Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-09-28


knew her intimately-better than any
one else. I think. l knew all the un
hannv circumstances of her life; heI
borrid. vulgar mother; her poor
dreamy. inefficient father; their power
tv: how hard she had to work. You
we're in love with her. Why didn't you
marry herr
"She wouldn't have had me-
did you ask her?''
1No. 1t was needless. 1t went WITH
out saying"
You can never tell. You ought to
have asked her"
1T was on the tip of my tongue,
of course, to do so hundred times
NV life was passed in torturing myself
with the question whether l had any
chance, in hoping and fearing But as
often as l found myself alone with her
| knew it was hopeless. Her manner
to me is one of frank friendliness.
There was no mistaking it. She never
thought of loving me!'
"You were wrong not to ask her. one
never can be sure. Oh, why didn't you
ask her?' His old friend spoke with
great feeling.
He looked at her surprised and eager,
"Do you really think she might have
cared for me-"
ooh, you ought to have told her'
ought to have asked her." she repeated.
"Well-now you know why / went
away"
Eyes"
"When | heard of her--her-hei
death"-he could not bring himself to
say her suicide-"tbere was nothing
else for me to do. 1t was so hideous
so unutterable. TO go OH with my OLD
life. in the old place, among the ole
people, was quite impossible. l want
ed to follow her, to do what she had
done. The only alternative was to fiy
as Car from England, as far from my
self, as I could"
"Sometimes," Mrs. KemptOn con
fessed by-and-by, sometimes l won
dered whether, possibly your disap
pearance could have had any such con
nection with Mary's death-it FOLLOWED
it so Immediately. ] wondered some
times whether, perhaps, you had caret
for her. But l couldn't believe i'll
was only because the two things nap
pened one upon the other. Oh, VII!
didn't you tell her? 1t is dreadful
| dreadful
When he left her she still sat fo
little while before the fire.
"I.ife is chance to make mistakes
a chance to make mistakes. Life is
| chance to make mistakes"
1t was phrase she had met in
book she was reading the other day
Then she had smiled at it; now it rams
in her ears like the voice of a mock
ing demon.
eyes. a chance to make mistakes,
2 she said, half aloud.
She rose and went to her desk, I'M
locked a drawer, and turned over it
contents, and took out a letter-an oil
letter. for the paper was yellow an
the ink was faded. She came back t
the fireside, unfOlded the letter, an
read it. 1t covered six pages of not
paper, in a small feminine hand.
was a letter Mary Isona had written t
her. Margaret KemptOn, the night be
81,
ago. The writer recounted the man
harsh circumstances of her life, bu
they would all have been Dearable, sh
said, save for one great and terribl
secret. She had fallen in love wit
man who was scarcely conscious O
her existence; she, a little obscure tia
ian music teacher, had fallen in 10y
with Theodore Vellan. 1t was as !
she had fallen in love with an inhabi
ant of another planet; the worlds the
respectively. belonged to were ia
apart She loved him-she loved hiI
and she knew her love was hopeless
and she could not bear it. Oh, yes! sh
met him sometimes here and there, 6
houses where she went to play, and
give lessons. He was civil to her, h
was more than civil-he was kind; II
talked to her about literature an
music.
"He is so gentle, so strong, so wis'
but he never thought Of me as won
ana woman who could love, WI
could be loved. Why should he?
the moth falls in love with the sta
the moth must suffer / al
cowardly: am weak; / am what yO
will; but I have more than l can bea
Life is too hard-too hard. TO-morro
l shall be dead. You will be the Onl
person to know why died, and yC
will keep my secret"
"Oh, the pity of 1.-THE pity Of it
murmured Mrs. Kempton. 81 wond,
whether l ought to have shown hi
Mary's ettcr?"-Waverley Magazine.