The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-04-01

drawer for an envelope. II had
hoped to number your first among
those few"
He held the envelope toward her,
and for moment she hesitated. She
seemed about TO leave the room, but
she turned and faced him again.
"You told me once that you never
would marry an actress" she said
tensely. "Was 1t because-because you
did not want me on the stage that you
that you wrote as you did?"
IL have made no secret of my ad-
miration for you" said Hartley sim
ply, land / may have made the re-
mark you attribute to me, but it was
with no desire to drive you from the
stage that / framed my criticism as l
did"
Cant you see," he continued pas
Bionately, "the awful position in which
I was placed. II l praised your acting,
should have made my paper the
laughingstock Of the town. If spoke
the truth l knew that I should lose
you. Every line of the story in this
mornings paper was studied that I
might speak as warmly as l dared
without stultifying the paper"
ut was q little better than the rest"
admitted Norma, 'but 1 thought you
had been little kind so that l would
| not suspect how you had induced the
| other critics to be so merciless."
"On the contrary, 1 saw none of the
boys" he declared. 81 was far too
sick at heart to mix with them and
hear their ugly comments"
"Was really as bad as that?" asked
the girl wonderingly. II thought it
was because 1 was an amateur and
| had the money to hire the theater and
the company. They always jump
upon the rich amateurs, l had heard
I thought that was it. Was 1 really
as bad as all that?"
Don't ask me-" pleaded Hartley,
| but the pirl persisted.
"You have a good voice and good
| presence" he said slowly. You have
some crude ability, but that is all.
| You lack the spark of genius. Even
money cannot buy that"
"Then you think will never be an
actress" she asked with quivering
| lip. Hartley shook his head, and she
| turned away 10 the window pressing
her brow to the cool pane, against
which the sleet ratified angrily.
| For several minutes she stood thus
| looking out into the whirling snow
and hail with unseeing eyes, while
Hartley silently watched her.
| He would have given the world to
| take her in his arms and comfort her,
but instinctively he realized that she
must fight her battle alone. She was
the one woman in all the world to
him, and yet he dared not speak.
At last she turned, and now her eyes
were smiling, though her lips still
were drawn and white.
"Why struggle against unanimous
condemnation? You must be right
she conceded II never shall make an
actress, and you said that you never
would marry an actress"
"Fd marry you IL you were Bern
hardt and Duse in one" he cried, "but
I rather would marry just you, dear
| Will you have me? In spite of the
blow that I have struck your pride
can you love meF
II hate to marry a wife beater," she
said, with q wan little smile, "but
Frank, l think I'd rather have your
love than to be a great actress, and
/ don't mind the notice-now"
Jimmie, coming in with a card
turned and fed precipitately.
,t,nIv Inf AIp NJ III T1h Z
had the best Of it, goin' to prize fights
an ball games" he said rehectively
"but 1 guess it's Mr.. Hartley that has
the cinch. I'd rather kiss that pippir
than know the hull ball team"