The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-09-11

have tried often to make some w0meI
soar with me to loftier realms OF
thought, but have never found one
to sympathize with my poetic or ar
tistic moods"
Here a soft little sigh, like a zephyr
touching the maple leaves, stole across
the room, and then the imperious tones
resumed:
81 know women. I've seen good
deal of life. Didn't l live more than a
year in New York 2"
The perspiration stood out in beads
on DoveIy's forehead as he stared In
the direction of the voices and clutched
the arms of the chair in which he sat
1t seemed like a nightmare. The echo
was getting clearer and clearer. He
hated the dreadful sounds, but felt that
he must suffer the ordeal to the end
And memory told him that the end was
yet long way off and the path there
to full of thorns Of humiliation and
shame for him. He began to feel like
a disembodied spirit that stands beside
its erstwhile prison and contemplates
with horror the ravages that debauch-
cry has wrought on it's once beautiful
form. But through the nightmare he
was sustained by the sweet reflection
that he was not irreclaimable and that
this scourging was at worst only a Sc
we're lesson from which he would
emerge better man.
The imperious tones of the man and
the conciliatory, even pleading, tones
of the woman went on. With deep
humiliation he followed the mysterious
dialogue to the browning point Of his
own shame. He could hear the soft,
solicitous tones of the woman leading
the man on to make fool of himself.
And he heard the man following with
braggadocio and bombast right up to
the very pitfall that had been prepared
for him. The grandiloquent and pre-
posterous phrases in which a proposal
was next couched struck him as being
SO comically conventional that he
would have laughed aloud had not the
humiliating reflection of his own con-
duct covered him instead with shame.
ACA hC ACel1 u q 6NCCb fOASC doh4A5
him to think it over and then come
back In a week, if he were still of the
same mind. Even then he did not
realize the truth. He wondered If he
were not asleep and this an awful
dream. The volume that he had been
holding fell from his knee and startled
him. He put his hand to his forehead
and brushed the beads of perspiration
away and said: "Thank God, it was a
dream"
At that moment Mary entered the
room and smilingly apologized for
keeping him waiting. She drew has
sock over to him, and, seating herself,
upon it and looking up in his eyes,
said: 'I'm awfully sorry l kept you
waiting, Arthur; know you must have
been so lonely. But there"-she stop
ped suddenly and knitted her brows-
Il really believe you have been asleep
and dreaming. You look it, quite"
The poor young man took her hand
in both his own and looked fixedly at
her. 81 don't know whether I've been
4
been dreaming horrid dream"
and he passed his hand quickly over
his eyes as if to wipe away the last
traces of nightmare. Then he took
her hand again. MARY" he said slow
ly, ''you told me to come back tonight
if 1 were still of the same mind as
when l was here last 1 have come to
tell you that I am not of the same
mind"
Mary looked surprised and would
have spoken, but Dovely broke in
quickly: 1T is not that don't love you
as much as ever-aye, a great deal
more than ever before-but feel that
l have been fool; that Pm not worthy
of you, and that it was presumption
for me to ask you to mary me. l be-
lieve that l can be more modest and
sensible man, and that | want you to
give me the opportunity to prove it
before giving me your answer"
Mary's answer was worthy Of her
brain and her heart:
arthur" she said, ''what you have
said proves that you are all right, and
I'll take you on faith" Next morning
the photograph was sent back to town,
1t having succeeded in eliminating for
ever the capital "I'' from the personal
ity of Cecil Arthur Dovely, and the fun
of it was that Cecil thought he did it
himself Chicago Times Herald.