The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1884-05-15
A DANGEROUS LOVE.


The Peril = Lover Ian ana the Love b
sCENEI.
A winter day; a cold sky full of snow
dancing down in joyless vivacity, to COW
or. with negligent charity, the ugly lit
tie town and hide its curious air of in
completion. The walls of adobe and
stone, the incongruities Of design, the
irregular, uneven streets full of rock in
the rough, together with hill-setting o.
numerous abandoned prospect-holes and
rudimentary tunnels, gave a whimsical
suggestion that Titans had left unfinished
a town they had been cutting out
from the earth's raw material.
This was the outside aspect as seen
through pair of tall windows, with
curtains stretched back to gather every
ray of light from the dim, sky. That
light, scant as it was, brought out the
homelike cheer within. The warm red
of carpet and casual fittings comforted
the eye. At the windows broad shelves
full of plants, that gave the sole sugges-
ton of luxury, barring the aromatic
brilliance of a fragrant cedar fire. A
room of whose possibilities the most had
been made, full of personality of its
tenants; a roomwhere man was very apt
to get sense of repose and ministration
chief requirements of the masculine
nature.
Edward Lamb found its effect like
that, leaning at ease in a homely big
chair that had the knack, like all the
chairs at this house, of fitting the hui
man frame. A large, fair man, slightly
inclining to stoutness, he was of that
type of Irish beauty that involves
wholesome, clear skin, flushed with
delicate rosiness, abundant blonde hair,
and deep blue eyes, with more sleepy
tenderness than was strictly essential
behind their long, thick lashes.
I'm very fearful I'm in for another
fortnight" he said; mot much chance
of the roads opening while this sort OF
thing goes on"
Miss Soulsby left the window, and
came back to her low seat on the hearth,
laughing. The impotence of his
words was so completely at variance
with the deliberation and contentment
of his tone.
"Possess your soul in patience" she
said. 1T is only ques ion in days for
you, and then" she made an ex-
pressive little gesture of farewell and
departure.
"And you?-are not you coming east
some day ?"
ooh, yes" she answered, with GER
tain blithe skepticism, when we sell a
mine!"
Mr.. Lamb smiled at her satirical
touch upon the sanguine creed of the
camp. "Ledyard was wondering what
could keep me here" he said, inconse-
quently; "a Bohemian born, for whom
the noise and hurry of cities is as the
breath of life"
Madelon Soulsby looked at him in
tently. "Well" she said, little sharp
ly, what has kept your"
And yet he knew that she was per-
fectly aware what had kept him. Idlers
both, they could hardly have counted
the long, companionable afternoons they
had spent together that winter. The
little town was agog with the Irishman' 8
infatuation. It would have needed more
than their joint asseveration to have
convinced the gossips that between
these two no love-making had been.
Eyes, I ought to have gone last week, "
he said, ignoring her audacity, when
Ledyard went"
"Why did you not go?' she persisted.
The household cat had leaped upon
her lap-a vicious, big beast, whose
claws had a wicked way of unsheathing
themselves upon fondling fingers. Mr..
Lamb found himself dwelling on the
fact that he never had seen Dick
SO requite Miss Soulsby's careless
endearments. The lazy creature laid
himself luxuriously across her knees,
like great, gray muff, as the girl nes-
tied her hands on his warm fur
delicate hands those always cold; not
clammy, but cold with firm and reti-
cent force of their own.
Some day-who knows pit may be
made a penal offense- their exercise of
this capacity some womenohave for in
direct challenge; this taclt wooing that
perhaps overweighs mans perogative
of outspeaking.
Edward Lamb was a phlegmatic man
enough ordinarily, and little given to
impulses; but just now he would have
bartered his souls salvation for the
right to displace Dicks parded fur with
his own handsome fair head, to feel that
caressing touch press his throbbing eye.
lids. To his dying day he would not
forget the picture that instant photo
graphed on the retina of his heart. For
him, hereafter, no wonder of art nor rev.
elation of living beauty could dispel the
memory Of the graceful, g;rlish shape
whose quietude told of repression, not
inertia; the air of absolute self-conf-
dence and cool, impartial self disdain
the bright face, with that hooking phase
of mingled wooing and warming; the
grave, childish usefulness on that
rounded brow; the sweet lips just now
curved in scorn; the intent, amber eyes.
Mr.. Lamb averted his gaze, and took
up novel from a couch in the ingle-
nook. By the malignity of that per-
verse Fate who misregulates to inoppor-
tunity these crucial moments, it was q
novel treating of the domestic adven.
lures of a young journalist, and the
pathetic small economies of his wife
Both had read the tale; inevitably their
comments must partake of sentimental
coloring.
us it the manlier way?" said Mr.
Lamb, with fine air of unconcern and
Indifference, "to offer woman such 6
life as that Or would one better pro-
tect her from self-sacritice by keeping
silence?"
That man is most fatuous who fan.
cies that a woman will not make instant
personal application of such a speech
An exasperating smile of discernment
bent Miss Soulsby's lip.
"Men have the prerogative of com.