Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-11-30

Hut woman will have revenge.
You may think she has forgotten,
sou may fancy she is impotent. but
there is still much of the Oriental IN
every woman-that she can wait.
Break her heart and she will still let
1t be in the dust for you to trampie
upon, and she will find the pain pleas
ant: yet beware how you so much as
scratch her pride; from the wound Will
trickle stream of poison, that may
flow slowly, but will reach you in the
end.
James Dudley's case went to prove
this. Very few knew why he came to
the end he did, but this was the way
OF it:
When he'w very young and just
out from the Point. he was sent to a
post miles from anywhere, and there
he became engaged to marry the IA
year-old daughter of Major Gorschkov.
She was beautiful beyond the dreams
of art-far too gorgeous for mere lit
tie girl. She should have been his
torical. Such as Semiamis, or the
Queen OF Sheba, or Zenobia must nave
been, she was; therefore it was natural
enough that Dudley should have
thought himself in love with her. But
be was clever fellow, with very fair
share of brains. and she was an aver
age child who was not old enough to
return his love. but was nightly
nlaaSe1 in on ipnooont fashion the
Importance the engagement gave her.
At the end of a year Dudley was or
dered away. Absence opened his eyes
To the fact that beauty alone was not
enough to make him happy in his wife.
And he wrote to Esther and asked her
to release him. and to her parents he
sent an explanation of his conduct.
The mail orderly put both letters into
Esther's hands. She read her own
first. She was 16 years old now, and
very proud. She had also grown TO
care, In vague sort of way, for the
memory of the lover of her childhood.
The letter cut her through the Russian
down to the Tartar and she hated the
man whom she chose to think had
humbled her. She tore it and the one
to her father into small pieces. There
was one sentence in the former that
she did not understand. The lieuten-
ant had said, In time you will drink
OF the waters of Lethe, and forget me
as utterly as l deserve to be forgot
ten"
A 70 OF oh toll 60
that she was not going to marry James
Dudley.
Does he know it," asked the ma
jor
| Eyes"
What is your reason?"
Nothing in particular. l simply
won't want to-"
Perhaps that won't satisfy him.
However, it is just as well. i never
supposed childish affair of the sort
would amount to much You are old
enough to act for yourself now"
In fact. Major Goschkov had ambi-
lions that scared above a mere lieuten-
ant for his superb daughter. Esther
was thankful to escape so easily. Pres
emily she asked: "Papa-what does it
mean to drink of the waters of
L-e-t-h-e?"
The major explained.
Oh" she said, Il see," and her long
eyes narrowed cruelty.
Now it might have happened in civil
life that Dudley and Esther Gorschkov
would never be meet again, but part
tngs can only be temporary in the SER
vice. Some years later Lieutenant
Dudley walked into a San Francisco
theater one night after the curtain had
gone up. The house was dark, and
he kept his eyes on the stage At the
close of the act he looked about MIN,
and the first thing he saw was wom-
an whose beauty startled him. And
then he realized that she was the one
he might have married. She was in a
box with an older woman whom he
knew. Dudley was seized with a her.
vous dread Of meeting those wonder
full dark-gray eyes. He would 60 at
once before he should do so. But as
he rose, the older woman saw him. and
smiled. and beckoned to an empty
chair beside her. There was nothing
for 1t now but to go to the box. He
was cold with fear of the low-browed
iack-gowned girl with the magnifi-
cent neck and shoulders.
She would not have forgotten him.
He knew that: and he doubted IL she
would have forgiven. If she had been
less beautiful, he might have felt less
culpable. for such is the nature of man.
She smiled when they met with the
regally Indifferent smile that had been
hers even in childhood
oh! knew Mr.. Dudley years ago."
she said. II was little girl and was
very fond of him because he used to
buy me suffers store candy and rib
bons.'
IL that was her view of the past,
Dudley resented 1T. a mar ioes not
want a beautiful girl TO treat him as
an old friend OF infancy.
"You might suppose, Mrs. Graves"
he told the other woman, that she had
been a toddling child and ! crusty