St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-01-26
!: he Wedding Day ]
By Ada May Krecker. D
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Copyright, 1900. the authors Syndicate)

THE stiffness which the young man
felt, of the city hushed on the
verge of daybreak, was stimulating
Tie needed this quiet to. hear his own
thoughts and to 60 over with himself
what had been happening. Why was
he here in the park? What of the po-
liceman? These pictures with which
his mind was painted in mad, aching
confusion of the black yet glittering
night, the faces and lights, the dollars,
the throbbing music, and the whirr
and heat and suffering? What lay be-
hind it all? The bank-the money
oh, his letter! Now he had it. Every
thing was clear. All! how he hated
her, God, he hated her, hated her!
His last letter had come back un-
opened Huh! she would not look at
it. she spurned him, spat upon him
And the letter before that she did not
notice, nor the preceding one, nor the
aofher-none after the great letter. To
that, indeed, her reply had come; her
telegram, short enough and contempt
ible enough for him never to forget.
Its one word mo" in the middle, his
address above and her name-despica-
Bile name-below, all on the yellow
blank. seemed to lie now in his mind
just as it had been received, save that
he knew it had gone to bits as soon as
read. He almost wished he had kept
it; he would gloat over it, feast on it.
All a woman's pride, all a womans
prudery. all woman's snobbishness,
all woman's friyolity, Ettleness, sell
fishness, meanness, superficiality; all
a woman's utter worthlessness lay in
that telegram. 4 bug, toothpick, a
filthy rag were more worth ones while.
Faugh! He had found out. Not every
man learned the lesson. They went on
fooling. But he knew what it was,
what it came to, after all the ecstasy.
Tie delirious sweetness, the living in
the soul of another. the dreamed-of
eiory of which present joy seemed but
the chrysalis. All! how he had cher
ished her! and striven for her.
Yes, striven indeed. He could re-
call, in way. feel again the first
great stimulus surging through him
of enlarged enterprise for her sake.
The little town would no longer do
for him, he had resolved. as soon as
his desires for her dared be con-
firmed.
That was the evening when she left
town, and he had been scandalously
lavish on roses: but had arrived with
them at the railway station too late.
Feeling that she must receive his Of
fering and from his hand. he boarded
the next train, while his pulse tripped
high. rode two hours. then bore them,
dauntles though trembling, to the sur
prised recipient.
"Just to bring the roses all this
way?" she queried. ''How foolish you
were!"
"Never.' he resisted. heroically.
.Rut I would have been to do any
thing else
They had met on the veranda, for
If was summer night, and there they
sat down. he pouring out his passion,
she auiescently giving ear. When they
narted he called her by name.
All. but that was sweet. Her name
seemed like beautiful gem which
he could carry with him. All the way
hack in the cars he fonGled it.
Plans matured quickly; to establish
himself in the city and to lay by
few hundred for a nest egg, few
hundred for the home. Home! home!
sweetheart. wife. Those dearest words
rang chime in his ears and flied his
mind with delectable imaginations.
From his city quarters many-sheeted
messages few every night. mingling
with their poetry of vow and prayer
detailed material fancies on which his
artist pen dwelt pleasurably-
schemes of color, drapery and aesthet-
ic furnishings daintily picked to meet
the coy requirements of the fiat he
promised himself they would take
Each room was ruled by its genius,
every niche had its own piece. moth
ing was too insignificant to conslders
for there existed no srifles to this
Worship struggling to fashion meet
shrine for its idol.
Often, just to render his ideas clear
er and prettier for her. he had used
his brush in water-aoior sketches, la
beling them. facetiousls. illustrated
Supplements to his letters. although
every stroke carried - little burden
OF devotion. Attached to the dining
room Supplement" hung an airily-