The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1899-07-29
CHAPTER /.

dear"
sponded somewhat huffly, drawing
back. Il really was not aware you
objected so pointedly to my looking at
you"
81 DON'T don't!' she broke in
eagerly. 'How could you imagine
such a thing? 1t was the expression
of your face, Paul, that took me back
for the moment, when | turned my
head and found you sitting there
watching me with such a critical,
searching sort of look, almost as II
you-you-"
LAS if l what, sweetheart" I asked,
appeased by the carressing touch.
LAS If you saw something in me
you could not quite make out, and did
not like at all-at all! But l was
mistaken in that, wasn't l, Paul?"
Then, after a moments pause, as
I did not reply
Sure it was only foolish fancy on
my part? Say it was only that-ah,
say it was only that, loye!' she whis-
pered, in the soft drawing brogue l
was learning to like.
well, dear" | answered slowly, "as
a little surprised, after leaving you on
the lawn romping with the dogs in
the very ecstacy of high spirits, declar-
ing that even the t~wenty-irst Of June
was too short a day to be happy in,
to find you half an hour later sitting
to the profoundest melancholy, your
eyes perfect wells of despair, looking
as if the burthen of existence was toe
heavy to be borne another summers
day."
1T was heavy-so heavy! You are
right. l could not have borne it much
longer. For the last twenty minutes
II have been your widow, Paul"
"Oh," l said, with a feeling of unac-
countable relief, stroking her tumbled
silky hair, Il see! You were my
widow, madam-a very flattering anc
satisfactory explanation of your ap
pearance indeed! But, dear, don't yor
think, all circumstances considered, II
Is rather premature for either of us t.
don the weeds yer in spirit YETI"
She was nineteen, as fresh and as
hardy as the mountain heather SHE
had lived among all her life. l wa!
twenty-five, stood six feet one in my
stockings, and had not known ar
hours illness since | had the measles
many years before.
That was not the kind of widow
hood l meant" Helen said, looking a
me with a touch of pathetic reproacl
in her strange eyes. Your death
your mere bodily extinction, Paul
would not grieve me for long; | SHOULD
cease to mourn you soon enough"
Mrs. Dennys," l exclaimed, IL
mock indignation, explain yourself
please! You surely would give m,
the conventional year of Grape at tn,
least?"
mo, l wouldn't-not a year. not
week, not a day, for / would die tn
same moment you did. Do you thinl
l could live and you dead, husband?
And yet you say you were m,
widow for full twenty minutes, tru
daughter Of Erin?"
THAT was because | had lost you Il
a way that severed us in life as wei
as in DEATH"
Lost me in a way that severed u
In life as well as in death? This
dreadful weather for conundrums!
give it up!" / responded languidly.
Twas widowed, Paul, because
had lost your love-because you care
for another woman more than for me,
she returned, in a low voice. lookin
at me with eyes full of tragic denunci
alton, as Rebecca might have locke
at Ivanhoe, as poor La Valliere a
Louis when she babe him her Las
good-by outside the convent gates.
l laughed a little too boisterously.
felt, and drew her to my side.
'To be sure, to be sure" l assente
volubly, 81 never thought of that sc
luton! How long is it since | frs
learned to care for you, ma belle? Tha
day you and l slipped down the noun
tain side through the yellow broom?-
let me see-seven, eight, why, nearl
nine months ago! A long spell of cor
stancy-almost time | should be wear
ing for another love, isn't it? Som
men, you know, would like a chang
of wife with every change of coat; br
as / happened to be of rather conserve
tive kidney, l think | ought to be abb
to wear one wife to three coats at tn
least, and l believe l courted you /
the very cloth your fingers are caress
ing now. It's getting a bit shabb,
to be sure; but"
"You may treat my words lightly
she interrupted, leaning oyer me wit
half-"losed eyes, a bright pink sp'
burning on h/r cheeks. 81 sti
stick to M opinion, somethir
tells me l shaAl lose you, as l say--son
day!'
Feed your melancholy on ii
fancy" I retorted, with peevish uneas
ness, feeling somewhat that I ha
said too much, "if it pleases you.
wonder II your morbid eye of prophet
sees any chance of my losing you
you are to lose me-"
She seemed at first moi to unds
stand, then answered quickly
sfXor Ioca MOI Nh M pot Vuba