The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-10-24

confused
And having heard so much about
me. you come here?" he asked grayely.
Yes. because l want to help you. Mr..
Felgate''
ITO help me? You've set yourself a
task, I fear, Miss Roughton."
All please don't laugh at me-"
Laugh at you, child, l am nearer to
tears than laughter l think did not
know that there were such women as
YOU left in the world; ii has not been
my fate to find them. Come-tell me;
how VIII you help me?''
He was SO gentle and SO much moved,
there was such grave consideration in
his eyes that she began to lose her first
fears of the monster. IF it be in tbs
power of any Woman-and [ have
heard it said that q woman has such
powerful try to draw you back TO
better things. You must not mind if
speak plainly. I'll try to be your
friend if you Will let me. III make
you take up your work again, for tne
works sake" She stamped hes foot
and set her small white teeth hard.
/ Come, is it a bargain?" she held out
her hand to him.
In the name of all sweet and holy
| things" he answered her solemnly,
yes" He put the hand to his lips.
That was the beginning of the
strange business, the end was to come
in another fashion. She began to dis
cover soon the magnitude of the task
she had set herself; to see that this
was not a thing TO be lightly taken up
and as lightly dropped. Small and
frail woman as she was, whose life had
hitherto been almost purposeiess. she
grew to understand that she held this
mans soul in the grasp of her two
hands; that he chung to her with the
desperate energy of one suddenly
awakened to his peril, pleaded to her.
with those weary eyes of his, to watch
and have faith il him.
More than all, it required constant
tact and care, this delicate business.
Even her power sometimes went for
nothing, and the whole gamut of after
repentance and renewed promises and
prayers had to be gone through. Times
there We're, too, when serious measures
We're vain. when jeSting served better
than prayers when it was possible TO
laugh him out of some new reckless
ness or folly
Then came a new development.
Tongues began to Wag. In her limo
cence. in the keenness of her desire tc
help this man, she had notN thought of
that possibility Her clear young soul
refused to take in tine strangeness of
her visits to a man against whom 50
many doors were closed. That she be
lieVed in hin-beleved in the sWeeter,
better nature of him-had been suf-
ficient to her.
The friend-a discreet, married wo-
man, worldly wise-who had first men
toned Richard Felgate's name was
the first to voice the Whisperings Sine
took the girl aside and Sharply ques-
toned her
Mr.. Felgate is my friend" replied
Dora Roughton. her face d little
troubled.
FRIEND! Stuff and nonsense. We're
not living in Arcadia, my dear. We're
in London in the nineteenth century,
and that man has about the worst
reputation of any in our small world
told you so when his name was frs.
mentioned. You must surely remem-
Der that?"
Yes, [ remember I think that first
made me go to him I wanted to help
him."
THAT sort of missionary effort is
generally only effected in one fashion
when woman undertakes the pious
office, laughed her friend, and that
fashion is BY touching the mans heart.
Friendship won't do it; preaching
won't do it; love may"
Lover cried Dora, startled. You
are talking nonsense. I'm sure no such
thought has ever entered my mind-or
his. We are just good friends. Cannot
you understand that? II believe in
him, and-and beeause-because I be-
l1eye in hinl-well-he works-and
( talks to me about mis- work. and Oh,
your mind runs in a very narrow
grower
"A groove that has been proven
| again and again. to be only a we'll
worn road, my dear, with experience
for finger post
1t was ON the occasion Of her next
! visit to Richard Felgate's studio that
the lesson was driven home. She had
been admiring a picture of his which
was nearing completion, picture
/ which was to show to the world that
the old promisetof great things was not
dead; that the man they had given
over to oblivion and failure had some
thing of the quality of more abiding
! things still in him. She had sDurred
aim on to the work; had gloried in the
thought that but for her it would never
have been done. She sighed happily as
she turned away from it and faced the
painter
1T is very good" she said softly. II
knew that You could take up the old
thread again
The old thread would never have
been taken up but for YOU" he replied.
And yet sometimes I ask myself-even
nOW-What it is all for All. no
forgive me; don't ask that-because
it's all for you. Every stroke of the
brush Is for you; each moment that |
set myself to something Worthier is for
you II want to ask you
something, little friend"
He was looking at her gravely: she
glanced 10 at him, out of her clear
eyes, and read the something there
read in a flash the full tragedy of it.
She waited. heartsick, helpless
You have seen SO much of me: you
came to me when all the world passed
me by; you stretched out your dear
hands and graSped me as I f1oated past
and held me- All my world, all my life,
Is with YOU and in you; without you l
am nothing. | thought at first it might
be your sweet comradeship: | was so
worthless l was grateful even for thaa
But now | know that a woman may
only reach a man through love-love of
the highest: had not [ heard that voice
you might have called in vain Little
| Dora, I love you; there is no hope; no
! heaven. no life for me without you.
Dear. r
She got a firm hold of herself at
last; saw that here was a question to be
! faced; q. terrible business on which she
| had not counted. She had gone into this
matter with the blindness of pity; with
/ the high and lofty purpose of the cru
I sader; passion and human nature were
| not to be reckoned With in the fight.
/ But they must be reckoned now
! ''Stopl" she cried You-you don't