The evening times., 1899-10-07
ONE APRIL NIGHT.

"A man ana WOMAN anu young girl
sat on vine-grown gallery. Before them
lay broad expanse of velvet lawn, bathed
| now in the white light light of an April
| moon. From clump of dwarf magnolias
a mocking- bird triiled madly his first glad,
| exulting notes of spring.
The man and the young girl had met
| for the first time that evening. They had
found many common friends and inter
ests. and the man talked fiuently and well.
The woman sat a little apart from her
| guests, speaking only when forced to do SO
in reply to some question.
By one of those odd turns which the
tide of conversation sometimes takes,
I celebrated divorce case, then claiming the
attention of the society world, came un-
der discussion.
There is. there. .yean be, no excuse or
pardon for divorce aside from absolute
cruelty or unfaithfulness,' asserted the
young girl, with the positiveness which
represents the Innocence and ignorance Of
youth. SIS
'sYou think spot.P said the man. Lis
ten He had, thrown himself. with the
grace born of long athletic training in
college days, On heap of cushions at
the feet of the older woman, and as he
spoke his eyes sought the sad, quiet face
above him; bat if ishe was conscious of
the searching gaze, she made no sign.
lie QdQ Talked uu6ully IIS Wao
eloquent now speaking with all the inten-
sity and earnestness of one who pleads
cause with life or death in the balance"
You think bhereiis no excuse or pardon
for a divorce except on grounds of cruelty
or unfaithfulness? What of a case like
this? man ] knew loved woman mad
ly, desperately She was married woman,
and when, by accident almost, he discover
ed that his love was returned he did the
only thing a man can do under those cir
cumstances: he went away.
He was rich. young, and fond of adven-
ture, and he lived for seven years in the
mining camps of the Far West.
Hopeless as was this one love of his
life, he had somehow always clung to the
thought that some day out of darkness
they would meet and read life's meaning
| in each others eyes.
He was not a religious man in the Or
dinarily accepted meaning OF the term; but
he had an abiding faith in eternal justice.
He believed that in a world ordered by
some supreme force, Allah, or Buddha, or
God, as oDe may be pleased to designate
the ruling power of the universe, things
would somehow SO adjust themselves that
he and the woman he loved would finally
| live with and for each other. How this
was to come about he never asked himself
He simply felt that 1t was to be- For years,
| without ever hearing her name mentioned,
not even knowing whether she was alive or
| dead, he loved her.
Many a night, lying before the fire In
some rude miners cabin, he would think
| of her and wonder whether she ever sent
wish or thought after him. Or, rolled
| III his blanket on the open plain, he would
| look up at the brilliant stars, which SEEM
| ed so close above him that he could al
| most reach out his hand and touch them,
| and there amid them he would see her
| loved face, and would fall asleep dreaming
| of and loving her. Once. entombed by the
caving of a mine, he had almost cursed God
| that he was to die without ever again seeing
| the face of the woman he loved.
In all those years he never drove a stake
! in a claim but twas for her-alI for her,
and his life beside
AS he spoke the woman bent forward over
| the graceful, athletic figure at her feet, as
| il she would caress the head which now
| rested near the broad crepe fold which Dor.
| dered the hem of her black gown. But with
a strong effort she checked the impulse, and
| leaned even further back into the friendly
shadows.
| The man continued: When my friend
| finally returned to the East he was given
| the warm welcome which society alway &C
| ttluS " SutCtSS- ne IUuNQ MOST Oh MS
| friends married and settled, and gradually
the conviction came to him that he might
| find certain content and satisfaction in
| being master of household.
| Happiness he could not hope for. but
as the old restiessness came upon him. he
| realized that his one chance for anything
| approaching content would lie in the for1na-
tion of ties which would keep him from Civ
ing away TO his love of adventure
| His only sister, married now and pos
| sessing that instinct of matchmaking
which every woman has to a certain de-
gree had settled it in her own mind that
her brother and her best girl friend were
| exactly suited TO each other. The best
girl friend was of the same mind, and
my friend laziiy fell in with their plans
| since they carried him along the lines Of
| least resistance. He was duly mar
| ried. and would probably have lived hap
PLY ever after in true storybook style,
had it not been that three months after
his marriage Fate. who seems sometimes
| to torment her victims for the pure love
of the thing. brought him suddenly and
unexpectedly in contact with the woman
| he loved. She was free, and he, God
| pity him. bound by ties which you say
| cannot be broken. And you condemn
three people to lifelong misery because
| your social code finds no Justification for
divorce? I say three people," glancing
upward into the face of the woman, at
whose feet he lay and pressed even closer
against the crepe fold of her gown She
! shivered slightly and drew back. Be
cause" he continued neither my friend
nor the woman he loves can ever know
a moments happiness apart from each
| other, and sooner or later the wife will
learn the truth. l know that legally this
case gives no justification for divorce
but morally there is equally no justifca-
tion for the continuance of marriage ties
which hold free souls as with chains of
| iron. God made but one woman this
man could call wife. and he is disloyal