Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1905-05-25

filled the National Cemetery there were
two who on that day lived the initial
chapter Of their lives.
Was there ever so blue sky? Did
ever sunbeams fall so softly upon white
marble?
We met by soldiers grave. Rex and
|. | was young girl, just out of school,
and he-what poor words of mine could
describe one who seemed to me q god?
His dark. Southern face. the great sad
eyes which are like no other eyes | have
ever seen-were not these sufficient to
thrill the warm young heart which then
beat in my bosom?
After the graves had all been strewn
with flowers, and the perfect day was
growing older, the crowd departed, and
we two We're left in the sacred silence of
the place. There was no one else in all
the world for us then, and as we sat
there his eyes flashed into mine a regard
so sudden and subtle that its fire swept
over me like a wave. Suddenly he caught
my hands and kissed them-his own
were burning. The shades grew more
dense. We spoke but little-what need
was there for words? He drew me closer
his lips touched mine. All, in such q
time, why cannot the lips we love kiss
us forever?
After that, life for us was the color Of
the rose. Spring grew into summer, and
more than year passed. When the snow
covered the earth we We're forced to say
good-by for a time-but only for time
Such true lovers could not be long sepa-
rated. Fate was to take me to far
country. and Rex would soon follow.
Before l met the man who was the
world to me there had been one who had
cared for me, not with the pure and no.
BILE devotion which would sacrifice any
thing for the object of its love, but the
fierce passion of the wild beast l could
never have loved him, even if l had not
met the other. But one cannot be wholly
blind to such fierce idolatry, and a wom
ans soul turns to flattery as the flower
to the sun, and Sol had listened. My
heart was not touched, but as a cat plays
with a mouse so did | play with the
heart of this man. 1t seemed a pleasant
way to pass the time, and he was so in
earnest. But when Rex came and looked
at me with his sad brown eyes, all was
changed. My warm, impulsive heart has
his, and o forgot that l was causing an
other to suffer. What was that to me-?
l had never suffered. l did not know.
Nothing in the whole throbbing, happy
world mattered then, for l loved and was
beloved.
When it was known that l must go to
a distant country-a land Of perpetual
summer-the man | had forgotten came
to me and poured forth his love with an
intensity of passion which almost fright
ened me, and said:
Il ask you once more: will you be my
wife,
No. l said. "a thousand times
no." 81.
With cruel look he muttered
Yes, 1t is because you love that other.
Well you shall never wed with him. |
will have my revenge. Watt"
| laughed in his face and left him.
For then-it must be a century ago-I
knew not what it was to suffer. Now |
have learned.
With a carelessness only possible to
one who has never known real sorrow l
dismissed him from my mind and gave
all my time to the man from whose low
ing arms | was so soon to be torn.
The world was colo ana gray when q
last we said goodby. We thought it fit
ting that we should part where we met,
by soldiers grave. 1t was a day fit
only for farewells; the wind moaned
through the leahess trees. and the snow
fell upon us as we clasped hands and
vowed to be true. AS we came through
the gate we met a woman. carrying white
roses to place on some snOw-covered
grave.
Our wedding day was to be in June,
and as l sped away to the land of trop-
zeal bloom my thoughts were busy with
happy anticipations. Letters, white
winged messengers Of love. sped between
us, and all went merry as a marriage
bell until the revenge came. The man l
had forgotten still remembered me. He