The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-03-07
AN EDITORS STORY.
BY G. N. CARvALHO.

"What a strange thing" murmurcs
Gregory Manvers, as he turned the las
leaf of type-printed manuscript tina
Law on the desk before him. snow wlc
can have written this?"
It was a short sketch entitled: 81.
II Too Late?" the record of love
scornfully cast away, and of conse
louent regret and suffering. A common
theme enough, and not one calculated
to touch the heart of a man accustomed
To pass hours of each day in reading
similar illusions. But for all that on,
editor knitted his brows as he read
pressed his lips together and finally
: dropped tear upon the paper.
Was it only coincidence, he won
Bdered, or had some one who knew the
story of his past life been cruel enough
to trade upon it? For the first chapter
was almost transcript of what had
passed between Helen Blakemore and
himself scarcely three years ago.
|There, it must be owned, the resem-
|blance ceased. Helen, he reminded
himself, was not one to repent, as the
Heroine Of this poor little sketch had
done, still less to acknowledge her err
ror. Pride was her besetting sin-the
north pole must touch the south before
she would admit she had been in the
wrong.
He turned the roll hastily to find the
rame and address of the writer. Bu-
it afforded no clew. 1t was signed with
Initials, and directed to remote post
office in the north of England, to be
left till called for.
That the sketch was unsuitable he
saw at glance. Setting aside his nat
|ural reluctance to bring it before the
public, it was too long, too diffuse;
it had a dozen faults that disqualified
'it for the pages of the journal he con
Quoted. So with fingers that trembled
'slightly, he wrote on it in pencil No.
S,654, put it into drawer set aside
|fcr rejected communications, and tool;
Pnother manuscript from the pile at his
'eide.
For hours after that our editor
worked on, writing, reading, answering
questions; and, except that he was a
Pittle short-tempered. no one remarked
anything unusual in his demeanor
Put the incident of the morning had
pot been forgotten.
His task completed, he lay back in
hls chair, and, shading his eyes from.
the light, fell to reviewing his past
pie, and wondering if Helen, knowing
Ps she must have known long since
that he had only told her the simple
ruth, was still implacable. If he, fol-
owing the advice given by the author
p the sketch, were to cast pride from
pm, and plead his cause once more,
would it be of any avail? But it was
Useless to dwell on this. He knew not
Were to find her. After the rupture
I their engagement, she had gone with
per parents to reside abroad, and he
'ad lost sight of her.
The facts were these: A cousin of
LIS, bearing the same name, had been
unity OF obtaining money on false pre-
enses, and had fed the country.
Inrough the continuance of the real
aiprlt, the public were led to believe
!, was the defaulter, and the
'iakemores, hearing the report, de- ,
landed an explanation. Circumstan-
'ai evidence CHANGED to be strong !
e 8. the editor, and he found it
lncult to prove his innocence. He
s , never spoken to the Blakemores ]
'nls cousin, and they were not will. {
q 70 believe in the existence of such
person. The upshot was serious
u' !, ending in his engagement to ]
iss Blakemore being broken of. q
eepiy offended that Helen, at least, {
Uuid not trust his word, he accepted I
: dismissal without making any s
effort to clear himself and I
1--WE to be content with the recol- 1
SNOn that the law proceedings, when I