Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1908-01-09

| suypoJed you could want me for your
| wife. I'm only little girl--only six.
teen last October--but I'm so sorry for
| you, who have been so kind. If | only
| could love you as you deserve! l do love
| you, too; but not the way you mean.
cannot be Maddy Holbrook no, doctor.
cannot"
She was sobbing piteously. and in his
concern for her the doctor forgot some
what the stunning blow he had received.
Don't. Maddy, darling" he said,
drawing her trembling form closely to
him. Don't be so distressed. l did not
much think you'd tell me yes, and | was
fool to ask you. l am too old; but
Maddy, Guy is as old as I am"
The doctor did not know why he said
this, unless in the first keenness of his
disappointment there was a satisfaction
in telling her that the objection to his
age would apply also to Guy. But it
did not affect Maddy one whit, or give her
the slightest nkling of his meaning. He
saw it did not. and the pain was less
hard to bear. Still, he would know GER
tainly if he had rival, and SO he said:
"Do you love someone else, Maddy! Is
another preferred before me, and is that
the reason why you cannot love meT
NO" Maddy answered, through her
tears. There Is no one else. Whom
should I love, unless it were your
know nobody but Guy"
That name touched a sore. aching
chord in the doctors heart, but he gave
no sign of the jealousy which had trou-
bled him, and for a moment there was
silence in the room; then, as the doctor
began family to realize that Maddy had
refused him, there awoke within him a
more intense desire to win her than he
had ever felt before. He would not give
her up without another effort, and lay
ing her unresisting head upon his bosom,
he pleaded again for her love, going over
all the past, and telling of the interest
awakened when first she came to him that
April afternoon, almost two years ago.
There was a great lump in Maddy's
throat as she tried to speak, but it cleared
away, and she said very sadly, but very
earnestly:
'Dr. Holbrook, would you like me to
say yes with my lips, when all the time
there was something at my heart tuggng
to answer no?"
This was not at all what Maddy meant
to say, but the words were born OF her
extreme truthfulness, and the doctor thus
learned the nature of the struggle which
he saw plainly was going on.
mo, Maddy, l would not have you say
yes unless your heart was in it," he an
swered. while he tried to smile upon the
fearful face looking up so sorrowfully at
him.
But the smile was a forlorn one, and
there came instead a tear as he thought
how dear was the fair creature who never
would be his. Maddy saw the tear, and
as if she were child, wiped it from his
cheek then, in tones which never fal-
tered. she told him it might be in time
she'd learn to love him. She would try
so hard. she'd think of him always as
her promised husband, and by that means
should learn at last not to shrink from
taking him for such. 1t might be ever so
long. and perhaps she should be twenty
or more. but some time in the future she
should feel differently. Was he satisfied
and would he wait!
Her little hand was resting on hiA
shoulder. but he did not mind its soft
pressure or know that it was there, so
strong was the temptation to accept that
half-made promise. But the doctor was
too noble, too unselfsh to bind Maddy 10
himself unless she were wholly Wiling
and he said to her that if she did not love
him now she probably never would. She
could not make a love. She need not try
as it would only result in her own un-
happiness. They would be friends just
as they always had been, and none need
know of what had passed between them,
none but Guy. II must tell him." the
doctor said, because he knows that
was going TO ask you"
Ito be continued.)