The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-10-13
world Is used to seeing the man grow
Indifferent and the woman cold anil

world is used t. seeing the man grow
Indifferent and the woman cold and
pale: but you--you might take the trag-
edy as # Is within the four walls and
make 1t live and throh III there. You
might put it that ut first the mans
mistake WIS In always sti:iinlEg for
ward to his goal. forgetting that the
happiest time Is now--forgettiEg low.
when he looks ut last lie will not IND
Just the same laughing girl as he mar
ried. Often he left her. we will say:
he wanted cheerful faces and relaXa-
ton after his wori,. and the wife was
only like u ghost creepin. about the
house. And so at last. for her the only
alternative to a broken heart was a
heart hardened to stone. And. oh. she
had so loved him-had SO determined
always to look her brightest and bes;
for him. That might have gone on til!
the end, as it often does; but there
came n blow-One blow more than she
could bear. Well suppose-wen sup
pose that one day the wife. somehow
or other. heard him talking to Il friend.
The friend was quiet: he had asked
What's the matter with-with her! All
the romance gone that you used to talk
about?' Make it-mnke 1t that she lleld
her breath for the answer. even then
even then; that wen then she was
hungering to put her arms all around
him. and tell him, oh. no, 1t was not
gone! And supposing she heard him
e >. tJJnpt Jbnn1, foRp M nnfica nf har
always the same. Wish to God some
times I'd never married-what with
the expenses and the miseries ut home.
Can't make her out-not like other wO-
men. Given 1t up long ago. Don't you
ever marry, old man! And supposlng
the wife stood and cried to God to take
her on the spot, and that God did not
answer. and that at last--at last, when
something seemed as If 1t would snap
in her brain-she crept into her hus.
bands study and took out the pistol
that he kept in his desk and put 1t to
her forehead, and-and almost pulled
the trigger. Wouldn't n paper accept
a story like that"
Still no answer. The man had cram
CA SllIl LII lllS " VAIN AIS buLNS Sitp-
ping the desk. his face gray In the
dusk. his stare widened. 1t looked-it
somehow looked as IL he feared for his
life to look around, In fear Of a hand
waiting for his throat. 1t was not his
wife talking. 1t was tragedy that had
come creeping into the room, rs 1t
sometimes did when he wrote late, and
e.o,,n%hi~r u<no1 ar1 hNnofhaI hahirI
each shoulder.
The voice came again. as from a long
way off.
"Yes! Say she paused the moment,
and that saved her. She looked at his
work and thought Of his long struggles
and the mind that always strained aft
er something in life that Is never to be
found. But the thought had come into
her head. and 1t staid and staid. and
more than once, when he had passed
her with hardly q word or look-no,
my God, she could not bear it! God
forgive her, she cannot bear 1t"
The indescribable sob and a swift
rush. A hand had plucked open the
drawer at the mans side. and some
thing bright flashed out. Just in time
he realized something and swayed up,
with a hoarse cry: "Winnie! No, no"
and faced the picture that was to eat
into his memory for all time.
The dead silence, the stare with
which the wide Eyes In her worn,
white face seemed to search his soul
wildly for q flicker Of the TRUTH Then
her hand dropped, and her face began
to twitch %piteously. His arms were
out-and the heart beat there yet.
"Winnie" he had whispered-such a
whisper. Don't, don't! Come back
to me! Come back to mev'
And for those two Time put back the
hands Of his clock. But the story.
That was not for publication.-London
Star.
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