The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-02-14

bu!OGu, anu yCb ouc WhltGu III LILO ssNAS%s'
with an appearance of calmness
Alice" said he, ''the life have been
leading fills me with disgust. ! want
to change it for something better"
81 hope, indeed, you may" said Alice,
',if it has failed to satisfy you
cit has failed in hundred ways" he
replied. ''It has failed to give me peace
of mind OF liberty. ] have been the
slave to it, 1T has failed OF any good
object except enc, which now see was
far too high-was never to be reached
by any path that ] have found"
SECT into the better path at once,
Them said she, smiling And then
gravely: 81 think, perhaps, you have
not been in the right road during the
last year. Forgive my saying so; we
have beehive arc-very good friends,
and it has given me pain to see that you
have been unhappy. h. have seen far
less of you than formerly, but it has
been enough to show me that you were
careworn and weary, A great many
young men grow Old very fast in these
days, and have feared that you would
be one Of them"
SCI feel as if were old. Perhaps it is
because have lived two lives already,
and have made failures Of them both.
You know that before ! met you I had
for seven or eight years lead the most
monotonous existence ever endured by
mortal man, outside a prison. l thought
that there was happiness i'll blind
routine. but one day / awolSe to find
that it was misery. Then, in wild de-
termination, threw myself into a life
of the most restless, activity. That has
burned itself out, and I hardly know
what remains"
"rhere remains the middle path, -
said Alice. MANY wise men have
thought it the best"
II fear ] can not walk in it, said
Russell, sadly. sit requires caution
which I have lately thrown away, and a
faculty OF nationally hoping, which do
not think | ever possessed. Moreover,
the middle path in these days can hard
ly be said 10 exist. 1t is oyergroNn,
because so few travel in it, If give
up my present life, I must go back to
poverty, and that means isolation"
1T means no isolation so far as we
are concerned" said Alice, warmly.
"Whatever life yea CHOOSE our doors
will be always open to you"
"Alice, they must be forever closed to
me. The reason, will not insult your
Intelligence by pretending to conceal.
You read it in my face, as l can read
the knowledge Of 1t in yours. love
you; and you know it; and you also
know a Thousand reasons why should
not say it,
Il know not one," said Alice, in q
voice that struggled to be calm, ''if it be
true"
'sIt is all the truth i know. 1t has
been the one clear certainty in a
myriad Of chimeras. 1t has been the
influence that has kept the little good
in me alive to fight it's lost battle with
the evil. If l had not loved you, !
should have come here to-day and
asked you in set phrases to benny wife.
I should have counterfeited the
emotion which am now struggling to
suppress. Tshould have mot, no doubt,
the contempt which | deserved, but
which hope to escape by asking you
no more than to bid Ine a fair goodbye,
and to think Of mo as trying to deserve
the very small share in your kindly
remembrance which is all I dare to
hope for"
Alice had preserved the semblancc of
composure during most of this CONVEX
sation, but there is something In the
word goodbye which strikes straight at
a woman's heart, il she loves. And
Alice loved Russell There will be 10
mystery with the reader on that point.
She saw Ihe serious purpose in MS looks,
and tho tears blinded her eyes. she
sank into a chair aud covered her face
Russell saw the sign, and he was over
Whelnael with CONSERVATION.
81 a.l brute to have grieved you SO,
he exclaimed ST WAS 81 mailman
to have come here at all, bringing my
miserable story Of weakness and irreso~
1ltion to your cars
He began TO pace tho room, but as he
approached the door, she looked up,
hastily crying: "Oh, please, not yet; l
have much more to say
Alice, what do these tears mean? Is
1t possible that you have thrown away
your heart upon so poor creature as l
am?"
Don't talk SO of yourself. 1t is pos
sible. IL has been true, can't say
how long, ana I thonght--~"
Russell groaned aloud.
IF there were amy possible atone
rncnt, but what can do? l could prom
ise hundred reformations. / could
picture dozen ways of life in every enc
Of which ] should certainly fail. :"
'My father does not think SO or yofu'
What have you done to make you SO
hopeless of yourself?'
''For two years I have led life
wholly artificial, which, as look back
J., G= Il TT.