Willmar tribune., 1899-09-13

- ~ 4 tpSetner
to her mother, s.
That was q title after II. Il vas
now striking mi dnis It, and j asper:
Chase sat in his room staring at the pa
Epers on his desk and go toil4g over the last
half hour with painful persistence. .:s.
He had Gold Rachel ~ inslow Of his
love for her and she had not given her.
! love iii return. ssS . s. s..5 ,. y:
Itwould be difficult to know what
was most powerful in the impulse that
had moved him to speak to her tonight.
He had yielded to his feelings without
any special thought Of results to him
self because he had felt SO certain that
Rachel would respond to. his love for
her. He tried to recall now just the i'm
preston she made on him when he first
spoke to her. ~%z .@-
Never had her beauty and her strength
Influenced him as tonight. While she
| was singing he saw and heard no one
else. The tent swarmed with confused
crowd Of faces, and, he knew he was
sitting there hemmed in by a mob of
people, but they had no meaning to
him. He felt powerless to avoid. speak
ing to her. He knew he should speak
when they were once alone
Now that he had spoken he felt that
he had misjudged either Rachel or the
opportunity. He knew. or thought he
did, that she had begun to care for him.
It was no secret between them that the
heroine of Jasper's first novel had been
his own ideal of Rachel; and the hero
of the story was himself. and they had
loved each other in the book, and
Rachel had not objected. No one else
knew. The names and characters had
been drawn with a subtle skill that re-
vealed to Rachel, when she received
copy of the book from Jasper, the fact
of his love for her, and she had not been
offended. That was nearly year ago.
Tonight Jasper Chase recalled the
scene between them, with every inhec-
tion and movement unerased from his
memory. He even recalled the fact that
he began to speak just at that point on
the avenue where few days before he
had met Rachel walking with Rollin
Page. He had wondered at the time
what Rollin was saying.
"Rachel," Jasper had said, and it
was the first time he had,ever spoken
her first name, II never knew until to-
night how much I love you. Why
should try to conceal any longer what
you have seen me look? You know I
love you as my life. can no longer
hide it from You if I would
The first intimation he had of re-
fusal was the trembling of Rachels arm
in his own. She had allowed him to
speak and had neither turned her face
toward him nor away from him. She
had looked straight on: and her voice
was sad, but firm and quiet. when she
spoke.
"Why do you speak to me now2 !
cannot bear it-after what we have
seen tonight.
"Why-what''- he had stammered
and then was silent.
Rachel withdrew her arm from his,
but still walked near him.
Then he cried out with the anguish
of one who begins to see a great loss
facing him where he expected great
joy.
s'Rachell Do you not love me? Il
not my love for you as sacred as any
thing in all of life itself?" -
She had walked on silent for a few
steps after that. They had passed
| street lamp: Her face was pale .ane
beautiful He had made a movement t
clutch her arm, and she had moved {
little farther from him.,
'No." she had replied. "There wal
time-I cannot answer for that. Yor
should not have spoken to me tonight. >
He had seen in these words his an
swer. He was extremely sensitive
: Nothing short Of joyous response t.
his own love would have satisfied him
He could not think Of pleading will
her.
s'Some time, when / am more wor
thy?'' he had asked in low voice. bu
she did not seem to hear, and they hat
parted at her home, and he recalled
vividly the fact that no good night hat
been said.
Now, as he went over the brief bu
significant scene, he lashed himself TO
his foolish precipitancy. He had no
reckoned on Rachel's tense, passionat
:. absorption of all her feeling in tn
scenes at the tent which were so ney
in her mind. But he did not know he
well enough even yet to understand tn
meaning of her refusal, When the cloc]
in the First church steeple struck l., h
was still sitting at his desk, staring a
the last page of manuscript of his un
Snished novel
[To BE CONTINUED "