Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1885-07-11


ing headache or any illness.N So she
takes her shield of pride and goes down
to meet him.
"And Mary has gomez he says. It
has always been MARY and Kings
ley between them. II am sorry I
am obliged to go away this afternoon,
and shall not come back until after
she has gone to Europe. wanted to
ask her a question. But it seems that
am too late. I shall have to write it
and leave for you to give to her. It is
about something that will affect my
whole life. .'...s,~
He says this, looking at Miss Craw-
ford with a strange excitement in, his
face. She fancies that she knows what
his excitement is about. His glance
makes her trcmble with it's power.
She goes to the window and drops the
curtain to shut out the sunshine that
floods the room. Her face is left in
shadow, and she feels safer.
eff | only understood you BETTER he
says, coming to her side. 'sBut-I
hardly feel as if understood you at all.
[ wonder if all women can be as per-
P1SAlHS w Il 1utlu do SO1 dlC W LIZ!
perhaps, ifthey try to be-" she ans
wers. "We are said to be riddles, you
KNOW with a little laugh that sounds
forced and empty of merriment.
eff only knew" he says, and then
pauses with his eyes upon her face.
What does he mean? She feels a
strange mesmerism stealing over her
beneath his glance. Is he playing
with her heart? He, Kingsley Durham,
who is to stand before men as one of
Gods teachers? s'You can write your
letter to my cousin and leave it on the
table. I will give it to her, she says,
turning to the door. ''Imust beg to be
excused, there is so much to do.'
Then she bows and leaves him. The
truth is, she does not dare to trust her
self with him longer. If she does her
secret is not safe.
She finds the letter there when she
goes down.
II know what the question is that he
has asked her, she says, as she takes
up the missive. s:He has asked her to
be his wife. Her answer to thequestion
is what will effect his whole life,' and
then she laughs discordantly. She
feels more like dropping her head on
the table and crying, for the pain at
her heart is sharp and bitter. She
feels a kind of fierce, hard anger
against Kingsley Durham, against her
cousin Mary, against all the world.
She takes up the letter again, and
looks at it with eyes and face full of
rebellion at destiny.
II am to be to her the bearer of a mes
sage of love from him, "she cries. I, who
love him as she never will. Fate is full
OF bitter irony when it makes me such
messenger. II will not do it!'' with
sudden fierce determination. She
crumples the letter in her hand, and
looks about her. She sees the old clock
in the hall. She goes to it, opens it,
and drops the letter into it's mysterious
depths.
''Stay there forever" she says, and
turns with guilty start to the postman
at the door; he has brought her a
letter from her mother
''The schools will open two weeks
earlier than usual" she reads. 'You
must come home at once or you will
lose your place as teacher.''
Two days later she goes back to the
New England village in which her
work is waiting for her. And that day
Kingsley Durham goes to a little
church in the West to begin his work.
$50 our paths run apart she says
as the train whirls her away from the
city where she has passed summer
full of sad and sweet experiences; for
love, even if it gives all and receives
nothing, is always sweet; land perhaps
it is better So
x
Three years have gone. Alice Craw-
ford is again visitor at her cousins
home.
Mary is married, but not to Kingsley
Durham. Why she did not marry him
Alice never asks. The remembrance
of what she has done and of what the
old clock knows fills her with guilty
shame. She never goes through the
hall without feeling hot flush come
into her face as she hears the clock
ticking out the hours. 1t seems to be
accusing her. She is afraid of it.
She is glad to know that Mary was
not robbed of happiness by her act.
That she is sure of, for if ever woman
was happy in a husbands love that
woman is Mary. If she had found her
cousin grieving for what her life had
lost she could never forgive herself for
what she has done. She begins to think
she cannot, as It's. She hates herself
for having given way to temptation.
She has lost self-respect. More than
once she resolves to confess everything
to her cousin. But the humiliation of
such a confession she feels to be
more than she can bear when she
comes to attempt it.
She is alone in the world now.
Her mother is dead. Henceforth there
is none to toll for but herself She
misses the incentive that urged her on
to steady, hard work. The outlook is
not a bright one for woman who feels
the need of something to love and work
for.
"You cannot guess what heard to-
day." Mary says one evening as she
and Alice sit in the nursery together,
where the pride Of the family is having
a hard time of it trying not to 20 to
sleep. ''Kingsley Durham is coming
here to fill DR.. Cantield's place through
the latter's vacation, they say
A sudden light comes into Alice Craw-