The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-11-03
WlNNIE'S ROMANCE.
"a STORY OF MAN AND wIEgl

w nat life" repeated the man to
himself, with almost a writhe. MAX.
ing bricks without straw ali the wear
round. l wish-tbere, l wish TO God
ia never learned Low to writer
Inc door behind creaked; a woman
sllued IN on tiptoe. Don't start-its
only l." she Sskispered.
Don't startw lie threw down the
pen without turning. Its all starts
or the strain of expecting them. I'm
SICK OF it, | tell you-sick of it all.
What's the timer"
1T must be nearly g."
sir Dark in another hour-dusk
now! I've done nothing. And you-you
never attempt to help me by so much
as wordr
never help YOU" she repeated
calmly. Would you like me to try?
perhaps something mas Just come 10
my mind. 1t is silly, maybe. as tell
IT, but you, my husband, might make
1t clever and interesting. You say
your stories are always twaddle as
you first set them down."
DO |? Well, what is it?" he said
staring across at he opposite roofs.
Couldn't | tell you Just as it came
TO me, thenT she said. Pm not clev.
er enough to know. It's more of
sketch, perhaps II imagined two
lovers, very dear lovers. They got
married and there was beautiful
world before them, with such peace
at the end, if they knew
Make the man an artist. He lived
for his art. The girl-the girl was
only just girl; she lived for the man.
She hung on his every word, you
might say; she prayed for his success
when he was never there to hear.
thought for him in ways that he
would never know, and checked her
singing and moved always softly, so
that he should never be disturbed at
his work.
That went on for years. The man,
deeper and deeper in his work, never
saw that his wife was changing; that
the light had gone out of her eyes.
He forgot all he had meant to be-for-
got after time even to kiss her; and
the girl-she could never bring herself
to remind him Eth? Still. she
lived only for him, but he never cared
what she wore, never thought that her
work might be hard in its little way,
and that there are some women for
whom years of such silence and lone
illness spells death.-Or worse.
You might put it that at first the
mans mistake was in always strain.
ing forward 10 his goal, forgetting
that the happiest time is now-for-
getting how, when he looks at last,
he will not find just the same laugh
ing girl as he married,
We'll suppose-we'll suppose that
one day the wife, somehow or other,
heard him talking to a friend
The friend was quiet; he had
asked: What's the matter with
with her? AL the romaa22 &c &C
gone that You used to talk about
Make it-make it that she held hel
breath for the answer even then
even then; that even then she was
hungerinS to put her arms around him
and tell him., oh, no, it was not gone
And supposing sheheard him say: Her
Pooh, Take no notice Of her-alWays
the same. Wish TO heavens sometimes
I'd never married-what with the eX.
penses and miseries at home Can't
make her out--not like other women
Given it up long ago. Don't you evel
marry old man. And SuppOsing 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 rs if it would SnaI
in her brail-She crept into her nus
bands study and took out the pisto
that he kept in his desk and put it tC
her forehead and almost pulled the
trigger. Wouldn't Il paper accept d
story like that?"
An indescribable sob and Il 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 VI
with hoarse cry: winnie! Mono
Don't, don't! Come back to me-comt
back
And for these two Time put back
the hands of the clock. But the story
that was not for publication.-Lon
don Star.