Mower County transcript., 1891-06-10
CHAPTER z

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They started and turned to find her in
the teul light of the aci1edoW
It has been said that :sto know wom-
an a man must love her. The phrase
should be amended to this, ':to know
himself man should love woman" )"
and so it would contain more verify.
For mans love is like quicksilver, and
collects all the true metal of his nature
and runs away with it into the receiving
pan of the woman's nature whom he
loves, so that all his gold being with
drawn, he can obtain an undazzled view
of the grit, dirt and rubbish Of which he
may be composed, which inspection may
result in the removal Of some portion Of
the unsightly mass.
With the touch of his wife's face for
the first time against his breast Royals
emotions developed like plant when
fight falls on it. Pity smiled and moved
aside her wings and discovered beauti-
full new born love Graded in his heart.
And at sight of it the man, in spirit,
bowed himself, even as the wise men of
long ago had bowed themselves at the
birth Of love more perfect.
Her request had touched and stirred
him, and he alternated between longing
to let her have her own way and dread
Of what might be the consequences. He
had gone over the situation so often that
his perspective had become confused,
and his mind sometimes failed to grasp
the true relation Of values. In that mat
ter of recognition, for instance, it did
not occur to him that recollection Of
John Royals face must necessarily have
faded with the passage of years, partcu-
larly as the nature of things made it i'm
possible that it should have been, during
the latter portion at least of his absence,
quickened by the inspection Of photo
graphs. The dead mans features were
go wildly present in his own memory
that he failed to realize that they could
not be equally stamped on Phyllis.
The knowledge that they were not
was brought home to him, not by the
rational exercise of the powers with
which he had been gifted, but by to-
tally outside happening.
The all important day dawned, waxed
and waned as other days. The oculist,
tiny man with reputation which it
took two continents to hold, came and
did his work and went his way, leaving
behind him success, Joy and the GER
tainty, humanity speaking, of permanent
cure. For months to come the utmost
care, quiet and caution were enjoined,
and then, if all things should go well,
the night Of years would give place to
the blessedness of sunshine.
During the operation the patient had
been held under an anodyne, and when
she came again to herself it was to find
the bandage still over her eyes and all
external circumstances much as they
had been. Her disappointment was in
tense.
you did not let me see" she said re-
proachfully, land I wanted to see-just
one little blessed glimpse of light after
all this long darkness"
They comforted her with reports of
the success of the operation and the ocu-
lists cheering forecast, and preached pa
tience to her, as though she needed it,
and also as though the fag end Of a siege
oe, ,,<,4 ,c% 1,o-
of all
Royals plans for departure had been
made and announced, but he fingered
for day or two, treating his resolution,
and anxious likewise for little rest be-
fore more happenings should come.
you had better go and be done with
it, Mrs. Hart insisted. "You can't tell
her yet, because she's woman and will
certainly weep when told, and teors at
this juncture would be ruinous. You'll
be obliged to come back in couple of
months to meet the executors, and then
you can make clean breast all around"
Even Phyllis was sensible about it, a
great deal too sensible, Royal thought.
He would have liked to see her manifest
more desire to keep him with her. In
his rapidly growing absorption in his
new emotion he neglected to allow for
the fact that the girls heart was too full
of the gloria in excelsis over her own de-
iverance to admit of much fretting over
trifes. But, then, when did an absence
of months from the side Of the beloved
ever appear trifle in the eyes of man
in love? To Royals thinking the women
but particularly Phyllis displayed a
callousness that was indecent. Love, as
well as amour propre, was woundad- and
he felt sore, resentfu1, and very low in
his mind. .~~,..-. ...-. ... = -.
"Do you think she'll ever forgive me%
he gloomily inquired of Mrs. Hart on the
eve of his departure. II don't see how
she can myself. It seems such horrid
job to have put up on woman! It
didn't look that way at the time to me,
or to John Royal either, that I'll swear.
It looks tremendously dii different now from
what it did then.
Which is not to be wondered at, CON