Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-05-09
a! "a
thought Of one until she @ got those

uSnI ~ 0Ae uAu1 S0o V got tooe0i
letters" 4. II ;.s: 81. .s :s,.,
! "Child!' The doctor spoke sharply.
Suppose through the whole long
wonderful summertime she had reared
her Joy castle, at first afraid it would
vanish like the bubbles she had blown
In childhood, until she had come to
believe in the writer of those letters
with the same terrible, childlike faith
she gave to her Cod" -- p. =
Child, child" the doctor implored
her. r..
With a little unsteady laugh Miss:
Carleton got to her feet. How that
big moon stares," she said. Wouldn't
you like to climb on its chin and sail
to your Hearts Desire? Haven't you
a land of Hearts Desire, doctor?"
She leaned and looked deep into the
moon-fllled, sleeping valleys as she
spoke.
The doctor tried to answer. He
drew back into the shadows as she
said goodnight. He had seen q wo-
mans soul, and the sight had shaken
him.
Not many days later q fairy-tale
happening came to Mary Carleton in
the shape of telegram that told her
of the death of an old great-aunt and
the arrival of a fortune, all in breath.
The doctor came back from the
valley settlement, where he had been
visiting a patient, to hear the story
and slip away from everybody. In
the quiet of his den, with the little.
fire on the hearth fighting the grow
ing dusk, he tried to realize what life
would be with the glory gone out of It,
A log broke and fell, shattering his
reverie. The fire leaped, and she
came swiftly down the room to drop
into chair beside him and nestle
:here as If she meant to stay indefl-
nitely.
1T has been discipline
:or that fortune she said cheerfully.
''Many's the time I've defied fate with
1t when I've been SO hungry. Cocoa
and toast for breakfast, toast and
cocoa for lunch and my great-aunt's
fortune for dinner. How the money
has changed things in sudden gaiety.
Pm not going to ride on the moons
chin. It wouldn't be dignif1ed for an
heiress.'
Don't you ever mean to grow up?"
The Doctors lips twitched in a way
that would have gone straight to a
woman's heart if she had loved him.
I'm grown up" contentedly. I'm
-
"And I'm not less than Is MORE"
lniserably.
Are you?" politely. Il could never
do arithmetic" The laughing shaft of
Ter dark eyes struck straight into the
middle of a heart that wasn't aging,
and the blood that wasn't jaded,
although the doctor had tried so hard
to think SO, pounded and leaped, hot
and strong.
The doctor caught her hand in
grasp that hurt Der.
1--WE been a BRUTE" he cried. II
saw that fellow leave the violets there,
and it came to me to try the expert
ment. I believed to interest you in
anything, anybody, was to save you
There was no other way to WOO you
back to life. saw no other way.
Child, child, never meant to hurt
you! That first little letter-heart-
broken that you'd had to let go and
come away from your work-touched
me. You know the rest. I've tried to
tell you-a hundred times. AS it was
I felt that I had struck you-had
struck little, trusting child"
He flung out his hands in tortured
helplessness. "Say something! Com
fort me-if comfort is left in the
world!"
, But there was silence in the room
the twilight had claimed.
The Doctors head went down. He
had a new strange sense of utter
desolation.
Don't you understand yet? There's
no man in the valley. There never
was. 1 wrote those letters. sent
those violets. To save your very
life"
A low little laugh had shattered tho
rooms tense stiffness and rippled over
him.
But" her voice, very small and
shamed and golden with content,
whispered, as She came close, close,
till the marvellous softness of her
cheek brushed his, "but-since yester-
day I've known-tAere's one-on the
mountain-top."