The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-01-06
The Younger Set.
Continued from page "


self to meet truth with truth. cutting
what crudlty he could from his letter:
"You ask me what | think Of you,
but that question should properly come
from me. What do you think OF man
who exhorts and warns woman to
stand fast and then stands dumb at
the first impact of temptation2
"If words Of commentator, of cour-
age, Of kindly counsel, are needed by
anybody In this world. am not the
man to utter them. What a hypocrite
must l seem to you'll who sat there
beside you preaching platitudes in
strong self complacency, instructing
you how morally edifying it is to be
good and unhappy!
"Then what happened? | don't know
exactly. But I'm trying to be honest,
and I'll tell you what think hap
pened.
"You are-you; l ami, and we are
still those same two people who un-
derstood neither the impulse that once
swept US together nor the forces that
tore US apart! All, more than that,
we never understood each other! And
we do not now.
"But one thing we do know, not
through reason. but through sheer In
stinct-we cannot venture to meet
again-that way. for l. 1t seems. am a
man like other men. except that
lack character. and you are-you. still
unchanged. with all the mystery Of
attraction. all the magic force Of vitali-
ty, all the esoteric subtlety with which
you enveloped me the hrst moment my
eyes met yours.
There was no more reason for Il
then than there is now, and. as you
admit, It was not love. though. as you
also admit, there were moments ap.
preaching II. But nothing can have
real beginning without basis Of rea-
son, and so, whatever 1t was, 1t van
ished. This perhaps is only the in
fernal afterglow.
$50 now I end where began-with
that question which answers yours
without the faintest suspicion Of re-
proach, What can you think of such
a man as l am? And in the presence
of my second failure your answer
must be that you now think what you
once thought Of him when you first
realized that he had failed you.
"PHILIP SELWYN."
That very night brought him her re-
ply:
phil, dear, do not blame you for
one instant. Why do you say you ever
failed in anything? 1t was entirely
my fault. But am so happy that you
wrote as you did, taking all the blame,
which is like you. l can look into
my mirror now-for a moment or
two.
ut is brave of you to be so frank
about what you think came over us,
can discuss nothing. admit nothing,
but you always did reason more clear
ly than l. Still, whatever spell it was
that menaced us | know very well
could not have threatened you seri-
ously. know it because you reason
about 1t SO logically.
by the way, l saw Mrs. Gerard's
pretty ward at the theater last night
Miss Enroll. She certainly is stun
ming"
Selwyn flattened out the letter and
deliberately tore out the last para
graph. Then he set 1t afire with a
match.
"At least" he said, with an ugly
look. 81 can keep her out of this"
And he dropped the brittle blackened
paper and set his heel on It, Then he
resumed his perusal of the mutilated
letter, reread it and finally destroy
ed 1t.
"Alixe," he wrote in reply, 1--WE had
better stop this letter writing before
somebody stops us. Anybody desiring
to make mischief might very easily
misinterpret what we are doing. | of
course could not close the correspond
ence, so ask you to do so without any
fear that you will fail to understand
why l ask it. Will you"
To which she replied:
Eyes. Phil. Goodby. ALIKE"
A box of roses left her his debtor.
She was too intelligent to acknowledge
them. Besides, matters were going
better with her.
And that was all for awhile.
To be Continued.
-.