The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-12-18

A hot flush crept into her face at
the low, broken words, but it died In
stantly, for Clarence was replying. and
listened.
"she may be all you say" came in
the clear tones of the young man; but
sne Is no more to me than a flower
winch l have no wish to gather. If
loves me, it is with achildish love.
which will not linger. Rest content,
father, she shall not suffer through
your-your regard for me. / will give
back every ill-gotten dollar. But /
VIII keep my freedom; l can not sell
it, father"
What do you mean?"
THAT | will make over to Miss
Munroe every acre that you leave me
every farthing that is her due. Nay,
not one dissenting word" as the old
man strove to speak. "Let me keep
my honesty, and make my W way
with clean hands, if empty ones. /
would not offer my hand to your
ward now, ven though Iloved her,
which l do not"
Clarence, my sonl"
Father, say no more, but trust to
me; now you shall Sleep"
The girl, shaken by hushed sobs,
turned from the silvery night, and
gllded into the house like a shadow.
Ere morning dawned. the soul of
Elmar Livingstone had gone, where
human eye could not follow it's flight,
free OF the clogging clay, to it's judg-
ment.
And, as untraceable, it would seem,
as the spirit of the man who had
wronged her, yet guarded her youth,
Lena Munroe had also gone with the
night, leaving no token behind her,
bidding no farewell.
Six years later the accident occur
red on the midnight train which filled
the hospital of G-with moaning life,
or crushed and shapeless bodies, in
which was left scarcely strength to
sigh.
The nurses went from pallet to pal
let, holding bandages, aiding to bind
up great gaping wounds, shrinking
from the sight of severed arms, but
putting personal feeling away before
the great needs that met them.
One nurse, with sweet, blue eyes,
tender and pitiful, gave a low cry at
last, as the surgeon, whose assistant
she was, paused beside a cot on which
a young man lay unconscious.
"You know him?" the surgeon asked
her, regarding her blanched face curl
ously.
She bent her head in silence, a sob
bursting from her lips.
Half an hour later he lay there un-
der her eyes, cold and still, with strips
of linen across his bosom, a broken,
bandaged arm, and plaster hold
ing together the red edges of a cash
that ran perilously near the temple;
and she knelt beside the cot with an
ashen pain in her young face, as she
stroked back the hair from his fore
head.
"After six years." she whispered
softly. ooh. my loYel after six years,
during which time / have striven to
forget your face, to see it so cold and
whisel But you shall be more tender
ly cared for than though you had q
6lStCI llCfLL Ytaf 1sid WttCh YOu IlC NCll
enough to know me, we part again"
For the crushed and wounded man
was Clarence Livingstone, the kneeling
nurse the girl to whom he had refused
his dying father to make offer of his
hand-Lena Munroe.
Long days and nights followed each
other, and Clarence walked from stu
por to mad delirium, in which he told
his patient nurse al of which she al
ready knew, and much besides-told
her OF the wealth he had vowed never
to touch, lying in his solicitors hands
for thegirl he could not trace; ofstrug-
gle and trial which he hadgone through
which made her blue eyes dim.
But he said no word Of any woman
whose love was his guerdon, and she
was glad that was spared her.
Once in a midnight hour, when the
ward was silent and the lights low
about them, he suddenly put forth
his uniniured hand and took one OF
hers; his eyes, brilliant with fever,
were fastened on her face.
"My father loved you as q daugh-
ter, !" he said softly, ssand he told me
YOU loved me; but / did not believe,
and / wanted him to leave me free.
Child, why did you fly from me? Did
you fear would learn TO love yoG2p
She bent her face, and tears flowed
silently down her cheeks.
IL was deliruim, she knew; but she,
who had been unable to forget, re-
membering that long hour in the ear
ly night too wildly not to again feel
some OF its pain as she heard him.
1t was weeks later when, after q
long sleep, he Weakened to full con-
seriousness one morning at day-dawn.
The lights were low, the scene spec
trail, as his languid eyes turned from
ohiact RI nhiact