The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1897-06-05

there exists the seething, surging cur
rent of human life, from which we have
so separated our own. Do you wonder
l am impatient, dear?'
"Oh. but Nelson, l hate cottage life,
and l am sure our society would become
mutually unbearable in such monot-
ony.s
.What do you mean, Marion? and
Nelson Ellis lips grew white. do You,
Who have promised to spend your whole
life with me, talk OF il already as be-
voud forbearance? Is this the fond
picture | have PARTED Of my home?
Pause. Marion. Think while yet on the
threshold. If your life is mine, it be-
longs not to the world If it is the
worlds, then in it l have no claim. |
offer YOU, darling. all have. ask of
YOU only yourself. but | ask it as free
boon and one which is paced willingly
IN nv keeping. You must decide, Ma
rion, Tor yourself. l had hoped your
decision long since irrevocable, but once
more l place the choice in your hands.
"You say you ask of me only myself.
l. il not all | have to give? cannot
give up the world to lead the life of
reeluse. even though you so seifishiy
make the demand One would suppose
| was child to be dictated to at Will.
1t has all been a mistake, Mr.. Ellis, and
we may truly congratulate ourselves
that our eyes have been opened in time
to redeem an otherwise fatal error. We
part as friends. l hope"
Friends? Who has been at work?
Whose hand may l thank for having
laid this network of worldliness and
suspicion in the mind of girl, who, a
few short months ago, harbored no such
thought? You could not trust me,
then, with your beauty. You feared
would guard it beyond the reach of
other eyes. True. / might have held it
as sacred shrine, but its bloom, its
radiance would have been undimmed
till death robbed me of both. You give
me up, then? So be it. Go back to
your world! Glory in it; reyel in it.,
and teach men the lesson you have given
ne. that the brighter the eye, the fair
er the cheek, the falser the heart. Good
evening, Miss Reynolds and with low
bow, Nelson Ellis went out from the
light into the shadow.
Marion stood as in a stnpor. She had
spoken her own thoughts for the first
time, for the first time expressed the
feeling which so long had ranked.
How cold, how heartless and worldly
it had sounded even to her ears. What
was the selfishness of which she had
accused her lover but the reflex of her
own? Had the world really grown so
dear TO her thot she could not yield it
up, eTen in the first flush of wifehood
by husbands side? How inviting the
picture had been! She had not really
meant what she had said. She had not
dreamed Nelson would SO accept her at
her word and wordless despair was in
the beautiful eyes. as the hot tears
welled up and dropped one by one faster
and faster, until she buried her head
in her hands and sobbed as a child
But there was one who heard of the
ruptured engagement with keen exul-
tation, and a suppressed look of fri
umph was on Allen Fane's face when
next he saw the woman he had deter
mined to win for his own.
You did splendidly, Marion," he said
to her. "Haye | not told you from the
first how selfish he was, even in his love
that he never appreciated you? But
now, darling, that you are free to be
won and to WOO, will you not let me
prove that man may be generous?
could have given you up to any other il
| thought your happiness was at stake
but not to one read SO we'll"
FLUSH, Allen, hush! 1t seems to me
Dissertation to listen to such words. II
he were selfish, then is such seifshness
glorious. You call it splendid to show a
man who has placed his whole noble
heart at a woman's feet how frivolous
worldly and beneath him is that for
which he sues. I have thrown away the
highest prize life's lottery will ever offeI
me. | have listened to the subtle words
which have first borne seeds of distrust
but now that all is over, and have
with my own hand plucked the unblos
somed fruit, | can at least do him jus.
tice, and tell you my heart is his, his
only, though he may never know it."
Baffied only for the moment, Allen de.
termined to let time work its cure, and
sooner or later achieve the end on which
his mind was bent.