The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1903-06-17
BY L. PARRY TRUscOTT.

of consulting him. OF curse, he would
want to go home. What Englishman
Of them all, chained by circumstance
to the land of threatening liver and
ever-prcsent mosquitoes, would miss
the chance of q breakdown to take
him back to England?
So 1t was that he awoke from the
lethargy of extreme weakness 10 find
the salt sea breezes blowing health
back to him, whether he would or no;
found the strong. hearty winds urging
him to the pursuit of new ideas with
life renewed found the restless waves
hurrying him to the land he had so
long wearied to see. Waves and winds
cared nothing for his change of mind.
he seemed 10 hear them laughing
boisterously together over the frail
fancles he held so sacred. "There are
as good fish in the sea ps ever came
out of It," they seemed to say. (Waves
and winds are proverbially clustering
and coarse of witt "Why, she may be
fat; shc-must be nearly forty, to Judge
by you! In England. the land of
healthy, pretty women. man may
soon find healing for love-sickness. Man
alive! What Is one woman among
many, when all are fair? Choose n
maiden fresh and youthful, and in her
smiles forget pale myth of an out
lived age. You have managed without
her all these years. and not done so
badly-come now, own up! How much
pleasure has there been mingled in
your pretty pretence of sorrow? Even
now you might he in far worse case.
Why, you might he bound, irretrlevably
bound, to woman worn and aged.
and changed in thousand ways from
the girl you remember-a woman you
would not know If you passed her in
the street! And, instead. you are free
ms air-as free as We are-to make a
fresh choice; TO make love anew to
you could teach it were you raw and
ignorant yourself you alone knoww
But he put his lean, brown hands
over his ears; he would not listen to the
voices of winds and waves. He
clutched with all the desperation of
drowning man at his frayed belief in
his own perfect faithfulness. He &C.
fed the pagan creed of the untamed
seas. He passionately vowed. for the
sake of his cherished middle-aged self
respect, to marry no young girl
ACT III.
And he kept the letter OF his vow.
He certainly married, and only a few
months after his return; but the wife
he chose was nearly of an age with
himself-a widow, frail and delicate,
and family reminiscent of q byegone
prettiness. The first time he saw her,
before they were introduced. she re-
minded him of his old love. He could
not have said how or where. but It
proved an attraction strong enough to
chain him to her side, to bring him
quickly TO her feet-he WHO had never
done anything before without the ut
most deliberation and thought. And
she was not by any means generally
fascinating, only one of those gentle.
colorless women who fail to interest
even their friends, but who generally
succeed in obtaining and holding fast
the warmest attachment of a certain
class of quiet, shy men.
Her past was peopled by her former
husband and her ailing children, now
all lost TO her, but she did not find
much to tell him about them. She spoke
to him more about an early attachment
that had proved unfortunate. She
shook 1t out of the rose leaves and
lavender Of memory in which she had
long laid il for his inspection-a
crumpled, faded relic of her glrlhood.
I'VE were both very young. His name
was Brown, too," she said, with her
uncertain smile.
He remembered afterwards that she
seemed to look at him rather curious
~, as though expecting q question he
did not put; rs though she was sur
prised but not ill-pleased that he should
let the subject drop. At the time he
was only afraid OF distressing her with
continuing it. He believed she had
made a special effort on his behalf, and
he was unwilling that she should take
trouble to please him when he was so
well Pleased without. He had been
quick to notice that, cs a rule, beyond
her little ailments and the most trivial
passing events. few things stirred her
to conversation.
Yet he fell honestly in love with
her; fought and conquered for her sake
his ingraired reluctance to set any
woman in the place of the woman who
had failed him. This was the sort of
woman she might have grown into, he
said, in self-defense. An occasional
trick Of speech or gesture In his new
idol would remind him quite startingly
Of his old idol; but he decided that
women were more alike, after all, than
he had thought them. Although he
half-despised himself for unfaithful-
ness. he half-excused himsel. because,
at least, he was faithful to a type. The
love Of his youth seemed very near to
him as he gave himsA6 unreseryedly