The San Francisco call., 1909-04-18

love could invent was hers His position and his
religion forbade divorce. bur il understood that
ii anything should happen to his vile she would
be united to him by the laws of church and state
His wife died But this was after they had known
each other for full FIVE years And SO while she
was joyously and eagerly looking forward to an
carly marriage with him his visits grew rarer and
rarer his messages colder, and day she received
letter from him in which he announced that For
reasons OF state he was forced to marry again,
countess high III favor al court
He said that he though it only right to let her
know before the bctrothal was made public that he
would always regard her as good friend, bit he
considered 1t best for them to each other
again though she was to retain her house and all her
possessions and receive stated amount OF
money every month Tor the remainder Of her lifc in
memory OF the many happy days they had spent to-
gcthcr.
The very next day She left the house. Twice in
the months that followed she tried to take her life,
for living only dreadful nightmare her now.
But both times She had been discovered too soon.
After time she thought to forget her sorrow in
hard work ior She resolved follow his
desires to the letter and him again. Then
gradually the conviction her that this former
life which She had sincerely believed justified by
the unreasonable social conditions which alone for
badc its public announcement, and by the strength
and purity of her love- was the contrary alto
gether wrong, had been unlawful, sinful and mex
cusable She convinced that her grevous pun
ishment only just retribution, and she de-
cded to do what penancc she could. She moved to
another part OF Russia, joined a secret order which
did charity work among the peasants and accom-
plishcd good She thought she had forgot
ten her old life that at least she safe from
any reminder OF it. But it is almost impossible to be
lost i'll police frettcd Russia
Go, Ia,y III,
He wrote that he had found ii was she whom he
had always loved and that he could not live without
her. He begged her forgiveness and wanted to bring
back the old days again She did not answer the
letter But she knew that the old love i'll her heart
had only been sleeping and for fear her good reso-
lutions might not be strong enough that her con
science might not be able to hold against her
love for him if she chanced TO him, she
away
Peggy never could gain very clear details OF her
journey here America, but it must have been one
long series OF prvations and fearful obstacles When
she arrived i'll New York she sought for work un-
successfully. Then hearing OF possible position III
a certain western city, she out for it | suppose
this was the askStraw She reached the hospital
and Peggy, and She never seemed TO want to go any
further
Peggy said she glad the girl died She had read
the book of life very thoroughly, the humor and the
patnOs. ana II she 1ad nNed there WOutu nave been
only blank pages for her TO turn and all
her days. And in the book Of life it is not good to
have blank pages.
Now, as long as | am dong out plots for en-
bryonic authors, here IS pretty and complete
a ever done into print. One OF my
young friends, who has recently graduated, told me
this story:
She was nursing young girl with typhoid 4 pri-
vate patient The girl was full of life and high
spirits and during her convalcscence chafed the
necessary confinement aud inactivity Grace says
that if she had not been pretty and dear and
lovabc it would have been impossible to bear her
mpatience and constantly impending explosions
One day the girl started in to hum softly TO her