Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1897-06-24
INTERRUPTED FRIENDSHIP.

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sort of girl that Tom Morris had
long felt that he wished for wife
but that she herself was the girl h,
was slow TO realize. Indeed,
doubt whether he would have rea.
lized it at all had they continued tc
60 on side by side, as man and wo-
man. as they had done as boy and
girl.
The Morrises and Icons had been
neighbors and friends for two gen.
erations, and Marcia and Tom had
known each other all their days.
Yet more. His dear sister, Mar
gerry, had been Marcia's best friend
until death had snatched her in
fair msidenhood. Then i was that
Tom had put aside his disdain of
Marcia as that mistake of nature, a
girl. and come to her to paste kites,
mend balls, and discuss lessons and
games. Afterward she went off to
school in Kentucky convent, and
for three years she and Tom did
not meet-for the intervening va
cations she spent with schoolmates.
Then she came home, ready to take
up the old friendship where they
had laid 1t down, for Tom was still
just Tom to her.
But she was no longer the same
Marcia to him. During her alb
sence she had budded into fresh,
sweet young womanhood, attracting
men as naturally and inevitably as
clover draws bees. The first sympt-
ON of love Tom felt was twinge
Of jealousy when he saw the other
fellows monopolize her. He watched
her from a distance. OF the three
sorts of womanly beauty. beauty of
color appeals to the crowd, beauty
of form to artistic and critic, beau
ty of expression to lover and friend.
Not noticeably lacking in the first
two, Marcia, strong, pure and tend
er, was richly lowered with the last.
More carefully noted, she seemed
more Noteworthy.
Women are usually quick to see
the transformation of man into a
lover, but in this instance Marcia
was blind. Tom was so firmly fixed
in her mind as the unsentimental
comrade of her girlhood days that
it never occurred to her that he
could make love to any one, least
of all to her until he was actually
doing it.
1t was an August day. They had
walked together to Mountain View
"a favorite resort near her home
where the mountains seemed ia
curve and rise so as to lay bare all
their beauty and grandeur. Glori.
Gus at all times and seasons, 'ths
scene was doubly so now in the
long pervasive light of the summer
evenings. Marcia fixed her eyes or
the distant slope where sky anG
earth seemed to meet and melt to
gether. She looked with deligh
which deepened till it grew almos
TO pain.
go Tom y" she cried, turning
her moist eyes to him in a quicl
need of sympathy. But, discon
certed, she started back from wha
met her-Tom's steadfast look O
love and admiration.
He caught her hands in both hi
and poured into her astonished ear,
the story Of his love. What wa
all the mountain splendor 10 hin
when there at his side was the on,
face in all she world which coul.
make bright the darkest scene
the face which he longed to hav
by his side always as that of hi
dear, true wife?
"No, Tom, no." she cried
snatching her hands from his clasp
"You would not say all this o
course unless you thought vol
meant it, but you don't really. No
no; you don't truly want me TO
your wife. Say you don't, Tom,
she pleaded.
"Marcia, darling, have you know
me so long only to think so mea
of me as TO deem me a thing Q
straw, not knowing my own mind
ay own heart: Want you? Sweet
heart, shall never rest until ! wi
you."
"0h, Tom :" interrupted Marcis
''is this TO be the end of our frient
: ship, so long, SO true? You wei
.l..va Ike daar GOOD h~otho,