The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-04-02
TRIED AND TRUE.

l
In the midst of pleasant conversation
| with his hostess, Harold Arleigh abrupt
| ly paused, a sudden flush on his fine face,
| strange, startled look in his handsome
| dark eyes.
| What he had been about to say no one
ever knew; of his ungraciousness he was
| not conscious until he saw Mrs. Colds
by's glance of politely-surprised inquiry.
''Pardon me" he said, turning toward
her with winning and apologetic smile;
II saw a lady among your guests just
now so like dear friend knew and lost
long ago, that the resemblance quite ex-
cited me-"
s'Ah, you mean the young lady in
white silk and opal ornaments, with
curly yellow hair and cheeks like peach
blossoms. She is very beautiful there
is none like her. She is Ermengarde
Burroughs, dear friend, who is staying
with me for few weeks. Shall intro
dnce you?" returned the lady.
"If you wish-if you will be so kind
as to honor me, /" faltered the yonng man,
visibly embarrassed.
His hostess gave him one keen but
covert look.
"Ermengarde has made another con-
quest she thought. eff I dared I
should warn him-l should tell him that
this fair woman, with her alluring, smil-
ing eyes, her sweet voice and exquisite
grace, has no heart to be won."
Give minutes later her two friends
were whirling through waltz together,
and she wondered somewhat why Harold
had grown SO pale, and why Ermengarde
seemed so naughty and COLI.
Zone would think they were lovers
who had quarreled," was her mental
criticigm.
She was not wrong, for years before
those two had loved each other dearly.
They had been betrothed, and the mar
riage day fixed, when the trial came that
parted them. Harold Arleigh suddenly
found himself fatherless and utterly pen
niless; but idleness and luxury had not
spoiled his high and noble spirit. He
could cheerfully accept years of toll and
study and struggling, but he felt that he
could not happily and conscientiously
wed his wealthy Ermengarde until he
might regain his worldly equality with
her
''The world says unpleasant things of
poor men who marry rich women" he
had told her.
"Why should we care for what the
world has said or may say" the girl re-
turned impatiently. s'All I have, be-
longs to you, Harold dear. Do not leave
me-
Even in that trying moment, with her
dear hands clinging upon his arm, her
pleading eyes upon him, he never wav-
cred.
ST must, my darling" he had answered
her firmly, though his heart was heavy
with regret and pain. ''And remember
though leave you free I shall remain
loyal to you in heart and deed as the
only woman can ever make my wife. I
am not selfish enough to ask you to wait
for me few years, my Ermengarde,
What the girl replied she could never
distinctly remember, but she knew her
words were cruelty reproachful, for she
was mad with the agony of losing him for
even few brief years.
And he left her with a look on his
white beloved face she would never for
get until her dying day.
She felt that he had wronged her gen.
erous affection, insulted her womanly
pride and left her with pitiless indiffer-
ence to be scorned and Knocked as bride
deserted by her bridegroom. She had
heard of sweethearts who had waited for
lovers who had never come; of women
who had wasted the best years Of their
lives upon loves that were false; and her
whole soul cried out in utter, unforgiv-
ing anger against him. Neither pardon
nor trust would she give him. And yet
she accepted that freedom he had given
her with sort of defiant misery which
all women feel when Stoves of a love that
neither time, nor anguish nor humilia-
ton, nor inhuman cruelty even can ever
lessen.
And that night at Mrs. Goldsby's
soiree they had met again-met after
long years as strangers.
And during those years Harold Ar
leigh had won that for which he had
toiled SO faithfully. He had won an
honorable position among the most hon.
orable of men; he was esteemed as one
of the most brilliant members of the le-
gal fraternity; and by travel and study
he had acquired that elegance and dig
nifty of manner that commands the hom-
age of society. IF Harold Arleigh chose
to we'd an heiress, the world could not
say he married for money and social dis
tinction, nor would he feel that he would
barter the noble independence of his
nanhood by such union.
But for him the wide world held but
one woman, sweet and dear, and she, it
S06m6Q, WAS HO lOuSSE tttStl1aDlcs
els this the Ermengarde I have loved
all my ife?" he asked himself, as he
gazed upon her fair, passionless face; the
Ermengarde in whose affections and
faithfulness I trusted despite her un-
reasonable anger against me?"
And he sighed heavily as he led her to
a seat after the waltz was over.
ssI did not think to meet you here, he
faltered, as the gay groups swept by,
leaving them alone.
.sWe meet many people unexpectedly,
Mr.. Arleigh," she answered in cold,
serene voice.
Her cool tranquility almost maddened
him. The years that had passed, seemed
to him but the dreary dream of an hour.
and their sprrowful parting but of yes
terday.
I over her until his hot breath
cheek
arde,' 2 he whispered ih hoarse
tones, are you so changed?
Eite forgotten, Of do you
what we were once to each
been faithful. I have
Nv Inv to ask you to be-
Give me one word, Err.