Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-03-20
Cepyrirh., y Lo.hrop Publishing Company
CHAPTER NlI.-Cosr1SBEp.

In the far night, when he awoke to
sudden and hungry aloneness, he would
n let his arms feel their hunger for her.
The vision of her would be flowers and
3 music and sunlight and time and all
4 thin things perfect to mystify and delight,
Sfto satisfy and-greatest of all boons-
:t0 unsatisfy. The thought of her be-
b came q rest house for all WEAKNESS: q
haven where ne was free to choose his
4 nook and lie down away from all that
VAS not her. which was all that was
y not not beautiful. He would go back to
seek sesl the lost sweetness OF their first
meeting; to mount the POOR dead belief
wat sne would care for him-that he
could rake her care for him-and en-
ew the thing with artificial life, try
I'M to capture the faint breath of it.;
Dnt the memory was always fleeting,
4ttenuated, like the spirit Of the mem
! q Dry OF 4 perfume that had been elusive
az hest. And always. to Danish what
d 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 penance
and corrective.
They came before him with especial
J. CiearnesS when he met her from time
TO time during the winter He watched
I her in talk with others. noting the con-
fradiction in her that she would at
one moment appear knowing and mas
terfni, with depths of reserve that the
otner people neither fathomed nor
knew OF; and at another moment frank
slrhsh,' with an appealing feminine
nelplessness 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.
i 50 that he abandoned himself for the
moment. responding to her fresh ex-
sult1ng 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
softest kiss, to be the child-mate of her
= Toward him, directly, when they met
she would sometimes be glacial and
forbidding. sometimes uninterestedly
frank. Rs it they were but the best of
commonplace friends. Yet sometimes
she made him feel thai she. too threw
herself 1 heartily TO rest in the thought
OF their loving. and cheated herself as
ne 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 vet
be well.--rThey talked as the people
about them talked, words that meant
.nothns, to 9selther., and If. there were
mute questionings. naked appeals. un-
uttered declarations, they were only
such as language serves to divert at
fention from. Speech. doubtless. has
rs uses as well as it's abuses. Politics.
for example, would be less entertain
ing without it. But in matters of the
heart, certain it is that there would be
fewer misunderstanding if it were
I forbidden between the couple under
the penalty Of immediate separation.
In his affair real meanings are rarely
conveyed except by silences. Words
are not more than tssteless drapery to
obscure their lines. The silence OF
lovers is the plainest of all speech.
warning, disconcertiDg indeed, by its
very bluntness. any but the truly
4 mated mat An:5shour's silence with these
two people by themselves might: have
worked wonders. G X