The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-11-16

|
glance Of his blue eyes, would call up
flying bushes TO the fair cheeks that
all Cyrus Worthingtons eloquence
failed to bring there.
But Bert, though older than his
| friend, had been an unsuccessful man.
| A poet by the gift of God, he was al
most a pauper by the non-appp-cia-
tion of man. Just the tiniest patri-
mony kept him from actual want, but
though he had a hall room at Mrs.
i.unter's, his boots were often shabby,
his clothes well worn, and his purse
lamentably slender.
And Mrs. Hunter seeing Doctor
| Worthington in her best room, prompt
in payment. faultless in costume, with
a certainty of thirty thousand dollars,
and a possibility of greater wealth, in
| the practice of his profession, encour-
aged his attentions to Eloise, frown-
ing upon poor, loving Bert, who, in
| spite of his jests about his well-riddled
heart, gave the young girl true, loyal
| love.
1t was the old, old story, and Eloise,
torn by her fllial affection and her girl
love, was growing pale and wan as
| the winter wore away. There was no
coercion: Mrs. Hunter loved the only
child of her heart too we'll fer that;
but loving her she could not give her
to poverty and Bert Loring, and one
day when Bert pleaded his cause she
told him.
Doctor Worthington asked me this
morning to give Eloise. | like you,
Bert You are dear to me as son,
| but We must think of the child above
all. You know how dreamy, sensitive,
and helpless Eloise is. You know that
hard work would be murder for her.
She lives in her music, her books"
"And her love! She loves me-" in
terrupted poor Bert, boy yet in many
tender phases of his nature
And you, loving her, would you see
her toiling, shaving, starving, as a
poor mans wife?"
you put 1t harshly."
81 put it truly. While / can keep
this house up you are welcome to
home here, but any day ! may die.
| These heart spasms mean a certain
death some day, Bert. Then where
are you TO take Eloise?"
Il will work for her"
work first, then, and WOO her after
ward. My poor Bert, you are too like
her to marry her. Could | but give
you wealth, you could live in poets
paradise, you and Eloise, never grow
! ing old, two grown-up children. But
we are all poor. Do not torture her,
you who love her. Go away and let
Doctor Worthington win her."
"She will never love him."
mot if you are here"
81 will go then. You will let me tell
her?"
why? It will only make her life
harder, If she thinks you suffer. | will
never force her to marry. Buff
/. Doctor Worthington can win her,
tell you frankly, 1t will make me very
happy"
SO Bert-honest, loyal Bert-for his
yer ylove's sake, turned his face from
| his love and went to another city,
where he was offered a position as
assistant editor upon magazine, that
was to be fortune in the future, but
| in the present was rather log on the
necks of the proprietors.
And Eloise, wondering at Bert's de-
sertion, knew all the sunlight was gone
| from her life when he said farewell.
There had been no secret in Berts
parting with his friend, Frankly he
had told him his hope, love and de-
spair, and pathetically implored him
to cherish Eloise lovingly, if he could
win her love.
! Even while he spoke, Cyrus Worth
! ington knew that this love would
never come to answer his wooing,
knew that one word of his could flood
two lives with happiness, yet kept
silence. In the days that followed,
when he wooed the fair, pale girl, ten
derly, devotedly, no pang Of remorse
wrung his heart, though he knew he
trod carefully upon all loving flowers
of hope in hers. He was man who
could have seen his own mother
writhe in agony, II by her torture he
could have wrung one new fact for
science, and in the scheme OF his life
| lut vi Bii NOunNtu III
less than nothing.
And while he courted the unwilling
love patiently and gently, Mrs. Hunter,
with her failing health, her pale face
and weary step, pleaded eloQuently in
her very silence. A home of rest for
her mother was what Eloise had been
promised in delicate words that could
not be resented as a bribery.
"Your dear mother may live for
years in a quiet house, but this con-
slant care and toll is killing her!"
So. little by little. wearing out the
young hearts constancy by steady per-
severance. Cyrus Worthington won
Eloise for his wife. She told him she
did not love him, but knowing nothing
OF Bert's spoken love to her mother,
she kept heS maiden secret folded close
in her own heart, and whispered moth