The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-05-04
WHY SHE WAS GLAD.

fish, Agnes. What! jealous of a mere child
like Kate!"
The speaker was a man between 35 and
40. Handsome he certainly was, kind
hearted and generous all could testify who
knew him.
The person addressed was in the full
maturity of ~womanhood, with a thought
full and earnest look in her face that show
ed that she had felt and suffered beyond
the majority of her sex.
"Kate is not a child, but a woman, Ar
thur" she replied, "a very pretty woman
as no one knows better han you"
Arthur Reeves looked sharply at his
companion.
Agnes understood that look and sale
steadily:
II saw you beneath the elm last even
ing. had heard many things before, but
could not credit them. The evidence OF
my own senses l must believe"
go on" he said, with forced GOODNESS.
~ suppose I may as well take my lecture
now as any time"
II I'M not going to lecture you, Arthur
nor even reproach you. The time for that
has passed. I simply wish to convince
you that you have been mistaken in the
feelings that you have professed to cherish
for me-that we have both been mistak.
en-"
II love you, Agnes. You know that"
"And yet I am not sufficient for you.
Your eyes, if not your lips, have said the
same to Kate Norton as well as Others"
"This is the sheerest folly, Agnes! My
feelings for Kate are as those I cherish fol
my little sister Ellen"
eff you think so you deceive yourself.
And whether it be so or not it is evident
that the feelings aroused in her heart arr
of a far different nature"
"You do Kate great injustice, Agnes
she is as innocent hearted as a child"
"You must nave a strange idea of the
innocence of childhood. Kate Norton ha6
little reputation to lose before she mel
you. She has less now. A girl that cal
openly boast that there is not a married
lady of her acquaintance but what is jeal
GUS of her has as little principle as deli
cacy."
81 tell you again, Agnes, that I do moi
care for Kate. l have paid her some tten
ton, it is true, but it is because I know
she has few pleasures, and I wanted tt
make her stay as pleasant as possible"
Auu ycG, Wueu, dlteF HOutuS VI clOSt
confinement in the schoolroom, I sought &
brief respite from many cares, the change
of scene and air 1 SO sorely needed, you
did not think it necessary to devote your
self so assiduously to me, who, if half you
assurances ara to be believed, have a claim
upon you more sacred than any other
You could even leave me alone for days
not on account of business-but in pursuit
of pleasures in which I had no share"
Arthur Reeves WINGED at these words.
"You are jealous Agnes, and a jealou:
woman can never see things as they are.
The W. had been walking along s
wooded path. They had now reached thu
brow of a hill, from which diverged two
paths-one leading to Agnes home, the
other to the village, whose glittering
spires could be seen in the distance.
"Our paths lie separate here, Arthur"
"And our life paths as we'll? Is thai
what you wish to say, Agnes?"
"Our life paths as we'll"
No one knew all it cost her to uttel
those calmly spoken words-certainly no
the man who, winning that loving heart
had held it SO tightly.
Motionless, with arms folded tightly
across his chest, he watched her retreatine
form. Perhaps there was a faint hope il
his heart that she would pause or turn hel
head, but Agnes was not the woman tt
falter or look back in the path she ha6
chosen.
She kept steadily on, not even turning
when she reached the door, which, closing
upon her, shut him out as completely from
her heart and life as if he had never been
Then he felt as he never had before, il
not all that she had been, all that she
might nave been to him.
It was Arthur Reeves misfortune that
he could not resist the voice of f1attery
especially from the lips of a pretty woman
Did such smile upon him or hang upon
his accents with delight, partly real, part.
ly feigned, for the time being she swayed
and seemed to fill his heart wholly.
He wooed Agnes Irwin eagerly and per.
sistently-for she was not a woman to be
won unsought-never resting until he
knew that her whole heart was his.
1t was not that he did not know how
rich was the treasure he had won; to be
loved SO entirely and exclusively would
have been gratifying to any man, but he
was n of those with whom a love once
won has lost its charm.
Arthur made no attempt to change a
purpose that he well knew was unchange
able. He married a few months after, and
no one prayed more fervently for his hap
piness than did she from whose life he had
taken much of its bloom and brightness.
Some years after, when what we have
recorded was looked upon as a troubled
dream, in taking up a paper her attention
was arrested by the following paragraph:
"Arthur Reeves, a well known merchant
in -, has eloped with a gay young
widow. The guilty pair left for Europe on
the last steamer. The scoundrel leaves
behind him a wife, whose conduct has
been irreproachable, and three children.
Mrs. Reeves returned yesterday to her
fathers house, which she left six years
ago as a happy bride"
When the shock that this gave her had
subsidized, what grateful emotions swelled
her heart that hers were not those worse
than fatherless children; that she was not
that more than widowed wife, returning
in shame and sorrow to her fathers house!
Boston Globe.
Ancient Hospitals.
Ancient Egyptian records are vague in
their illusions to the treatment of the sick,
but it seems likely, from a legend which is