The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1909-04-02

that has been n my hear-then please
take me for your own
"And IT," he added very gently, "it Is
~ you would have me think. not all for
ms sake that you come to me tonight,
still. love. you come TO ne at last Of your
own will; and-some day this love may
grow and strengthen into such ~ | have
dreamed Of"
So il was on that March afternoon
Rourke and Lorraine parted In that room
where they had hrst met: and Athol-
where he had first looked upon the baby
face which was to grow 20 dear to him
held II to bis beating heart ut last. and
took a lovers kisses from the sweet.
tremulous lips.
When he had left her she fell again
into her old. dropping posture At the table.
Perhaps after this day was gone she
would never feel again. as she had felt no
often and often. She was trying hard
to stihe this feeling when her father
came into the room. Whether it was that
the suffering In his child's white face
struck him. or whether. now that he was
to lose her. he was suddenly awakened to
all that she had been TO him while he had
never acknowledged 1t, perhaps not even
understood Ii, cannot be told bur he felt
his heart yearn toward her with a love
which must have been lying dormant
through all her life.
Father" she whispered, coming to
meet him and calling him wistfully by
the name she loved to use. and which
Ina had scarcely ever uttered. Father,
| wish Blu there the words she
meant to say faltered and failed. and the
tears rose in her eyes-they were so ter.
ribly near to-day. while that nameless
fear and foreboding lowered about her.
Seeing her struggling with these tears,
he softly laid her head upon his Shout
der. for the sight NAMED him more than
he had thought that any emotion of hers
could pain him so seldom since her child
hood had any one seen tears in her beauti-
full, brave eyes. This new sympathy
made his caress almost sad in it's rare
tenderness.
Father. can this be? Are yon sorry
to lose me? DO you love me a little al
last"
In one moment before the fathers
shamei eyes stretched the years through
which his daughters love had been an I'm.
acknowledged and a wasted blessing. He
could see how she had hungered for the
affection which he had withheld, and now
he felt it rushing into his heart like a
torrent-now that he knew she was going
from him. never to be his homechild any
more.
Love you :" he said. the words coming
straight from his heart, though broken
in his keen remorse. Dearly. dearly. my
child
Then it has not been dislike through
all these years, father? | shall be SO
glad 10 remember that. Not dislike, even
though | seemed born only to give you a
terrible pain"
flush my child. these unconscious re-
Dukes are more thar l can bear. | nave
been hard and unjust to you always. l
have said to myself again and again-ay,
as il to harden myself against you-that
you caused your mothers death. | never
thought-never till now God help me =
how lie might have given you to me to
make the desolation less for you were
left to me when all yere taken. My
child. my only love, how dreary it is to
have found this out too late !"
Have you been happier, father-we
two together-thAn you will be when /
am gomez"
Il shall know u better and more hope
lessly when you are gone,' he said.
Lorraine looked up, startled, into her
fathers face. Something made her fancy
he had read her sorroN-and Rourke's.
at has been a long misunderstanding"
he said, 'but nothing need come between
us now, Lorraine"
Nothing" she echoed. with a quiet
content.
And as he kissed her then there flashed
across her memory the time when in her
childhood she had said she would be will
ing to give up all else If she might only
win his love. All else was not taken now
and this was given.
Ito be ~continued.)