The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-18
The ddha 1ay Eagle ghu saay oriug ganuary ls, 1884


wards. and be put TO her tho inevitable
question-the eternal preoccupatien Of
lovers;
Have you ever loved anyone but
ue?"
MY dear friend"
What does that mean?
II am woman"
Then you have?"
She laid q negligent arm round the
back Of tho causeuse; it grazed his hair
like a caresA
Dear, l won't even make you the
conventional reply-but not as I love
you-for it would not be the truth.
Since you ask me-two men have
loved me and l loved one man, almost
as dearly as love you"
"Was he ever in this room?"
"Yes, often Do l give you pain?"i
she asked, gently.
His eyes were straying as he replied:
"No-only-I wish you had not told me.
1t is unreasonable Of me but l shall
always feel him here-now."
Mon ami, you asked me. and he Is
here now-in q way"-she went on.
"But he does not know-does not
imagine am false to him. If he did,
he would want to kill you-but he
would be glad to think l was happy.
He is like that. So am /, ours was not
a common love"
''You say he is here in your room,
STILL" whispered the man. SIS he in
your heart too?"
mo-" she replied. with some vehe-
mence. 81 swear he is not; that would
be being false to you both. We parted
not unkindly-but for ever. That
my heart-was sw spt and gasnished
for you-every corner of it, when you
took possession. am not base wom-
an, although may be cynical one. 1
do not confound the past with the pres
ent. l cut it off-absolutely-but do
not ignore it. It's part of mel could
not-what has been must be-"
= He was silent He could have wished
her to say that the past no longer ex-
listed for her. She said instead very
quietly:
There is his portrait! Go and look
at it-the etching-done from Rajon's
portrait in the Selon."
He rose and followed her gaze till it
rested on one Of the framed etchings.
1t represented tho head and shoulders
of man in the prime of life, the eyes,
deeply bitten in, seemed to glow with
an expression Of intense reproach-or
80 he fancied-
HE is handsome, is he not?" she
asked, wistfully.
He answered her gravely and re-
spectfully in the affirmative. overcome
for the moment by sentiment of pity
tune to be Tilted by such woman. The
blow must have nearly killed him. Yet
the man of the portrait did not look
like a man who had been Tilted, but
then-neither was she a woman to be
forsaken? He pondered this SO long
that she grew inpatient, and called
him. back to her side. Yet he fingered.
The nobility of that reproachful face
had impressed him very deeply. and he
said, his back still turned to her. his
eyes fixed still on the portrait:
"Ah, dear. you have changed for the
worse. he is perhaps moro OF man
than l." 21
"You are like Octave in Les Ca.
prices 'Je ne vous aime pas, Mari
anne, Cello vous aimait,'" she, quoted
scornfully. ''But Cello was a poor
creature, and I daresay Marianne was
quite right to prefer Octave. Poor
Celiol" She laughed. g.
Ibid he give it to you?' he asked.
She nodded, ''Shall throw it away?
Shall tear down that portrait?" she
asked, with an afectstion of careless
ness.
Not for worlds!''
II should dislike doing it very much" -,
she continued, gently, but il you
were to demand it"
what? in spite of your theories?' .
''Yes, love my theories-but l love
you better"
She had never made such a conces-
sion before. and yet his heart did not
60 out to her. and his body hesitated to
move. IA woman ought to have no
was the thought he formu-
lated in that moment.
The clock struck, his eye turned oft
He had been there an hour, and it was
his first visit to her in her own house, a
day he had marked in his lovers calen-
dar and longed for. how passionatelyl
And it had passed thusi He saw the
parallel thought gather in her eyes and
pitied her. It was not his fault that
be was Ill at ease-not himself-that he
did not know what he was doingl
Some adverse influence held him apart
from her, the sense of constraint be-
tween them was 90 strong that he
actually wished himself anywhere but
In this stronghold Of love-this goal Of
all his hopes.
The silence grew tense. the pictures
on the wall seemed to gallop round the
room. he felt breathless. and as If his
strength, like blood from a wound.
we're ebbing away from. him, moment
By moment
open the window" she gasped-
He did so. and, leaning over the sill.
the early stars slipping out,
,ne by one. in between the chimneys of
he houses below. He could just dis
,inguish the river, only his confused
ense was unable to realize the true
evel of the dull blue food below him /
md he confounded the lazy barges and
lighters on the water with the slow /
moving carts passing over the bridges /
lis heart seemed full to bursting. but /
o put his head within again seemed +
Ike going back into rilder form OF .
lell.