The Whitefish pilot. [volume] (Whitefish, Mont.) 1904-current, 1910-03-03

'D0 you bcltcUc aUhdt you arc telling me,
Jimsu Smith,"
ed. "You must and shall hear me.
You have said what you had to say.
Now it is my turn, and l, too, will |
speak plainly. You believe-you know |
Il am and always have been good
woman. You believe that was faith
full, as far as was humanity possible,
to the spirit as we'll as the letter of
my marriage vows, made fervently,
trustingly. l swore to love and honor
Joe Brooks. 1t was easy, for l did
then love and honor him beyond un-
Outstanding now. But neither love
nor honor is kept alive eternally by the
virtue of an oath in the face of de-
fusion and worthlessness Gold was
tinsel; diamond was glass. You were
witness to the slow numbering of love,
and you saw it strangled and thrown
down at the last as he would have
strangled me had you not prevent
ed"
He would have spoken, but she
mand.
mo, don't interrupt. Hear me to
the end and then speak. What is this
thing that you are asking me to do?
You are asking me to go to living
death, to make of my heart q sep
ulcher Of all sweet or elevating emo
ton, to surrender my lips to the fetid
kiss Of an Iscariot. to deliver my body
to his loathsome embraces. while my
soul sickens with disgust and horror
my body that he would have betrayed.
hired out for a piece Of silver and,
gloating, taken back again. You are
asking ME to immediate myself with all
that l hold sacred and beautiful on an
altar that you style duty. Now apply
your rule to this. Is it right? Is it
wrong? Oh, Jimsy, answer me! Be-
fore God. Is 1t right?'
She stood trembling with the vehe-
mence Of her defense and the strength
Of her feeling, her arms outstretched
In Interrogation and appeal.
great sigh was the indication Of
the conflict that was raging in Smiths
heart, and for one single instant the
mask of impenetrability fell from his
face.
She read the answer there.
Removing fevcrishly the glove from
her left hand, she forced from her
finger the wedding ring that in the
years had frightened closely upon 1t
and hurled 1t from her. 1t ricochetted
on rock and went bounding over the
outer edge of the plateau far down
into the painless, tangled brush Of the
almost perpendicular declivity.
Smith turned away in silence, and in
silence they made their way back
along the little path up which they
had come. Neither spoke, even at the
, difficult places when he stretched out
, his hand and helped her with its
strong, sustaining clasp.
, Jimsy was grave and distracted. In
. his Gethsemane he had drunk toe
deeply of the waters Of knowledge
and they were bittersweet, heavily
impregnated with regret and dismay
. Emma had discovered the secret
: which for years he had guarded sc
jealousy and-oh, the blissful torture
Of it!-had revealed to him that sh;
! loved him. This was the outcome OF
d his self sacrificing mission on behalf
e Of the husband who stood between
them with the right Of the might @,
J. law and the conventions and who's!
J. trust was in the keeping Of his honor
s His role Of platonic friendship wa:
ended. His privileged relations will
s the woman who was dearer to hin
than life could no longer be main
o tanned. The home Of the Harris fam
fly could no longer be the refuge o
n his loneliness, the pleasant oasis II
= the desert Of his existence, where b
o could find consolation and rest for hi
suffering heart. beyond which tn
world lay dark and indiscernible.
y CHAPTER XXI.
;. Ut was to Brooks an interminabl
week that elapsed between hi
visit to Smith and the latters n
:. turn from his mission. Patienc
- was one Of his virtues. Having take
= the decisive step toward a reconcile
:, ton with Emma, he yearned MOI
"a than ever for his wife herself. He say
a her now only as she was when he ha
70 made her his bride, only as she ha
been in the full Towering of her rhal
sodic alteration, and the vision abide
with him by day as well as by nigh
!. inthralling all his senses.
That the rapprochement would /
%, effected he entertained no doubt wha
- ever Her present position, he WI
~ convinced. must be intOlerable. e
,o planned to make her homecoming q
occasion Of festivity that would mar
T. the beginning Of new. unending hol
~~-,oc~ u~ nod 'A".-A~' ''>''"t. e-"'