The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1905-03-30
l Love IL very elastic, but" he left the
sentence unfinished.

Z Love ID very elastic, but" he left the
sentence unfinished.
You die 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 by the temperature; she felt as il
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 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 had
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 it" he murmured.
"What?"
"A woman without honor-a thief"
"Oh. jack" she cried. sharply. II can't
bear that you should say such things, and
vet deserve all and more. 1t is horrible.
and am the most miserable creature
liying!" She covered her face with her
hands and rocked her slim figure back
and forth.
BE consoled. you aren't the most mis-
cradle"
Cant make reparation? I'll do any
thing. Stop the book or let it appear
under your name" b.
at is not because of my book" he
cried with swift passion. But nothing
could blot out what has happened"
There was pause. His passion spent,
Everard said YEARLY:
Talking does not make it any better,
do you think so? You may make any
excuse you may choose for the termina-
ton of our engagement"
She looked up q 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 shan't give me up! You
are SO clever you'll write scores of other
books" 4.
Il doubt that I'll ever write again" he
said. trying to disengage her clinging
arms.
"If we had been married, Jack. what
them"
"Then God pity us both. Now it is bad
enough, but we need never see one an
other again"
Her arms fell from his neck and she
stood back trying as best she might to
hide her humiliation and pain. Slowly
she drew of her ring and held it out to
him. but he made slight gesture of ne
cation. .
81 can't take it. Inever want to see it
again. Good-by."
He laid the book down with something
of the finality that one drops the hand
of the dead and then he turned to leave
the room.
At the door he paused, looked back and
melted at sight of the unutterable suffer-
ing in Dorothy's face. strobe quickly to
her side.
For the sake of the happy past-may
-" He lifted her face in his palms and
at the CULVER of assent in her eyes kissed
her lingeringly. Her faint thrill of
hope. however, was instantly dispelled.
1--WE could never marry now. Dorothy.
Don't you see that this would always
come between us?"
"Yes," she murmured. please co.
He went. And though Dorothy would
probably win fame and fortune with the
wheel of Life she knew that she had
lost the honest love of the only man for
whom she would ever care.-N. o. Times.
Democrat.