The weekly examiner., 1901-08-24
! startled. Her lip trem-

ther in the determine tion that drove him to his purpose with an iron energy that possessed his whole positive na- ture.
 "I have been loving you almost from the first moment I saw you. You must have known it from my manner. I am a poor actor. I have not been able to conceal much, even if I had wished to-. But my life has been transformed by all this. have reached the place where 1 can no longer bc silent. I know that love you as man should love the wo- man whom he asks with all the rever- ence and joy possible to him to be his wife,
 He had spoken, and it was not what he had once thought he might have said. But he was not prepared for the effect of his declaration upon Rhena.
 She was dressed as usual in her Sal vation Army costume. The face in the army bonnet of blue, with it's plain rib bons, was typical of the army faces seen everywhere. And yet while Stu art was speaking and all through the rest of the interview between them he thought, with q certain bewilderment that it was no longer the Salvation Ar my girl who stood facing him, but the society woman, Miss Rhena Dwight, daughter of Allen Dwight, the million aire of New York. And yet she was in still another way removed from him by the very circumstances of her army connections. Rhena was very pale as she spoke.
 "NIr. Duncan" she said Gs she leaned back with one hand on the stump as if for support, "can you speak to me-tell me-this-after what saw last night after"-
 "Whatr' cried Stuart, the color rush. ing to his face. Do you mean your seeing me with Miss Vasplaine? We have been old friends. We were boy and girl together. I was simply going home with her from social gathering at my house. She is nothing to me but an acquaintance"
 'I have been told that you were en- gaged,' said Rhena after slight pause.
 "Who told you that" cried Stuart i1npulsively. He stepped near Rhena.
 Your sisterr' Rhena spoke calmly, looking straight at Stuart, but she was still very pale.
 Louise? She deceived you. It is not true. I never had thought of Miss Vasplaine except that of friend, an old acquaintance. Do you believe me when say sop Stuart spoke straight on and waited her answer steadily.
 ''Yes; believe you," said Rhena quietly.
 linen you believe me when say I love you? You"-
 "Yes; believe-I think you are true man. but what you ask is impossi- ble."
 Stuart controlled himself. He felt that whatever the crisis might be which now faced him he must be mas ter of himself. It began to grow upon him that perhaps he had not yet won the Uve>Uf this rarely strong and beau tiful woman, as it should be his.
 ''Why impossible?" he asked, with gentleness and calmness that surpris- ed himself.
 ''We live in separate worlds" re- piled Rhena, with an answering calm ness that was possibly as surprising to her. "I have cut myself purposely and for always from the life 1 once lived. I have no wish to re-enter it. 1 have chosen my life work. It is work so different from that of society and the world of which you are q part that to go back to your world would be to turn traitor to all my deepest and best con- victions. It is impossible that should be again as once was"
 Stuart did not reply at once. He looked off over the valley beyond the town to his own house as it stood there on the slope of the hill, palatial in its form and size.
 "But I am not really in that world any more. The cause of humanity is my cause now. Do you condemn me to separation from you because I am what I am outwardly? l loathe the forms and selfishness and heartless- ness of society as deeply as you do. l would give anything to be other than I am at this moment. Ii 1t is simply that which keeps you from
 He could not finish. It was signifi- cant to her that he had not ventured to ask her if she loved him. Neither had he yet spoken her first name. He was q man of rare purpose and power in the emergency that he now faced. He would not expect what was per haps not yet in her power to give. She was moved deeply. When she spoke again, Stuart had at first gleam of hope.
 "I believe you see the cause of hu- nranity as see 1t, MT. Duncan. I have believed it since that night in the hall when you told me the story of your conversion. It was so like my own ex- perience that I was startled by it. l went home from a gay party few years ago. I was awakened by voice. | I saw and heard the divine messenger. I went out from my fathers house the next day an outcast from kin and friends, and have never regretted it. But the gulf between you and me is a deeD one, even with this common eX- l