The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-04-30

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little to respect"
"That is true, but aside from God him,
self, there arc some things | hold sacred"
and leaning forward, he took both her
hands in his and looked INTO her eyes
"Shall tell you what they are, Margaret"
"As you please"
"A mans honor and woman's purity"
With eyes still meeting his she said
quietly:
go on--what next"
That's enough for the present" and
ticrcely throwing down her hands he looked
out into the darkness. She was not UNI
moved, although her manner betrayed moth
ing as she looked with deep interest at this
man sitting in judgment upen his own past
She turned that evening new leaf in her
experience and never forgot its unfolding.
Pardon me if ! have shocked you with
my brusqueness--you are not prudish but
YOU are puritanical"
II may be puritanical but you have not
shocked me-"
Margaret Howard, when you know the
world better-and God forbid that you
should ever know it as do-you will think
of this night and not wonder as now, that
have so little faith. Then you will know
what mean when say that find myself
doubling at times whether virtue exists in
woman or goodness in man."
81 hope shall never know the world so
well as to share your doubt"
"While | know the trial of moral
strength has never entered into your life
! feel in some strange way that you Will
bear it well. But before we say good night,
let me tell you what might not again be
in the mood for admitting l feel myself
better for having known you"
She said nothing. What was there for
her to say? Narrowed down to an area of
twenty miles of distance, what did she
know of vice and wrong and woe!
Here it becomes necessary to tell you
that Margaret had very vague and indis
tinct ideas of religion. 1t was matter
that had many times been presented to her
after orthodox fashion, but such is the OBJ
stinacy of a few unhappy mertals that they
refuscspositivcly to take opinions ofsecond-
hand, hence this perplexing subject had
never been settled entirely to her satisfac-
ton. She had been told many things about
election, free agency and eternal punish
ment, as well as those things pertaining to
the love and mercy and goodness of God
but she had never been able to reconcile
two sets Of qualities so discordant, and had
almost concluded to give up trying when
| Waring came to visit her. AS during one
OF their conversations they dritted into this
subject, he said, after plainly stating his
views:
But I don't know why I have said this
to you"
"And | don't know why you should not,
if you believe it,
| II do believe it. Your surroundings
show what your life has been and yonder
little church the religious teachings to
which you have been bound down. My
life has been very different and my views
corrcspondingly So"
81 do not yet see why you should regret
having told me-"
"For this reason alone: If you have a
simple faith and trust in God as his charac
ter has been revealed to you after the evan
gelical way of dong, take severe blame
to myself for having said anything to dis
turb that faith or to lead you to doubt the
correctness of that idea"
"You attach much importance to your
opinion as affecting mine"
81 attach Importance to any mans opin-
ion so far as this: | do not believe one
thought we experience or one word we
utter is entirely lost, and when hereafter
you recall my visit, you will think of this
with the rest. You cannot help it. Cir
cumstances are so linked together in this
life that one draws another in its wake"
Why she did not undcceive him with re-
gard to her religious views, she could not
tell. Certain it is that one bold assertion
found answer in her own soul, more than
once he gave voice to thoughts long sum-
bering within her own breast He put
INTO words the ideas that had SO long haunt
ed her, the doubts that she knew would
seem profanity to those who took without
question and offered to her. But not even
TO Waring could she express herself freely
yet
At last the time came to part. Both felt
it and sat, each waiting for the other to
speak. At length Wariny broke the long
silence:
Margaret, have told you what l think
and what am. | shall leave you without
saying what came to say, for your man
ner convinccs me it would do no good. If
you cannot be more than friend to me in
the days to come, you can at least be that.
shall ask no more"
And what did she doI She kept silent
When a man assumes negative on this
point, there's nothing else left for the wo-
man to do without to some degree FORGETTING
her own scltrespcct, and that she cannot
| afford
"You will not quite forget me, Margaret"
81 cannot do that BY your own process
of reasoning you have proved that to me.
No, Mr. Waring, whatever comes in the
future, always think Of me as your friend"
"Do you know how much there is in
true friendship To me it means this. A
union Of hearts in all matters and things of
ordinary life; mutual reciprocity of
thought and feeling; if one suffers, the
other to certain degree; if one is depressed
and sad, the other comforts; if one has an
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