The Yale expositor., 1906-11-23

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was not the face of laughing girl
any longer-only the presentment of
a woman, loving and loyal and wom-
anly, who had passed through sorrow,
and at the end found peace In the
love of a true and noble-hearted man.
The watcher in the street, under his
wild desire to revenge himself for
his misfortunes on her, who had
never added to them by one iota, felt
a sudden pang for the woman he was
about to drag back into his life.
The lover in the background looked
kindly and true and protecting as he
followed her down to the waiting car
riage. He bent to help her as she
got in, and she flashed a pretty little
smile at him, a smile full of love and
trustfulness in his brave, reliant
presence.
Then they drove away, and the
street was quiet again, and only the
crowding thoughts in the watchers
mind kept carnival.
when he was tired of thinking out
in the streets, and he found cor
ner where he could see them without
being seen. For a time he watched
the changing expressions OF her face
as the play went on; the tender glad
ness that overspread it when she
turned to speak to her lover, the sun
ny sweetness of her smile at some
pretty bit of the dainty story. He
saw the wistful shadows deepen in
her eyes when a fair mother clasped
her laughing baby to her breast And
perhaps 1t was pity that they had
had none. A pity, did he say? He
was forgetting; it was well-well, in
deed, for such as him. His better ma.
ture, hidden somewhere all these
long years, was creeping out like a
thing long hidden, shamed OF its very
existence.
He felt suddenly sorrow for his
wife, for himself, for the other man.
1t would be fearfully, bitterly hard
for her, he seemed to realize all at
once; and why was he so eager TO
revenge himself on her? She had not
caused his ruin, his downfall. On the
contrary, she had pleaded with him
on her knees-on her knees, he re-
membered, with tears streaming from
those gentle eyes and voice broken
by sobs, she had pleaded with him to
go away from his temptations and
his friends and start life anew with
her. And he had laughed at her.
He remembered the scene as 1t
were yesterday; but the memory
struck him coldly as the fingers of
some chilling wind And then an
other thought came to him, and at
first he could have laughed outright
at the madness of the suggestion.
Why not go away now, back to
Cuba. back to the other life. safe into
Oblivion again. and leave her as he
| had found her-free? What? After
! he had come only to find her. after
he had laid his plans so carefully and
well, after he was fully determined
to stop her making some one else and
herself happy-leave her?
And yet? And yet?
She bad known bitter sorrow. and
her youth had been shortened by that
! sorrow. She was young no longer.
Her eyes looked weary now, and the
smile had faded from her lips as she
! sat back in the shadows. Would she
never smile again after he had re-
claimed her?
A great resolve was forming itself
in his mind. He would go away
again as he had come into the dim
ness of the unknown, into that far
world across the seas. He would
! fight out his battles by \ himself.
Who knows? l might do better" he
: said, musingly. At any rate, she
should be free; free to love a good
man, free to be happy, and to smile
as she had smiled tonight, free from
him.
I've never done a good deed in my
life before" he said to himself, mock
ingly. But I'll do one now. God
knows, it costs me something, but I'll
do IT,"
And then he gave her one look
the last-as she smiled again into
the happy face of the other man, and
stole away into the night.
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