San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-15
to her notice.

He had played with fire, and was
forced now to admit that the fate of the
reckless had overtaken him. He loved
her. The truth had been dawning on
his mind for weeks past, but he had put
it aside, willfully binding himself be-
cause of his contentment with the pres
ent. Now, self delusion was no longer
possible: the report of his gun had blown
away the last rays of it forever When
Pocahontas lay well nigh senseless in his
arms, when her fair face rested on his
breast and her breath touched his cheek
he knew and acknowledged to himself
that he loved her with a passionate in
tensity such as in all his careless, self in
dulgent life he had never before felt for
woman.
And he had no right to love her; he
was a married man.
When thisidea flashed across his mind
it almost stunned him. He had been
free in heart and mind so long that he
had ceased to remember that he was
bound in fact. The substance had so
withdrawn itself into the background of
his life that he had forgotten that the
shadow still rested on him. He was free,
and he was bound. Thorne turned the
idea over in his mind, as one turns a
once familiar thing that has grown
strange from being hidden long from
sight. Was he a married NAHUM
doubtedly-the idea appalled, him.
Two years had passed since the separa.
ton and there had been no divorce
Thorne had thought the matter out at
the time, as man must, and had de-
cided to wait, and to let any initial steps
be taken by his wife. He had no love
left for her, and he realized with grim
intensity that their marriage had been a
terrible mistake, but there was sufficient
chivalry in his nature to make him feel
that the mother of his child had claims
upon him-to make him willing, for the
child's sake, to leave her the protection
of his home and name as long as she
cared to keep it. Then, too, the habit
of thought in his family, and all his
early influences were against divorce.
The idea had not presented itself spon-
taneously, as the natural solution of his
domestic difficulties; he had been obliged
to familiarize himself with it. His fam
lily had been Catholics for generations,
his mother had become one on her mar
riage and had been ardent and devout,
as is usual with proselytes. Thorne was
not a religious man himself, but he re-
spected religion, and in an abstract way
considered it beautiful and holy thing.
He had never thought of it with any ref
erence to his own life, but it made halo
around the memory of his mother. Her
views had influenced him in his deci-
sion in the matter of a divorce. The
world had given him credit for religious
scruples of his own, but the world had
done him more than justice. He was
only haunted by the ghosts of his moth
er's scruples.
Thorne leaned on the fence of the field
where he had first seen Pocahontas and
went over his former experience of love-
What miserable thing it had been at
best! How feverish, vapory and unsatis-
flying! What wretched fasco his mar
ria2e had proved And yet he had
loved his wife. Her beauty was of a
type that insures its possessor love Of a
certain sort-not the best, but strong
enough to stand the wear and tear Of