Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-04-04
III.

arms.
One evening she sat in the gathering
twilight. Outside the flakes of snow
came whirling lightly down gradually
forming miniature mounds and pyramids
above the graves of last years flowers.
Within, an open wood fire cracked and
blazed cheerily, filling the room with. a
ruddy glow, and shedding soft radi-
ance over the slender form in the great
crimson chair before it. A loose, white,
wooden robe swept the floor and on one
thin hand her wedding ring sparkled.
The brown eyes were gazing thought
fully into the leaping flames, but the
least bit of smile parted the red lips.
Some one pausing outside the window
for moment before ringing the bell,
noted it all.
Grille started and listened intently
for the voice that should follow Ellen's
answer to the bell. "Oh!" and she sank
back in supreme content, it was he.
Aunt Mile is sick with headache,
and 1 was real lonesome" she said al
most in apology for the pleasure she
could not help evincing when the stall
wart form and smiling face of Mortimore
Burt bent over her.
Did you look for me?"
"a little" and she blushed little for
no possible reason under the sun. He
drew chair near, and for while they
freely discussed her health and everyday
topics in general; and then a restraint,
never before felt in each others society,
came over them. That they were dan
gerously happy seemed to simultane-
ously dawn upon the mind of each.
There was silence broken suddenly by
DIR. Mortimore's low voice asking:
Mrs. Gleason, do you consider
promise wrung from person by dy-
ing friend, binding? I mean an I'M
reasonable promise"
He had not calculated on the effect of
his words. Leaning forward with clasped
hands and futtering breath she gasped:
why do you ask me that question?
Oh! Doctor, who could have told you?
No one heard it-not even my poor,
dead boy. Oh! merciful heaven, that
1 were sleeping by his side! Why did
you not let me die?"
"My dear child" his tone and address
was that of the calm, commanding physi-
clan now, you must not agitate yourself
thus. No one has told me anything,
and I had no idea that my simple
question could rouse sad memories in
other breast than my own. Forgive me,
and we will dismiss the subject for the
present, or for all time"
She leaned YEARLY back, but there
was look of hopelessness in her face
that hurt him inexpressably.
ut may be as WE'LL" she said, "but
someway I'd like to tell somebody about
it. Nothing can change the reality now,
though, and God knows, and 1 know,
that I refused my husbands last request
until he had drifted beyond the sound
of my voice."
A sudden light dawned upon the ply
sician's mind. Possibly here lay the
cause of the terrible months of suffering.
She had so dwelt upon some imagined
wrong to the dead that it had worn her
out.
Mrs. Gleason, if your words convey
to me your true meaning, it will be best
for you to make me your confidant, or
perhaps an exchange of confidence
may be beneficial to us both. Shall 1
began?"
Smiling family through her now fast
falling tears, she answered: "Let me
speak first lest my courage fail, and
then she told in substance what the
reader already knows of that death-bed
scene, ending in scene of hysterical
weeping; but some how it did not seem
so terrible when she had once told it.
DR.. Burt was man of dominant
power and convincing logic. He never
spoke hurredly or unadvisedly; but
when he handled subject or canvassed
matter there seemed to be. nothing
left to be said, and his hearers were
generally convinced. So it WAS with
Grille listening to his calm reasoning
and assurance.
You did perfectly right to evade
making such promise, and when you
did make it You were not yourself; in
fact You were, in my opinion, wholly
irresponsible. Neither do I think
your husband responsible for the
request; it was but the disordered fancy
of diseased mind. LII health he had
never made such request, presume,
nor did he make it until everything
earthly was fading from view, and in his
last spasmodic effort to retain his hold
on you, he did that which in full pos
session of his faculties he would not
have done. And yet, he added, when
you hear my story, you will see that I.
too, have superstitious reverence for
such promises.
Twelve years sinceI met and became
interested in a young lady. We were
! friends for time, but friendship rap
idly ripened into love, and We we're en-
gagged. 1 was attending Ann Arbor at
the time, and the plan was that We
would be married on the day after I
graduated. She lived in Detroit; my
home was in little country village in
Illinois. 1t lacked some ten weeks of
the time referred to, when I received
an anonymous letter telling me that my
afiianced was untrue, or, as the letter
expressed it, was playing her cards for
q wealthy bachelor, with every ikeli-
hood of winning. Her letters to me
were much as usual, and I waited in
silence, PRAYING Heaven it might not be
true. One week before commencement
she wrote me asking for her freedom,
and saving she did not love me. Taking
a sheet of paper l simply penned the
words: 1t shall be as Won desire"
Il graduated In spite of my trouble.
In fact l was righteously indignant as
we'll as grieved.
To be thrown over for money, when
1 felt sure she cared for me, was un-
bearable, and / determined to make