Waterbury Democrat., 1901-03-18

knee3ing by her side. "f6rK1ve me!-- he cried. Have I not told you I hold you blameless?" Suddenly he felt her arms about his neck, drawing his face to hers. Her hair enveloped and almost smothered him in sudden storm. Holding him thus, she broke into such an agony of grief and tears as to render him speeches. and help less. She held him in such frantic embrace that each effort he made to free himself was defeated. When her strength was exhausted she sank back among the pillows, breathless. He bent above her unnerved.
 "How lonely, how barren must have | been your life, that a little kindness -another's sorrows-should touch you so deeply!"
 "Lonely! Speak of the persecution, the brutality, the infamy-!"
 | *'Hush," he whispered. "No more to me. Come, you must sleep" Rising abruptly, he left her side. When it was that she fell asleep he could not discover, but presently he seemed to hear her deep, regular breathing, and was thankful. And so the moments passed. The girl started up once or twice and spoke his name; but always at sound of his calm, reassuring voice sank back again upon her pillow. From time to time he went and stood above f her-a spell upon him new and i strange, a spell that filled him with uneasiness and vague alarm. He was no longer lonely. In some mysterious way a burden seemed to be slipping away from him. aAd in it's place came a sense of co1npanionship sweet and comforting. Most men discount mar ! ried life in their dreams, and few ever realize the fullness of those dreams; but with him it had been different. This strange experience preceded the dreams. Without a days warning he had been plunged into the privacy of young and modest woman's life, had | become the guardian of her honor and i in .. measure of her future; and in a mysterious way the divine sweetness of her soul had issued forth and en- i veloped him. In the chiaroscuro of the still room he could just determine the outlines of her bed and upon it's whiteness the outlines of her slender figure. He was glad that she slept; in that quiet falling asleep was for him the finest tribute ever paid to his manhood. A glad, quick pulse leaped from bis heart as he realized this truth, and the words Of the girls mother, so artlessly repeated, came back to him.
 Then in the desert of his life a stranger came before his tent and r,~1- ,I IT. l. T Is Why should not this scene be fixed and real and lasting? Would it be possible? Would the girl some day accept it as such, yielding still the trust and tenderness she had brought to the counterfeit? Was she trusting Brodnar? Or was she trusting him The trust was in him. He felt it in. stinctively: and her little white hand seemed to steal forth to his again her arms to enfold him. What a child she was! And yet-and yet An irresistible impulse seized him to be near her, to touch her hand, her hair, and to pass within the electric radius of her presence again, if but for a moment. He was her guardian wh hether she slept or awoke.
 A strange curiosity to be near a sleeping girl, to enter further into her life and absorb the sweetness ot it's innocence, possessed him. She would not know, she would never know, perhaps; and why should he not snatch from fate this one brief moment of happiness? A doubt as. sailed him and brought hesitation but with an impatient gesture he threw aside the hesitation. He would not let even himself doubt himself.
 And so he came and stood above the sleeper, and presently, entranced, he lneeled and saw her lying there vague, dim and unrecognizable, but 8 girl asleep. Her face was towards him upon the pillow ard one hand lay upon the edge of her bed. So quietly did she sleep she seemed not tc breathe. He watched her until 8 tremor shook him from head to foot and a never before experienced con fusion seized upon his mind. Instinct lively he leaned above her hand anC touched it with his lips-lightly, rev erentzy. She sighed and spoke hi. name, and, overwhelmed with sudder dismay, he would have withdrawn, but she seized his arms and cried out:
 Light! 1ight!" And then, broken ly: "Oh, sir, for the first time-I an T am-frightened!" He sank his face beside her. overwhelmed with shame.
 Ut is half-past three," he said, brok enly; II must soon say farewell xs you"
 "Oh, sir, will you not light the gasp : Seeing that she still trembled, h. arose and went to his chair.
 "No," he said, calmly. "But sleeI on. l shall not disturb you again. And then presently she came, and kneeling in sudden abandon befor' him, placed her hands upon his shoul ders, her face close into his. L-