The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-20
Our Daily $bort Story

away from mel"
 She turned passionately from the mirror where she had been tying a
 scarlet bow in her hair. But. oh. you shall not-shall not take him away from me. No one shall take him away from me. Oh, he's all the world He's all my life!' She flung her head down on the tin- sel toys that strewed the table and went into passion of stormy sobs had never seen Celestine cry be- fore.
 There. dear. don't-you'll spoil your
 rogue. And it's really very foolishe." You're always with him." "I'm never with him." I answered wearily. T only met him by chance today He was telling me. Celestine of someone he met once from my old home, someone who once-but 1t was long ago." added. bitterly-"who once cared for me-" Celestine was so trying that dGy. The July afternoon-for we were
 dressing for the afternoon perform
 ance-was close. the place stifling. While we prepared for our tarpeze act, Celestine kept up the old accvs- ing complainings. She harped on the old petty fancies of her jealousy. Per- haps my silence exasperated her. Sud- denly she caught my bare arm rough ly.
 You won't say anything! Oh,
 know you have wheedled him into low ing you-he has told you he loves you you love him."
 She cluitched my arm fiercely.
 Perhaps you have plan for get
 ting rid of me-" she hissed through
 her clenched white teeth, "but you shall never have him; you shall never
 have him!'
 All tho evil in me must have con- centrated itself in the sudden, vagrant
 impulse that made me look at Celes- tine as I looked at her then. cannot
 tell what made me do 1t. But I looked at her. and I wanted her to see in the look all that she believed, all she fear
 ed and dreaded, was true. suppose the lie went homo. For an instant Celestine's features writhed
 in a spasm of helpless rage.
 Then our call came and the next
 moment we were smiling and lowing
 before the expectant multitude.
 Celestine was superb that day.
 knew 1t by the rounds of applause that again and again rose and echoed
 through the vastness of the stifling circus tent
 as silk and strong as wrought steel, tingling with the quiver I had learned
 to know so well. knew she was throbbing with the sheer joy of her performance. She had forgotten even
 Withrow. She was thrilling with the
 mad exultation of the wild applause.
 It was always so with Celestine. She was a child of the amphitheater. For myelf. had never gone through my part so mechanically. had never felt so indifferent to the crowds. We were more than helf through our act For the first time I became cohscious of the rapt intensity of the crowd For the first time I felt Q faint thrill flash along the pathways of
 my being.
 We were nearing the climax of our
 act. When Itouched Celestine. I could
 feel the muscles of her body delicately
 and steadily adjusting themselves for the supreme effort of her strength and skill.
 It was then that my eyes turned for an instant toward a tier of the ann
 phitheater. And there my glance was | caught and held by a face. For a moment sight and sound died away. Only the fact shone dimly as through bloody mist. In that moment my spirit and my flesh flashed far apart For the life | of me could not keep my soul there
 with my body. In that instant it had
 flown over half a dozen years. saw the orchard again and the soft shower | of the falling bloom. I had forgotten | the years of apprenticeship of work | and pain for this tawdry. tiresome life.
 My God, I forgot Celestine! saw only the girl in the orchard.
 restless and reckless and gay. I saw