The Worthington advance., 1896-03-05
AN EDITORS STORY.
BY G. N. CARvALHO.


can have written this?'
1t was n short sketch entitled: us
It Too Late?" the record of O love
scornfully cast away, and OF conse'
,auent regret and suffering. A common
theme enough, and not one calculated
to touch the heart Of q man accustomed
70 pass hours of each day in reading
similar effusions. But for all that our
editor knitted his brows as he read,
pressed his lips together and finally
dropped tear upon the paper.
Was 10 only coincidence, he Won
dercd, 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 q transcript of what had
passed between Helen Blakemore; and
himself scarcely three years ago.
There, ,Sit must be owned, the rese1a-
blanceS ceased. Helen, he reminded
himself was not one to repent, as the
heroine Of this poor little sketch hae'
done, still less to acknowledge her er-
ror. Pride was her besetting sin-the
north pole mist touch the southbefore
Snc HVOAu duuA1 SAlo Aio~A "~~ " ~
wrong..S :.n-4 .t,.ar ,,.,..L.E-f.,g
He Turned. the roll hastily to find tie
1:a1ne ind address of the writer: Bus
it afforded no clew. It was signed with
initialH and directed to a remote post
office in thesnorth' Of England, to be
left till called for. 81 >srs4 81 4 !5@> =
Thai the sketch was, unsuitable, he
saw atsa glance. Setting aside q i his na,7 q
,.ral reluctance to bring it before the
public it was too long. toosdihuse;: !:
it hadsa dozen faults that disqualified
it for The pages of the journal ne con
ducted. So with fingers that trelnplsa
slightly, heswrtote on 1T III pencil NO:
3,s54, put it into a drawer set ASIDE
for rejected communications, and tool:
another manuscript from the Pile at his
side. Y FR@&%E x7' ~ ~
For hours after that our editor
worked on, writing, reading, answering
questions; and, except that he was i.
little short tempered, no one remarked 81 q
anything 4 unusual in $hiss&demeanor,
But the incident of the morning had
not been forgotten. Dss ~. as n d. Sa5@
His task completed, be lay back IN
his chair, and, shading his eyes FROM
the light, feli' to reviewing his: past
life, and wondering if Helen, knowing
as she must have known long since
that he had only told her the simple
truth, was still implacable. If he, fol-
lowing the advice given w the anthof y
Of the sketch, were sto cast spridesdroln
him, and plead his cause once, more'
would il, be Of any .ayalG:ss But it t WAS Y l.
useless tozdwells ON this, SHeshnew not no
where to find Her. A fer the rupture
of their engagement, she hadgone with
her parents to reside abroad, and " ne t'
had lost sight of her.
The facts were these: a cousin Of !.
his, bearing the same na me, had been
guilty of obtaining money on false pre-
lenses, and had fled the country.
Through the contrivance of the real
cu]prit. the public were led to believe
Manvers was the defaulter, and the
Blakemores, hearing the report, de-
manded an explanation. Circumstan'
tial evidence CHANGED to be strong
against the editor, and he found it
difficult to prove his innocence. He
had never spoken to the Blakemores
of this cousin, and they were not will
ing to believe in the existence of such
Il person. The upshot was serious
quarrel, ending in his engagement to
Miss Blakemore being broken OIL.
Deeply offended that Helen, at least,
would not trust his word, he accepted
his dismissal without making any
further effort to clear himself, and
stroye to be content with the recoi-
lection that the law proceedings, when
published in due course in the news
papers, would exonerate him from all
blame.
1t had been hard to Danish these
events from his mind at the time; it
was next to impossible now; but he
: struggled manfully to do it; and when
autumn came, betook himself to Switz
erland for his annual holiday, thinking:
a thorough change would be beneficial
10 both body and mind. But by an un-
toward accident, he sprained his ankle
SO severely that he was kept prisoner
to the sofa for some weeks, and thus
had more leisure to brood over his mis-
fortunes than was good for him. lie
was wholly dependent for amusement
on tho kindness of the visitors stay
ing in the hotel, many of whom were
exceedingly polite and attentive; one
in particular-a young German of the
name of Mulier-coming to the in
valid's room at all hours, and bringing
with him the gossip of the place.
ST can't stay now, Mr.. Manvers,"
this young fellow cried one morning
as he rushed in with a pile of news
papers and periodicals under his arm.
TIN off for the Corner Grat with those
men I told you Of last night - the
weather is glorious. But have done
my best for you. Everybody is out,
So I've made a clean sweep Of the Eng
lish things, on the reading-room table,
and here they are. Good-by. will
took you up directly I come back"
As rule Manvers made point of
-schewing all periodical literature dur
ing his holiday, but just now he had
L., ,r,1,1 h