istered all sorts of vows to the effect that he would never be
found waiting on any platform for any white girl. He murmered to
himself.

"My young lady, you may sign yourself, 'From the girl that looked at
you;' but with all due respect my signature is 'The boy that wasn't
there.'"

Again he looked out of the window at the same sombre trees and into the
gloom of their shadows, and he put his hand in his collar as though it
was already too tight.

"No, my God!" he said softly. Tearing the note to shreds, he fed it to
the winds, lowered the window and began to whistle.

When the train was in the designated distance of Almaville the porter
entered the coach for whites in which sat the young woman who wrote the
note. "Fifteen minutes and the train pulls into Almaville," he
exclaimed, as he walked the aisle in an opposite direction to that
desired by the young woman. She at once understood and saw that she must
depend upon herself.

The fragile, beautiful creature arose and by holding to the ends of the
various seats staggered to the door. She opened it and by tenacious
clinging to the iron railings on the platform managed to pull herself
across to the adjoining coach. Passing through the smoker for the white
men she entered the Negro section. With a half stifled sob she threw
herself into the lap of the Negro girl and nestled her face on her
shoulder.

The young woman from the coach for the whites now tossed back the veil
of the Negro girl and the two girls kissed, looking each other in the
eyes, pledging in that kiss and in that look, the unswerving, eternal
devotion of heart to heart whatever the future might bring. The young
woman now slowly turned away and went toward the coach whence she came,
assisted by the wondering conductor.

From large dark eyes whose great native beauty was heightened by that
tender look of the soul that they harbored, the Negro girl stood
watching her visitor depart. The grace of her form that was somewhat
taller and somewhat larger than that of the average girl, stamped her as
a creature that could be truthfully called sublimely beautiful, thought
Ensal. Whatever complexion on general principles Ensal thought to be the
most attractive, he was now ready to concede that the delicate light
brown color of this girl could not be surpassed in beauty.

If, incredulous as to the accuracy of the estimate of her beauty forced
upon one at the first glance, an effort was made to analyze that fa