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Show NORA'S JLUE EYES One cf Many Romances of the Great Receiving Room at Ellis Island. By HAROLD CARTER. Dr Sergius O'Flanahan, stationed at his post in the great receiving room at ICilis island, examining immigrants for trachoma, let his hands fall upon his apron and gubped. lie found himself him-self staring into a sweet face upturned twinkled with fun and then suddenly to hia and Into two blue eyes that clouded with Borrow. "Nora Mulcahy!" he mu-Kered. "Glory be! I guess there's nothing the matter with your eyes, Nora. How did you get here?" "Whist! You're holding' up the line, Sergius." said Nora. "I'll see you afterward aft-erward at the place they're sending me to, unless they won't let me go there." Then she was gone and Sergius O'Flanahan was resuming his daily prosaic task of examining eyes. He looked into several hundred pairs that morning, but none of these affected him in the least like the blue eyes of Nora Mulcahy, his former sweetheart. sweet-heart. ' "Mulcahy?" asked the official to whom he applied. He turned to his register. "That little Irish girl? They're holding her in the detention room until her man comes. He was to have met her. They won't let her in If he doesn't come." So Sergius found her In the detention deten-tion room, her eyes piteously red, her face white, her lips trembling. At the Eight of him a faint smile came to her lips, and presently she was twinkling t Us "Nora, Is It Too Late?" He asked Softly. with laughter again. Nora was never sad for more than a few minutes together. to-gether. "Sure, Nora, this is a bad business," said the young doctor, sitting down beside her. "I hear you're to be married." "That I am," answered Nora, looking look-ing sidewise at him. "It's a bad business," said O'Flanahan O'Flana-han again. "Who is it, Nora darlin'T" "You mustn't call me that, Sergius, nor squeeze my hand," said Nora primly. "I wouldn't have thought It of you. Doctor O'Flanahan." "I'm not squeezing It, Nora; I'm Just holding it," said Sergius, and, as she made no protest, he ..continued holding it. "Who is the lucky man?" he continued. "Is it Piggy Mao-Shane?" Mao-Shane?" "Now do you think that I'd be after marrying MacShane?" cried Nora indignantly. in-dignantly. "No, indeed it Isn't." "Then it's Terry MacBride; bad luck to him," cried Sergius. "I knew he'd get you, Nora, if you didn't take care. Is it MacBride?" "No, it Isn't MacBride," said Nora faintly. "And please please don't ask me. " You'd be so jealous." "Then 1 know who it is for sure," said the young doctor. "It's Ellis O'Flaherty. Ellis, who always boasted that he'd get you and went to Chicago four years ago and made his pile fattening pigs." "And what if he does fatten pigs, Sergius O'Flanahan?" exclaimed Nora indignantly. "He's worth his ten thousand dollars today, Is Ellis, if he's worth a penny. Mind you," she added, "I'm not saying that it is Ellis, though." "1 know it's Ellis," answered Sergius Ser-gius O'Flanahan gloomily. "1 knew he'd get you. He always beat me out of everything. Do you remember when he won the pig at the fair by staying on the mule when I got pitched into the mud? He was always al-ways great on pigs, Ellis was. Ah, Nora, if only you hadn't turned me down when I asked you, before I left the Old Sod to walk a lonely wander-i er over the earth. Twice 1 asked you' and each time you said no." "Twice!" exclaimed Nora. "Why,! Ellis asked me seven times before he1: Bailed and wrote me five times after-l ward. Why didn't you try me again,' Sergius?" she continued softly. ' The young doctor edged closer to-! wnrd her. "You'd you'd have tii:.ca me, Nora?" he wlifcpcrod. Then he saw thai the tears stood In her eyes again. Ho clasped her in his arms, and she did not resist but lay there. "Nora, is it too late?" he asked, softly. "We were a couple of young fools to quarrel over nothing at all, asthore. And all the years I've been, In America I've been seeing your sweet face before me night and day. darlin'. And when I wrote you from Newark, when I had my last Job there, I was sure you'd come out to ma, but you didn't even answer me. Wouldn't you rather take a fine, rising ris-ing young doctor with a government Job than old Ellis O'Flaherty, with his ten thousand dollars and his pigsticking?" pig-sticking?" Nora was smiling up at him as she lay In his arms. "Yes, Sergius, darling, I'd like to," she whispered. "But now now that they've sent a telegram to the man I've come out to marry I'm afraid it's too late. He may be here any moment. mo-ment. And how would I look, walking off with the doctor? If only I'd known you were here. How long have you been at Ellis Island, Sergius?" "A month last Saturday," the doctor doc-tor answered. "Why?" "O. nothing," sighed Nora. "Nora, asthore," whispered Sergius, Ser-gius, "it isn't too late. I think I can square the folks here. They can't hold you so long as you've got some means of support. And I can support you, Nora, yes, even if I lose my place in consequence. And I guess a woman's always privileged to change her mind." "And what about Ellis, Sergius?" inquired Nora demurely. "It is Ellis, then?" "I'm not saying it'B Ellis," Nora protested. Sergius O'Flanahan snapped his fingers. "Nora," he said, "you always were a tease. If I'd had a grain of sense In the old days .I'd have captured cap-tured you and carried you to the priest and made you marry me before you knew what I was doing to you. But it isn't too late yeL And as for Ellis, El-lis, a man who lets a chance like you slip through his fingers Isn't worth the having. Now I've got you and I'm going to keep you. Come along and see the commissioner." He led her out of the detention room, along the corridor, and up the stairs to the room In which the offices of-fices of the commissioner are situated. He paused at the door. "I'd like to see you a minute, sir," he called. "Come In, O'Flanahan," the commissioner commis-sioner answered. "Let the lady come In. By the way, here's a telegram Just come for you. I held it here, knowing know-ing you'd be up for the board meeting. meet-ing. You'd better open it." The doctor tore open the envelope and pulled out the missive inside. He read: "Yes, Sergius. Nora." It had been re-sent from Newark. And the place of dispatch was Ellis island. Nora was looking over his shoulder. Now, as he began to understand, she snatched the telegram out of his hands. "Don't you understand, you stupid?" she whispered. "It was you. I sent it to you at Newark when I landed here. It's you, you, you, you, and not Ellis O'Flaherty at all." A sound behind them made them start The commissioner, with his back turned, was coughing exceedingly exceeding-ly loudly. "I beg your pardon, doctor," he said, turning round. "What was it that you wanted to see me about?" (Copyright, 1912. by W. G. Chapman.) |