The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-03-31

said enough p she demanded
Ibid l not tell you in June it would
be sacrifice to marry your
What then?' he urged. did
you not also tell me once that love
could be demonstrated only by
sacrifice p
"Am l pretending to love your
she retorted, hotly.
Il had forgotten that momentari-
ly," murmured Amory, dejectedly.-
but, the objections Surely, l have
a right to those"
Very well, if you will insist. But
If you do not like what | say, remem-
Der did not say it willingly" she
men who have force, who can be pow
you are weak, but that you are in
different. You are only power in
the world of diners-out."
Il admire the beautiful self posses
sion with which you say horribly
cruel things"
II knew you would take it badly!
But did not mean to be cruel l am
only trying to be true"
II wish" he said fervently, 'how |
wish you would be untr:le to that
cold soul of yours for five minutes. L
wonder if you have any idea how
dear YOU can be when yon are not
trying to be conscientious ~
"As l was saying, you care too
much for social success" resumed
Miss Winchester, striving to speak
with the calmness of a disinterested
critic, and failing signally."
"Ah, yes. What else %
HYou care too much for the things of
the world-the luxuries and pleasures
of it. You care about being comfort
able" she said,- disdainfully.
What else?
She hesitated. what right have
to say that yours is not spiritual
life? And yeti is not ~
"In short-why don't you sum me
up by saying that it would not occur
to me that l needed the consultations
of religion so long as the cooking was
good at my club ~
How furious you are how | must
have irritated you, to make you say
| that ~
''Irritated is not precisely the word
| I should use," he returned. when
| it comes to making a race with wo-
man, probably am out of it, but
that does not make it any the pleas
anter to be told so. You have been
very explicit. | think [ understand
YOU now. OF course when | hoped to
meet your requirements l was under
the impression that they were reason
| able ones. You always seemed to me
supremacy reasonable, in spite of your
| enthusiasmS.
She lifted an appealing hand, but
| he hurried on:
81 suppose | failed to appreciate
! the fact that your ideals do not look
| like Inc. A girls ideal is not likely
to be a trifie stout and perceptibly
past thirty, and l suppose he never
has the beginning of bald spot on
his head
She disdained to answer.
"And at dinner he probably cares
more about whom he takes out than
what is set before him. l admit that
it is no longer the case with me-un-
less | am taking you out" he continu-
ed
''Of course these things are serious
offences against the higher life, es-
pecially the stoutness; and the amply
demonstrate that | am of the earth,
earthly. am glad that it is proved
to your satisfaction, for otherwise
there have been moments when have
been so fatuous as to think that you
might after all find it hard TO throw
me over completely"
ut is hardly fair to talk like thai"
she said with suppressed agitation.
Il try hard to recognize the facts of
life | am Il reasonable being. have
not been dreaming about the hero
in a melodrama. But surely, some
where, though l have never known
| II, &c who * hot IN
strong and fine q man who Can use
the adornments of life without fall
ing their slave, or can dispense with
them and respect himself no less; a
man who is not ashamed to have ideals
and to strive toward them. l.: hui
mainly so poor, then, that may not
hope to find him? And do you sup
pose like to tell you that you are not
he? You who come so near in most
things -
Outside the swift November twi-
light had begun to fall. The light
was growing faint in the library
Amory turned the carved paper-cut-
ter over in his strong, soft hands,
bending it this way and that.
IF were to tell her that | am
that man, what would she say, won,
der ~ he thought. ION my soul
think that | am not far from being it.
If my life is not blameless in my own
eyes, yet it would hardly be blame
worthy even in hers. Is it nothing
to have kept ones hands clean and
ones soul unstained? Does she
think a man does that without ideals
Does she really think l am under any
serious NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. as to the
uses of life Does she-O, Lord. How
hopeless it would be to try to make
her understand"
He interrupted his own thoughts alb
ruptly. The paper-knife snapped in
his hands, and he dropped the frag'
ments with soft gesture of his open
hands, and drew long BREATH
Then he rose, saying with a new gravi-
ty that she had never heard i'll his
tones before:
$50 be it. You must forgive me il
| seemed u trifle bitter. A man does
not lose cheerfully all | am losing
for | did not ask you to marry me to
make me comfortable, since you in
sist on my fondness for comfort, but
because it was my one chance for hap
piness. Such happiness and such stim,
illus as you are still young enough to
get from many things, | find only in
your presence. l have only one more
thing to say. Please remember it.
am, unfortunately for my comfort,
too old to change. | shall not love
again. Absurd as it may seem-and
| know you think me quite absurd
| shall not cease to love you as l love
you now. But as for you, l know
your world better than you know it
You are twenty-five. That is rather
young. am not young, but can af-
ford to give you ten years out of mylife
to look for that ideal of yours. And
shall think the time well wasted if al
the end of it you can tell me that no one
has ever cone nearerit than j. Hor
know you never told me that you coulC