Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-09-02

, she beckoned to Trelawny and went
round by the bank to join her.
"Oh,'' cried Mamie turning very
pale when Hagar appeared, "is he any
| where about? thoUght Twas quite safe
here''
Console yourself" said Hagar kind
y. willie comes tomorrow.
"Dear WILLIE said the girl softly, a
dear little girl herself in soft white
! frock. infinitely prettier now than she
had been year ago. II suppose he II
arrive today and walk over tomorrow
before breakfast. He couldn't be here
before &, could he:" said poor Mamie,
utterly unaware of the way her friend
was betraying her.
| Hardly" said Hagar . little I'M
seadily and with o purely womanish
longing TO hurst out crying, tell Mamie
the truth and hit Trelawny as hard as
she possibly could when he appeared on
| the scene.
You don't think he'll have fallen
in love with any one else?' inquired
Mamie wistfully for the thousandth
time.
| mo"
Hagar was straining her ears for Ire.
lawny's approaching steps. She could
hear the swish Of the grass now. He
was close upon them.
| Il don't think he could when I love
him sc, )" said Mamie, with something
in her voice that might have brought
tears to even the eyes Of the man who
heard her, and made him set aside his
greedy selfish passion as cruel wrong
done to her innocent youth.
| GOOD morning, Mamie" he said.
and the girl started so violently she al.
most fell into the river, and her face
went white as snow.
Good morning." she said mechanic
ally, and tried to hide the little packet
III her lap, Willie's letters, we'll thumbed
over and shabby, but not one of them
written during the past year.
| II think I'll go in" she said, and
Trelawny did not hinder her, only some
how when they got to the bridge she
found herself moving away from the
house instead of toward it. But Hasar
was there, and presently her spirits re-
vived, and what had once been a liking
for Trelawny as distinguished from love
asserted itself, while in the man, whose
voice changed to music when he spoke
to her, whose tenderness was Of that
rare order only resulting from immense
strength of mind and character, it was
difficult to recognize the well born ruff
fan who had issued his mandates to
Hagar an hour ago.
Familiarity with him had to a certain
extent in Mamie bred contempt, though
| probably she felt q secret pride in the
unbounded influence she exercised over
him. He angered her, however, with his
love declarations, which, as she always
told him, went in at one ear and cut at
the other, moving her not one whit.
| "Iou ought to be ashamed Of yourself
when you know that I am engaged to
Willie" she said to him ono day.
"And that is just what you are not, -
he said, with significant glance at her
unripsed hand, ''he is just as much at
Liberty to marry some one else as you
are. There is nothing in the world bnt
q boy and girl promise between you. II
is entirely open to me or any other man
to try to win you.
| But when he did not "tease" her like
this there We're times when his domi-
Dant personality attracted her, she being
OF that gentle, dependent order of wom-
an that strong man fights for and
cherishes as long as there is breath in
his body, aye, and loves Us the self suf
ficing. strong woman never is, never can
be loved. Nannie's image, sweet, kiss
able, most womanly and lovely, was
sealed on Trelawny's eyes, and through
1t he saw only vague shapes of other
women who came and went. There are
few men capable of such absorption in
one image, and these not always of the
best kind, but those who are usually
carry it stamped upon them to their
graves and after. And this morning,
walking in the long, cool shadows Of
the giant trees in the park, he strained
every nerve to put the girl off her guard,
to soften her toward him when present
~ he should ask her for the last time
what he had SO often asked before in
vain.
And Hagar walking beside them, her
pallor unnoticed, her thoughts her own,
| @A'SN' e@Aoe SAAS ushA SoLllc W q Vi
the ways, that tho time when she should
be able to show gratitude to God for the
one chance, SO passionate ly prayed for,
so mercifully vouchsafed, or prove her
self migrate and worse than migrate had
arrived. and had there been no Will
Cassilis her path would have spread
broad and easy before her, but she loved
him, and all was said.
A young mans cool, penetrating, i'm
pertinent glance may sometimes prove
as fierce torch to a woman's heart as
another s fervid devotion, and if you ask
why Hagar loved this very ordinary
young man I say that love has no rea-
sen for his widest vagaries and ex-
cuses himself never.
why should not Mamie marry Ire.
lawny:" whispered the devil in Hagar e
ear. He would worship her all his
life. There would be no shadow of turn
ing in such love as his. And Will Cas-
silis free might with favoring opportu-
nifty cast his eyes at last on her and be.
hold that she was fair"
They had come to a rustic summer
house, and by a gesture Blake s,onned