Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1895-03-01
HIS COUSINS WIFE.

bound plantation to visit his cousin,
whom his mother had taught him to
love and revere; and he experienced q
pang Of regret on learning that ms
cousin was away from home for an IN
definite length of time.
While he sat in the old-fashioned par
lor thinking of his dead mother and
this unknown cousin whose generosity
had so cheered his life, his cousin $
wife came in to welcome him with
warm, outstretched hands, and after
that he almost ceased to reckon time.
She was so much younger than he
had expected. and so Overwhelmingly
lovely that he was content TO stay on
and on. dimly conscious that he was
Observation-Disclosures he ought to go away
vet finding it more Impossible as the
days went by, and soothing his uneasy
conscience by the assurance that ne
ought to wait till his cousins return.
DAYS heightened into weeks, ana he
began to feel as if his cousin were
myth--a dark, cloudy, threatening
dream. They had never talked OF him
much, and now his name never passeu
their lips.
Sometimes when they sat together
on the wide yeranda overlooking tne
swollen river that Tapped hungrlly.
against the Ievee, he caught glimpse
of something like despair in her eyes
and noticed the pathetic, downward
curve of her lip. OF what was she
thinking? He would have given half
his life to know.
She had been watching a whitening
ed fruit lugger and, turning to him,
caught the anxious questioning or MS
pale face.
What do you see out there. she
asked: Did you think you saw some
one drowning"
'.Drowning?' He shook his head;
then his glance met hers, and suddenly
he lost all desire to hide his feelings
for her He bent forward, resting MS
chin in his hands, and Il glow sufused
his boyish features; he would nave
spoken then, but she interrupted MN
with half-frightened wish to make
him stifie what she knew he must nov
tell =,
How horrible it must be to drown,
she said hllrriedly-"to feel the terri
BILE. dark waters closing in upon one
pressing down-down-into that nlde-
Gus. filthy slime
you are mistaken he answered;
in the second Of time she had given
he had regained his self-control and
the excitement that had darkened ms
and REDEEMED his cheek had FADED,
too; Il would rather drown than die
any other way; Just think of lying IN
the soft cool water, letting the little
waves kiss you rs the darkness re-
ceives you-the still, cool darllneSs---'
Hush you are ghoulish! What do
YOU want with silence and darkness!
/ want you to so out into the light ana
make something of your talents.
want to hear of You sometimes, after
you leave-us!
She held out her small. white hand
to him, and though he hungered to kiss
it passionately. yet he wilfully misun-
derstood, and, STOPPING, lifted her hand
kerchef from the floor and gave it to
her.
Many nights he paced UP and down
the moonlit veranda, after she had
gone TO her room. trying to tear him
self away before her husbands return.
Yet the memory of her dark, hopeless
eyes and wistful lips drove all the
DloOu III lllS bOlt SulSIlS lloIlI Ills
heart to his brain ard back again. till
he was giddy. and pressed his fore
head against the cold white pillars to
feel the breeze from the river ripping
his hair.
Then in the morning he lost all wish
to 90, and lowered about her. like the
wretched moth that kisses the light till
his body falls dead.
Oman NO y,n,.,-aJ him, so1f 70 fnxu
questions about her husband, who must
be of a strange character to leave her
thus alone for weeks at a time She
looked at the boys handsome face
and half smiled: then, pointing to a
bit of driftwood tossing on the waves
in the wake of a passing steamer, she
said earnestly.
Women are like yonder piece of
drift-they only live in the wake of 4
mans life, are tossed by the careless
movements hither and thither as long
as they can follow-and then"
Her embroidery had fallen from her
hands: now she took it up again, laugh
ing with forced gaiety.
"I'hen-there are always these inn
possible flowers, in impossible colors.
TO console us. Our ideals aud or
flowers are alike-impoSsible!'
II
On the next day a letter came from
her husband. announcing an immediate
return.
She had newer looked so beautiful to
the boy as she did when telling him
this news. which was crueller to him
than q dagger thrust, and the pity that
she felt shone in her eyes though he
saw nothing of ii.
A little latter. with view to distract
ing his sad thoughts. which were so
clearly mirrorcd i'll his face she pro-
posed that they should take the narrow
green skitf named The Lady of the