Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-15

<~sHt'J s''s" I'PPoSse.
lyon Scoicn, how deep you are, how
sincere. how strong! You are cautious,
you are cold, you are dour, but if one
can only pierce the hardness you are"-
Her eyes were searching his all the
while, and now the word she was look
ing for came with what she found there,
but remained unspoken. For dark and
true and tender is the north!'' she said
below her breath. "You see, know
your old songs, Ronny" And she
laughed as she turned about to go, but
the laugh did not ring true. and for one
hlinding moment the impulse was fierce
upon him to snatch Ter in his arms and
cry:
81 Hove you, Lesley, wild, sweet, way
ward Lesley, but it is not for your love-
, illness l love you, but for your heart Of
gold, for your noble nature-because l
must!' But he thrust the longing down,
and let her go, for who but coward
would ask a girl to love what might be
q dead man before many hours were
over?
And yet to hold her in his arms but
once, to kiss the little passionate month
that had said such hard, such bitter
things TO him often, that could say such
lovely, true ones when it SO pleased!
Long he stood battling with the temp
tation, and then, to put an end to it,
seized his hat and went round to his
club.
Lesley was not long behind him, fol-
. lowed by the maid, upon whom Lady
Appuldurcombe insisted, and who, in
fact, had never been evaded, even Oh
that fatal morning when Covent Gar
den market had appeared before Les
ley's eyes as a delectable vision, to be
instantly exchanged, as most of her
whims, occasionally to her sorrow, were,
for reality.
She was not going far, and as she
went past the geometrical flower beds
that would reach their apogee of sump-
tuous bloom when everybody except a
few toiling millions would be out of
town she thought CT Ronny and of how
he had looked jGst now, and she was
used to that look On mems faces and
had valued it very lightly, but this was
different.
"Many waters will not quench lovev'
and some glimmer of the deathless-
ness, the s.eadfastness, the stupendous
strength Of what q strong mans love
might be came to her like revelation,
and involuntarily she stopped in her
walk, all the womanhood in her shrink
ing before the virility, the logged
strength of it-afraid.
The moment Of fear passed, and her
brave spirit rose to meet, to exult in
the honor done her. 1t was characters
tic of her that she did not go down on
the knees Of her heart and thank God
for the joy it had brought her, but per-
haps that would come later-and then,
with a sudden shock of pain, she remem-
bered Cvnthia-Cyhthia. to whom she
was going, whom she was pledged to
help to var Ronny; Cynthia, to whom
love was lis itself, while to herself
had she eyer dimly seen the wonder Of
its divine face?
"Not Bob" she said to herself, un-
der her breath, mot Yelverton, not one
Of them-but when do find him, I will
go to him like bird, rich or poor, high
or low, and, if it be Ronny, Cynthia
shall not stay me, no, nor any other
woman, for go to him must. But is it
Ronny:"
She scarcely knew how she found her
self at the door of the house in Grosven-
or place, aud when she had rung was
seized with wild impulse to turn and
run back to Park lane, after her maid,
as fast as she could 60.
.'Miss de Sails was at home and in
her boudoir. Would Miss Malincourt be
pleased to step ups"