the male students may have felt in the committee s choice was for the moment sunk in the larger claim of college spirit, while to the girls the honour conferred on them for tho first time was a triumph in its.elf. " Oh, Gloria, win; win!" cried Susy Pratt. " Win. if it's only to beat the boys I" "I have a better reason than that, said Gloria. "My father is coming to hear me speak." Tho day sot for the Tri-State Meet was ushered in by the worst storm of the winter. Fortunately, the contestants had arrived the day before; but not so all the guests, and anxiety prevailed lest those from a distance should not bo in time. This anxiety changed into something graver when, early in the afternoon, news came of an accident to the Montreal express. Details were meagre, but it was said that many lives wore lost. Later the rumour was verified, but by this time the blizzard had cut down tho wires, and no list of' the dead and wounded was obtainable. Gloria's father was due in Woodbridgo by this train. As soon as.Susy heard the now 3 she went straight to Gloria. The Western girl was strangely tranquil and dry-eyed, but one look at her face told Susy that she knew. "Oh, if we could only do something moaned Susy. " There's nothing to do but wait," said Gloria.'

Susy nodded mutely, and there fell between them a sudden, conscious silence that was eloquent. At last the visitor plucked up all her courage: "I told my father about what I said the day after election, and he declared that I was an ignorant girl who road nothing but the head-lines of partisan newspapers. Public men, he said, were often unfairly attacked, and people who really knew your father's character admired and honoured him. I wanted to tell you this before, but I was afraid to bring up the matter after wounding you so cruelly. I did explain to all the other girls, and they understand." She paused a moment, and then pleaded: 'Mayn't I sit horo with you this evening, Gloria?" Gloria lifted her white face. "Do you think I am going to desert?" she asked very quietly. "My father never was a quitter. He was always at the front, fighting for what be believed was right, and his daughter must not shirk. How long this suspense can last no one can toll, but the best way to moot"there was a treacherous throb in Gloria's voice—" what is coming is to do my best to-night for Woodbridge, as my father expected me to do."A log in the fireplace fell gently; the room was very still, in contrast to the fury of the storm outside. Susy rose to go, for she divined that Gloria wished to be alone. "Miss Kane, you're wanted right away." Tho messenger was a stranger to Gloria; she could not see his face, and his tone gave no clue as to what the message meant. As in a dream she followed him through the crowded hall; the door seemed miles away, and receding farther with every stop she took. At last she reached it, and, just outside, she gave a little lurch and fell into her father's arms. Presently tho messenger stuck his head inside the door. "They're waiting for you now, Miss Kane," ho said. « The girl looked at her father. " I am ready I" That Gloria Kane's father was a passenger by the ill-fated train was known to many in the audiencq when the exercises began. The news of his arrival spread in her absence from the hall, and when she returned, her father limping by hor side, the Woodbridge sympathisers burst into a cheer. • The presiding officer advancod to the front of the platform and raised a warning hand. " There must bo no demonstration," he declared. Gloria's natural gift of eloquence was tonight onriohed by the experiences through which sho had just passed. In her voice was something that wont home to every heart. She was the representative of Woodbridge University, but in the last analysis sho was speaking to her father, speaking for him alone who had always been hor idol, and who had so narrowly escaped death on his way to her. The pent-up fooling of the audience burst forth when the chairman announced tho judge's verdict that the first prizo in the contest had been won by Woodbridge University. Through the excited throng Susy Pratt at last made her way to Gloria. " Won't you introduce me to you* father?" The slow colour suffused Susy's face. "The girls delegated me to tell him how glad we are he's here." •. " Thank you, Susy," «aid Gloria, "That's the-best of all!"