The Monmouth inquirer., 1897-07-15


! kept him there.
With his mind still on the conver-
sation he had Just had with the pessi-
mistic member of the club, he made
/ his way home, and while dressing for
dinner he looked long and earnestly
4 into the mirror and inquired of the re-
Election there whether he dared try
I that fate that evening. ~
The answer must have been in the
/ affirmative, for when he got home.
what later than usual, there was a very
happy light in his eyes, and the fame
! est possible odor of violets in the palms
4 of his hands.
That night he was the most light
! hearted man in the whole city. A week
later he had lost every cent he pos
= sessed.
1t has never been satisfactorily DEM
onstrated just why ones fortune takes
/ upon itself wings at the most imop-
perfume time-though Stratford insists
that any time is inopportune for such
\ a performance-and flies away, but al
most invariably it is when some splen-
+ did scheme is about to be put on foot,
/ or, as was the case with Holland. when
one is in the seventh heaven of earthly
bliss, that ones income suddenly leaves
without notice, and utterly refuses to
Z return
This is what had happened the poor
fellow who believed in love, and for
4 while after the blow, dim ideas of flight
of suicide and other equally absurd
thingsfiitted through his benumbed
brain, but in the end his good old blood
and his own true grit came to his res
cue, and he faced ruin, utter and COM
plete ruin, with a calm face and steady
nerves.
1t was not for himself he had cared
not of himself had he thought, but of
her; of her love, and what this down
I fall of his business would mean to her;
and the picture of her questioning eyes
4 and white face, as he knew it would
! be when he told her, made him bury
/ his own in his hands and groan aloud.
\ Then, shutting out his vision, he went
about the work of clearing the wreck
away as if it were a weekly occurrence
for him to fail.
4 A few of the club-men cut him-the
credulous ones who were always on the
lookout for dishonest doings-but most
of them pited him too sincerely to do
anything but be a little more kind to
hi mthan usual and talk of other sub
jects than business-which chafed him
more than he could say though he
knew how kindly it was all meant.
But all the time, as he worked over
balance-sheet after balance sheet, and
account after account, there were the
haunting eyes before him, and the
sweet face he had loved SO long, and
ever in his ears the cynical utterances
of Low and his fellow, Stratford.
Wrere they right? he found himself
asking himself time and again
would she throw him over? No! A
thousand times mol cried his heart.
Then could he ask her to share that
mere pittance he had managed to
scrape together from that wrecked
business could he ask her to leave
that comfortable home and the family
who adored her to live with him in
that -forrd-back Stratford had
mentioned? Could he ask her to do
/ that? Could he?
His sacrifice would mean nothing
! he cared nothing for society itself
\ but what of hers? Think of her taking
care of her two or three little rooms,
and wearing her life out trying to make
| his diminished income meet the grocer's
bills; think of her getting his meals
! for him.actually cooking over one Of
those heathenish little gas stoves!
| Could he let the possibility of this stare
him in the face and still go on-gon
on, and ask her to wear out her life
for him thus? No; she should never
begin to do so.
And SO, realizing that it must come,
he steeled himself and resolutely turn
ed his steps toward her home, the night
after the downfall-to her home where
4 he expected to see the last of his hopes
and ambition-to see the funeral of his
own love.
Il cannot ask you to wait for me,
Katharine he concluded, speaking
very slowly lest the despair he felt
should show itself in his voice. THE
future is all too uncertain, and il
would be unfair You-are-I-oh, my
darling, l cannot say it!" And with
groan he turned away from those
steady eyes and stared blindly into the
fire.
For a moment she did not speak, and
his heart beat slower and slower, for
he knew the end was there. Then she
came forward step, and held out one
white arm to him.
Look, DEAR" she said gently.
Mechanically he took the pretty arm
! in his hand and looked at it. A long
red mark, like fresh scar, disfgured
the tender flesh across the wrist.
What is this-what does it mean ?"
he asked wonderingly.
1T means that heard of your trou
BILE last night, and this-this is burn
"A burn, yess, repeated Holland,
dazedly, but"
why, can't you see, you dear, stupid
boy" she said half way between laugh
ter and tears now. 1--WE been learning
to cook!"
And then-well. then the man who
believed gathered her into his arms and
held her there quite as tightly as if lie
had fifty thousand year.
Dishonesty of Aboriginees.
It is rather amusing to hear of the
protests of certain South African trad