Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-22
CHAPTER XVIII.
CRAysrorN HAIL. Frila,

GOWN al right, ana Miss Malacourt was de-
lighted TO see her. They make just IS pretty
pair as ever. Lord Malincourt is awfully
KIND, and spend lot OF time over there,
and Lady Cranstocn Is q great invalid. and
Cranstoun and l do1t cotton to one another
at all. Miss Malincourt always inquiries for
you She Is very much altered. and am sure
feels your accident very much. Let me know
If there is any thing settled about your return
ing, and viii run up to town 10 meet You.
Lord Malincourt has asked me to come over
for the LIST. like him immensely. Please re-
member me to your mother and Miss de Sails.
Sincerely yours, ROGER YELyERcoN.
"She is very much alteredr' That
was the only bit Ronny remembered ont
of all Rogers bald, halting sentences,
and it brought comfort to his aching
heart. Why was she altered if she did
not care? He had not been at all sure
up to now that she did care, for q moro
eluslve woman than Lesley did not
live, and never more elusive than when
You thought you had caught her, and
then came thoughts to dash his comfort
from him, for what if her fathers and
his mothers bullyines. following on
the natural shock of his accident, might
not be held accountable for any such
change in her as Yelverton noticed:
She might have sent him one word
one little word-it would not have hurt
her and what good would it not have
done him!
be had been carried into the sitting
room for the first time that day, as a
sort Of preparation fer the move home
ward to be made in Il few days, and his
mother had gone out to procure him
some luxury, and only Cynthia was
there, leaning her head against the
woodwork Of the open window, cool
and. restful figure in her soft white
gown.
Beneath the awning one saw all the
arid tis=solation Of Paris in August-Pas.
is rs she is under the commune, strip
ped OF her royal robes, yet with her tub-
bling gayety hardly quenched in her yet.
Cynthia, he said in the tone of a
brother who has 10 need to pretend to
the friendliness that be and his sister
are well aware Of, II have some news
OF Lesley ut last
"Of Lesley:" cried Cynthia, spring
ing up, unable to keep tho light out Of
her face that Lesley knew how to bring
into SO many, and it was fact that
Cynthia loved only one other person
better i'll the whole world, and that was
Ronny.
"Yelverton says that she is much al
tered, said Ronny, his gaunt face turn
ed away from the light, so that he did
not see the change il Cynthia's as she
stood there, guilty, ashamed, thinking
how Ronny would hate her if he knew
the truth.
She had not written one limo to Les
ley-how could she: Having accepted
that supreme sacrifice from tho other
woman, how could she seek her with
fair words that meant nothing? For
she knew now, Or surely guessed, that
Lesley had not parted lightly with a
bauble that had never pleased her, but
with her whole life treasure, else she,
too, would have written. at must have
come as great shock to her, she said
duly, and then it suddenly occurred to
Ronny, why, since the girls had been
such friends, did they not correspond
now?
Almost, not quite, he stumbled en-
the truth. Cynthia saw it dawning in
his eyes, and exclaiming, cit is time
for your medicine" brought it TO him,
lifting his head on her strong young
arm as she did SO in matter of fact
way that showed she had done SO MANY
times.
A little color came into his face as
she gently laid him back, and he looked
at her with the affection that had come
gradually to replace his old dislike of
her.
"Sit down here" he said, touching a
seat near him, and she sat down, know
ing what was expected of her. what
would make her company sweet and de-
slrable-that she should talk of LESLEY.
They never talked of anything else,
these two, when alone together-of
what she had said, how she had locked,
OF the hundred and one things she had
done in the brief season that had ended
SO dlsastrously, but save as his lovely
cousin. OF whom he was intensely proud,
no word of her passed Ronny's lips.
And SO 1t had come to pass that Cyn-
thia was associated with the few bright
hours OF Ronny's illness, not his moth
er, TO whom he dared not speak of Les
ley-his mother, who had yet come to
know that to nurse, to watch over, to
cherish what one loves, even if you
must lose it at last, is the divinest sol
ace OF human suffering vouchsafed to a
human soul. The very bitterness of
death Itself is missed when we know
we have smoothed the way for cur be-
loved and borne his feet up tenderly as
he traversed its dark places.
Presently Ronny said:
Il shouldn't wonder if Lesley mar
ried Yelverton after ALL"
"Why:"
He is such good fellow and so de-
voted to her, and often it's the dark
horse that wins. don't think Bob was
ever really in the running
"You must sleep now," she said
gently, and quite naturally his cold,
thin hand wandered toward her Young
warm one, and with it fast held in both
hers tho pale shadow of Ronny, the
hero, slept.