Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-10-31
THE NAN FROM MANILA.


And who was 1 that God should save
Me from the doom l did desire
And crossed the bot myself did crave,
To set me higher.
jean Ingelow.
It was the man from Manila!
She knew it the instant she opened
the dorr. There was no miStaking
that straight soldderly figure. those
fine square shoulders, the well-heid,
handsome head-the bold features, the
sweeping musdache, the frank direct
unabashed eyes! She had been
dreadng the day when he might come
come eager and ignorant, and hap
Ply in joyous anticipation; and now
he was here.
For a brief space her heart seemed
stone. She grew SO white that even
the stranger on the threshold noticed
the pallor of the Little maid who had
opened abe door i'm response Ito hia
ring.
81 hope I have not started you,'
he said, with corteous so..c.tudc
''Afiss Vance? She is we'll? She Il a
home?'
Demards Glare found her voice then.
"Will you come imp" she asked, and
held tie door wide.
He passed into the familiar old hail
with it's faded prayer rugs, it's high
oandelhbras of wrought iron, it's low,
broad lounge and carven settles. HIS
impatient glance sought the shallow
stairway. The place was unaDtered
Where was she? Surely his letter had
reached her, surely
There was IA sound Like a sob. 1t
came from the lips of the little maid,
for he had taken one swift backward
stTide-had recoiled as he had never
recoiled in battle. There, on the teak.
wood table, lay his last letter. And
the telegram beside M-surely that was
the one he had sent!
He flung around on the girl who
had admitted him, and for q brief
space there was silence between them
"Is she dead?" he asked.
And now he noticed that there were
masses OF flowers all around-bowlx
screens, vases of them-it had not at
first Struck him as singular that these
MASSES of bloom should be here. Now
'She is not dead" said the little
maid.
| His teeth sank deep in his under Lip.
| For a moment neither spoke. Then,
'"Tel1 me-" he said.
Demaufs Care forgot she wore cot
ton wrapper. She forgot she wore
sweeping cap. She was even temporal.
rdly unconscious of the feather buster
she still held. She pointed to settle
beside the hearth On which a Qittie
Pickering fire gilowed cosily-for tho
hate summer day was chilly.
''Slt down." she said.
But he shook his head. "Be mere.
full" he begged. 'Be brief! She is
not dead-what then?"
"Try ito think!" she whispered, inn
| ploringly. 81 hate to to hurt you!
Try ito think-what-w else-might
bel"
Maj. Garden had been in the thick
of many fierce fight beyond the seas.
He had looked into the grinndng Wis.
age OF death d. "a time in frontier
battles on the ArDona desert He had
grimly walked into the jaws of he. N
Spanish terriitory-before Spanish
breaStworEs. But he had never shrunS
ais he shrunk thiaIt day from the ten.
der pity i'm the eyes of the little maid
who looked up AIT him.
For Gods sake" he broke off.
"She lis MARRIED." said the girl. She
added: Yesterday"
"This," she said a few minutes later
when she had Nightly vanished up the
stairway, and had again found herself
near him, WAS ito be given to YOU"
She placed "a packet beside him. Il
had never occurred to her to ask hiu
for his name nor proof OF his identify.
There was NO nee |.
Everard Garden opened the package.
The upper1nost note he opened, read.
1t was a shallow-tS brutal little nota
"Yoa have been gone so long," ia
GtaH. "And everyone tells me that the
climate of the Philippines is ruinous
to the complexion. l know your abb
surd idea of serving with your regi-
ment lin foreign fiellds-in any field
And can't bear the Thought of exile
| It would be exile wouldn't it? Then
Rexford-the coal man, you knows
rich, so richl Not that 1 care about
money, but Git would be horrid to have
to turn ones dresses-or to clean one 8
| gloves with gasoline or whatever (
they use. DemaGds Glare has pleaded
well for you, but she dis only a Soft
hearted dfttbe Simpleton. You must
y
| than for Dan Rexford, but lit would not
be wise to marry you. One has only
one life. 1t us better be wise. Then
you were always such an easy-going
FELLOW you won't care much-wiM you?
So goodbye"
For a time-Demaris Clare never
knew how long-there was no sound
| in the room save the ticking OF thu
clock, the little RESTLESS, crackiing 60 i.
| sip of the flames. Suddenly the gill
ait the window turned, conscious of .
| presence at her elbow-a voice in h. !,
ear
"'Who," asked the voice, ''is Demaris
| Clare?''
There was a royal blaze in the fire.
place now Letters whirled up the
chimney-fugative scraps of cindery
blackness. Squares of cardboard wera
still to be consumed. There was CLINT
| of gold on the red bed in the CRATE.
81 am Demaris Clare"
Now she was aware of the attire she
wore the duster she still carried.
"Wifl you marry me?"
Eyes," she said.
OF all the rash woomg surely tn 4
was the rasheSt-of all the RECKLESS
proposals that was by all odds the most
reckless
Their eyes r,ef,. Tn hers tbaro va~