The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-05-22
On the Beach.

| Dorothy and 1 were engaged. Were 1
| to speak with the tongues Of men and
| Of angels 1 could not say more. l had
known her but month-but why apollo
gize? Would you pass by pearl sim
ply because you had not seen it for
weeks upon your daily walk?
And YOU will never see a more beau
! tiful pearl than Dorothy. Strange,
moody. sunshine today. shower tomorrow.
now merry, now sober. first racing on
the beach, then moping in the shade,
| but sweet and good, first. last and all the
| time-as sweet and good as ever woman
VIII be.
But, as one William Shakespeare. late
Of Avon, England. once remarked, the
| smooth. Ours didn't. The first jolt came
as I sat on the piazza of the beach
house one evening solacing myself with
| cigar and the delicious breeze, and
| thinking-well, wondering where Dorothy
could be.
Suddenly mine hosts young incorrigi-
bic came tearing up and gave me 10 I'M
derstand, through series Of exciting
gestures. that Miss LAWYER. to-wit Do
rothy. was in trouble upstairs There
was no room to set it down as oneyof the
young hopefuPs jokes, and 1 rolled OUT
of my chair and ran upstairs, three steps
at q time.
Dorothy's room was on the second
floor, at the end of a wing. 1 sped
down this dark corridor until I reached
her door, which stood wide open. There
was stopped by a cry that seemed to
be wrung out by the most passionate
grief. Perhaps 1 should not have been
stopped, especially as the cry was not
addressed to me. But stopped I was
there in the shadow.
The next moment Dorothy swept
across the room. A clinging white gown
loosely enveloped her figure. Her long
brown hair was streaming down her
back in distinctly wild way; her eyes
flashed, and 1 could plainly see the heav-
ing Of her bosom under the light stuff
that covered it. In her hands she crush
ed a letter-and 1 shrank still farther
back
She looked enthraJlingly beautiful. and
did not wonder that she stood so long
before her full-length mirror. Then her
lips began 10 twitch at the corners, her
brows arched in distress, her nostrils
quiveed, and a little catching of the
breath reached my ears. Ny love was
crying, She was also pressing that let
ter TO her lips
"Oh, Bob. Bob. why don't you come?
Why don't you Gomez" l heard in ac-
cents soft but despairing. Day after
day, week after week, have tricked my
heart into song and laughter by wills
pering Bob is coming! Bob is comingr
But you do not come, and I cannot trick
my heart any longer. VIII you never
come, Bob? Shall l forever lie down
with this prayer upon my lips? Shall
forever rise with this dull pain? Are you
with some other woman now, dear? At
ter all you have said, all you have writ
ten, l cannot believe il"
She ceased and wiped her eyes. After
little she took a photograph from the
dressing table and gazed at it with fond
intentness for fully minute. Then she
smiled
Bob, I'm a naughty girlr' she Groom
ed softly. II ought not to doubt you. 1
know you will come back. Don't look 50
solemn, love! Please don't! Smile a lit
tie for the poor girl-just a little. sweet,
so that she may know you are not an
cry. Won't? Then she'll kiss you, and
you can't help yourself"