The professional world. (Columbia, Mo.) 1901-192?, 1902-09-12

him. 1t was characteristic of him that
he nev doubted her love for him. In
deed, she made no effort to conceal il,
though between them there had been
no declaration of it. AS he was strong
the temptation assailed him in dOubl,
iorce n he fought with it nightly.
Let it be set down to his credit that the
better part of him won. There was
good-much good-in Rowland, If only
he had been permitted to show it earli-
er in life.
On a soft and brilliantly moonlir
night, when the hemlocks cast black
shadows upon the water AMI the de-
monical laughter of a floating loon
came from far, he rested upon his oars
and spoke to her. His face was a deal
white and he gripped the oar handles
until his knuckles showed white also.
He said:
Il leave tomorrow; | should have
gone long ago Do you know that |
love your"
She answered soberly: 81 do
DO you love me?"
Again: Il do"
81 knew it: / felt It; I was afraid
of 1t. Yet the knowledge is sweet. Do
not think that | have staid on and on in
the desire to win you. | would have
gone if it had been possible to me, but
you held me. | cannot ask you 10 go
with me now; l cannot ask you to come
to me in future. There is a gulf between
us, wide, deep, impossible. VIA, my
life would have been with you to guide
and sustain it | cannot say; but | know
what it has been and is. 1t is damna-
BILE. If you belonged to me | should
smirch you, and | love you o well to
blacken you. | cannot ask you to come;
| do no believe hat you would come
II you knew the truth, and it would be
necessary to me to tell you the truth"
She had had her dreams within the
past month and now they were shat
tered, but she was brave and looked at
him straight as she replied:
Il accept your words at their face
value. You only know yourself, what
you have been; what you are: What
you will be. If there is contamination
in you do not ask me to come in touch
with it. because l should refuse and It
would go hard with me. | do not want
your secret. l know that you have not
spoken idly. Let me remember you as
you came into my life and dwelt there
for a little while. 1t will be a dear
memory"
q"
She raised one slender hand in the
moonlight and the words were stilled
on his lips. The boat grated at the
pier and she walked alone up the path
on the hillside that wound threadlike
among the pines. Once in an open space
she turned toward him. The silver
bars sifted through the branches and
fell upon her and she waved him a
good-by.
Winifred Bray, taking up her life
work where she let it fall and doing
her duty as she saw it, with an ever
~lessening p~oignancy of regret, coming
in time to think of her vanished sum-
mer as something dead. to be put away
into dust. did not read this paragraph
in the daily press and would not have
remembered it if she had:
"Sweetwater, Mimi, Nov. 10.-Burg-
lars last night blew open the vault of
the first National bank at Homewood.
20 miles east of here. This morning
the local police attempted to arrest two
strangers who reached here in a wagon.
A desperate fight followed in which one
of the men was slain; the other escaped
and a posse is in pursuit. The wagon
contained the cash and a kit of tools.
Letters in the dead mans pocket were
addressed to C. j. Howard He is be-
lieved to have been Black Cyrus
Howard, the notorious craftsman from
Boston,