The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-05-11
CHAPTER XX.-CoSrlNUEp.

"fam not sorry to leave you, sir, y
said Teddy, unable to make any more
generous response, as he quilted the
room.
Maurice requested the servant to ask
Miss Cuthbert if he might see her for a
few moments. She came ut once.
There was no light of triumph in hel
eyes; they were sadder than before.
Maurice spoke rapidly and excitedly.
Teddy has told me what should
make me glad, and am glad; but there
is so much misery mixed up in it that
only one thing is clear to me, and
that is the bitter knowledge that
his petty act of jealous treachery
has done us both irreparable harm.
How you must have suffered!
And / was the cause-I, who would
have done anything rather than have
given you the smallest pang-and can
do nothing to make amends. / am
powerless even to let yov see how 1,
too, suffered"
His words came like torrent: his
cheeks were flushed, and his eyes bright.
do not blame yourself. or Teddy
too much" she answered, quietly
''other circumstances combined to bring
about our misfortune.
xviii you ever forgive me?''
81 have too much to regret to have
thought about-forgiving. Mr.. Ark
wood has told me how you tried to find
me-"
Il thought YOU must be dead. WHY
did you myStify me so when we first
met at Hollyford?''
Il cannot tell" she answered, frank
ly, and again that ripple of agitation
passed over her face. Il cannot tell,
except that the pain of thinking you
had deceived me made me foolish-mad
think. Your failure to identify me
seemed to confirm all that 1 had been
led to believe. But WHY do
we talk about this now? We have both
blundered-I most-and we have to
bear the sorrow we have made for our
selves"
mo, no, no; it was who Numbered,
and wish | might be the only one to
suffer for it."
You know that cannot be-" she an
swered, with faint, sad smile, land
do not wish it to be. Whoever is to
blame, there is no help for it now.n
That thought is worse than all.
There might be help for it if
He stopped and his face became
white. There is no help for it now,"
she had said, and so quietly that the
remembrance of her engagement thrust
itself upon him and her manner in
spired the question: WAS she resigned
to it?" He felt chilled, as if the hot
springs of love had been suddenly
frozen. There was apparently no re-
spouse on her part to the passion which
he now became conscious he had dis
played; her calm sadness was inpen-
etrable. She was like one who, know
ing her fate, had accepted it and is
ready to walk steadily forward without
murmuring.
Should he, too, bow to this fate? or
should ne attempt to break through the
barrier and rescue her from it? He
had only to say goodbye and 60 away.
She seemed to be waiting for him to
do SO, and he was moved by a.perverse
impulse to 60. But he was not to be
guided by impulse now. He also was
ready to accept his fate and to pass on
without whining; not, however. until
he had proved to the uttermost that his
fate was apart from. hers. He should
not, if he could help it, have cause to
blame himself hereafter for having
-besitated TO adopt any honorable means
by which he might secure the happi-
ness he craved for; he should not Lave
TO reflect: IF l had done this, or
that. all might have been we'll"
He was influenced and sustained in
this resolution by what he had Just
heard from Teddy. The latter, in his
despairing howl, had unconsciously
iterated the fact that he confessed his
treachery only because he had learned
that his foster-sister was so much dis
tressed about Maurice. There was a
simple Interpretation of that distress,
and Maurice seized it eagerly, yet with
the umidity which one feels when a
long-coveted prize is Unexpectedly
placed within reach.
he spoke calmly, but there was SUBJ