Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1894-11-29
q yellow aster.
ny 10TH

Il IN
| Ave-"
He offered up a dumb thanksgiving
and sat down carefully, then he felt
/ a horrible desire to say, Hem" or
to mention the deuce or the weather.
/ He had felt intensely reasonable the
/ minute before, but he was confused
by the beauty of the girl sitting so
! close to hinl, with the tlickering sun
shine running golden threads in and
/ out her twisted russell hair, and
clothing her in pale molten gold
"She sha. have nothing to add to
her beauty he thought, II shall not
make beast Of myself to desire the
least Of her when it is the greatest
| want
| He started up. ana asked If he might
draw down the blinds.
Eyes" 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, al have
come to ask if you will listen to the
shady side ot mans life"
There was no more tremble or hest
/ tation about him now, he looked as
cool as she did
at Is side that men as a rule
keep to themselves and to their male
companions, no matter how near a
man and woman come to each other,
this impalpable barrier keeps them
apart. This has always struck me
as rather low form of lie and dis
tinctly dishonorable, especially prac-
ticed, as it is, by the stronger on the
presumably weaker. If 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 nohler than
4 any other woman who has crossed my
path"
Inyoluntarlly he lowered his head as
lie spoke, in reverential way that
touched Gwen and forced her to hear
him. After the first disguised shock
| her impulse had been to send him
4 III. n I,,t
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.
mo decent man could deceive you"
he went on, 'even If every word he
spoke were to cut his own throat
May ! speak to you as man to man."
He watched the palpitatlons of her
throat which unfortunately were be-
! yond her control-with sort Of
choking sensation
"Or more" he added simply. las IL
you were God"
Ovens color neither increased nor
j left her, she neither trembled nor
stirred. For minute she was quite
silent except for one quick little swal-
lowing sound, she was fighting with
a 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 fashion recognized by the
use Of generations.
| She was quite aware she had moth
ing whatsoever to give him in ey-
change, she knew perfectly well sine
was about to do him Il grieyous 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,
emotionless voice
| Then he told her simply, with neither
conformation nor reservation, the whole
/ truth about his life.
i 1t is all very well to talk glibly
about the advantages of calling q
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
4 fresh spade may be about to dig up
the heart you would foster, the matter
1 is no joke.
/ BY the time that Strange had ar
rived at the end Of his unadorned rec
ord, his smooth, brick-dust cheeks
looked gray and haggard, and his
/ unina cnlndad firpd
/ Once during the recital Gwen had
lost guard over herself and had let a
/ fash of half-triumphant interest es-
cape from her eyes. 1t was when he
had said--"Thank Heaven! | never
loved one OF these women, that Is,
taking love in its 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 a 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