Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-09-04
His Brothers
Wife
BY LEON ANSTINE SUFFER-
lcopyrIght. BY Daily Story Pub. CD

from HUH anu was oiNtihS "
Haslam's fire, toasting my feet, for
there was slight drizzle and | had
come in, chilled and damp.
| had been away for five years and
news of the fellows had a flavor, ex-
ceiling anything had found in my
wanderings.
Finally, | said, lazily blowing a
ring of smoke over my head, Its
strange Jack Bardon has never mar
Iied. He's the sort one involuntari-
ly associates with wife and chill
dren."
Iaslall closed his eyes dreamily.
/ knew that story was forth-com-
ing. At last he spoke. ''rhe right
woman came into Jacks life too
late" he said. ut happened last
winter and Jack is worse than cuT
up vet. Tn fact, he never will get
oyel it. rs case of misery with
no time limit. / do not know who
the woman was. but | have an INK
ling. and if I'm right, cant say
] blame Jack much. The woman
was married, Jack told me, and to
an old codger, who was a good
enough sort in his way, but capable
of inspiring about as much feeling
in a romantic woman as a mush-
room. She was very young and her
family had arranged the match.
"Jack only gave me few facts
and mentioned no names. never
saw mans face as white as his
was when he told me. THE Girl, =
he called her 'the girf-and he met
first at a luncheon in his rooms,
where there were plates laid for
four. 1t was the usual sort. You
know the kind | mean, the luncheon
of Bohemia,
"The other two, Pm almost sure
were Nell Eastman and Clarence
Wild. Society has almost ceased to
gossip about them now, but you re-
member that even when YOU were
here, they used to meet often in
Jacks rooms. He always felt sorry
for Nell and excused her for her
defiant way of taking what she
wanted in life. Jack would forgive
a clever woman anything. Life's
been rough to Nell,' he always said.
81 think the woman was friend
of Nells although that part of my
story is mere guessing, and we'll
take his word for it that God never
made a more beautiful woman.
"'She came into my rooms, Has
lam,' he said, like some radiant an
gel and with only the bright red
spot burning in either cheek to tell
me that she did not lunch every day
like that He said it was The short
est luncheon he ever sat at, that she
interested him as no woman had
ever interested him before, and that
he was mad for the moment whep
they should be left alone.
"But when the other two left
them, ostensibly to see a picture in
another room, and he would have
drawn her into his arms, she shamed
him with the innocent horror of her
protest, sent him to his knees, in
contrition that his passion had pro-
famed her.
"He talked to her and found
her innocent, SO innocent, he mar
veled, told her sternly that she must
never trust herself in such situa-
ton again, and she wept and prom
ised. But before she left his rooms,
because he could not give her up, he
asked her to come again, and she,
fighting with all her young strength
against the temptation, refused, yet
came.
''They met often after that. She
was only slip of girl when life
threw them together and it seemed
to him that he had been waiting for
her always. The Inevitable hap
pened. They loved each other with
love that counted all remembrance
of the barriers between them, tyran-
nous. The very air ached with their
love. They reached the )state Of
mind where they counted the world
well lost for each other. They long
ed to sacrifice themselves on the al
tar of the worlds. disdain and SO
they gave themselves to each other,
to love each other unchanginglv,
with a love, shey said, that should
grow closer and sweeter and boiler
every day, until that dark, desolate,