The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-12-13

S3N - ~ ~ -
to be freed from your promises to me
you wish to break off Il engagement!
| will never
But Just then the thought struck Mr..
| Mohun that, before any woman could
wish to give him up, some overpower-
uhfitness 4to'bc Ills wife@must'cer-'
[ tainly exist upon her side: and'he
before committing himself to
Fsany rash oath.
IL am ready to hear you out, Jane;
but | am sure, if you knew what horri-
| bic pain you are giving lie, you would
try to tell me whatever you have got
tc say in a less cruel way than you
have chosen"
She looked ut him tenderly, yearnlns-
", as q mother might look at h SICK
| child whose worse sufferings she would
| rapturousIy bear, if the cup could but
pass from his lips TO hers.
Cruel! Oh, Clifford! ! would 10 God
I knew any way to spare you this pain!
If 1 said what l did too suddenly, for
| give me. l have been thinking all
| night how I should break it to you best,
and now the time has come say IT
| abruptly and in the hardest words l
| could have chosen. Oh, Gifford-oh,
| MI. Mohun, if you knew what torture
it is to me to have to pain you"
'"Mr. Mohun!' Jane, what'are you
| thinking of? Do youi wish already TO
forget that you are my promised
.wife?"
He kissed her pale, trembling lips; he
treasured her very tendcriy-although
| still without any further positive COM
initial Of himself.
"Tell me what you have to say quick
~, Jane, dearest, and the worst will be
| over for us both"
And then he went on to whisper. but
| rather indistinctly, how impossible it
was that any circumstances whatever
| could alter love like theirs; and how
| positive he was that no disclosure she
| could make would change, in the slight
| est degree, the position in which they
STOOD 10 eacn Quiet
Instinctively utterly without the
kagepcy of any, reasoning process-Jane,
| for the first time, knew that Mohun's
love was not blind, seif-immolating
love, like her own. She had fully re-
/ solved that. he should give her up. She
| had sworn to herself to accept 40 sac
riice, however noble, that he might
| wish to make. But still, human nature
is so constituted that we can all Of US
60 through positively any ether torture
better than that particular one, which
| we have laid down in our W mind as
right and fitting for us to bear. To
have witnessed Mohun's suffering in
giving her up, to have withstood his
passionate desire to marry her in spite
of all, would, no doubt, have bitterly
| wrung Jane Grand's heart: but yet, l
believe, the barest, unexpected thought
that he vas prepared to meet her
wishes, and to act wisely, smote
through every fiber Of her heart and
brain with a far, fercer agony.
She said no word to let him know
what a pang of cruel disappointment
that soothing, commonplace whisper. of
his had awakened. Neither then ror
afterward did she admit to herself lin
Anything like 4 tangible form of
thought the truth that his love was
largely mixed up with %selishness, and
worldly wisdom, and disregard for her.
But she turned very trembling and chill
in all her frame; she loosed herself ab-
ruptly from his embrace; and then,
standing a short distance away from
him, she clasped her two d~eath-cold
little hands together, and looked into
his facc-looked at him with eyes
whose piteous, dumb entreaty must
one would think-haye risen unpleas-
| antly before Mr.. Mohun's memory dur
ing a good many years Of his succeed
ing life.
You know what I went to London
for yesterday" and as she spoke the
agitation died down"in heT voice, and
it began to take something Of the hard,
! u%nmodulated tones with which she had
spoken to MI. Clithero the day before.
"You know what l went for? To hear
the history, which I never heard be-
fore, Of my parents life
Yes, Mr.. Mohun knew it. But he
hoped-he felt sure-that Jane had
greatly exaggerated to herself the eff
feet which these histories would have
upon their own future fate.
You are very proud, G~ifford-you
are very sensitive in your ideas of
honor; l know that from the way that
l have heard you speak # Bertha and
Agnes Tenant a score of times"
But that has nothing to do with us
now, my dear child. How does my
opinion Of the Tenant family concern
anything that relates to your engage
ment with me-"
ut concerns me, thus far" she cried,
and all the color rushed back now to
her wan face. at concerns me thus
far, that every time you have. spoken
slightly of them you have spoken so of
me. However unwilling you might
feel to marry one Of Mr.. Tenants
daughters, you will-you must-feel a
thousand times more how impossible
it would be for you to marry me! Yes,
Clifford, yes-it is SO! Oh, my God"
"What is it. Jane" but the tone OF
Mohun's voice was changing, and he
fidgeted nervously with his hands.
"What similarity is there between your
position and that Of the Miss Ten