The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-14

waved in reply and as soon as possible | joined them.
 Sadie. Sadie! Is it really your ] cried Floy. I The girl laughed of course! But | do not kiss me here, dear; wait till we are home. Why. Jack, how you have | changed!"
 A sudden wave of disappointment 1 swept over them both. They were not even friends now, something was miss | ing in each.
 Flow could I have even thought of Sadie when I once knew Floy?' Jack demanded argrily of himself as he strode home through the darkness. The two girls were sitting over the fire Floy loved in their den one night few weeks later. The younger girl was .,urled up op the rug as near the comfortable blaze as she could get, her fair hair lying in masses on the ground. Sadie vas lying back in a Morris chair, her dark rough LOCKS flung over the pack She fufTed 1t out with her hand occasionally to make 1t dry more quickly; the two had been swimming.
 Certainly hairpins have a stiffen- ing effect on a woman," she said medi- tatively. T never felt so confidential 1 in the whole course of my life as l do at this moment. How do you feel, Floy?"
 T always knew 1t was necessary to make | girl take her hair down if you wanted her to speak of her innermost feelings" responded the child on the rug. shaking her fair mane over her do you know-is there such thing as this love you read of. or Is 1t only q dream-an impossibilityT
 Sadie started. T think I can guess why you ask that question from what I have seen since my return. I am glad. my darling-"
 "Oh. Sadie-Jack.' began Floy; "we-
 Sadie laaghed and leaned forward to kiss her cousins lovelit face. T am glad" she saId again. Do you know l have sometimes doubted the exist ence of love? There seems to be two persons in me, one who doubts every thing and persists in finding proof after proof that there is no such thing"
 But" interrupted Floy. softly. the other person in you. the Sadie I know and love, surely she believes in this wonderful thing?"
 ''Yes," said Sadie, dreamily; ito her it seems a divine possibility. Imagine the good even two against the world could do. If they really loved each other, and all humanity, Floy. Shall tell you what the world would call my love story? When I left home three years ago I was a mere child like you. At first the novelty of 1t all delighted me, but after. when I was alone in brilliant. fascinating Paris, I grew in- tensely lonely. A man came into my life. I placed him on a pedestal in my thoughts. l was too much of child to analyze my own feelings. l lived in the present alone and thought of no other tie between us than that of friendship. One day he told me he loved me and asked me to marry him. I had discovered that Art was not all suff1cing as had imagined 1t would be-something else was necessary-and oh. the loneliness of Paris! I said Yes Floy. Then gradually all the womanhood in me awoke and there came a knowledge of what marriage could be-should be-and the perfect trust that must exist to make this pos sible. feared, though l believed In his love. I could not trust myself as yet. I asked him to wait and resolved to bear with my loneliness a little while longer" Sadie's voice had sunk to a whisper. He asked once again, Floy-but my idol had feet of clay" And then-then?" questioned the wide-eyed. golden-h child with her loosened locks about her. Sadie was slowly twisting her abund- ant hair into a coil on her shapely head. She rose to her feet with a l laugh as she secured 1t with her tor toise shell pins. And then-and then?
 Who knows? Perhaps he has gone
 back to his wife by now! Floy. do not | expect too much from life. You will
 only break your heart. if you have one After all. what more does woman
 need than a check drawer?" she mur- | mured bitterly.