The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1903-02-07
A Boys vow

noVus NA@M~ ~'e skI~
herr
"Never; on my honor"
"ohr"
NY dear Mrs. Kingston. this Is
scarcely reasonable. OF course I had
a great deal of-respect for your daugh-
ter. and so on. but she threw me over
for hat other fellow, and I went to
the Cape. / tried not only to forget my
trouble, but to forget her al well That
was the only thing to do. Wasn't itr'
did you succeedr'
No answer.
Have you quite forgotten. Mr.. Win
grover
"well-of course-that is-yes-
"Then why have you come to see
mey'
Surely we are old friends Remem-
Der bow kind you were to me when l
was q student at Heidelberg. Your
house was a home to me at a time
when I most needed good influences,
and when she Joined you and l began
to love her / don't know whether you
saw how things were going, but you
were 30 kind and helpful that my time
there wal the best and happiest I have
ever known. And then. when 1t all
turned out wrong and everything SEEM
ed going round. your gentle sympathy
steadied me, and I got through some
how"
Il was so sorry for you, poor boy?
You have always been good to me.
and, though goodness knows I'm moth
ing to boast of, IL it hadn't been for
you I don't know where / should have
landed. A fellow doesn't forget these
things. Mrs. Kingston. though at the
time he may not qnite understand
them"
"By the way. Mr.. w~ingrove. do you
still are for ClaireY
Mrs. Kingston, what a question"
"Do your
'Really-but, hang it all-you must
NOT ask me that 1t isn't rhythm
deed 1t isn't"
Don't you know7 Didn't they ever
tell your She's a widow. Mr.. Win
grove"
"Claire a widowl But how? WhenT'
HE died more than a year ago; In
auenza-quite unexpected 1t was so
sadr
"And I have been away all this time
without knowing a word about 1t!
Heavensl l don't care who hears II
now. I may speak. love her just as
much as ever, and, by Jove. she must
marry mel Claire free
Hush, Mr.. Wingrove. I am very
sorry / spoke about II, but / thought
/ h~oped-you had really forgotten her.
Oh, why did you come back just at
this moment? Claire is not free"
'T-don't-understand-"
"She Is going to marry John Mears-
dale. He was one of your rivals, you
will remember, and, though l don't
think she ever liked him in the way
she did you, he pleaded so hard and
was so devoted that at last b took
him. You know what IN extraordinary
fascination she has owe men. Ever
since I can remember, even when b
was the merest schoolgirl, they have
come round her and liked to look at
her and hear her talk. There is some
thing magnetic about her, I suppose.
but where she gets it from
"Who knows better than l how hope
lessly irresistible she is? But never
mind that now. What / want to know
Is why didn't you or somebody let me
know what had happened and give me
another chance. I know she liked me
better than Mearsdale. She often told
me 80. After all that there was be-
tween US, was it fair or kind to cave
me sticking out there while he had ev-
erything his own way herer'
sBut, my dear boy, how could we
write to you after that VOW you tookf"
"vow! In heavens name, what
vowY'
"Can you have forgotten
"Opens an escritoire and produces q
manuscript
II you are true, no love more true
Than mine shall be bestowed on you;
But II you're false. then 60 your way
And trouble not goodby to say.
For this I vow, by all most dear
Will not give you one poor tear,
One moments thought, one flight regret.
But hasten to u~nlearn-forget.
Mrs. Kingston. you don't mean to
ray that that absurd Jingle prevented
you from writing to mer
you signed IT, Mr.. Wingrove."
Signed It! I've signed q thousand
diotic things that ought never to be
made binding on me. Why, l was
about nineteen when ! wrote tia
mere irresponsible boy. Look at 1t.
Wretched stun, such as all boys write
when they're In love for the first time.
which ought to be swept together and
burned by the common hangman. She
can't have believed 1t"
"She did. though, and SO did |. You
were always SO earnest in what you
said and did. / remember her telling
me after you had given 1t her that she
felt quite certain that If. after all. she
did not marry you. you would never
come near her OF think kindly of her
again"
"Oh. but women are impossible.
When Won fell them all day long thst