The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-04-07

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Walter LOring had come face to face 1Utth
his old loue-Gerdldjnc.
He had his suspicious, strong and acute,
yet with nothing tangible as yet on
which to base them, and if he breathed
them what would be the result?
The girl whose identity he had prom
Used not to betray s'until Sister Naomi
could be heard from" would beyond all
question be called to account. To his
very door had she come within 48 hours
of that strange evening which the
rector's prattle had made public prop
erty, begged minutes interview with
out giving any. name, and, stepping
down into the plainly furnished little
western parlor, there in the dim light
of single kerosene burner, Walter
Loring had come face to face with his
old love-Geraldine.
Mindful of all the harm she had done
him in San Francisco rather than Of
what had passed before, he met her in
stern silence. On his generosity, his
magnanimity, she threw herself She
| had deceived and wronged him in ever
engaging herself to him, she said, and
would have gone on to say more.
"That is all past and done WITH" he
Goldly interposed. "What is it now?''
And then it transpired that good Mr..
| Lambert had been the means of secur-
| ing for Naomi an excellent position;
that Naomi had gone to enter on her
duties and had sent for her sister to
come and live at Mrs. Burleigh's until
she could better provide for her; that
Naomi was living under an assumed
name, and that she prayed that no one
might know their unhappy past The
interview was cut short by the curiosity
Of some member of the household who
came in ostensibly to trim the lamp.
"lt shall be as you wish until you
hear from your sister," said Loring,
bowling her out with punctilious civility
and praying in secret that there it
| might end. but end it did not. Within
another 43 hours she was there with
another quest The servant who an
nounced her presence in the parlor be-
low did so with confidential and i'm
pertinent grin.
"The same lady wants to see Lieu
tenant Loring, and this time he was
colder and sterner than before
Her evident purpose was to revert to
the relations that once existed, though
her plea was only for news from Cali
fornia. Had nothing ever been heard Of
the missing jewels? she asked. Their
need was SO great! She had most excel
lent prospects of an engagement in Bos-
ton if she could only have six months
instruction under Signor Calabresi, but
his terms were so high, and she would
have to live in New York, and people
kept writing her that she and Naomi
really ought to make some effort to re-
cover the value of that property, and
she had come, friendless as she was. to
ask if be thought suit against the
steamship company would result in
their getting anything Captain Pet-a
gentleman, that is. who had been most
kind in San Francisco, had promised to
do something, but now that the general
was dead what could he do? There was
no doubling the identity or intentions
OF that gentleman, thought Loring, as
he gravely replied that they would only
be defeated in any such attempt.
Then, with swimming eyes, She had
bemoaned her past, her fatal errors.
her greed for wealth and position that
bad led her to stif1e her own heart
throbs and deceive the one true friend
she had ever known, and Loring broke
short the conversation by leaving the
room. Then she came again, alone, and
he refused to see her. Then she came
with Mrs. Burton, and the house was
in litter, and he broke up his estab-
lishment and moved back to the hotel,
to the scandal of his landlord, as has
been said, who made loud complaint to
the powers at headquarters.
Then she wrote that she was being
followed and prosecuted by man she
never knew before, the man who was
with her the night Mr.. Lambert said
they met them in front of Mrs. Bur-
ton g, a dreadful man who said that he
ing and made threats against him. She
implored Lanng's protection, and Lor-
ing saw through the flimsy device and
returned the letter unanswered and
later letters unopened, and then the
woman seemed to take fire and in turn
she threatened him.
And now she had brought Mrs. Bur-
ton to witness his cruelty to her, the
meek. suffering girl to whom he was
pledged and plighted. who had followed
him to Omaha in hopes of softening his
heart and winning back his hayward
love, as was the burden of her SORROW
ing song to that most sympathetic Of
women. already burning with prejudice
and fancied wrong of her own. One
woman scorned" is more than enough
for many reputation. Two, in double
harness, would wreck that of St. An.