The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-18
Our Daily $bcrt Story

in his strength and a winsomeness in h1s cosmopolitanism that was very at- tractive to her. He was not a strut ting artist, with long hair and the smell of paint about him. There was nothing Of the purse pride of the map with expectations and nothing of the self-consciousness of the man of ar tistic success. Why could not Bent ley Morgan be something like Arnold Benton. sine thought, resentful1y? Her mothers plans for her future might have been more in accord with Cecifs- the third day out.
 On the fourth day out. they were dangerously near the love-line.
 Do you sec the little wave-children playing out there on the sea-hills and in the vallays that pillows maker" he said. softly. T love to watch them. Soon the night will come and they will be lost. I have heard them moaning as if frightened many times at night and then know that the. morning will come and find them and they will leap into the arms of the dawn and be con fronted again" @
 'You have a poets soul, Arnolds' she said, wonderingfy. The sea never appeals to me especially along the line of poetry. It has always been a picture to me. Its colors are made of all the pigments that allsthe art ists in the world ever dreamed of inl- itating and could not. never saw a marine view yet that was not a daub compared with the reality. I do not think that artists ever ought to try to paint the sea. God had done that so magnificentIy already that imitation is almost sacrilege. They were both silent for a time, busy with their own thoughts. Miriam" he said at last, gently laying his hand on hers on the rail, why should we make q wreck of our happiness? Here am I, good-for- nothing chap of a painter, going home with "a golden chain about my neck. By that chain I shall be bound to a woman I do not know, and whom I have no idea that l shall ever love. You are nearer the woman of my dreams than any I have ever met. Let's permit it all to go, dear, and be happy. We will let the match makers make their pretty plans. if they want to. What is there in the world worth while but love and happiness? I love you, Miriam. Be my wife as soon as we land and we will face the world together. I do not fear the future. l cannot buy a wife and I cannot sell my heart for ease. It is all too hor- rible. Until I met you it did not seem so to me. But you have opened my eyes to the truth"
 / They had not told each other the details of their private affairs. But Arnold Bentons case was so near like that of Bentley Morgans that she was vaguely struck with the similarity. She heard him to the end and then she raised her eyes to his.
 IT, too," she said, was about to make just such sacrifice as this girl yoA wege going to marry. Somehow it did not seem wrong to think of 1t, for my mother is getting old and we are all alone in the world and not in affiuent circumstances. had not really made up my mind, but until met you my heart was entirely free and thought it would not matter.
 This was no coquetry or equivoca- tion only earnest, sincere womanli- ness. There was no pretense that they did not care. Each knew the other did.
 Then we will listen to our own hearts, dear" he said. We will make our own future and let the matchmak- CTS go to the bowwows. I can get along without any old maids for tune"
 That was the situation when they walked down the gangplank and when Bentley was folded in the dignified embrace of the little Miss Morgan.
 'Aunt1e, he said. permit me to ih- troduce you to Miss Munson. With your permission also we shall go at once to your home, where l should like to place her under your protce- tion for q time. Miss Munson has done me the honor to consent to be- come my wife"
 T have met Miss Mdnson. I be- lieve," gravely replied Miss Morgan, her eyes twinkling. T think I have read some of her poems"
 You did not tell me you wrote po-