The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-16


she cried, holding it out in the sunlight
moment to catch the flash of its green
diamond depth.
"I've another token for you. This, you
will not even show to your mother or
father" She bent low over a tiny pack
age he unfolded.
This is the first medal l won at col
lege," he continued-"the first victory of
my life. 1t was the force that deter
mined my character. 1t gave me an in
flexible will. l worked at a tremendous
disadvantage. Others were two years
ahead of me in study for the contest.
locked myself up in my room day and
night for ten months, and took just
enough food and sleep for strength to
work / worked seventeen hours day,
except Sundays, for ten months, without
an hour of play. l won it brilliantly.
Every line cut on it's gold surface stands
for a thousand aches of my body Every
little pearl set in it, grew in pain of
that struggle that set its seal on my in
most life. l came out of those ten
months a man. l have never known the
whims of boy since"
And you engraved something on the
back to mel"
Yes, can't you read it 2"
mo, my eyes are dim she whispered.
1T is this-In the band of manhood S
tenderest love l bring to thee my boy
hoods brightest dream. I was a man
when l woke, but 1 have never lived till
you taught me. Keep this as pledge OF
eternal love. It's the only little trinket
ever possessed. The world will see our
ring. Don't let them see this. 1t is the
seal of your sovereignty of my soul in
life in death and beyond. Will you make
me this eternal pledge?''
Unto the uttermost!" she murmured,
And now, what can l say or do for
you when you show me in this spirit of
prodigal sacrifice how dear l am in your
eyes?"
Those words from your lips are
enough" he declared.
I'm give you more. I'm going to give
you just little bit of myself. / haven't
asked mama, but we are engaged now
come closer"
She placed her beautiful arms around
his neck and pressed her lips upon his
in the first rapturous kiss of love.
Mono more. 1t is enough" she pro-
tested.
He was at home now waiting impa-
tiently for the generals answer to his
letter. Two weeks had passed and he
had not received it. But she had ex-
planned in her letters that her father had
returned the day he left, had a talk with
Mcleod. and left on important business.
They were expecting his return at any
moment.
1t was new revelation of life he
found in their first love letters. He
never knew that he could write before.
He sat for hours at his desk in his law
office and poured out to her his dreams.
hopes and ambitions All the poetry of
his youth, and the passion and beauty OF
life, he put into those letters.
He wrote to her every day and she
answered every other day. She wrote in
half fearful apology that her mother dis
approved of a daily letter, and she added
wistfully, Il should like to write to you
twice a day. Take the will for the
deed, and as you love me, be sure to con-
tinue yours daily"
He knew he could get no letter from
her on those alternate days, and yet he
haunted the postoffice in spite of this,
nervously lingering his box key, and
watching the shadow of the postmasters
hand behind the glass doors OF the boxes
And then he went away, praising her for
her devotion and obedience to her mother
and telling himself softly, "The girl who
is faithful to her home duties will make
wife faithful unto death. !"
At the end of two weeks. when the
general had not answered his letter, he
boo fo A
of fear grew on him. Something had
happened to darken his future. He felt
it by a subtle telepathy of sympathetic
thought. He was gloomy and depressed
all day after he had received and Toasted
on the sweetest and wittiest letter she
had ever written. What could it mean,
he asked himself a thousand times
some shadow had fallen across their
lives. He knew it as clearly as if the
revelation Of his misery were already
unfolded.
He went to the postoffice on the next
day he was to receive letter. crushed
with a sense of foreboding. He waited
till the mail was all distributed and the
general delivery window flung open be-
fore he approached his box. He was
afraid to look at her letter. He slowly
opened the box.
There was no letter in it,
Sam, you're not holding out my letter
to tease me, old boy?" he asked patheti-
cally.
Sam was about to joke him about the
uncertainties of love, when his eye rested
on his drawn face.
Lord, no, Charlie" he protested. "You
know l wouldn't treat you like that
"Then look again, you may have
dropped it.
Sam turned and looked carefully over
the floor, over and under his desks anG
| tables and returned.
mo, but it may have been thrown into
the wrong bag by that fool mail clerk or
the train. You may get it tomorrow.
He turned away and walked to his of
fee. forgetting his key in the open box
The vague sense of calamity thai
weighed on his heart for the past two
days now became reality.
He sat in his office all the Afternoon
in dull stupor of suspense. He tried tt
read her last letter over. But the pages
would get blurred and fade out of sight
and he would wake to find he had beer
staring at some sentence for an hour
So he kissed the letter and put it bacl
in his pocket.