The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1908-07-02
When the Parrot
Spoke
By CLIFFORD HOWARD
Copyright, By ehoFtstoFy Pub. Coz

% tcopyright. ~ shortssory Pub. Cos -
Town gossip was in hutter Of
speculation: Doctor Hartman was
among the bidders at the public sale
Of Ann Motley's furniture!
It was, of course, common knowl-
edge that once upon a time the doctor
had been the accepted lover of Ann
Motley, but that their tranquil court
ship had come to sudden ending and
that from that time to the day Of her
death the timid and reserved spinster
and the kindly doctor had gone their
separate ways. What had come be-
tween them, why they never again
spoke or met, nobody knew. Evident
ly. there had been proving
that loves course runs no more
smoothly in the summertime of WOO
ing than in it's season Of bud and
blossom; but beyond this there was
naught but rumor.
There were those who protested to
note change in the doctor since he
had ceased to call at the garden-cloi-
stored cottage on the hill. Nor were
these observers far amiss; for whatever
may have been the extent to which
he gave visible sign of his troubled
heart, the estrangement between him
and Ann Motley was to the doctor an
unending source of sorrow and bit
terness. 1t was not so much because
of what he had said to her in the mo-
ment of their little storm, for he had
spoken with obvious unmeaningness.
but it was because she would not for
give him.
After the first day of rufled temper
he had chivalrously acknowledged
himself in the wrong; and, unheeding
the words she had uttered in the
stress of overweight emotion, declar-
ing their love and friendship at an
end, he went to her in penitent love,
craving forgiveness. But she refused
to receive him. Prim, sensitive Ann
Motley! The timid love that had had
its first awakening in the sunlight Of
his presence had shrunk back into her
heart, wounded and affrighted. He
had profaned her proud sensibilities,
give him. And therefore it was that
she refused to see him and that when
he wrote to her she declined to an.
swer his letters.
"Your silence tells me-" he wrote
in his final appeal. "that you cannot
know how deep and all-absorbing Is
my love for you. If the few hasty,
unmeaning words that escaped me in
fash of thoughtless irritation have
outweighed with you all I have said
or done. it is useless for me to attempt
to convince you to the contrary. !
shall not again ask you to take back
tho love you have cast aside pray
Only that you viii forgive me. Surely,
you cannot deny mo this. Let M
know by some word or sign that
have your pardon for my cruel though
unintended words, and shall ask no
more. Grant me this-not for my
sake, II you 90 will Il, bat for the
sake Of the friendship, the lsve the
happiness that once were ours"
These were the last words he ever
addressed to her. She did not 70
spoud. 0Naot and unfore1ving, IN ooe.
disnce to the dictates a IN sxaot1As
cunsdanoe, she shut hsrseK out fbom
his HE.
7hsu, with the pride Of lofty man.
hood. hs respected her decision and
thereafter bore himself toward her
O. q stranger. Never again did he ap.
proach her nor mention her name. YET
there was not day during an the
weary years that followed that hs did
not bow in spirit before the shrine
Of his buried love and pray to heaven
that he might some day know abe had
foreiven him. In vaan he sought to
isnore the blight that her unforgivins
silence cast upon the sacred memory
Of her being. It lay upon him a. Z
curse: and a. time went on his prayer
became q craving morbid, brood.
ing passion-inspired by q dread lest
he or she should die before his soul
should be cleared Of its deepening
blot.
Throughout his daily life it haunted
him with q restless fear. Yet he gave
no conscious outward sign to the
world nor to her Of the torment of his
spirit. Ministering to others IL their
trials and Affections; ready always
with his kindly interest and words OF
cheer, and giving to weary hearts
the comfort and the benediction Of his
tender sympathy, he shared with nc
one the burden Of his own cross; but
alone and uncontrolled, he bore It in
mute desolation through the unbroken
silence of the years.
And when, one evening In June, she
passed away suddenly and without the
herald warning Of sickness-he1
heart having gently ceased its work
a she dozed in her chair-the blow
fell upon him with crushing despair;
She was gone; leaving him alone, ut
terly alone-and unforgiven!
Yet withal there remained the neb
~ hA6