AN ALTERED CASE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 43, 23 February 1894, Page 25

AN ALTERED CASE.

(From an American paper.) When Miss Winifred Driscoll left the Western seminary where her education had been completed, she realised that she hardly had learned what she wished to know. The acquisition of this knowledge was to be the purpose of her future life. Among the many well-fired ideas in her very clever little mind, best fixed wm her ability to care for and direct herself. She was independent of intellect, which she worshipped, and of body, which she affected to despise. | True, there was her guardian, Amos Grantley -it was to his home in the metropolis whither she was now bound — bat so long as she did ; not exceed her allowance be would neter interfere with her plans. As for his wife and daughter, tbey treated her with that diffident affect icn which a prodigy intuitively demands. Miss Driscoll's itinerary took her over a little-travelled road, through a sparsely-inhabited country. There were few passengers in tha car with her ; indeed, there seemed but few on the train, judging from the leisure which the negro porters found for card playiog and revelling in a rear section. For some reason they were unruly and boisterous, but Winnie didn't mind their conduct, for she ignored it. She bore with her a folio on philosophy, and it was an aegis against distraction. As for the lack of society, she was vastly pleased. People who had never written surely could not compare with those who had. Coquetry was beyond her litany, she needed bo deliverance from it. The modern young man the condemned as the shadow of an ideal. Th re was a young man on her v«ry car, an unobjectionable , unassuming young man apparently, since he kept bis seat, and also read. That was right. It would be hypocritical to blame bim for being where he doubtless had a right to be ; therefore, let him go iuto oblivion with tLe porters. Winnie did not even trouble herself for it would have been a trouble, to scan his face. For one thing' she was near-sighted— a defect which gave a dreamy charm to her eyes— for another, she was quite too interested to risk losing her place. Oae day, in the loneliest part of this lonely journey, there was much jolting and stopping and backing of train aod shrieking of engine. Any ordinary young women would have put her head oat of the window to the detriment of her bat ; but Winnie considered neither tbe commotion nor the bonnet. If there bad been a collision ahead and all running on time was disarranged, she presumed tbat the train hinds knew their business. She certainly did hers, which was to improve her mind. However, towards evening, when they reaohed an isolated hat called the " junction," and the oar in wbioh they lode were •banted on a siding, and the train went on without it, and there were no sights nor sounds of the train on the bissecting road, which was to annex and draw it, then Winnie deigned to make enquiries, for lbs bad not planned to camp out. She learned that the connection had been missed, and that the car must remain there for twenty-four hours. She perceived that her informant, the porter, was insolent and intoxicated, and that several of big associates, in a similar condition, too, had contrived to be left with bim. But Winnie had the stout heart of inexperience. Her personal dignity had always sustained her in the crisis of school life. When tbe porter roughly announced that " those who wanted to eat had better stump up lively to the hotel, a mile distant down tht cross road," she shrugged her shoulders and said she wasn't hungry thus proving her allegiance to the state of pupiltgt, and resumed her reading. The rest of the company, two fat aod selfish middle-aged men intent on cock ails ; an old coo pie with an irritable grandchild, and the modest young man departed, None of them heeded her except

this latter, who advanced and hesitated and stopped, and then, discouraged by ber indifference, went his way. So the girl was alone, as she thought, and the lights blinktd and glimered and the night came down, not daTkly, but like a mountain mist. From the wood issued the murmur of insects and the ripple of a brook, a lolling sound of which sha was conscious", as one which listens to singing is conßcion*, of an unobtrusive accompaniment. But, of a sudden, her thoughts leaped from the page to herself, her physical self, no* revealed as a shrioe moat preciuup, most sacred. Within that peaceful lullaby other sounds were obtruding, faint, indeed, but awesome from their very obscurity. Was there not a stealthy step ? Oh 1 was there not a stifled breathing ? Winnie sprang to her feet and looked about. She caught one glimpse ef a dark crouching form, one gleam from wickedly-glowing eyes. She flung her heavy volume full in the wretch's face, and then Bped through the car to the ground and along the road. The way was winding, threading the wood with the eccentricity of embroidery. In the west the twilight strusk on a glittering obj j et high in the air. It was the ball of the flagstaff of the hotel, and to Winnie a star of hope. Aa she ran she prayed, and as she prayed she listened. At first there were wrathful cries and heavy following treads. Then these faded away, and with the silence came reassurance. She was safe. Perhaps her danger had never been real. But, oh, how frightened she was ; and, oh, how hard she struggled on I A great sorrow for herself enthralled her, such a poor, frail, little thing, alone in the gloomy wood ! But was she alone ? Oh, Heaven into what evil had she rushed I For as she turned a bend that led through a veritable thicket, from either side a burly form sprang out and seized her. Then Winnie screamed— she, who had ever ridiculed such weakness—a thrilling, piercing cry that asserted its potency. There was an answering shout, the dash of rapid feet, a fierce thrust, a violent fall, a stalwart blow, and some one grasped her band. " Can you run ?" asked this some one. '• Yes I yes I" gasped the girl.

" Lord love you, Miss, he didn't leave no name. He was that horded, and he was that fluitrated, and him so ready and frse with his money I" Winnie sighed and grew thoughtful, but ber thoughts were not of her book. " You had this 'ere clinched in your little hand," oon tinned tha matron, producing an antique, intaglio ring. Winnie blushed as she furtively bat vainly examined it in search of an inscription ; then she placed it on her finger, and with feminine craft soon had the worthy woman engrossed in personal reminiscences. (To be concluded,?)

" Come on, tbeo, for your life," and down the road fled the intellectual Miss Driscoll, clinging with the grip of terror to a strange man. Ah, but be could run, could this unknown ; even bis great assisting streogtb, even the impulse of the avengers behind, could scarce give equality to Winnie's feet. And yet she h»d been bo reliant on ' her physical training I Ah, but she had never been prepared against the tremors of such an emergenoy. She had never dreamed that such depravity could exist, much leas dare to maintain its mysterious horrors. Never again would she boast of her independence. If this masculine strength could only suffice to drag her into safety, well content would she be to cling to it for the remainder of her life. Her heart swelled within her throat. Her limbs eho k and faltered. Connected thoughts deserted her, she was merely conscious \ of fighting through the darkness against the clog of her own weaknets. On, on, she dragged, and was dragged, up billi and over ] plain*, until a curve sent a sadden flash of light. Her companion gave an txaltant shout and raised her to his armr, as she staggered, then, on and on, in a fijal burst until he bore ber fainting into the hotel. It was the following day when Winnie regained her identity. A motherly-looking woman stood by her bedside, assuring her of her safety, and of ber speedy recovery from exertion and fright. And, indeed the girl's strong vitality asserted itself, and in security she shook off the effec's of her advtntnre, ai one rej cts the remembrance of nightmare, One particular, however, she cherished, and that tenderly. " But that young man who aided me ?" she asked. " Where i 8i 8 be!" " Him is it?" replied the landlady. " A proper young gentleman, to be sure, so anxious and so liberal. He bad the whole house aroused in your service. Bat when the physician said you would be all right after a sleep, why, be rode away to the country Bea», where, it seemc, be bad important business." " But his name ?" Winnie faltered.