Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-09-09

he said, but I love you, Barbara, and
I want you for my wife. I said the
same words to you years ago, and
failed you. / vas only a weak boy
then, swayed about by a designing
woman Now ! am a man, knowing
my own heart, and with all It's intense,
pent-up passion 1T cries out for you"
Fol a moment Barbara's face seemed
glorified with light. Her cheeks glowed,
her eyes enlarged, her breast heaved.
She put both his hands In his.
Il lever have been content without
you-not for one moment" she said.
Nothing filled my life so full that I
did not feel the need of you, Harold"
Their wedding was arranged for
three months later. She fingered until
the last month, seemingly unwilling to
separate from him, and then went back
to her old home. 1t was occupied by
tenants, but h wanted to make her
preparations there, she said, as she had
dreamed Of doing so long ago.
And they were to be married in the
village church by the old family
rector.
Let the old dream reach perfection
in every detail at last" she said.
The little church was crowded when
the day came. All in a sheen of white,
Barbara stood before the altar, and
felt her hand taken by the man who
discarded her years before.
wilt thou have this man to be thy
welded husband?"
The old rector waited for the re-
sponse. 1t came like the report Of a
pistol.
Never! AS he once rejected me so
now do I reject him!"
And she swept down the aisle, whittier
than her robes, and left q gasping
crowd of astonished people staring
blankly after her.
Very calmly and very coldly Howard
Snow passed down and out Of the
church. He went to the hotel where
his luggage was left, and began to
make preparations for departure by an
early train. But his hands seemed
paralyzed, and strange lights danced
Before midnight he was In a raYing
delerium. The next morning they
found him in a high fever, calling wild
ly on the name Of Barbara, and re-
Wiling some woman he called Helen,
who seemed pursuing him.
H cannot live" the doctor said
the next evening. '"Will someone go
cruel deed to come here for a moment?
The sight of her may quiet him, per-
haps."
But while he spoke she came in, her
bridal white exchanged for funeral
black, her long hair falling loose about
her. ...
She giided TO the bedside and put her
hands on his face.
Howard" she called. in a trembling
voice; 'oh, my love, Howard, forgive
me before you die"
But he fanCied she was the woman
Helen, and shrieked and grew so vio-
lent that they sent her from the room.
There was a week Of wild delerium
and then a week of stupor, and then,
like r. pale wrath Of her former self,
she came in slowly and knelt beside
him.
She put her wasted cheek beside his
on the pillow, and the tears that had
refused to flow, fell slowly down, as
she said:
ooh, I thought revenge was sweet,
but 1t is bitter, bitter, my love-"
How she knelt there she did not
know, but suddenly she was startled by
a sigh-a very ghost Of a sigh, II
seemed to her. She put her hand over
the heart she had believe still forever.
1t futtered feebly.
"Oh, thank heaven!" she cried, and
fell unconscious.
An hour later she found herself in
bed and kindly cared for and smiling
faces all around her.
He lives" they said. Your touch
brought him back from the very gates
of death"
a still more pallid groom passed down
the old church aisle and out into the
great world.
Somewhere they dwell today-happy
let US hope, since they had so suffered
in the past.