The Mena weekly star., 1910-08-25
CHAPTER xx.
The Repentance That Came Too Late.

u- vas afraid to be alone. The others, the officers of the ship. that is. not iangford-he had gone back to his own yacht, declining the captains in | citation to dinner-would have re- | spected the islanders mood and have left him to himself. but It was evi. dent that he crayed their society. Whitaker and the old chaplain sus. pected how 1t would be with him. but they knew that sooner or later he would have to retire to rest, and soon CT or later he would be alone.
 And then his grief was so obvious, that in accordance with natural and commendable tendency they strove te cheer him up. They encouraged hiIt Co ask questions. They told him many things in reply that the woman could not have told him; that he had half dimly suspected, but had not known. They cleared up to him many
 hings which had seemed mysterious md strange to him.
 And on their part they marveled at the things he did know, at the thor. oughness with which he had been taught, and at the wonderful acute ness of perception which he displayed. The woman had marveled at it, too, but she had become used to 1t in three years of intimacy. They saw it i'm mediately with greater surprise. In such expressing conversation the long hours passed until the striking couplets of the bell forward tolled eight and 1t was midnight. No one had any desire to sleep in view of the unusual and stimulating expert ence which both parties to the inter change of thought in the play of ques- ton and answer were enjoying But il was the captain, hard-headed and practical. who gave the signal for re- tiring The men were not accustomed to disregard even the suggestions of the autocrat of the ship.
 A spare cabin in the wardroom had been arranged for the islander, and there provided with the unwonted lux. ury of night wear after a hearty Goodnight" from the lieutenant com mander and fervent God bless you" from the old chaplain, he was left to his own devices. The strangeness of his situation, the soft bed. the snowy linen. the silk pajamas. the con flning area of the cabin. the sudden touch with iuxuries of civilization would in itself have kept him awake had he been as heart whole and as care free as when the woman had landed upon the island But, indeed, the strangeness of these things aroused no emotions in his mind at all, for the moment he was alone his thoughts. which he had been fighting desperately to keep upon other things. reverted to her. What was she doing for the first time alone upon that is- land? What was sine thinking7 He realized that no more than he could she be sleeping
 These were the first moments that he could give to reflection, the first qulet hours that he could spend in considering the situation and in get ting back his rudely disturbed bal ance There had been method in his training, and he had been taught the value of considering series of events logically in all their lights and bear ings. Lying in the comfortable berth he reviewed at length and deliberate ly the history of his life from the day that he had been born when he first bent over her sleeping upon the sand until that great glad hour when, the earthquake enlightening him, he tore the rocks asunder clasped her in his arms and pressed the first kiss that he had ever given any one upon her lips
 Unainchingly he reviewed with what calmness he could muster the scenes of the morning and the day He forced himself to consider in all lts lights and bearings the informa- lion that had been given to him. He tortured himself by the deliberate slow recalling of every detail. and then. ouivering as if under the stimu. lus of some blow upon a raw wound, be reviewed his own conduct Enlight- anment came to him in that dark and silent hour. He discovered first of all that he loved her; that the check and counter-check and variation and alter alton in his emotions had been swept away in q great development of a more transcending feeling If she should ask him that question on the morrow as to whether he loved her
 as he had on that never-to-be-forgot- ten night, he would still answer no' | because he loved her more.
 And then he discovered that he wanted her more than he had ever de- sired her before; that she was more necessary to him than ever he had dreamed she would be; that here was no question of honor or duty, indeed. bat of love, overwhelming, obsessing 1 And then he admitted that she was nurity. even holiness itself; that he l had behaved to her like cur; that he had been neither grateful, nor kind. nor tender, nor loving. He began to wonder fearfully if, after having failed so egregiously and terribly
 there was any possible chance that she could ever care for him again. Fate had brought her into intimate contact, he realized, with two men. One had | traated her outrageously in the pe-