Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1905-10-20
CHAPTER XIII.

very muCn dlIcIcu l1O " cS SHA'AA'
worn, and aged; his broad, manly inquire
had shrunk; his shoulders stopped; the
eyes that used to be brave and buoyant,
now looked weary and lifeless. she was
shocked to see him so changed. lie
laughed shortly and bitterly as he look
ed at her.
81 have come half across Europe TO
see you, travelling night and day through
all this frost and snow. l have taken no
rest, and scarcely any food for tour
days, and all you can find to say to me
at the end of it is to revile me Tor not
keeping out of your way"
What have you come for? she re-
peated more gently.
"What have | come for? To see you,
Rosamond-to still the raging hunger at
my heart Because, when l found out
where you were, could not rest until
] saw you again.
How did, you hear where L was"
she said wonderingly.
'"Thers was a man, poor fellow from
this part of the country-he was con-
sumptive, l think-who met US. L heard
it from him at Mentone."
Mary's brother She understood it
then. There was a sort of fatality about
it. She sat down YEARLY.
"What have you been doing with your
self, Brian? You look fearfully i'll"
81 have been i'll for months. We
started, my cousin, Edgar Raikes, and L,
to go to China, Australia, heaven knows
where. We began by a fortnight in the
Austrian Tyrol, and there l got laid up
with a sort of fever. l have been there
ever since till a month ago, when man
aged to get down to the Riviera. L am
getting right now, only bit weak and
pulled down."
"And a journey like this across Eu-
rope, in such weather and in your pres
ent state! What madness, Brian! 1t is
enough to kill your
She looked at him with kindly pity
ing concern. What surprised herself
more than she could account for was
the utter calmness and Indifference with
which she saw him. Save in the first
moment of surprise, her pulses had beat
no faster for his presence. HIS voice
had no power to thrill her.
when trust is gone," she told herself
as she looked at him, then the fOunda-
tons of the building are undermined,
and with time and absence the idol It
self soon crumbles into powder" Aloud
she said to him. with a kindly reproach
in her voice: ''What folly could induce
you to undertake such a journey for
nothing, Brian?"
do you call it nothing, then, that I
am here, that l can see you once more,
hear your voice, touch your hands?
He knelt down before her on the
hearthrug, and took her hand-his own
4
as ice and as perfectly unresponsive.
"ROsamond, tell me once again-let me
hear from your lips-that you love me
still. Then | will go. | ask for nothing
more. That will be enough for me. Tell
me that. once, and l will leave YOU"
81 cannot tell you that | love you,
Brian" she said coldly, wondering, as
she spoke. at the fearful evidence of
sel6shness of which such words, from
this man to her whose life he had spoil
ed, gave evidence.
you cannot say so! Do you mean
that you do not love me, Rosamond? 1t
is impossible! You cannot have ceased
to care for me-"
She withdrew her hands from his, and
reached them up behind her head with a
weary action. Her eyes wandered away
from his pleading, earnest face that was
haggard with passion and misery. For a
moment or two she was silent, then very
slowly she said
"The one thing under the sun which
is absolutely impossible, Brian, is to re-
kindle the ashes of dead fire."
He rose from his kneeling attitude at
her feet, and stood with his back to the
mantelpiece. Then he drew a long, shiv-
ering breath
"Ah! it is dead then" he said, almost
in a whisper
YES" she answered, still not looking
at him. 1T is dead. Thank God! thank
Godr'
There was silence between them for
the space of four or five minutes-abso-
lutte silence, during which the clock tick
aud cracked. and Brian Desmond faced
the bitterest and crueIest moment of his
whole life.
1t was Rosamond who spoke first
You have left your wife, Brian, at
Meutone?'
He started.
My wife, Good heavens. Surely you
know-you must have heard.''
She looked at MN with interest.
What is it? l havesheard nothing"
lis it possible that you do not know
that my wife left me before | went
abroad?"
"Your wife left you" she repeated in
voice of dismay. do you mean that
you are not living with her-that you
are separated from herr"
'She, at all events, has separated her
self from me-" he said bitterly. 1T
seems that no woman can stick to me
now. Very likely l deserve it
But, Brian" she cried eagerly, Il
don't understand. Do you mean that
she left her home and went away? What
made her leave your
Her own idiotic jealousy" he replied
irritab bly,. Some one, l believe, saw us
together that one evening-do you re-
member it, Rosamond?'