Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-06-01
A Realized Hope.
BY MATTHEW WHITE, IR.
Continued from last week

j
Continued from last week.
He had not yet recovered from his
surprise at seeing her at the mission.
Her ascription of the miracle to DIR.
Otway only half satisfied him. But
he rejoiced deeply that she had come.
This will open the way for others of
her class to lend us a helping hand,
he told himself,
But her example seemed to be worth
less in this respect. No other mem
bers of DIR. Otway's flock presented
themselves. More than once Lansing
was obliged to give Miss Merrington
more than her share of scholars. She
accepted the situation always with a
cheerful smile. More than this, she
was never absent from her class.
When day after day Lansing would
see her name in the society column as
assisting in the whir1 of after Easter
gaiety, he said to himself, she will be
utterly worn out by the end of the
week. 1 shall not see her on Sunday.
But she always came.
Not yet did Lansing realize that
there was anything strange in his
glancing through the items from the
smart world in his morning paper.
He had never done so before he met
Miss Merrington, he knew, but then
she was one OF his staff of teachers,
and it was but natural he should be in.
terested in her. Had she not sent the
dellcacies of the season to old Mrs
Hawthorne, who taught the Bible
class, when she was Ill and he knew
that her son could not afford to buy
them for her.
But then he did not watch for her
chair to be occupied each Sunday af.
ternoon. Still, as has been said, he
was blind himself to that which was
going on within him, and only awoke
to the real facts when June came and
Miss Merrington stopped at the desk
one afternoon as she was going out
and told him she would not see him
again until October.
He said he was extremely sorry, but
that it was what he ought to expect at
this season of the year, and he hoped
she would not forget all about the
work at the Sunday school while she
was away.
Oh, no, indeed, she exclaimed. I've
promised to write once to each of my
boys. Isn't that good of me when it
isn't in the contract? Good-by, Mr..
Lansing, trust you will have very
pleasant summer.
She gave him her hand, and as he
pressed it for an instant and looked
into her eyes, it seemed as though
scales fell from his own. Then she
was gone and Mrs. Hawthorne had
taken her place and was talking about
a poor woman who needed work, which
NOBODY would give her on account OF
the drinking habits for which she had
once been noted.
By an effort Lansing concentrated
his attention on this case, and forci
bly, kept himself from thinking OF
Miss Warrington till he reached home
for his one hour of rest before begin.
ming the evenings work. Then he
looked the matter straight in the face
and acknowledged with utter humilia
ton that he had fallen in love.
He despised himself as he never
thought he could despise any of his
kind. To think that he, Warren Lans
| ing, who had vowed to devote his
whole life to the welfare of others
should be swerved aside by the per
sonal interest he took in woman!
AS he looked back now over the past
| few months he could see how his
whole being had been permeated by
| the sentiment; how Sunday had been
the brightest day in the week to him
| not because then freedom from bust.
ness cares gave him more opportunity
to work for others, but because he
spent an hour in the same room with
her who had probably already forgot.
ten him.
But even while he was 1oathing
himself for what he called his duplici-
ty, he recalled the instant in which
she had looked at him when she said
good-by. There seemed to be real re-
greet in her eyes. His heart began to
beat at racing speed. Then he put
out his iron spirit of se1f-control,
forced himself to be calm, and when
he led the meeting that night it was
noticed that he had seldom seemed
more fervent.
He worked that summer as he never
worked before. He felt that he had a
sin to expiate. When September
came he broke down and was compel.
led to go away to recuperate for the
winters duties. He chose the Berk-
shire Hills, and took with him a young
man from the mission who needed the
change as much as he did himself.
They stopped at farm house on the
road to Stockbridge. and for a week
gave themselves up to tennis, walking
and hill climbing.
One afternoon he and Gurney were
playing tennis on the front lawn when
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