The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-05-11

the background. lie asked nothing OF
The girl. He
He blGndered'" she cried. Sup
pose the woman had never had a
lover; suppose the sweep OF her life
had been away from men, that she
had been so busy that she had never
thought Of one until she got those
letters"
Child" The doctor spoke sharply.
Suppose through the whole long
| wonderful summer time she had reared
her JOY castle at FIRST afraid 1t would
vanish like The bubbles she had blown
IL childhood. until she hud come 10
believe in the writer of those letters
with the same terrible, chidlike faith
she gave to her Cod"
Child. child the doctor implored
her.
With a little unsteady laugh Miss
| Carleton got 10 her feet. HOW that
big moon stares," she said. Wouldn't
you like 10 climb en- its chin and sail
TO your Hearts Desire? Haven't you
land of Hearts Desire, doctor?"
She leaned and looked deep into the
moon filled, sleeping valleys as she
! spoke.
The doctor tried TO answer. He
| Grew back into the shadows as she
said goodnight. lie had seen wo-
mans soul, and TIE sight had shaken
him.
Not many days later fairy-ta'e
happening came 10 Mary Carleton in
the shape Of a telegram that told her
OF the death OF an old great-aunt and
the arrival Of fotlune, all in a 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
log broke ana fell. shattering b
reyerie The fire leaped, and she
came swiftly down The room to drop
into chair beside him und nestle
there as If she lneaI. 20 stay indefi
nitely.
at has been a discipline waiting
for that fortune she said cheerfully
"Manys the time I've deled fate with
ii when I've been so hungry. Cocoa
and toast for breakfast toast and
cocoa for lunch and my greal-aunt's
fortune for dinner How the money
has changed things, in sudden gaiety
I'm not going 70 ride on the moons
chin. 1t wouldn't be dignified 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
womans heart If she had loved him.
I'm grown mp" contentedly I'm
-"
And I'm not loss than is more"
mlserably.
Are you?" politely. 81 could never
do arithmetic" The laughing shaft of
Eer dark eyes struck straight into the
middle of a heart that wasn't aging
and the blood that wasn't faded
although the doctor had tried so hard
to think SO, pounded and leaped. hot
and strong.
The doctor caught her hand in a
grasp that hurt her
1--WE been brute" he cried. 81
saw that fellow leave the yiolets there,
and 1t came to me to try the expert
fnent. | 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 letterheart-
broken that you'd had TO let so and
come away from your work-touchcd
me. You know the rest I've tried to
tell you--a hundred times. As it was
| felt that 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
rad q new strange sense of utter
oesOlation.
Don't you understand yet? There's
no man in the valley. There never
was. wrote those letters sent
those violets To save your very
life"
A low little larGh had shattered the
rooms tense stlllaess and rippled over
hlm.
But" her voice. very small and
shamed and golden with content
whispered. as sho came close, close,
till the marvellous softness of her
cheek brushed his. "but-since yester-
Gay I've known-.Nere's one-on the
mountain top
Mo- All Dead.
Dead lit1e town you've got here,
isn't E?" said the passenger with the