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

point, had been mercantile; for his
wealth and position she had willingly
bartered her youth and beauty, and if
he would have been content with face
value she would have been content.
Why should people trouble the depths
of life when the surface was so pleasant
and satisfying? She liked Thorne we'll
enough, but his ceaseless craving for
congeniality, deep affection, community
of interest and the like wearied, bored
and batled her. Why should they care
for the same things, cultivate similar
tastes, have corresponding aspirations
If they differed in thought and life and
expression let them differ-it was of no
consequence. She found her husbands
exactions tiresome. He had her birth
right, she had his pottage; let the matter
end there, and each be satisfied.
But Thorre was not satisfied. He had
married transcendently beautiful
woman, but he had no wife. Half the
men of his acquaintance envied him, but
he did not rejoice nor plume himself. He
wanted HE wife to lean on him. to clothe
tue strength of his manhood with the
grace of her womanhood-and his wife
showed herself not only capable of stand
ing alone, but of pushing him away with
both hands His mood underwent many
changes, and finally he let her go, with
SEINE disgust and a deep inward curse at
his past folly. 1t was not pleasant re-
Prospect.
MI,yl,f lo1 fo11ay. {l,n -, ef,11
brooding; across the sky scudded ragged
masses of clouds, advanced guard of the
storm that was mastering along the hori-
zon; everywhere there was feeling
that foreboded snow. In the sky few
stars were visible, and those glimmered
with cold, wan light; at the zenith a
solitary planet burned steadfastly The
road stretched away into the night; it
was dark under the trees beside the.
fence; away in the distance the echo of
footsteps sounded.
Thorne thought of Pocahontas His
face softened and his eyes shone ten
derby. How true she was, how thorough
and noble. Her pure face and fearless
gray eyes rose before him; with the love
of such woman to bless him, her hand
in his, her influence surrounding him, to
what might not man aspire! There
were no insincerities, no half truths, no
wheels within wheels, such rs Ethel de-
lighted in, about this other woman.
Even her occasional fits of impatience
and temper were INDUCED in frankly-a
sudden furry of tempest and then the
bright, warm sunshine; no long con-
tinued murziness, and heavy, sodden
depression for hours and days.
Did she love him? AS he asked himself
the question. Thorne's heart bounded,
and the blood coursed holly through his
veins He had tried to make her love
him-had he succeeded? Thorne was no
fatuous fool blinded by his own vanity,
but his power over women had been
often tried, fully proved, and he had
confidence In himself. Once only had
he failed of securing the love he sought,
and it was the memory of that failure
which made him pause and question
now, He was not sure, She liked him,
was pleasant and gracious, but he had
seen her so to other men. Never until
this evening had she changed color at
his touch. She liked him-and Thorne
felt within him fierce desire to change
her passivity of regard into wild activity
of passion He could do it. That tide
Of crimson, vague terror and awaken
ing in the gray eyes, as they met his
gaze on reopening to consciousness, had
shown him tiny cleft which his hand
might broaden, until it should flood
their two lives with the light of love.
The echo of the footsteps deepened,
merged into actual sound, drew nearer.
Thorne, in the deep obscurity of the
trees, listened, moving near to the duslky
trunk of an old magnolia; ne was, in no
mood for passing civilities, and in this
friendly country all wayfarers exchanged
greetings. In the sound Of the advance
ing steps he could distinguish an I'M
mistakable shuttle which proclaimed
race-two negroes returning from the
little village, beyond Shirley, whittier
they had gone to make Christmas pur-
chases. They walked by the light of
faring pine knot, which was encouraged
to burn by being swung around violent
ly from time to time; it lighted the
mems dark faces and reflected itself in
intermittent flashes on the sides of
bright tin bucket which the younger
man carried, but it intensified the gloom
around them. Both had on their backs
bags filed with lumpy things, like
bundles. They were talking cheerfully,
and the sound of their rough voices and
cultural laughter reached Thorne before
the men themselves came abreast of his
position. The negro with the bucket
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