The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-07-23
The Laurens Advertiser
$I,oo per Year in Advance.
1.-The Woman
In Yellow.

down,"-so he went on" and he saw
what q fool he had been, and how
deeply he had wronged her, he went
back to her and pleaded for forgiveness
with all the strength of love, and all
the agony of o But she," he
continued, bitterly, do you think she
could take him back and forgive him
freely, as he had thought she would?
No. She spoke loftily of her woman
hood and her outraged feelings and all
the other phantoms of the BRAIN which
you women affect to prize so highly,
yet sacrifice so lightly. And then she
told him coldly that all was over be-
tween them forever, forbade him ever
to see her again-put him out of hex
life, and left HIM to fight it all by him
self, when and where he would. And
vet she had said she loved HIM. A fine
love indeed, which will condemn its
object to lifelong misery for a mere
nothing. Only a woman could love
that wayl"
His listener moved lmpatiently and
opening her fan began TO WELD it vig-
orously.
"It is warm here" he said. "Shall
we go?"
NV ohoWOtSo, So oh ~
your story. lit interests me-"
You pity the man?" he asked al
most pleadingly.
"I pity the woman she responded.
But go on"
put off what she called her love as she
would a discarded garment, and her
life was none the sadder for it. But
he-the mani Twenty years have i
been with him, night and day, and not
for q moment of that lifetime has he
been able to blot her image from his
heart, and il will dwell there to his
dying day. When he first left her
house he thought his love was dead,
80 cruelty had she wounded it. But il
was not. Lashed by it as by a whip,
he shut out from his life everything
that could remind him of her-yea
changed his very name in a blind
yearnlng to forget. But go where he
would, do what he could, his love
stayed with HIM, killing his happiness
blighting his life. Had he not loved
her so, he would have cursed her fol
so wantonly turning all the sweetness
of his life to gall"
There was a note of fierceuess in his
voice as he spoke the last words; Their
his lips formed themselves into the
bitter, cynical smile, which hat
come to be habitual with him and hi
added:
"You see, he was a man, and she
why, she was a woman, and that
epitomizes the whole story"
For a moment there was a pause
hen his companion turned to HIM i'm
pulsively.
els hat all2'' she asked.
"All2" he answered.. "Is it no
enough? A few minutes IN the telling
a lifetime in the living"
And now," she said, tina
you have pleaded the mans cause 81
we'll, and have branded the woman a,
heartless, and cruel, and tickle, ant
unloving-ln short, as a woman, will
you let me say a word in her Defense
Will you let me draw you a picture o
what her life may have been, her life
of which you speak, with such assur
ance, but of which you can know
absolutely nothing2"
He nodded his head in token of as
sent. She continued almost passion
ately, her eyes flashing with a danger
GUS light.
"Oh," she said, show lightly 20,
men talk of woman's love. Will
what arr )gance you extol the depth o.
your own passion, holding hers al
naught In comparison. Listen. Per
haps that woman trusted the man sh,
loved with a trust beyond all saying
Perhaps he was to her the embodiment
of everything noble, and beautiful, ant
great in man, and Sc, because sh,
thought him that, she gave him freely
totally, all that she had to give-her
self. Oh, you can not imagine, you
a mere man, the struggle that takes
place in a woman's heart before sh,
takes the step by which she voluntarily
cuts herself ad1ift from all that she hai
been wont to cling to before as he
dearest rights, asking no compensation
for her sacrifice but the love and faltl
of HIM for whom she has made it
With man, love is but an added bless
ing. Take it away, and you leave hin
a little sadder, perhaps, a little less
gay, but in all other respects the
same"
"No, no." he interrupted, "you
don't know what you say. You-but
pardon me; you are speaking of the
.woman-go on"
yes, the womanl Mar may love
in the abstract, woman must have q
living, tangible object. Think, then
before you judge 80 harshly, how this
woman may have looked upon the man
of your story; think of the struggle
that may have gone on in her heart
before h gave herself to him, of the
doubts of him, and fears of him against
which her love battled, first strongly,
then ever weaker and weaker, till ii
finally yielded. Think of the trust
which she gave hum with herself, and
then of the agony which must have
been hers when she found that that
trust had been misplaced, when che
saw the mantle of greatness and good.
ness with which her love had clothed
him torn ruthlessly away, revealing TO
her his real nature in all its smallness
of distrust, in all its hypocrisy and
deceit. Think of all this, and then
judge her If you darel And oh, the
misery of the next few hours, her
heart still yearning for the idol it has
lost; the bitterness of the last meeting,
her love still struggling with a firm re-
solve. And them" she continued slow