Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-11-09

vaguely Tor SneIber1ng walls and sun
shine" she turned abruptly toward
the painting.
Stanford moved a step nearer and
stared hard at the canvas. The
problem was solved for him. He re-
membered now to have heard how at
her fathers death she had taken
charge of the nearly bankrupt house,
by an absolute devotion of time and
energy saved the name from dishonor.
More than that. She had made it one
of the most prosperous concerns in
the city.
Stanford's heart-beats quickened.
True, there was small suggestion of
garden-fower beauty in the strong
marked face, but in Imagination he
saw it suffused with shy flush of
gladness, the firm lips broken into
lines of quivering tenderness, the
steadiness of the eyes lost in-Stanford
checked his hayward fancy with
sharp reproOf. He was in public gal
lery with publisho-' who had just re-
jected the best piece of work he had
ever done.
''Do you ever read Stanton's
poems ?'' he asked, in a tone that held
a hint of twilight in its tenderness.
''All of them," she returned, with
out lifting her eyes.
''They are wistful things
YES" she interrupted, but it is
the wistfulness of strength, not
What an absurd subject for a physi-
ologist and publisher to be wasting
time over! That misty bit of moon
light must have gone to our heads.''
sit is exquisitely true to nature
he returned, setting aside her change
of manner.
SIS it? Well, my holiday is over.
T."
Don't say good-by," he interrupt
ed, quietly. 81 am going home with
you"
''It will not be worth while. If it
had been possible to handle the book
would have accepted it at once.
We
ST don't want to discuss the book"
he interrupted, impatiently.
She looked at him, frankly puzzled.
''Well," she said, 'as you like" and
then led the way toward the en-
trance.
Stanford followed with sturdy de-
termination. Was she at heart gar
den flower or bantam? He was re-
solved to know. And if-if-? His
thought broke there and he fell to
studying the passers by with quiet
intentness.
The head of the concern had not
forgotten his presence, but that
serene moon above the darkened
trees came between her and all prac-
teal thoughts. She attempted to
reason upon the cause of his pres
ence, to remain alert. But in a mo-
ment her thoughts slipped from her
| control and ran back to those dim
pines massed against the eastern
sky. Could it be possible that it was
only ten years ago? At Is she had
been a poet of limitless ideals; at
% she was a hard working woman,
given to testing by the sordid STAN
dard of dollars and cents.
Stanford took her arm to guide her
over a crossing and she smiled invol-
UNFAIRLY.
''What is it?'' he asked.
Nothing" she returned
81 did not know you were the wom-
an to smile at nothing, and," he con-
| IlnuCOs DIS OASN IOdC1lCo CAO oCO1s
don't believe you are" He rang the
bell and faced her on the steps.
'What were you smiling at?'
'Why, only at the thought of my
being guided over a crossing"
Stanford followed her into the Ii
brary before he spoke again.
''Youmean," he said, earnestly, you
have been a bantam so long that you
! have quite forgotten the garden flow
er's love of sunshine and sheIter?"
| He placed his hand on the back of
| the chair and hesitated a moment be-
fore dragging it near hers.
do you think that you can per-
suade me that you are a bantam
quite to the heart-that all your
womanly tenderness has been lost
beneath determination to bring the
house through"
''Why, yes"
"You think that you can quite con-
vince me of all that-and yourself?"
.'Why, yes. I assure you I feel
quite strong and woody" but she did
not meet his eyes. The memory of
| that moonlight was troubling her,
that, and other things.
"You quite believe that? Then you
will not mind reading this for me-"
and. he laid Stanton's Even Song on
her knee.
She took it up at once:
Dear heart, life is not long,
The shadows deepen and the waning
| light
Drifts 10 the music of the even song
And then-Good night.
Dear heart, though love may live
| In loftier realms through Gods eternal
| years,
IT'S here we heed the joys that it may give.
| Its tenderness, its tears.
! And yet such barriers rise
To keep the outstretched, sundered hanCs
| apart,
What is fulf1lment in the far, faint skies
! When earth is dumb, dear heart"
StanforC's hands closed over hers.
Tell me- he whispered, els the
garden flower quite dead?"
The hands in his quivered and he
stopped to kiss them passionately.