Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-10-27
A FIN De Steele LOVE STORY.

1t was an unlikely place for a rom
ance, that dingy office. There was alb
solutely nothing to suggest loves young
dream niles it was the conspicuous alb
sence of all things connected with senti-
ment, says the n. Y. World. Even the
calendars hanging beside the desks were
ugly, business-like affairs setting forth
the surprising merits of particular
patent medicines or life-insurance COM
panies. Nevertheless it was there that
Mary sat and read and reread the love
letter which brutality announced that it
would be the last.
1t told her so many things in plain.
~unvarnished, unpleasant language. II
said that she was Quixotic to continue
in the hopeless. endless struggle to pay
her fathers debts and clear his name.
1t pointed put that she was losing
health, freshness and enthusiasm and
missing happiness in the course. And
it wound up with the cold-blooded state
ment:
70 the last time I ask you to give up
y, ,nS com Mucous TO Se ex xhe iees OF 10y you ns , there; ana
tect you. There is no legal obligation upon
you and no moral one. The task you nav
undertaken Is hopeless. II you persist in II
you will break my heart and ruin my life-to
say nothing OF your own. For l shall never
ask you sgain to marry me II you refuse me
now VIII you or will you not marry me!
In the dingy Office Mary went over
the letter again and again. She went
over the arguments il contained. She
was very tired already. She was not
one of those whose hearts are in their
work. She had gone into the Office
simply 10 make enough money to pay
her fathers debts. She knew when she
entered it that Robert Graham wished
to marry her, and had no sympathy
with what he called ~the strained notion
of honor" that made her struggle to pay
her fathers creditors. She wished to
marry Robert, too, which made the
situation a little harder for her to bear.
But she had steadily resisted his entrea-
ties and the stronger pleading of her
own desires.
She calculated as she sat there that at
her present salary it would take her
eleven more years TO save the money
she needed. She could not hope for In
crease of wages, for she was o trained
to work and her work was common
place. In eleven years. If she did not
lose her position or her health, she
would have saved the necessary money.
In eleven years she would be SO years
old. She was already tired almost be-
yond endurance. She could never bear
eleven years more of that office and
that hideous, poorly kept boarding
house. Her employer had been rude to
her only that morning. She loathed the
city. She hated her work. She longed
for peace. a home and quiet life with
the mar she loved. Perhaps she was
Quixotic. Her hand trembled as she
lifted her pen and started to write. She
could not say what she wanted Il say.
Sentence after sentence was begun and
thrown away. Finally on the white
sheet was just n line: Il will give
up"
When that message was sent Mary
put her head down and wept for a long
time. But her relief in the thought oil
giving up her work aud being happy
was greater than all the remorse she
felt at being false to her duty to her
father.
So they were married and settled
down happily in tie little white cottage
with green blinds aud a vine-screened
piazza and a garden full of swee. Viii.
liams and pansies.
They had been married q year and
Mary was venturing mildly to object to
n Of her husbands plans.
ut seems to me a little-a little-weD
mot high-minded. dear" she said.
"Not high-mindedP" repeated Robert.
turning upon her. Pardon me, Mary,
if l suggest that a person with your
your-unfortunate hereditary instincts
concerning money is no Judge of high.
mindedness in business. IL your fathers
name had been cleared of the stain that
rests upon 1t your opinion would be more
valuable.s