News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1905-02-15
RicI2 Man, !,
Poor Man! "
By KEITH GORDON
Copyright, 1904, by Frances Wilson
By KEITH CORDol


| ing globules of crushed pearl rolled
noiselessly through the assures of the
hills and blotted out the village, the
! bay and the towers and chimneys of
| San Francisco-in other words, the
world. In the damp air the girls hair
curled more distractingly than ever,
| Never had he seen it when it framed
| the low forehead in so bewildering
an arabesque of rings and curves and
waves.
You look rather swell yourself" she
| laughed in response to his eloquent
glance of approval. "Knickers and
| Norfolk cap and the jacket aren't half
| bad on you. Taken in connection with
| your cleft chin" she went on, throw
ing her head back and screwing up her
eyes critically, they make you a very
presentable youth indeed"
I'VE won't talk about that" was the
terse reply. This walk to Point BoDi-
ia has an object"
She opened her eyes wide
"Certainly," she assented politely
Point Bonita, for instance. If it has
any other object" she went on sternly,
"if you're going back to that old sub
ject. l won't go step farther"
BY this time they were moving in the
midst of cloud.
1t was his turn to be innocent
you mean-oh," with a fine imita-
ton of impotence, doesn't girl ever
= hac
to fancy himself in love with her and
said sop
The pink of the girls checklist had
the soft, furred look that is response
BILE for the slang adjective 'peachy'-
deepened suddenly, unaccountably. out
of the tail of his eye the youth observed
this interesting fact with cruel glee,
rejecting with pang that he should
have chosen diplomacy as a vocation
instead of engineering.
You should forgive and forget the
sins of my youth" he resumed. You
know you insisted that you would al
WAYS be the best of friends, and that's
| what | need now"
you change quickly enough, | must
| sayr' she remarked with some heat
1T isn't six months since
"Since WHAT" he challenged. But she
| turned away and did not reply, while
the walls of mist lazily closed in nearer
| and nearer.
What do you want to tell me| she
| questioned at last in an oddly subdued
| manner. He did not answer lmme-
| diately, but swung on ahead of her IN
the narrow path as if he were making
| a way for her through the mist SO he
had got over his love for her. She felt
a shuddering sense of desolation. Still,
she argued, she could scarcely have
| supposed he would go on caring, es-
pecially since she had explained to MN
with judicial carefulness that she must
marry a man with money on account
of her mother and the younger girls
Strangely enough, though she mad
! pictured herself as married to another,
| there had always been a somber, In
teresting figure lowering in the back
ground of that picture, one to whom
she meant to be so kind, so gentle, so
| all sweet, that his regret should become
like a beautiful, sad song-to be wept
over and enjoyed. And now the brute
| was asking her to forgive and forget
that he had ever told her that he loved
her
They had reached the summit of a
hill, and he proposed that they sit down
upon n convenient bowlder to rest be
fore attempting the next one. APP
parently her silence was unnoticed
you see fate's been telling off my
buttons lately" he began in business
like tone, land the decree is that it has
got to be money!
what do you mean"
"Rich woman, poor woman, be$gal
woman, squaw," he elucidated, touch
ing the buttons on his jacket, land the
lot falls to rich woman every time. II
seems a beastly thing to think of
marrying for money. l would be a cad
enough to do it, but the thing is that
there's a girl-a mighty fine girl-+and
l really-I-hang it, | like her! But
how am | to tell whether it's therea
thing or whether her money has sbme
| luluS W uO Will IL LOU SEC, IAclF are
reasons why should have money tight
away, long before | can hope to gain
it by my own efforts. The gOvernDr is
breaking down, and his affairs ale in
bad shape, and there are the two kids
and mother to provide for"
The girls heart was sinking as the
mercury does in a falling temperature
All the joy of living seemed to be ooz
ing away through her finger tips leav
ing her cold and inert lie turned to
ward her curiously.
"Of course, you don't think I'd con
slider such thing if l were not forced
to it by duty" he went on fervently
"And l came to you because l thought
you'd understand, because circum
stances are forcing you into the sam,
thing. They say you're going to mar
ry Bradshaw. You'll be a rich WON
an and happy one, hope; but, wheth
err you are or not, you will have don,
your duty by the family. That will b.
your consolation, and that's why
come TO you in my difficulty. What d.
you think-can | decently ask the cir
to marry me? Remember, l like her
but I'm not sure l love her"
The fog. which had seemed about t,
crush them softly a few moments be
| -. q a. L.,