The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-08
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tce. Because they are not up to your
standard of grammar you think they
are wholly bad"
mo. 1 don't think that But. Rob-"
she cried passionately they are not
our kind of people"
They are my kind of people" ne re-
torted, and she felt that he was choos-
ing between them.
II am afraid they are getting to be-"
she said sadly.
What do you mean? ?"
II mean" and she looked him
straight in the face, that the change
wrought in you in four years, If con-
tinued, will bring you eventually to the
Skidmore level"
what change has there Ieen In
me?" He was defiantly curious
"A little letting down all along the
| line she said. In the midst of such
surroundings one must consciously hold
himself up-or drop. You are careless
in your dress; you are growing rough
er In your talk and your manners. And
you don't read anything. You told me
so. How can man grow on the husks
of gossip? And your spiritual life-ah,
laddie, laddie!" and her eyes illed-"it
is shrivehng upl''
He tapped impatiently with his heel
And oh. Rob-" she burst out We
| hemently, sit has taken your ambi-
| ton away. To think of your wanting
| TO give up your profession,"
He was stung to the quick by her
plain talk. She had held up the glass
| faithfully.
IF l am as bad as all that" he
said roughly. you'd better let me go
| TO the devil and be done with it,
You would not have said that to me
four years ago."
The more they talked the more she
saw. &c her dismay, that he was in
earnest. You married for love. Why
shouldn't II" he asked doggedIy
"Oh, lovei" she cried impatiently
This is not love. Love must have
some foundation. You are infatuated,
that's all-infatuated with her beauty.
When that is gone, what will be left +?
She is hopelessly your inferior. She
viii be clog to you always. And
think of the folly of it, Rob. You hap
pen to be here at a time of life when
young men thing of marrying You are
thrown accidentally with this girl. Be
cause you have the STRINGS of passion
within you, you think you are in love
Conquer it, Robert It would mean
misery TO you both"
I've promised to marry her. mother
Would you have me break my prom
ise?"
Her very lips whitened. But she
would not give it up.
Yes" she said resolutely. IT would
Better a broken promise than two
broken lives. This marriage would
wreck you both. She could not hold
your love. You would make her
wretched. Tell her plainly that it was
a mistake. And then
Mother" he said, rising, I'VE may
as well end this. I have been en-
gagged TO this girl for year. We are
to be married at Christmas. If the
mine shuts down I'll have to go in with
John Skidmore. I have cast in my lot
with these people,
She sat perfectly still. She felt al
most as if he had struck her. His
choice was made. 1t was for this she
had spent her life
To bear, to nurse, to rear,
To love-and then to lose!"
The words came to her suddenly and
kept saying themselves over and over.
To bear, to nurse, to rear,
To love-
and at that word she felt the touch of
clinging arms about her neck and a
soft cheek pressed against hers. She
heard again a sweet. little voice saw
mamal"
and then to lose"
mother, but"
Yes. dear" she said gently, q know.
We won't talk about it any more now.
Good night
;. When he was gone she locked the
door and went TO her trunk. tossing
things about with nervous haste. and
bringing from the depths a box of old
pictures-the faded kind that are near
est our hearts. She turned them over
eagerly, frantically. until she came to
a tintype with a pinkish mat around il.
A sweet child face with curly hair
and great solemn eyes looked at her
She threw herself on her knees and
sObbed over 1.-THE bitter sobs of mid
die age that rend the soul. She kissed
the lips with passionate tears; she
touched the curls and patted the baby
cheek as If 1t were living thing-and
knew.
This is the one 1 worked for" she
whispered brOkenly. This is the one
that loved me He's dead now! NY
little lad! My little lad"
| Weeping endured for night: with
the morning came, not joy, but joys
best substitute settled purpose.
Through that vigil Mrs. Etheridge
faced the thing that doomed before her
turning it often, and viewing it from
every side. As the belated dawn strug-
gled over the mountains one convic-
ton cleared itself before her spiritual
vision. This infatuation was a madness
of the blood. He had fallen under the
spell, not of a wicked woman (even in
her anguish she was JUST, but of
weak and beautiful one. He would
wake from it some day. bewildered. but
in his right mind. If the awakening
could only come before it was too latel
In her despair of the night before
she had determined weakly to give It
up, to go home and leave him to work
out his own destruction Now she shut
her lips together and spoke sternlv to
that cowardly self: mo! [ have stood
by him in every emergency of his life
and he needs me now as he has never
needed me before. I'll save him in spite
of himselfP'
| When she appeared at breakfast she
was her own well-poised self, as Rob
ert saw with unspeakable relief. Adj
miratiOn rose within him to see how
| she held herself in hand. with what dig
nifty she accepted defeat. And with
| admiration came a surging back of his
old boyish love. 1t had been hard for
her. harder than Idella or her mother
could ever understand, and he glanced
from one to the other with swift. in
vidious comparison.
When they spoke about it again she
said only: "She is not the woman I
| would have chosen for you, nv son but