Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1906-08-30
Copyright, by Lothrop Publishing Company
CHAPTER xII.-CoNr1NUED.

ShAL LIN all
In the far night, when he awoke to
sudden and hungry aloneness, he would
7et his arms feel their hunger for her.
The vision Of her would be flowers and
music and sunlight and time and all
things perfect to mystify and delight,
to satisfy and-greatest of all boons-
to unsatisfy. The thought Of her be-
came a rest house for all WEAKNESS; a
haven where ne was free to choose his
nook and lie down away from all that
was not her, which was all that was
not beautiful. He would go back to
seek the lost sweetness of their first
meeting; to mount the poor dead belief
that she would care for him-that be
could make her care for hin-and en-
dow the thing with artificial life, try
ing to capture the faint breath of 1t;
but the memory was always fleeting,
attenuated, like the spirit Of the men,
DRY of perfume that had been elusive
at best. And always, to Danish what
joy even this poor device might bring,
came the more vivid vision OF the
brutal, sordid facts. He forced himself
to face them regularly as a penance
and corrective.
They came before him with especial
clearness when he met her from time
10 time during the winter. He watched
her in talk with others, noting the con-
tradiction in her that she would at
one moment appear knowing and mas
terful, with depths OF reserve that the
other people neither faihomed nor
lynnuy ~. ond NJ apnthar roOpoanf Rron1y
1y girlish, with an appealing feminine
helplessness which is woman's great
est strength, coercing every strong
masculine instinct.
When the reserve showed in her, he
became afraid. What was she not
capable Of? In the other mood, frank
1y appealing, she drew him nightly,
80 that he abandoned himself for the
moment, responding to her fresh ex-
nlting youth, longing to take her, to
give her things, to make her laugh, to
enfold and protect her, to tell her Sc
crets, to feather her cheek with the
Noftest kiss, to be the child-mate of her.
Toward him, directly, when they met
she would sometimes be glacial and
fOrbidding, sometimes uninterestedly
frank, as IL they were but the best Of
commonplace friends. Yet sometimes
she made him feel that she, too, threw
herself heartily 10 rest in the thought
of their loving, and cheated herself, as
he did, with dreams of comradeship.
She left him at these times with the
feeling that they were deaf, dumb and
blind to each other; that If some means
of communication could be devised,
something surer than the invisible
play Of secret longings, all might yet
be well. They talked as the people
about them talked, words that meant
nothing to either, and If there we're
mute questionings, naked appeals, un-
uttered declarations, they were only
such as language serves to divert at
tention from. Speech, doubtless, has
its uses as well as its abuses. Politics,
for example, would be less entertain
ing without it. But in matters OF the
heart, certain 1t Is that there would be
fewer misunderstanding II It were
forbidden between the couple under
the per,alty Of immediate separation.
In this affair real meanings are rarely
conveyed except by silences Words
are not more than tasteless drapery to
obscure their lines. The silence Of
lovers 10 the plainest of all speech,
warning, disconcerting indeed, by its
very bluntness, any but the truly
mated. An hours silence with these
two people by themselves might have
worked wonders.