By Courier

At this time of year, and this time of day, there were very few people in the park. It was probable that the young lady, who was sitting on one of the benches, had just wanted to rest for a while and think about the coming spring.

She sat there, thoughtful and still. The sadness in her eyes seemed to be something new, because it had not yet changed her bright young face, nor turned her soft lips into a thin hard line.

A tall young man came walking through the park along the path near the bench where she was sitting. Behind him came a boy carrying a suitcase. When the man saw the young lady, his face changed to red and back to pale again. He watched her face as he came closer, and his own face showed both hope and worry at the same time.

He passed her only a few meters away, but she gave no sign that she had seen him, or even knew he was there.

Fifty meters further on the young man suddenly stopped and sat down on a bench by the path. The boy dropped the suitcase and stared at him with wondering eyes. The young man took out his handkerchief and wiped his face. It was a good handkerchief, a good face, and the young man was good to look at. He said to the boy:

'I want you to take a message to that young lady on that bench. Tell her I am on my way to the station, to leave for San Francisco. From there I shall travel north to the wild places of Alaska. Tell her that, as she has ordered me neither to speak nor to write to her, I am taking this chance to appeal to her one last time. Tell her that she has been unkind and unjust to someone who has done no wrong; and she has given him no reasons and no explanations. Tell her that I do not believe her to be an unjust person. Tell her that I have disobeyed her orders, in the hope that she will return to the paths of justice and reason. Go, and tell her that.'

The young man dropped a half-dollar into the boy's hand. The boy looked at him for a moment with bright, intelligent eyes out of a dirty face, then turned and ran down the path. As he came closer to the lady on the bench, he studied her carefully. The lady looked back at him coolly.

'Lady,' the boy said, 'that guy on the other bench sent yer a song and dance by me. If yer don't know the guy, and he's tryin' to do some funny business, say the word, and I'll call a cop in three minutes. If yer does know him, and he's all right, then I'll give yer the song and dance that he gave me.'