Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-02-14

I
between you and Rabbi Balaam's bur
no. David; It could talk sense, and you
can't" was the offensive ,rejoinder.
Kent changed, the subject abruptly.
49, Say, Ormsby; I'm going into pc.
litical ofiice-hunt. There Is death Va
cancy in the house, and I mean to have
the nomination and election. don't
need money now, but 1 do need a
friend. Are you with me?'
':Oh, sure. Miss Van Brock will an
! swer for that
"Rut don't want you to do it ON
her account; I want you to do it for
me-" -.
cts. all one," said the club-man.
Kent looked up quickly.
"You are right; that is the truest
word you've said tonight" and he
went away, leaving the dessert I'M
touched. = ,...., .
The evening was still young when
Kent reached the house in Alameda
square. Within the week the weather
hand changed, and the first chill of the
approaching autumn was in the air.
The great square house was lighted
and warmed, and the hOmelikeness of
the place appealed to him as it never
had before. To her other gifts, which
were many and diverse, Miss Van
Brock added that of home-making; and
the aftermath of battle is apt to be an
acute longing for peace and quiet, for
domesticity and creature comforts.
She was waiting for him when he
entered the comfortable library.
II knew you would come tonight"
she said, cheerfully. II gave you a
day to drive the nail-and, 0 David!
you have driven it well!-another day
to: clinch it, and third to recover
from the effects. Have you fully re-
covered?"
II hope so. took the day for it, at
all events" he laughed. 81 am just
out of bed, as you might say"
you," she assented. mot so much the
work, but the anxiety. Night before
last, after Mr.. Loring went away, I sat
it out with the telephone, nagging
poor Mr.. Hi1dreth for news until I
know he wanted. to murder me-"
How much did you get of it?' he
asked
He told me all he dared-or perhaps
it was all he knew-and it made me
feel miserably helpless. The little l
could get from the Argus Office was
enough to prove that all your plans
had been changed at the last moment"
''They were,' he admitted; and he
began at the beginning and filled in
the details for her.
She heard him through without com.
ment other than kindling of the
brown eyes at the climaxes of daring;
but at the end she gave him praise
unstinted.
'You have played the man, David,
as I knew you would if you could be
once fully aroused. I've had faith in
you from the very first
1T has been more than faith, Por-
tia," he asserted, soberly. "You have
taken me up and carried me when I
could neither run nor walk. Do you
suppose I am so besotted as not to
realize that you have been the head,
while I have been only the hand?"
*'Nonsense!" she said, lightly. *'You
are in the dumps of the reaction now
You mustn't say things that you will
be sorry for later on
II am going to say one thing, never
theless; and will remain for you to
make it thing hard to be remem-
bered, or the other kind. Will You
take what there is of me and make
what you can of it,"
She laughed in his face.
mo, my dear David; no, no, no."
And after little pause: "How de-
liciously transparent you are, to be
sure!"
He would have been less than man
if his self-love had not been touched
in it's most sensitive part.
II am glad if it amuses you," he
frowned. 'Only meant it in all seri-
ousness."
mo, you didn't; you only thought
you did," she contradicted, and the
brown eyes were still laughing at him.
LET me tell you what you did mean.
You are pleased to think that have
helped you-that an obligation has
been incurred; and you meant to pay
your debt like man and gentleman
in the only coin a woman is supposed
to recognize"
"But if I should say that you are
misinterpreting the m0tive?" he sug-
gested.
1T would make your nice little
speech perjury instead of simple
untruth, and l should say no, again,
on other, and perhaps better,
grounds"
Name them," he said shortly.
II will, David, though I am neither
a stick nor stone to do it without
wincing. You love another woman
with all your heart and soul, and you
know it,
well? You see l am neither adj
hitting nor denying
"As if you needed to!' she scoffed.
But don't interrupt me, please. You
said might take what there is of you
and make what I can of it; might
make you anything and everything in
the world, David, except that which
woman Graves most in a husband-a
lover"
His eyes grew dark.
II wish knew how much that word
means to you, Portia.".
1T means just as much to me as it
does to every woman who has ever
drawn the breath of life in passion
ate world, David. But that isn't all.
LEAVING Miss brentwood onfiro1,, 1,,t