The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1901-05-03
"HIS IRISH CHIVALRY."

ANOSeMdTy hIell upon tue uedFll rug,
gazing into the flames as some Trevor
shipper Of old. She was alone in the large
sitting room. Only the CHEEKY Goals re-
lieved the gloom, and she nestled to them
as closely as possible.
From time to time she fed the CRATE
from the pile of old letters on the rug be-
side her. Letters from friends, young
and old. men and women; letters of yes
terday and Of long ago-all were gradu-
ally finding their way to the flames. She
watched the sheets curl and shrivel and
char, then swirl up the wide chimney:
rustling a final useless protest. ~
It was the last day of the year and
this annual sacrifice, or desk cleaning had
become second custom with Rosemary.
She went about it in a matter Of fact
and determined way. keeping sentiment
in leash. She knew that all of them
Longford's letters she dallied. Somehow
she had kept them for the last, and as
she handled them gently her determine
ton threatened sudden departure. She
WINGED as she loosened the little cord
which bound them. II seemed so hard
towel, she might read them once again
before letting that horrid, greedy fire de-
YOUR them.
In the order of their receipt she read
them. The first few began My Dear
Miss Forbes" the next, Dear Rose
mary" Then was it because she re-
piled rather frigidly) the letters once
more swerved to Dear Rosemary, and
finally to Dear Miss Forbes" Which
was the history Of their brief correspond
ence.
His last letter was dated September
TO- and she had left it unanswered. As
she re-read it in the freight she remem-
bered that it had half-angered, half
amused her at the first reading. In it
he apologized for not answering sooner.
or rather, seeming not to have answered
sooner.
This was the excuse he gave: IL wrote
to you two months ago. Your eagerly
awaited reply did not come. l thought
it was your desire to end the correspond
ence, or that l had written something to
offend YOU. l thought a thousand things,
Thursday evening / found the letter in
far corner of my desk! Imagine my sur
prise! There it was, stamped and ad-
dressed ready to be mailed-I could have
sworn that l had mailed i'll was so
vexed, l tore the thing into hundred
strips. What must you think of me:
error: What have written is the hon
est truth
The last sentence particularly Jared
on her. She had not replied because she
imagined that he really did not care for
her letters after all. despite his ardent
protestation to the contrary.
The interesting letters that had been
exchanged at last became dull and per-
.functory. He has ceased caring for her.
this jaunty young 1rishman who had
made love to her a year since. She
smiled at the fickleness-it was an Irish
trait, she thought:
He had all the other traits, wit, senti-
ifr xr~h1v
fckleness? Thus she looked at it from a
tolerant point of view. but the apparent
insinua ton of that last epistle disturbed
her. He had thought her veritable
child-tO palm off such threadbare ex-
cuse as that, He Lad forgotten to mail
scornful. No doubt he would have some
thing even more incredible as an excuse
for his next tardy reply.
And so, she preferred not to write to
the debonair Hal Longford. Yet she
missed those friendly letters Of his. He
was rather clever and he wrote very
amusingly when he chose
These and other confused thoughts
made her face wistful as she carefully
folded the last sheet of white bond.
Gathering his letters, she held them ten
tatively to the flames; then. with a swift
movement, she drew them back and
clasped them to her breast. ?.
He had liked her so well that-surely,
surely he could not have forgotten her 50
soon! And countless incidents flashed
through her mind as she knelt there, star
ing steadily at the red flicker-incidents
in which his Irish wit and his Irish santi-s
ment had alternately won the day.
Z But that last letterah, that was his
Irish chivalry, pretending that he cared
those absurd excuses-pshaw, why need
Sh0 nAnn2 WhY Whv indnof7 -5!fs5c IT,