The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1893-11-11

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N~2~ w am donkey to
do it, at my
I:,De Of life; but She is unquestionably
= charming woman. She made him
happy, and-I am afraid am a fool.
feel, however, as though l owed it al
most to his memory, and something to
her, too. Yes, there is no doubt, 1 owe
her something in that line-and yet,
good heavens! 1 am not doing it on
that account. love her desperately,
down to the ground.
Dick she said to mo yesterday,
looking straight at mo with her won
derful blue eycs-"Dicl, why do you
ask me-now?''
BETTER late than never answered.
She began: ''Five, six years ago
you and stopped
II know. l was u fool, Lucille. I
never once thought of it, though. You
see. the idea was foreign to me.
never intended to marry"
''And now?''
with your kind assistance. do in
tend to-
Her question almost bowled me over.
I gazed at the carpet, wondering how I
could best put it to her. Presently I
looked up, and our eyes met I
blurted out: because I love you, of
course
did not mean to say that just then;
the truth is, that the idea Of ''repara-
ton had got sole possession of my
brain, and how to express it Erav-
eled me.
Lucille laughed lightly. THAT, Dick,
is q second thought, and not a bad
one for a man who is offering himself
as a husband. Sfill, 1 want your first. -
Il was thinking that, love apart, you
have a moral claim upon me-
A great wave of color rose and fell,
leaving her beautiful face pale as
,lg.sv 1vvC v.slV
claim? Why moral? Why not ma
terial? When turn huckstcr, Dick,
will traffic only for gold
1 saw what she meant. Loves gifts,
being no impovershment of love, en-
tail no indebtedness upon the recipient.
Love is paid for its gift in the giving.
This, l thought. was :, counsel of per-
lection and better suited to angels and
and angelic loves than to men and
women in an earthly, highly conven-
tional and British society.
''And that il why you wish to marry
mc?'' she added.
felt that was on thin ice. mo,
darling, it is not. I love you. There's
no harm in that, hope?'
NO, not bit 1t is very good rea-
son. Genuine, Dick?''
''Quite. on my honor
1.-The honor of an English general
more, of an English gentleman-morc
still, of a wcll-tricd fricnd-that is good
enough for me. Here's my hand on it,
Dick
That was only yesterday; it seems
twenty years ago. Poor Robethon-hc
blame. l acted Loyalty enough by him.
1t, was like this. you see. Robethon
and I were pretty close friends. l
spent much of my time at my clubs,
and at one or other of them l was al
ways coming across Robethon. The
taste for chess was mutual, and was
the ground of first acquaintance.
We were about the same age, heading
fast for fifty; he was short and stout,
! was long and lean. l had been all
over the world, while he had never been
outside of England; sometimes l fan
cied he had never been outside of Lon
don. If he had he was careful to con-
ccal the fact. We were both bachelors:
his cham bers were close to st. James
street, mine to Piccadilly; we never Wis
tied each other, though. He was part
ncr in well-l>nown firm of bankers,
but had not entered their place of BUSH
ness for twenty years. He had read a
world beyond me and was a gentle,
sympathetic, clean-sou]ed gentleman.
l wish could say as much truthfully
of myself: no false modcsty should keep
me from writing it down. Still Robethon
cared for me and I am dcuced sure l
cared for him. His rcticencc was charac-
steel armor covering him from head to
foot. Sometimes think it was, funda-
mentally, shyness-not of the ordinary
kind, of which there was not a trace
about him, but deep, spiritual shyness.
On the other hand, it might have been
due to austere selectHess of spirit,
sensitive, delicate pride of soul. The
clubmen held him in gre at esteem in a
manner were proud of him. considered
him an authority on disputed points of
honor and the like and accepted his
judgment with docility and reverence
One day met a lady on Pail Mall,
tall, fair. straight as dart, and with
a face that fell on me like a vision.
turned and watched her, and while so
doing she suddenly halted, turned
round and came toward me. I stood
still. In passing she gave me a momen-
tary glance. Ha, she was very lovely!
a month or six weeks later there
was reception at certain foreign
embassy and happened to be present.
1t was not my kind of thing at all, but
CHANGED to be an old acquaintance OF
the ambassador in question. There
was big crowd and dancing was in
full swing. Passing by the ballroom,
/ stood for moment to watch the
dancers. The first thing saw was the
lady of Pail Mall, gloriously arrayed,
Waiting with q German.
s''Who is shc?'' asked of a man 1
knew.