The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-22
WON BY WAITING.

consented to be his wife, telling him very
frankly that her heart was in the grave of
her lover, George vanhorn, who had been
killed in a railway collision nearly one
year before.
VIII Spencer WINGED, for he was rich,
very rich; but then he put to the wound
that soothing salvs, 81 will win her love
when she is my wife, that has wrecked
so many lives.
Yet he cherished the delusion that love
in the end would win a return, and he
knew his own love to be strong and en-
during. He had stepped back when George
Vanhorn was met with such smile, had
kept from pressing his suit when the name
of Helen's lover appeared on the list of the
killed in the account of the railway col
lision, but after the lapse Of several months
he had won Mrs. Raymond to his side,
and SO by proxy wooed Helen and won
what2-a cold, reluctant consent to be his
wife.
eff she never loves me-" he thought
bitterly, ''if all my love fails to win hers,
what viii my life bep''
He did her Justice. He knew that If
his love failed to win her heart his gold
was powerless to make her happy. He
knew that if her mother died or could rot
be benefited by her marriage she would
rather beg her bread herself than be his
wife.
While matters stood in this unsatisfao
tory state Mrs. Raymond made sugges-
ton. "I want you to 60 away for a
month";" she said to him, land let Helen
miss the constant devotion that she has
had since your betrotha1. Let her feel
that a void has come into her life and how
dull and cherries it would be if she lost
you. The wedding day is set for June 10,
nd HI &c nil tor kha,
9th or 9th of June"
1t gave him the first really happy mo-
ment of his engagement when Helen said
gently, yet with a shudder:
81 cannot bear to think of you on rail-
way trains, Will. Write often, that may
know you are SAFE"
Her lips met his in a tender pressure
such as a loving sister might bestow, but
with far more affection than she had ever
before given him. The hope made this
unexpected absence endurable, and for two
weeks life held more pleasure than it had
done in all the days of his courtship.
Then came a blow-sudden, sharp, over
whelming. He was in a large western
city when, after night, returning to his
hotel, a man on crutches asked for char
ity. The voice was familiar, and in a
shook of horror the face struck him.
George VanhornP'
"Let me go, SpenoerP' the crippled man
y
you know am deadY''
81 know you are coming in here with
me-" Win said gently, substituting his
arm for one of the crutches and entering
the hotel where he had room. He would
not let his guest speak until he had or
dered a supper and made him comfortable.
Then, turning to him, he saw that he was
weeping.
See what q woman you make of meP'
the poor fellow said. You thought was
deadp'
eyes. All your friends think SOL
''It was a narrow escape, and wonder
why was spared. Nine months in pub
lilo hospital have left me crippled and in
ourably i'll. They would not keep me aft
er could get about on orutches, but I
have begged or starved, and it will not be
for longl I would not let any one know
for fear it would get tO-to-HelenF'
''You want to hide from her?''
''Yes-yes What would her life be tied
to miner You Will not betray me, Spen.
cerP"
"But you may recover2''"
mol I should be only wreck If I
could, butt cannot. ,"
viii Spencer literally could not speak.
This man asked of him only the silence
that would give him his wife. And then
true, unself1sh love triunphed.
''She will never marry mel" VIII
thought ruefully, as he folded a long, long
letter, ''but she shall not be cheated cut
of what little happiness life may still hold
for her,
He wrote, too, to Mrs Raymond a let
ter that caused that respectable lady to
grind her teeth, but which she obeyed,
packing her trunk and accompanying
Helen in the journey westward.
1t was VIII Spencer who met the two at
the depot and accompanied them to the
boarding house, where he kept Mrs. Ray
in Fa al
stairs alone. 1t was Will Spencer who
smOothed away every difficulty, engaging
rooms for mother and daughter and quiet
~ effaoing himself.
George Vanhorn was resoluts on one
point-he would not marry Helen. He
had no hope of recovery, but if the unex-
peoted should happen he would not risk
running Helen's life by binding it to his.
ooh" she would cry, what am to de-
serve the love of two such menP Mother,
it hum blss me to think how they love mel"
And by this love her courage was sus-
tanned through the three months when she
and her mother emoothed George Van
horns path to the grave. viii Spencer
never spoke of love to her, giving her up
entirely, but upon her lover he lavished
every kindness wealth could procure or
friendship dictate.
1t was three years later when he came
home from a European tour and called on
Mrs. Raymond.
"Mrs. Raymond, sir, is dead,'' the serv-
ant told him, land Miss Helen's livin in
- street. She's come into some money
from her uncle, sir, and Mrs. Grady took
this house, sir. -
Come into some money Well, she did
not need him. He would wait awhile.
But in a few days little note reached
him
1T was unkind to let me hear of your
return by accident. VIII you not come to
see meP"
And when he went he could not keep
the love out of his eyes or his voice, and
cheat IacfI Ea. axoS droorad y1pdav bio