The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-06-30

| bhS hIbI CdScs u6 SAUL
"And in the second caseT' queried
Kate.
1t was the doctors turn to color a
little under Kates clear gaze.
-"Why, yes, ordinarily" he said, with a
tone of vexation in his voice
''Only ordinarily? 1 think l under
stand, she replied.
mo, you do not understand. You
have twisted the meaning out of my
words. | mean this; that you and |
might be friends, without"
DIR. Ware found it little difficult to
finish his sentence to his entire satisfac-
ton, and suddenly there came before
him the memory Of another girl, in
whose conversation there lurked no pit
falls, who was not full of bewildering
sweet surprises and charming contradic-
tiOns; and for one moment he measured
the monotonous stretch of his future.
But Hates questioning voice recalled
him: Without"
you have positive mania for bald
statements" he said "but you put it
very well yoHrself-'withOut disaster. I"
| Then with change of manner as sudden
as one of Kate's own, he leaned forward,
his face full of tender pleading: Let's
be friends while you stay"
Kate was strangely moved at the new
| look on his face, but she answered in
differently enough Every well; it's an
experiment, but we'll risk it if you think
it worth while"
This had been the beginning-and the
end was not yet. If either felt that dan
ger lurked i'll the intimacy which grew
daily sweeter and closer they made no
| sign.
"He would have it So" Kate said
fercely to herself as she confronted the
shining eyes and softly flushed cheeks of
her mirror after an evening with DR..
Ware. Talk is friendship--an absorbing
friendship" and she smiled little
scornfully.
And the doctor, if he found in those
DAYS charm, a sweetness ungUessed be-
fore, was not left in undisturbed enjoy
ment of them.
His own conscience had way of sug-
costing unpleasant questions.
II have had lovers occasional, and
friends" Kate had said once, when it
grew difficult to reconcile the DOCTORS
manner with his carefully formulated
code, ''but l suppose it is because this is
an absorbing friendship that it puzzles
me sometimes.
"Do not puzzle over 1.-THE tender
word was said unconscously and
strange tumult in Kate's heart silenced
her knocking words-"Lets be happy,
while we may"
81 am not sure v-e may at all, +" she had
answered so gravely that he had gone
away to the miserable occupation of
having it out with himself, aud, as re-
suit, had brought Alice Graham's pic
ture to Kate, and made announcement
of his engagement.
Its evidently for me to SETTLE" said
Kate to herself after the DOCTORS angry
exit. But" with a proud lift of her
head, "you need not have brought your
engagement to me to be broken"
"And you''--to the smiling, inoffen-
sive picture-"Iwould take no happi-
ness at your hands. There is a look
about you of dying under difficulties in
spite of that exasperating smile. And
shall not die; only" her old scornful
smiles on her lips, ''if it had not been
for you, and your four years of devotion.
l do not fancy we should have found
disaster at the end of our friendship"
Ill.
DR.. Ware had grown somewhat accus-
toned to Kates caprices; but he was
not prepared for the change he found in
her when he came again. SO simply
friendly, so full of unaffected interest,
so lacking in her usual raillery she was,
that he felt sudden sense of loss.
SIT might have been Alice" he said to
himself afterward in tone curiOusly
devoid of pleasure. And then, sudden
ly and fercely. Heaven knows it's
hard enough to do the right thing with
out having it look so confoundedly like
the wrong!'
He wondered often if this girl who
met him with Indifferent, unvarying
friendlness could be the same Kate,
whose moods had been 80 many and so
charming.
He thought sometimes that this last
mood made it little harder than any
other would have done. for him to keep
his resolve of unbroken fealty to Alice
Graham.
II he tried occasionally to pique her
into show of her old spirit it was quite
without result. In way he was power
less to prevent or Notwithstanding a
man; he knew that day by day they
were farther apart, because she so willed
it.
If Kate carried any pain under her
smiling demeanor, no one was the wiser,
unless it was Miss Graham's picture, up
ON WHICH, IN JnS privacy OI Her SOOul,
she was apt to bestow bitter and scorn-
full remarks.
During these last weeks their compan-
ionship had lacked much of its old,
sweet intimacy. Still, as the winter
wore away and Kate's visit was nearly
done, they were much together.
So Kate wondered little when nearly
week went by in which she did not see
DIR. Ware.
Then he came to her, wearing look
as of hard fight fought to the finish.
He made no pretense of polite greet
ing, but began at once; I've been try
ing to straighten out the tangle we've
been in
Kate's look of hooking inquiry was
quite unheeded, and he went on:
''lt wasn't exactly easy, but I've tried
honestly to see what was right. You
know love you, Kate, but l do not
think YOU know how entirely. l would
rathe his voice broke little here
"have one day of your old, sweet wilful-
ness than lifetime with any other
woman"