The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-02-13

the lights and h music and the crowd
You think I will feel the allurement OF
this moon-bewitched night. You think
1t will be harder for me to say no. On,
I understand"
She drew a short, quick breath, too
brief for a sigh, too controlled for a
| gasp. Her voice was even frmer when
she spoke again: But / can steel my
! self against even this-yes, and against
you'll"
She let her glance fall for a brave
instant upon the u%pturned face of the
man at her feet, then averted her eyes
hastily.
"There, Eleanori You can't look at
me and say it-you can't! And why
should you say it? Why should you
steel yourself against me? what does
1t mean, anyway"
She sighed now and put out her
hands protestingly.
Haven't We III over that ground
often enough? Is it possible you don't
understand yet?"
expect me to believe you serious when
you say hat you o. me, but would
not marry me unless l possessed
wealth? For that is all I have been
able to gather from your arguments SO
far. 1t isn't as though 1 were abso-
lutely poor, dear. I can take care of
you. I youth and health and
strength and I can work. We would
live simply, dear, it is true. We would
have to dispense with many luxuries;
but, then, would we not have lover
What would we need of riches, dear,
you and 1, who find so much in each
other? 1t isn't like you to take this
stand-to place such exaggerated value
on the purple and fine linen Of this
world-you, who have such exquisite
appreciation of the higher things. Tell
me, Eleanor, just what you mean. You
puzzle, battle, torture mel"
The girl still kept her eyes from hin.
when she replied:
1T isn't because I value the tinsef
of earth SO much, but l prize
love more that l lay stress on the nee
essity for riches 1 deem love SO fine
and beautiful a thing n yet withal
SO elusive that l would never be will
ing to subject it to the cruel tests of
a prosaic existence. Love, to be kept
sweet and fresh and glowing, must De
lifted above the grind of every day.
1t is too fine for the coarser uses of
life. Because I know this
o., Eleanor, how can you! Why, 1t
is these very hardships, these strug-
giles, this contact with every day that
brings out the strength and purity of
love. 1t is the
Yes, I know she interrupted him i'm
patiently. That's what they all say-but
prove it, prove it to me! Haven't /
watched? Haven't / seen? Don't I know
that such theories are all fallacy? After
people are married-people who must work
to live, | mean-what happens to the fneF
aspirations, the higher cravings? They
vanish somehow, that is a certainty. The
lover, with his high thoughts and dreams.
becomes the humdrum, practical man of
business, too engrossed in the thought OF
wage-earning to care for the things that
once appealed to him. The wife in turn,
disillusioned, disappointed and longing in
4 vain fnr that pyhiiar a tin g. tn tarpha onr NJ
thought which was perfectly spontaneous
before marriage, buries herself in the
duties of her home, ~resigning herself to a
cold existence. The sweetheart Is lost in
the neutrality-suspicious. can it be otherwise
when the lover is lost in the business
machines"
But, Eleanor, is it the mans fault that
business should demand his best energies?
He must provide for the woman he has
made his wife. Because he has nc time
for dreams and sweet nothingS Is III
proof"
"Dreams!'' she broke in. Dreams and
sweet nothings! They were not dreams to
him before m~arriage-they were sub
stance-the food on which his finer facul-
ties fed! And he encouraged them in the
woman he loved-made her believe that
they were a very part of him"
Yes, Eleanor, and they are afterward,
too. He may not give expression to them
may not have time TO talk of thern-but,
they are still his. The stern conditions of
our modern existence bind a man down TO,
earthly things-leaVe no room for the de-
velopment of the poetry in him. But don't
blame the man-blame the conditions
Very well, then; call it tho fault OF
conditions. That does not better the mat
ter. /, for one, refuse to put myself
under the heel of conditions. That is.
why I refuse you. If we could take our
. love together to some Sky as the poet
puts it, 1 would say yes. But because
we must take it to a modern fat, where
We must encounter such dreadfuliy rsal-
istic things as rent and Grocer's biIls,
where it must resign itself to the consfd-
Grafton of three meals a day and how TO.
dress well on a limited incone-I say no."
You think money would make us In,
pier, Eleanor? Little girl, you u&r'E
know. you don't understand. Are tic Elefe
any happier, any better, because c. thGir
freedom from the daily grind? IL tasy
spend their golden leisure for the.dcVeIga-
ment of the higher acalties? Doc eve.
mean more to them iil2n-it does 10 :. So
who must work to live? All, Eleanor, @cut
surely know, as well as Il
ooh, 1 know only this-that som,=.uW
after marriage people do not love Il.
same. I could never. never bring my elf
to face the ~change-a.ld the change al
ways comes. ! have seen-I have watched
it. DO you think"-and she truned to him
with a sudden fierceness-''do you think
L Hould De content 10 see love PERISH ike:
that? No: A thousand times no.! Rather
than see love die 1 would cherish It for
ever unsatisfied. Oh, Willis, it is because
l do love you so that l say it. I du love
you-no-no-please- But he he'd
caught her hand in spite OF resistance.
You love me- he said, and in his voice,
vibrated the old triumph. He held her
fingers against mis- lips, kissing them soft
ly again and again.
"Please" she begged. Don't, Willisl'-
"you love me-" he repeated.
"Oh, it is cruel OF you" She turned ner
face from him, sobDisg quiatly. After
awhile he drew the tear-wet face close to
his own.
oh she said, quivering, IN RI
stronger than other women. after ali.
And l thought 1 could be so brave, SO I'M
yielding. I thought"
But love is stronger yeti he said gen
tly. 1T always Isl