The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-05-18
nargery's
Little Romance.
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Miss Margery stood on che veranda
in the shadow of the luxuriant elena
It's vines. and watched the man and
woman in the garden among the
roses, with sorrowful little shadow
on her face. It was sweet, pleasant
face, despite the shadow on it, and
the few silver threads that five-and-
thirty years had left among the Blown
tresses on her forehead; a grave, kind
face, with soul looking out of the
brown eyes, and making you feel at
once that Margery Marsh was a wo-
man to be trusted, and one wno was
able to stand alone with her pure,
womanly dignity. But it is a sad
thing to see any woman or man Tor
that understanding alone in the
world. God never meant it to be SO.
The man she saw helping Ellie OAR
ryl to tie up saer rose bushes was John
Cramer. She had known him years
ago, when they were children, in fact,
and she had never forgotten MIN,
though years of separation had come
and gone, and both of them were
growing old. She mad loved him
then, and her heart was not one OF
those which changes easily and for
gets the absent face. She had thought
that he loved her. Indeed she
was sure that he had. for with
Joan Cramer, softly whispered words
meant something.
He was not the man to use words
lightly. But an uncle of his in Eng
land had died suddenly, and he was
sent for to take charge of his affairs,
and the years had come and gone,
fifteen of them, she told herself, as
she thought it all over, and the man
she had loved was lost to her.
Well, it were better to have sad
yet sweet little memory of pleasant
vanished days than life full of dis
cord and regret for hasty action.
Now she was sure that he mad ceased
to care for her in the old way, and
IL he had cared for her as she wanted
the man she married to care for her,
he could not have forgotten SO easily.
He never could nave forgotten. And
since he could forget, it were better
that everything between them had
ended as it did.
But her womans heart would feel
its loneliness sometimes in spite OF
her, and yearn for something to lean
on, and some one heart dearer and
nearer than any other heart could be,
to contide in And this morning, as
she saw the man she had loved walk
ing and talking with Ellie Daryl, her
heart cried out longingly for that
which seemed beyond its reach.
It is a bitter, tantalizing thing to
see the happiness we covet most COM
ing unasked to brighten lives that
have no need of it seemingly-nves
so full of completeness before that
they cannot properly appreciate the
greatest Of all Blooms, love-while we
wait outside the charmed land, and
stretch eager hands, imploring en-
trance where that must be which we
have looked and longed for, but have
not found It must be somewhere for
all of u.s. If we could only find it!
When John Cramer came back from
Europe thrill of the old love woke
in Margery's heart, like an ecno of
music that has almost died away in
a mountain glen, but which some
thing suddenly sets ringing again. The
man whom she had loved so long ago,
the man whom she had thought her
lover once, was near ner. The thought
was sweet, and at the same time bit
ter. Her lover once, but her lover no
longer. She had thought, in vague,
dreamy way, when she heard that he
was coming back, unmarried, that
possibly, after these years of absence,
his heart yearned for the woman he
mad left behind him. But when he
came, and the first quiet greeting was
over, she was quite sure that he had
long ago ceased to love her, and sne
had kept herself in shy secIusion. He
came often, but she fancied that it
was Ellie Darryls pretty face which
attracted him: and thinking this, with
a nameless pain at her heart, she
tried TO avoid him, and forget her
foolish dream of what might not be.
He looked up. as they stood among
the roses, and saw Margery standing
on the veranda. A bright smile made
his bronzed and bearded face look
very much like the face OF the Jonn
Cramer she had known years ago. and
he came UP the path, and said. as he
ran up t1e steps and held out his
hand in the old, frank way:
You have grown to be little gray
nun, Margery. / hardly see you at
all. am half inclined to think you
hide away wnen I am here. You are
"a 80 hnna0D