Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1900-09-06

some others, and another fellow, who
perhaps has thrown aside and bruised
the heart that you pick up, comes along
and picks up the very heart that you
have thrown aside"
4 soft laugh of tolerant condescen-
sion followed this speech.
"Oh, that's the old story with wom-
en-" replied the man, you are all
wrong; you don't understand man.
Your feminine minds can't grasp the
depth and breadth Of his nature. l
have tried often to make some women
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 n zephyr
touching the maple leaves, stole across
the room, and then the imperious tones
resumed:
Il know women. I've seen a good
deal of life. Didn't live more than
year in New York;"
The perspiration stood out in beads
on Dovely's forehead as he stared in
the direction of the voices and clutched
the arms of the chair in which he sat.
II 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 n 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 crstwhile prison and contemplates
with horror the ravages that debaUch
cry has wrought on its 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 i Sc
we're lesson from which lie would
emerge better man.
The imperiOus tones OF the man and
the conciliat0ry. even pleading. tones
OF the woman went on. With deep
humiliation he followed the mysterious
dialogue TO the crowning point of his
own shame. He could hear the soft.
SolicitouS tones of the woman leading
the man on to make Il 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 n proposal
was next couched struck him as being
so comically conventional that he
would have laughed aloud had not the
duct covered him instead with shame.
Then he heard a sweet voice asking
him to think 1t 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: "Im awfully sorry l kept you
waiting, Arthur; know you must have
been so lonely. But there"-she stop
ped suddenly and knitted her brows-
81 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. II don't know whether I've been
asleep or not, but l certainly must have
been dreaming-such a horrid dream"
and he passed his hand quickly over
his eyes as if to wipe away the last
traces of a nightmare. Then he took
her hand again. Mary" he said slow
ly, you told me to come back tonight
if | were still of the same mind as
when 1 was here last l 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: ''It is not that don't love you
as much as ever-aye, great deal
more than ever before-but | feel that
| have been n focl; that Pm not worthy
Of you, and that it was a presumption
for me to ask you to mary me. | be-
lieve that can be more modest and
sensible man, and that l 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 phonograph was sent back to town,
it having succeeded in eliminating for
ever the capital app from the personal
ity Of Cecil Arthur Dovely, and the fun
Of it was that Cecil thought he did 1t
himself Chicago Times-H Herald.