Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1905-03-25
Love is very elastic, but" he left The

Love is very elastic, but" he left,h
sentence unfinished.
"You did not intend should know THIS
until after we were married"
Her silence confirmed his assertion.
The fire had died down and the room
grown chill. but the tremor that shook
Dorothy from head to foot was not
caused Dy the temperature; she felt as II
her brain was on fire and her whole body
scorched. Mechanically Everard got TO
his feet and stirred the embers. An
elusive blue flame leaped up and then as
suddenly vanished, the Goals fell apart,
leaving a waste of violet ashes.
There's no hope of resuscitation; the
vital spark is dead, he muttered. Lean
ing his elbow on the mantel he gazed at
Dorothy curiously quite as If he mad
never seen her before. Her delicate pa
trician beauty that had been to him a
source of joy and pride now wrought up
on him with cruel poignancy.
You don't look 1t, he murmured.
What?
"A woman without honor-a thief
"Oh. Jack!" she cried, sharply, Il can't
bear that you should say such things and
vet deserve all and more. 1t is horrible
and am the most miserable creature
living!" She covered her face with her
hands and rocked her slim figure back
and forth.
BE consoled, you aren't the most mis-
erable."
Cant make reparation? III do any
thing. Stop the book or let 1t appear
under your name
"t is not because Of my book he
cried with swift passion. But nothlhg
could blot out what has happened
There was pause. His passion spent,
Everard said YEARLY:
Talking does not make II any better,
do you think so? You may make any
excuse you may choose for the termlna-
tion of our engagement
She looked up al him and a sudden
realization of what she was losing
smote her. She rose and with an aban-
don unusually foreign to her proud re-
served nature flung herself on his
breast
"Oh, Jack. you shant give me up! You
are SO clever you'll write scores of other
books"
81 doubt that I'll ever write again, he
said trying to disengage her clinging
E arms
e IF we had been married, Jack, what
5 them
Then God pity us both. Now it is bad
y enough, but we need never see one an
other again"
A Her arms fell from his neck and she
c stood back trying as best she might ia
hide her humiliation and pain, Slowly
4 she drew off her ring and held it ont to
+ him but he made slight gesture of ne
d cation.
y Il cant take it. Ineyer want to see II
g? again. Good-by'
He laid the book down with something
IS of the finality that one drops the hant
if of the dead and then he turned to leave
e the room.
At the door he paused, looked back an'
r. melted at sight of the unutterable suffer
10 ing in Dorothys face strobe quickly Il
id her side
For the sake of the happy past-ma.
~ -" He lifted her face in his palms an
at the quiver Of assent in her eyes kisse'
- her lingeringly. Her faint thrill 9
: hope. however. was instantly dispelled
X I'VE could never marry now, Dorothy
" Don't YOU see that this would Away
n come between u.s."
Yes" she murmured. please 60
10 He went. And though Dorothy woul
probably win fame and fortune with IN
III wheel of Life" she knew that she ha
an lost the honest love OF the only man 10
O. whom she would ever care.-N o. Times
] namnRrnt