Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-02-07

her close in his arms, while he muir
INJURED those love-worn words of
which the ars of women have been
when the first two souls discovered
themselves in flesh.
But 1 can't understand it, Leon
ard Aunt Belle says she's so clever"
She waited o him to speak.
"Yes."
sand awfully good-hearted."
Eyes"
But she isn't what you'd call q
beautiful woman?'
no"
And children just adore her. I
think that's SO strange, because, you
know, they always say children judge
character correctly by instinct"
Eyes"
But she's not good, Leonard"
NO"
And she didn't care a snap for her
poor little baby"
"No?"
"She's a cruel woman"
"UndcubtedIy."
Then how can she be k~ind-hearted,
too?'
II don't know"
"Oh, what an uncommunicative
boy." the girl exclaimed, p~etulantly.
You're as prickIy as a burr tonight.
L can't get anywhere near you"
My dear" he said, deliberately
widening his arms, "if this is what
you want"
But she beat him into silence with
a sofa cushion. Then she studied
him with an elusive frankness which
might have charmed him had he only
eyes to note it.
Leonard" she asked suddenly, do
you like Mrs Charters?"
Far away in the big house a cuckoo
clock struck II in cadences which
rose and fell in mournful unison with
the wailing wind.
DIR. Mansfield rose abruptly.
Dora, you will lose your beauty
sleep 1 must go, dear"
But, she stood in front of him, her
little hands clutching the edges OF his
coat.
do you, Leonardo she repeated.
His clear blue eyes looked steadily
into the soft, appealing brown of hers
as he answered calmly: Il? Like
her?7
He paused a moment, considering.
"Why, Puss, I think 1 hate her." he
said, deliberately
A sob broke from the girl
~Why, darling, what is it?" he asked
in the tenderest alarm.
GnI l@- ~ $1,000 T.
tired, and you've BENCH, such q
funny, funny boy tonight"
'Dora, I'm going to lose a patient"
said, gravely. Every physician
hates that, and I've fought for this
woman's life"
Eyes, 1 know. I'm sorry. I was
naughty" she said, smiling winsome-
ly at him through her tears.
1t seemed as if she could hardly
let him go. He kissed her good-by so
many times that at last he said, with
the merest shade of Impotence in his
voice: "Oh, my dear, L ought really
to begin to say good-by to you as soon
as I arrive"
She let him go then, and as the big
carved door swung stealthily to upon
it's noiseless sockets behind him, she
few to the tower window in the IL
and watched his lessening fig
ure until she could no longer separate
it from the swaying shadows, and the
last faint echo of his footsteps died
upon the encroaching distance.
Then alone in the lofty silence of
= room lined with the lettered passion
Of all the worlds great loves and
hates, the girl exclaimed in a bitter
whisper: "Oh, I'm so glad she's dy-
I'm so glad She dying"
And then to her white conscience
the words came kissing back from the
shrouded darkness beyond her, and
with a vague, ~unreasoning teal she
fed away from them. She vanished
up the wide staircase, a fair
and spotless maiden, pausing before
she slept to kiss her lovers pictured
Ups a hundred times, and falling 1T
asst asleep only to murmur his name
Is she followed him in her dreams to
he very abyss of eternity.
She did not see him again for sew
raj days, so that when she was finally
summoned one evening to receive him,
was a piquant frost upon her
charm as she entered the
room and huttered close to
i'm like a timid bird But he drew
way from her.
Leonardo
The smothered reproaeh in her
dice stirred him.
Don't, Dora" he said, huskily. ST
ave come to tell you something. If
-ou look at me like that I can't. And
must. I have tried for days to per-
uade myself that I needn't tell you
His accent was so significant that
he girls eyes flashed into flame. But
or one instant she wavered, then she
aced him. Her father had not died a
ero, the victim of a cruel Indian
and far out on a lonely western
lain, without bequeathing his high
pirit to the daughter who came after
i'm.
"Oh, I understand it all" Her long
trangled intuitions had sprung full
edged into birth, as only a woman's
IN. you have come to tell me that
cared more for Mrs. Charters
han you do for me-"
He stared at her in bewilderment.
"And you mean that you don't
are?" he said at last.
For an instant she looked at him,
18th eyes which might have stung
is soul, theE. she said coldly: "Is
~. IN --