The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-07-16
EoR HEB FRIENDS SAKE.
They had grown up together.

| They had grown up together.
| When they were tots they had wander
| ed, hand in hand. through the fields
| gathering wild flowers; when grown girls
| hand in hand they had gone to the
| village school, and later they had gone
10 college together.
The Lily was frail and delicate-a girl
/ OF thought and dreams.
The Rose was vigorous and sparkling
a girl Of activities. and yet each fitted
into each others life, their differences
I blending into an ideal unity.
The Rose led, her strong, assertive ma
| ture carried her gentle friend with its
very inpetuosity.
The Lily was daily sacrificed, but the
Rose never guessed it.
When the latter came II from the golf
links she found her gloves mended, her
| buttons sewed on, her frock laid out for
dinner, and q cuddle and kiss were thanks
enough for the Lily.
And now the college days were over.
Life grew serious.
To each had come lifes sweetest les
son-the lesson of loving; and with the
sweet came the bitter-they loved the
! same man.
The Rose knew the Lily loved him; the
flush on the fair cheek, the light in the
blue eyes when he came, told the story.
The Lily only wondered If the Rose
presence revealed nothing TO her friend.
Once the Lily asked her If Howard
Grand were not noble man-one a wo-
man might love. The Rose had tossed
her head and laughed as she said:
why. Lucy dear. what can you expect
me TO say for man who can't even play
golf?' and that had settled II.
But the man saw through her def
ance, or thought he did, and one night
when ne had the Rose TO himself he al
most asked her to be his wife, but a sud-
den something-he never knew just what,
and the words were not spoken.
That night the man sat many hours
before his fire, until the last ember turn
ed to ashes-wondeTing
The next day the Rose, with tight
ening about her lips, told the Lily she
was going TO marry an old suitor-a man
Of wealth and position.
The Lily had opened her guileless eyes
wide, as she said: But you do not love
him, do you?"
That afternoon when Howard Grand
saw the Rose driving with her sutton,
behind the high-bred horses-he wondered
more; and later. when the Lily told him
OF her friends engagement he said not q
word, but he looked deep into the eyes
OF the Lily. and that night, as never be-
fore, he noted the gentle dignity, the fair,
sweet beauty. and above all. the fair sin
cerity in the calm voice, was as a sooth-
ing melody to his hurt heart.
The Rose Stunned him, the Lily never
sought him, but she modestly welcomed
his seeking-and one day the words he
had almost spoken to the Rose were
spoken to the Lily, and in her he found
all he had at first believed 20 be IN the
Rose.
When the latter saw the Glfttering gem.
Upon her friends engagement finger. she
gathered her TO her heart, and the Lily
never guessed the pain and sacrifice in
that heart.
The Lily had looked inquiringly at her
friends hand, for there was no ring up
on it.
Il changed my mind-that is woman's
privilege, dear said the Rose, but the
offended-he still seems friendly. I
thought rejected mem
Killed themselves?" laughed the Rose,
and then, seriously, she added:
He has never asked me, dear. and he
never will"
"Whyg'
There is no why that I can answer,
Lucy, only a good woman should not al
low a man to propose to her when she
knows she would reject him-that is
ALL"
When the Lily told her husband this,
as she did some months later, as they sat
together in their own little home he Won
dered again, and that night, as one other
night, he sat many hours before the fire
until the last ember turned TO ashes.
Years afterwards the man knew.
When the spring and summer Of their
lives had passed, when the Lily was no
longer beside him, the words he had so
nearly spoken to the Rose in that long
ago were spoken; not as they would have
been spoken then, for the fervor of youth
was gone
He spoke to her now with the calm
assurance Of a man who had lived a long
and happy life with another; but to the
Rose his words were vibrant with loves
sweetest melody.
The starved heart was satisfied II
one has ever heard loves song in its in
tensity, its quieter refrain leaves moth
ing to desire; and to the Rose it was
enough that love had come at last
Boston Post.