Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1898-10-20
CHAPTER XIII.


At 8 O'Clock it was showing wildly.
The city was like the wrath of what
it had been in the morning hours. Foot
marks were wiped out as soon as made,
and the whirl of the storm filled the
town with excitement.
The bell in David Temples Office was
rung sharply.
81 didn't know Mr.. Tempted come
back" said Pete in dismay, sliding the
latest dime novel under box.
While fastening her veil Anne listen
ed for David's voice. His steady, unac-
cented tones came clearly to her. He
had returned and entered his private
office without passing through the ed.
itorial rooms. A moment later he came
in.
81 thought you'd be gone, he said,
pausing beside her. His eyes were un-
usually bright, cool color from the
storm was on his cheeks. "I'm going
out again in moment and will go up
town with you. I just came down to see
Farley" and he crossed to the night
EDITORS desk
Ten minutes later they were on the
streets together. The snow stung their
faces, settled like mantle over them,
and in capricious skeins half hid the
blinking eyes of the crowd they passed
through. Shivering newsboys blew on
their fingers, crouching under the stairs
of the elevated road, and white capped
tamale men presiding over their copper
cans like magicians over fame sent
their rolling Cry from the shelter of
doorways.
The trains were crowded at that hour.
1t was necessary for Anne to take a
seat far from where David stood, and
she could only see his big shoulders be-
You'd all intervening dozen. By the time
her gate came in sight after difficult
walk the storm had reached crescendo,
and they were breathless.
"Come up to the fire for moment, :"
said Anne.
''But you haven't dined?"
"Hours ago. It's almost g. Come in.
I've seen nothing of you for week"
"Just for moment, then, if may.
Besides, want to speak to you Of Don
add
And it was of Donald they talked,
yet something in David's tone thrilled
and bewildered Anne. He had been sue
cessful in his interview with Donald
Sefain, had flung the first plank across
the chasm between them. But content
for that did not explain the light in his
face, the passionate air in his whole
presence He seemed reveling in unex-
pressed exultation. With foolish stir
ring of the heart Anne was conscious of
it and waited
AS he talked he leaned back with eyes
half closed The pose forcibly recalled
the first day she saw him, when he had
tried to prevent her becoming news
paper woman, the flung back shoulder
and half closed eye, the loosened lock
of hair clinging to the forehead and
giving boyish touch to his face. Then
he was a stranger, treating her like a
too ambitious child. Now he was David,
so familiar, so well understood he was
like another self, and she loved him.
There was fright in this last thought
tonight. She seemed wild and strong,
| Oou OhulhCd ny OlC iANlSlUlO UblCau VI
her own making. While she listened to
David she found herself endeavoring to
explain to her pride the voluntary sur
render of her heart to this man who did
not and never might love her. She
thought of the optimism in natural Sc
lection and that it might be unrecipro-
Gated.
She was only following an old law.
Other women had impulsively and ST.
lently loved men whose hearts had been
closed to them.
She knew that David was Indifferent
He permitted few people an acquaint.
ance with his intimate self, He sought
none. Yet no man had more friends.
Pete in the Office, to whom from sheer
unconcern he had never spoken kind
word, felt privileged in some mysteri-
Gus way when commissioned to carry
home parcel for him. Donald, in spite
of the untoward circumstances of their
lives, loved him with all his heart. 1t
was not strange, then, since David Tenn
pie was man whose magnetism was a
positive possession, who owned the
passive supremacy which steals from
J
the recorded lives of Napoleon and Dean
Swift, that one woman should have
come still nearer to him unlimited. She
seemed defending her weakness before
an invisible jury and was acquitted.
ga splendid chance" David was
saying when she gave him her undivid-
ed attention again; "a chance not to be
had every day. The partnership can be
had for an absurdly small amount, you
know, because the Englishman who is
cutting it all sickened in the climate
and wants to get home But Donald, as
sisted by the good business men still in
the company. could make it pay. In
BRAZIL
Brazil? He'll have to go to Brazil?"
she said uncertainty.
"You haven't been listening to me"
And David leaned toward her. "Where
do you suppose they grow coffee. Anne
-on Staten Island? Really" he said
urgently. nothing will help Donald