772 WEST
AT THE ARROW'S POINT.
t
rv 0 you, then, believe in the possibility of love at
j first B1'gnt? " 1 ferried of my friend, Henry
Elvers, in response to some sentiment he had
expressed.
" I do," he replied, with unmistakable emphasis.
" Which means, I suppose, that you fell in love in
this summary fashion with your beautiful wife?" I
hazarded.
He nodded assent, and his fine eyes darkened with
the force of some inward feeling or recollection.
" Bronson," said he, " let me tell you a story that
may shake your skepticism a little on more than one
point."
" I am open to conviction," I answered, settling at
once into an attitude of attention.
" On the thirteenth day of January, 186!)," he be
gan, impressively, " I was standing at the foot of a
public stairway in Leavenworth, Kansas. I was a
stranger in the place, having arrived only two days
previously from the far east, and excepting one or two
young men whom I had met in a business way, I had
not an acquaintance in the town. I was not in a par
ticularly complacent or impressionable mood at the
time, my thoughts being wholly pre-occupied with the
business affairs of the Boston firm I represented. I
was just arranging in my mind the wording of a dis
patch I contemplated sending them when my ear
caught the rustle of a woman's dress and the sound
of a light step descending the stairway behind me.
" There was something in the firm, yet light, foot
falls, and the slow, sweeping movements of the skirts,
that suggested grace and freedom of movement, and it
required an effort on my part to refrain from turning
and glancing over my shoulder. Summoning all my
gentlemanly instinct, however, I resisted the impulse,
and gazed steadfastly out into the street. The next
moment there was a slight stumble and a startled
exclamation in a feminine voice, followed by a fall,
and, turning quickly, I saw, prostrate at my feet, the
loveliest woman I had ever beheld.
"To spring forward and lift her from the floor was,
of course, tho only thing to do, and I did it; and no
angel in heaven need have blushed for the thrill of
exquisite feeling that ran through me in the brief
instant that sho clung to me, unable to stand without
my assistance If I may not call it love at first sight,
Bronson, you, at least, shall name it nothing baser;
for no purer, sweeter feeling ever thrilled the breast of
man.
" ' I am hurt,' she said, simply, in a voice that
seemed to vibrato through my being like the softened
strains of distant music. As sho spoke she sank down
on ono of the stops of tho stairway, and her face, which
at first had flushed with natural embarrassment, grew
deathly white.
,l ' What can I do for you? May I not summon
some one of your friends? ' I asked, bending above her
in strangely earnest solicitude. ' Pray command me,
madam,' I added, ' for any service you may require.'
" ' Thanks; you are kind,' she replied. 4 If I may
trouble you to call a carriage-'
" Almost ere the wish was expressed I had bounded
away in compliance. But, though I scanned the streets
in all directions, no carriage could I discern; and as
those were the prenatal days of the telephone, there
was nothing for it but to walk to the nearest livery
stable, several squares distant. This I did, and, as
you may imagine, lost no time unnecessarily in the
doing; yet, when I sprang from the carriage, twenty
minutes later. I looked in vain for the lady I had left
on the stairway. She was gone. I looked anxiously up
and down the street, and even searched the stores in
the immediate vicinity, but all to no purpose. She
had vanished; and the stairway looked so blank, dirty
and commonplace that I gave myself a mental pinch
and wondered if I had dreamed the whole episode up
to that point.
" Detecting a grin hovering around the hackman's
mouth, I promptly paid and dismissed him, and wan
dered hotelward in a decidedly crestfallen frame of
mind.
" During the weeks immediately following I was
kept very busy, both in mind and body, for our firm
had, through my agency, established a branch house
in Leavenworth, of which I assumed 3olo manage
ment. Under such circumstances, I know it would
seem from your cynical point of view, that I ought,
from sheer force of nature, have forgotten all about so
slight an incident as my stairway adventure. But I
did nothing of the kind. On the contrary, I never
stepped out into the street nor turned a corner without
looking for the beautiful unknown, and wondering
where and how I should meet her again. That she
and I would meet at some time, in some place I
felt assured; for I knew as well then as I do to-day
that in that woman I had met my fate.
" Don't smile, young man. I was twenty-eight
years of age, and had made love, in a light way, to
fair women in nearly every state in the union; but
this time I had received a home thrust, and the result
was a new, simon-pure sensation. That matchless
face, with its crown of golden hair, and its haunting,
dusky eyes, was ever before me.
" I ventured to make inquiries of only one person
a young man, Stanley by name, whom I had em
ployed as head salesman, and who soon proved him
self companionable aDd worthy of my esteem. Hfl
had lived in Leavenworth for years, and was certain