Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-01-15

ststa sRgt sRa il1i' eiHAas fiiAiR HI
sha aYEt ilaungS ng laHpiatNuf
nlf words az nnmmondatIAn. og cllif'
Oee Of kindly Counsel. aPe "cedcd by
ANYBODY In th.c wor|d. am not the
man to utter theuI What hYpocrite
must seem t" you'll who sat there
beside you preaching platitndes In
strong self copplacency. ;nstrurtlng
You how morally cdifyng ii Is - be
good and unhappy!
"1hen what happcDedf | don't know
exactly. But I'm trying to be honest
and I'll tell you what ! think nap
pencd.
"you are-you; | AMI. and we are
still those same two people who I'M.
darstood neither the impulse that once
swept ns together nor the forces that
tore us apart All. more than that.
we never understood each other. Aud
wo do not now.
"Rut one thing we do know. not
through reason. but through sheer in
stinct-we cannot venture to meet
agajn-that way. for !. 1t seems. ain
man like other men, except that
lack character. and you are--yon slllI
unchanged, with all the mystery or
attraction. all the magic force of vitall'
ty. all the esoteric subtlety with which
Won enveloped me the first moment my
eyes met yours.
I
then than there is now. and, as you
admit, 1t was not love. though. as you
also admit, there were moments ap'
proaching it. But nothing can have
real beginning without basis Of rea-
son, and SO, whatever it was, 1t van
ished. This perhaps is only the in
fernal afterglOw.
$50 now | end where l began-with
that question which answers yours
without the faintest suspicion OF re-
proach, What can you think Of such
a man as | 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.
"It 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 l know very well
could not have threatened you seri-
ously. know it because you reason
about it so logically.
by the way, / saw Mrs. Gerard's
pretty ward at the theater last night
Miss Enroll She certainly Is stun
ming"
Selwyn fattened out the letter and
deliberately tore out the last para
graph. Then he set it afre 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 it.
alike" he wrote in reply, I'VE 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 | ask it. Will your
To which she replied:
"Yes, Phil. Goodby. ALIVE"
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.