The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-10-01

''It may be for years and it may be
for ever. Can go now, piease?"
Tell me first that you are not Of
Tended because l came to-day"
NO; 1 am not offended" size an
swercd. slowly. smiling rather against
her will, rs it seemed; butt think |
ought to be, perhaps"
''Oh, but if you're not!" he rejoined.
quickly, hesitating as though uncertain
how much of his thought he might eK
press. at is so much that we can be
friends
'But the very best of friends must
always part at last" she returned, rath-
er shyly smiling down at him.
(Which means that 1 have really
reached the limit, 1 suppose" he said,
reluctantly, holding out his hand.
''Well, then, if it must be good-by."
But in some caprice, due more to sud-
den shyness than any other feeling. she
refused to see the proffered hand, mere
ly murmuring "good-by" again, as
once more she lifted the rein to ride on.
Harvey Neil, weighing and measuring
with lovers morbid fancy, was cut to
the quick by the little, unconscious
| snub.
1.-THE hand of Douglas is his own!'"
| he impetuously exclaimed, his detain-
ing grasp still upon the bit. And to
think that a moment ago I was fatu-
ously boasting that we were friends!"
ooh, it is not that" she murmured,
turning her face away. 81 don't know
| why
'But [ know" he bitterly exclaimed.
although his smile betrayed something
of sardonic amusement at her discOm-
| future. ''It is because, after all, yOu
do not forget that am somebody whom
! you have been hating-that you cannot
| really shake off the habit. 1t is such
fallacy, the popular notion that woman
is by nature only tender and forgiy-
ing; as a rule, L believe she is nothing
of the sort, simply because she never
forgets. Is it not so, Miss Meredith?
All, well, BY their long memories the
gods are known and perhaps it is fit
ting that woman, who is so much more
like unto the gods than we, should be
| particularly like in that respect. You
cannot forget the sum of my imagined
offenseS against your father. Perhaps
l should not expect it; but some day,
possibly, time may have so far blurred
the record that you can spare thought
for the fact that from the moment of
| our first meeting / have been your
friend; that [ would have been" he
stopped, startled by such a rush of
! feeling as almost cho<ed his utterance,
though his eyes still chung to their
mocking light and his principal feel
| ing was one of angry disappointment
as he went on in a lowered voice-''I
would have been-all that you could
have permitted, Miss Meredith But
| you need not look so frightened" break
! ing off with a short laugh, as he caught
the expression of her face. Il have
reached the limit of my audacity, and l
will not detain you longer. Good-by."
But if lover could have prescience
| to forecast his lady's moods he well
might summon fortitude to endure her
whims and foutings, secure in winning
compensation soon or late through her
own capricious impulse; for never is
| the woman heart so disposed to sweet
concession as when in sensitized brood
| ing upon u past offense all the mag
nanimity of her nature has been reused
| in longing to make atonement. And
certain it was that Dorothy Meredith,
as she rode away from Harvey Neil
that day, had not been so full of yearn-
| ing kindness toward him, but for that
little hand clasp which she had re-
| fused. 1t had been an unreaSOning i'm
| pulse to draw back somewhat from the
attitude of friendly confidence into
which she had almost inadvertently
drifted, but now she reproached her
! self for the childish inconsistency, his
! last words gaining force as she repeated
them in her mind, impelling her heart
| to compunctious tenderness hitherto
Undreamed of. 1t would have been 50
little to concede on her part, the mere
touch of her hand in parting which
might be for all time. It would have
committed her to nothing, while to him
| it might have been so much, because
| ah, could it be true that he loved her !?
| Considering how little he really knew
her and how irrevocably their paths
seemed set apart, it seemed the widest,
maddest idea, ridiculous to the point
of pathos; and yet. remembering the
look in his eyes, she could not ques-
ton his meaning when he said that he
would have been to her all that she
could have let him be. Asking nothing,
expecting nothing, ne had in effect laid
his heart at her feet-and she had de-
| MED him even the mere touch of her
finger tips! And, without analyzing
her feeling beyond this ground for self
reproach, Dorothy felt that she was
fifty punished in that she was very,
very unhappy about it.
CHAPTER TX.