Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-11-29
q yellow Qster~
~ 10TH:

'sShe shall have nothing to add to
her beauty he thought, L shall not
make a beast of myself to desire the
| want"
He started up. and asked if he might
draw down the blinds.
yes" said Gwen wonderingly, as
she saw his big brown hand tremble
on the blind line.
Then a sudden certainty Of his in
tention came upon her with burst
of angry horror. but she swept this off
and waited coolly, with sort OF sheer
ing excitement.
Strange drew his chair farther for
ward and sat facing her.
Miss Warning" he said, Il have
come to ask if you will listen to the
shady side of a mans life"
There was no more tremble or hest
tation about him now, he looked as
cool as she did.
1T is a side that men as a rule
keep to themselves and to their male
companions, no matter how near a
man and a woman come to each other,
this impalpable barrier keeps them
apart. This has always struck me
as a rather low form Of lie and dis
tinctly dishonorable, especially prac-
ticed, as it is, by the stronger on the
presumably weaker. If a woman is
not strong and pure and magnanimous
enough to bear this knowledge, d man
should find it out and go his way be-
fore he has dared to touch her life;
if she is strong enough she should be
given the opportunity Of gaining this
knowledge at first hand, and making
her subsequent course accordingly.
You are UNNECESSARILY nobler than
any other woman who has crossed my
path"
Involuntarily he lowered his head as
he spoke, in a reverential way that
touched Gwen and forced her to hear
him. After the first disguised shock
her impulse had been to send him
about his business. She had half
risen from her seat on the spur of
this impulse, but somehow she had sat
down again, and in spite of herself
she had let him speak.
''NO decent man. could deceive you, -
he went on, ''eyen if every word he
spoke were to cut his own throat.
May I speak to you as man to man?''
He watched the palpitations of her
throat-which unfortunately were be-
yOnd her control-with a sort OF
choking sensation
"Or more,'' he added simply. las if
you were God"
Ovens color neither increased nor
left her, she neither trembled nor
! stirred. For a minute she was quite
silent except for one quick little swal-
lowing sound, she was fighting with
concentrated restrained frenzy of
despair against her fate, against the
overpowering longing to hear this
man, as he sat there ready to spoil
his own life sooner than lie to her
even in a fashion recognized by the
| use of generations.
She was quite aware she had moth
ing whatsoever to give him in eX-
change, she knew perfectly we'll she
was about to do him grievOus wrong,
and yet her whole being was concen-
trated into one imperative demand to
hear what he had to say.
you may speak," she said in hard,
i emOtionleSS voice.
Then he told her simply, with neither
truth about his life.
1t is all very we'll to talk glibly
about the advantages of calling a
spade a spade, but when it comes to
giving dozens of spades their unvar-
nished titles in the presence of one
virgin clean woman, and when every
fresh spade may be about to dig up
the heart you would foster, the matter
is no joke
By the time that Strange had ar
ord, his smooth, brick-dust cheeks
looked gray and haggard, and his
! voice sounded tired
! Once during the recital Gwen had
lost guard over herself and had let a
flash of triumphant interest es.
cape IloLu hcl eyes. IL was Wueu Lit
had said-"Thank Heaven! I never
loved one of these women, that is
taking love in it's all-around, large
sense"
] When he had finished he stood UP
! and looked at her, waiting.
She had herself still in her power
she felt, with wild leap of her spirit,
she could yet ward off her fate and
his; his" she thought with a wave
of soft unaccustomed pity. She had
nothing to give this man, nothing, not
even the germs of possible something
something called Love.
She laughed aloud and looked in his
face when the empty word stirred her
brain, then she lowered her eyes and
turned all her thoughts in on herself,
! moving a small pearl ring up and
down her finger with a swift rhythmic
movement-This man would take her
for mere hope-hope that had no foun-
dation in fact,-it was a mean eX-
change, nothing for everything
mean and unjust; for the minute she
was hideous to herself, with her own
whole life protest against the in-
justice Of others.
She looked at him again, and hor-
| rible power seemed to drag and bind
her to him, she turned her eyes away
| angrily and made little involuntary
sound Of trouble.
"Oh if I only couId traat him aS