El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-21
THE AWAKENING
BY Charles Herbert,

1t is not a very unusual thing when
a boy and girl grow up together and
live at one another's side for many years
for their acquaintance to develop en-
tirely on brother and sister lines, even
though there IS no relationship between
them. Both of them get into the habit
of taking one another for granted, and
If one of them suddenly awakes to the
fact, either that the boy at her side
mas become a man, strong and gifted
and attractive, or that the girl has be-
come a woman. lovely, charming and
magnetic it generally comes as a shock
to the other.
Just such young couple-Curtls
Blunden and Myra Yorke-were stand
ing one fine September afternoon lis
tening to the music of the band on the
pier at Hastings, whittier they had
strolled in desultory fashion, leaving
the elderly gentleman, who was Cur
tbs Blunden's father and Myra Yorke's
guardian, sitting on the hotel veranda
Mr. Blunden had smiled satisfied
smile as he watched them off, and
saw that Myra slipped her arm into
Curtis Blunden's in the most matter
of fact and confident way.
had said. and on the pier they had loaf
ed for the last hour.
Suddenly Myra looked up, and for the
first time in her life, she saw there
was that in his eyes which enabled her
to read the Geographic despatch from
his soul 1t was only flash. yet 1t
suffuSed Myra's cheeks with crimson,
but it was a crimson of annoyance, and
a feeling of dismay sprang up in her
mind. That Curtis could ever have
thought of her in that way startled
her, and made her resentful They were
like brother and sister, and her pride
in all that Curtis had done had been
the pride of a sister.
looking at her companion; her tone at
strange variance with the merry tune
the band was playing.
They sauntered off the pier. and
turned along the parade, and as they
reached the breakwater Curtis turned
to her and said huskily:
Il want to speak to you, Myra- 1
want to ask YOU" he proceeded, IF,
somehow, you and I can't sail together
through life. I must be thoinking of
settling soon TO something, and If L
have to leave you behind tit will
be a wrench, dear. Can't you come
with me as my WlIo ali IIlS cOlOiy
and dispassionately, although the man
within was seething with excitement.
He didn't dare to look at her, but kept
flicking his boots with his cane. Any
thing more unromantic could not have
been, and Myra, who had her own girl
lodgings after a love that seemed like
it, looked up merrily, and saying:
ooh, Curtis, it IS simply absurd. I
could never think of you in that ca
pacity. Why, you always seem to me
like my brother. Is it a joker"
"A joke" he exclaimed. "a jokei If
so, then the dreams of my past few
years have made it pretty long joke"
Very well, dear" he answered re-
signedly. Don't trouble any more
about it, But don't let the pater know
what I said. 1t isn't necessary"
But, meanwhile, 'the pater' was sit
ting in the smoking room of the hotel
musing. He remembered his early
struggles for success as young bar
rister. the chance which had thrown
an important case in his way, the use
he had made Of it, and the golden
years which followed. Yet It. was not
on them that his thoughts dwelt, but
rather on the boy who had been left
him by his wife He had conferred all
his hopes in Curtis, and there had
never been a son who more richly de-
served a fathers affection.
Fourteen years previously, Myra
Yorke had been sent to him as a ward,
by the wish Of her widowed father, and
a short time later Col Yorke had died
leaving his. estates heavily shackled