Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-03-24

bewildered eyes looked down upon him.
''Your pity is heavenly" he said, brok-
enly, "but give me more, give me more (!
I want your loven
She gave a little start and cry, and,
drawing away her hands from him, sank
back on her chair. Her thoughts went
flying back TO the past-to the stretches of
Surrey common, to the Nuneham woods,
and all she had ever seen or imagined of
his feelings toward her. She had never,
never suspected him of loving her She
had sent him her friendly messages from
Venice in the simplest good faith; she had
Joined in his sisters praises Of him with
ont a moments elf-cOnsciOusDess. His
approval of her play in "Elvira" had
given her the same frank pleasure that g
masters good word gives to pupil-and
all the time he had loved her-lOyed her!
How strange! how incrediblel
Kendall followed, bent over her, listened,
hut no word came. She was, indeed too
bewildered and overwhelmed to speak.
The old bitter fear and certainty began to
assert itself against the overmsstedng i'm
pulse which had led him on.
i
cried. 81 ought not to have spOken-and
at such q time. It WAS your pity overcame
me-vour sweet wOmanly kindness. l
have loved you, think, ever since that
first evening after the White Lady At
least, when I look back upon my feeling,
I see that il was love from the beginning
After that day at Nuneham knew it wss
love; but l would not acknowledge it; I
fought against it. 1t seemed to me that
YOU would never forget that I had been
HARSH. that I had behaveI rather like
any enemy than a friend. Bat you
did foreet-you showed me how noble a
woman could be, and every day after we
parted in July I loved you more. 1
thought of you all the summer when I
was buried in the ccuntry-my days and
nights wers full of you. Then when your
great success came-it WAS base of me
but all the time while I was sending my
congratulations to you through Ny sister
at Venice, was really feeling that there
was no more hope for me, and that some
cruel force was carrying you away from
me. Then came e vira,' and seemed TO
give you up forever"
Her hands dropped from her face, and
her great bazsl eyes were fixed upon him
with that intent look he remembered long
400 when she had asked him for the
truth about herself and her position.
But there was 10 pain in it now; nothing
but wonder and 2 sweet moved question
ing.
why ?" The word vas just bleathed
through her parted lip7.
Kendall heard it wit" p start-the little
sound loosed his speech and made him elo-
quent.
"Wh7? Because I thought you must In
evitably be absorbed, ewailOWed up by taC
great new future before you; because my
own life looked so gr9y and dull beside
YOURS. l felt it imp0ssible you should
stoop from your height to love me, 10
Weld your bright self to mo, to give me
heart for heart. S. l vent away that
might not trouble you. And then'-h'1
voice sunk lower still-''came the sum
mons to Paris, and Marie on her deathbsd
tris6 to make me hope. And just now
vou pity drew the hea't out OF my lips.
Let ne hear you forgive me.
Every word had reached its mark. She
had realized at last something ofthe depth,
the tenscity, the rich, illimitaole promise
Of the passion which she had reused. TIE
tenderness OF Marie seemed to encompass
them, and a sacred, pathetic sense Of her
death and loss drew them together. Her
respect, her reverence, her interest had
been yielded lorg ago; did this troubled
warming within mean something more
something Infinitely greater?
She raised herself suddenly, and, as he
knelt beside her, he felt her warm breath