Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-12-22

love on her Gnab ueFel uoVieSu one
gave nothing in return, She leu me
love her-that was enough.
"That Christmas Walton, college
mate of mine, came to spend the holi-
days with me. He was snowy, brill
liant young fellow, but one whom I had
never fancied, and his coming was en-
tirely accidental. He happened to be
in that part of the State and dropped
in to see me. You know: how such
things happen. Of course he met
Alicia. They sang together and danced
together, and all at once my pensive
little darling blossomed out into a
brilliant woman, and still I suspected
nothing, EI loved her too well; I was
too loyal to be jealous. She seemed
happy in Walton's company, and 50 !
pressed him to stay, and he fingered
on for weeks and weeks. ~ -
ssAfter a while Wal ton went away, !;
-und I could but notice q Kind o. fear,Sa
constant, aversion. I don't know what,
that had come upon Alicia. Then one
day, in a little burst OF petulant, ,unrea-
soning wrath about some trife, she
turned upon me and toldme the whole
bitter truth-that she had never really
loved me-that her heart was given to
Walton, and she hated me because l
stood between her and him.
tOf course one cannot bind a woman
to one when she wishes to be free. l
was not cur enough to whine, but I
went TO Europe for bit, and when I
came back settled in the city. I
couldn't go back there. She had
changed the world for me.
"Alicia and Walton were soon mar
ried, and it turned out most unfor.
tunately. He. broke her heart by
every refinement of cruelty; he wasted
her fortune, neglected and deserted
her, and through it all she loved him
still. God knows o woman's ideals
die hard!
"Finally he had the grace to die, and
left her penniless to face the world
alone. Nothing on earth" said the
colonel slowly, sis SO sad to me as a
gentle woman, used to the refnements
and elegancies of life, who finds her
self dependent on her own exertions
for a livelihood. Of course often they
work out the hard problem but at
what agony of body and soul no one
can know. Alicia was like the rest.
She had the inexact knowledge of the
ordinary girls boarding school, but
she could not have stood the examina-
ton to have taught the b c's in pub
lie school. She had q sweet voice and
o sympathetic touch in music, but that
isn't what the young ladies who rem
der pieces want to know nowadays.
She could paint and draw little, but
you know the whole dreery story.
Nothing that would count in these
days when the world must have value
received for what it pays, and yet she
must earn her bread. She tried the
usual things-boarders-but she who
had been used to entertaining with O
lavish hospitality did not know how to
make every economy tell, and so that
was q failure. First one thing and
then another she tried. Everything
was failure, and then she lost cour-
age and threw down her arms, a poor
little vanquished warrior in the battle
Of life.
"Then she drifted to this city, found
@ poor room, and has lived-if anyone
may call such existence living-by
selling or pawning the remnants she
had left of the finery of other days.
yesterday I was on the street, and
in crossing crowded corner was so
jostled against q poor woman who
clutched in her hand piece of money
that it fell on the pavement and rolled
under the feet Of the passers-by. l
stopped to pick it up, and when I put
it in her hand I looked straight in the
eyes of Alicia.
"'Jack!' she said, family, and I an
swered, sAlicia!'
We could not speak there, and I al,
most lifted her in cab that was
standing by the curb, and by and by
she told me what I have been telling
you. She was half starved, friendless
and homeless and cold, and she told
me with little smile more pitiful
than any tears could have been, that
she had determined to end life that
had in it nothing but sorrow and want
and degradation.
"For me-" said the colonel, softly,
ttthere has never been but one woman
in the world. I gave her my whole
love when my heart was young, and il
has never faltered. So I asked hel
there, in her poor room, to be my
wife, as I had asked her years before,
and when she pointed to her poor
withered face and spoke Of the years o