San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-01-10

was aware unat rne ioea or AggIe's ar
rival in India awakened within him,
not transport, nor even calm joy, but
certain languid curiosity as to what she
would look like and how he would feel
to her.
Nevertheless, mind you, Phil Gilman
was a man of honor He stuck to his
guns. He hadn't the slightest idea Of
going back upon his word or even OF
letting poor Aggie herself doubt the
depth of his affection for her. Perhaps
this was wrong-who knows? Perhaps
the wisest thing, after all, for a man to
do in such case is just to make clean
breast of it, rather than involve him
self and the girl he once loved in mar
riage that may prove unhappy for both
of them. But at any rate Phil Gilman
didn't think so, and somehow, do You
know, feel as if any man of honor in
Phil Gilman's place would have acted
Just as he did. There's something so
horribly cold blooded in telling a girl
who has waited five years for you that
you really don't know whether you love
her any longer or not that only a very
brutal man, fancy, could ever consent to
do it. 1t may be wise to act like that,
no doubt, but there are qualities, after
all, more to be priced than wisdom.
wouldn't give twopence myself, dear
friends, for a young man SO wise as all
that comes to.
So, after brief mental struggle, Phil
wrote to Aggie as impassioned a letter
as he could easily pump out-best epis-
tolary fashion-to say that now at last
the desire Of their hearts for SO many
years was to be fully gratifed, and they
two were TO meet once more and be
happy forever. To be sure, when the
letter was finished, Phil read it over
once or twice, leaning back in his bun
galow lounge, with critically dissatis-
fed air. Its ardor seemed rather want
ing in spontaneity, he fancied. 1t had
no longer the genuine impassioned ring
of four or five years ago. But what
would you have? If one can't quite rise
to the height of such an occasion of
ones own mere motion, one must try to
gush gently, for the lady's sake alone,
with literary aptitude. A man would
be hardly whole man, Phil supposed,
If he consented to let woman see he
had begun to forget her.
However, what the letter lacked in
loverlike ardor it fully made up in bust
nesslike definiteness. The Oswalds were
poor; they could hardly have afforded
to send Aggie out to him. So Phil had
arranged for all that-arranged for it
generously. He inclosed check for a
most substantial amount. He hoped it
would suffice to pay Aggie's passage
and begged to be permitted to set her
up in proper Indian outfit. She was
to meet him in Bombay, where she
could stop at the house Of a common
friend Il daren't say mutual, a much
more sensible word, between you and
me, because some silly, superfine peo-
pie raise microscopic genealogical OBJ
jections), and there she was to be mar
ried day or two after landing. Phil
fiattered himself that his check was
tolerably expansive one. If he didn't
love Aggie quite as devotedly as he
used to do, at least she should never
discover the change by pecuniary symp-
TOMS
Now, strange to say, when Aggie Os-
wald received that letter, though she
broke it open all of a-futter to see
whether Phil wanted her to come out
to him at last, she felt hardly so much
delighted with the news it contained as
,t,o -l-,,nx eba oh tn ha I'm tho
trary, she took it down to her mother,
half crying
"What is it, darling!" her mother
asked.
And Aggie, trembling violently. hand
ed it to her to read. When her mother
had read it Aggie laid that fluffy head
ON her shoulder and sobbed aloud.
"Now it comes to the pinch, mother, "
she said, quivering. sit seems so hard
to go, so hard to leave you and sail
alone so far across the sea. Five years
ago it didn't You see, it's so long
since / saw dear Phil he seems almost
like a stranger l can't bear to think
I've got to leave you all and go away
5000 miles to stranger-even though
l love him. He may be so awfully
changed, you know. His photographs
quite altered. And he may think me SO
different now from his own ideal of
me. "
Her mother gazed at her in speechless
surprise. Five years are not nearly so
long at so as at three and twenty.
"But surely, Aggie, she said, "you
wouldn't be so ungrateful to our dear
Phil as to throw him over now and re-
fuse go out to him--he who has been
true to you so long and behaved SO gen
erouslyl 1t would break his heart, poor
fellow? 1t would just break his heart