Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-13
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HER REVEkGE.

BY Elizabeth M. anrnor.

ever hoped or dreamed. He fed her
alert brain as we'll as her heart. Ee
talked to her of books, he described for
her the strange places of the earth
where he had travelled, he pictured to her
the great singers and actors he had
heard, and she choked with the tense
emotion Of that mt when the artist
holds the house spellbound, before the
tumultuous applause. Her sympathy
and her understanding were like a
strung harp that only needed his touch
ito wake into music, and SO he taught her
love. Then, suddenly, one night he
stopped and kissed her-and it was no
longer a child, but a woman who looked
up in his eyes, with an soul.
TN a few days he went away. The
summer was ended. He had amused
himself yteaching the little girl how to
love, but: he had tired of the game, and
he threw her aside as a child does a toy
1t has Wearied of and broken. AS for
the girl she had her bad quarter of an
hour in which she learned many things.
She learned to cover UP a breaking
heart with a smile. and to laugh to keep
from weeping. She learned the shame
that .scorches a woman's soul when she
gives her love u%nsought, and when she
had learned her lesson she knew that all
her innocent, giriish trust and faith was
dead, n that come who might in life
she would have nothing but the lees of
her love to give him.. She had offered
the brimming cup to another, and he mad
quaffed it, and thrown it carelessly
aside.
You are not to think the man was
bad" went on the woman, "he was
merely careless. He had amused himself
with the girl, and it was her misfortune
that she was too young and too ignorant
to understand the game, and so got hurt.
But time brings strange revenges. While
the girl was still young enough to profit
by it the old aunt died, and left her a
fortune. She ven abroad. travelled.
studied. knew many, many people in
many lands, and was no more the little
ignorant country girl, but a p~ersonaga.
People don't grieve always over a los-
love, you know, but still underneath
everything else in her heart was the
smart of the old wound-the shame OF
her scorned love. Sometimes when she
was very lonely in spite Of all that
money could give, or when she saw a
girl looking up into her lovers face with
adoling eyes, and knew that that look
and that rapture could never be hers,
something savage stirred in the woman's
heart, and she set her teeth fiercely and
said to herself: 'If he ever crosses my
path again, I will take my revenge
and"
'They never met again until this sum-
mer, and curiously enough it was at the
same summer resort. life had brought
it's disappointments to the man, too. He
was i'll. broken in health and fortune.
He had married woman, beautiful,
selfish, pleasure-1oving, who bitterly re-
scented their loss of wealth. and who had
abandoned him in his misfortunes. The
girl-She was a woman nOw-saW all
this, and she smiled a little bitterly to
think how fate played into her hands.
! The man was sick, lonely, heart hungry.
Her revenge would be SO easy to take.
It was all there. deeper, completer than
she could a imagined"
"And I bet she jolly we'll paid him
back" put in the boy, trust a woman
to get wen for that kind of a thing"
mo-" said the woman a little visit
fully, "it came ito her that revenge was
a bitter drink, after all. She found out
lit does not matter how-that a certain
sum Of money would enable him to tide
over a crisis in his affairs. and perhaps
regain his fortune, and secretly, so he
might never know. she supplied it to
him. Relieved of anxiety he grew better
at once, but through the long days of
convalescence the woman fingered near
him, breathing into him fresh hope, n
courage, and then
"And them asked the boy curfously.
"And then" repeated the woman
duly" she e away. "She had taken
her revenge, and the man never knew
that the roma who loved him had
saved him for the woman he loved
The hostess was gathering up the
ladies with her eyes, n in a momen,
more they had passed through the broad
doorway. When they had one the boy
sat staring at his ~wineglass, and then he
whispered something to himself,
"Well, I am DID," he said.