The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-03-14
LITERARY
LOVED AND LOST
! hold it true whate'er befall
feel it when | sorrow most:
IT'S better to have loved and lost
vrlon >, o,,a, 70 bo,r1 Io,oI 81 oil

IT'S better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all
A November storm Of wind and rain
was ranging furiOusly, twisting the
bare, gaunt branches Of the trees in
Thornton Park, and hurting those
which stood near it against the sides
of the great stone house, as if wreak-
ing a mad spite upon it and all within.
The rain that fell in sheets, and that
came driving on the plate-glaSs win
dow-panes in great angry gusts, was
plainly audible in the brilliantly
lighted room where Roland Wester-
ton was sitting for all the double
barriers of inside. tight-closed shut
ters' and heavy, sweeping curtains of
rich, dark crimson damask, that
depended from the walnut and gilt
cornices to the Aubussun carpet on
the floor, of warm, glowing crimsons,
that merged into pink and creamy
yellow hueS.
1t was noble apartment, long well
propOrti0ned, with a dozen windows
alternating with mirrors set in the
walls-with rare and magnificent fur
niture, from which the ''new' look
was so completely worn off that every
thing suggested delightfully."- used
and costly comfortable condition.
Before the fire in Il low, deep chair,
with his hands clasped at the back of
his head and his feet stretched out to
the genial warmth Roland Westerton
was sitting, hearing the sObbing
shrek of the storm that was power
less to hurt him physically, but every
drop of which seemed falling like
paralyZing ice drops on his heart
every wall of which was Il personal
voice that reminded him of night
similar to this twenty years ago. when
hope, and faith, and joy. and love had
fled from his heart at Beryl Dean 5
bidding.
A vision of a face came before him,
pnre rs blossom. fair as a lily petal
sweet as rose, modest and unassum-
ing as L violet.
remembered it so distinctly even
after twenty years, when he was Il
gray-haired man of tifty-grav haired
man as much from the troubles and
pangs of memory of all those years as
from the course of nature.
He remembered with pain that
thrilled his heart over all the gloomy
lonely years-years he had been SO
sturdily loyal to the one love of his
life: years during which no woman
had been able to tempt him into shar-
ing his wealth or heart with her:
years when he had learned that in this
world there WAS never more the hap
piness for him that fell to other men.
Ii she had only died. Mr.. " esterton
knew he would have had Il submissive
satisfaction. compared TO which the
suffering he had undergone would
have been almost happy content; But
to know she had lived and played him
SO cruelty false. to know she had not
died, but was more than dead to him
it had heen an awful trouble to him,
and the traces of it were on his grave.
fine face tonight as he sat immersed
III the past. rs Il dreary rain and wind
tempest always had power to immerse
him. just as the odor of 4 flower or
the chords, in song will recall painful
memories.
1t had been just such a night as this
when his brother Herbert had come
to him. amid the gaiety and brilliancy
the music ard dancing at Mrs. Gran
than reception, and linking his arm
through Roland's led him off to the
deserted silence of the library. and
then confronted him. pale with pity:
Roland, you may not forgive me
for bringing you here to almost break
your heart, but it is my duty. Roland
have l not time and again warned
you that Miss Dean was only consent.