The Winslow mail., 1911-04-22

fAi-'C7 NOtS SHdhlu2t ana nPr HOS6fS
had grown cold Under her breath
she was iterating; 1T must be settled
lit must he settled, Why can't
make him see?"
Its more than / deserve that you
should even speak to me, after all
those years of silence" the man hur-
rted On But when I explain" He
hesitated and she plunged at once
into the pause.
But you don't need to explain.
Don't you see? It is /, just as much
that is, more. Er-I didn't write,
either"
He shook his head and smiled sadly,
as if brushing this aside.
And when / think Of all those
years, he resumed, and see you now
and know that year after year you've
been right here, and-and haven't for
gotten, T."
But | haven't been right here, | did
forget broke in Mrs. William Say
brook, frenziedly. Its ali a mistake.
You don't understand I'm not Miss
Hartley, at ALL"
jerry Hapgood stopped short. His
face grew white, then red
You mean that youre-married?
he burst out.
Yes, yes; don't look like that,
please! 1t was so long, and I was so
young, and you didn't write" she rush
ed on childishly, not realizing what
she was saying. And I don't think
you ought to blame me. | saw Will
liam that is. he saw me first, of
course-not that l mean that I'm sorry
he did see me; but-Jerry, why don't
you say something? Can't you under
stand?"
But you--I called you Miss Hartley
at the first, and YOU -you-" He
STOPPED helplessly.
Yes, yes, | know I did, she moan
ed, keeping her eyes resolutely turn
ed from his face = was taken by
surprise. and didn't think. But since
then, all the time I've been trying to
tell you" She stopped abruptly They
were at the edge of the woods; and
coming up the hill from the town was
a slender, serenefac woman.
Mrs. Saybrook clutched Jerry Hap
goods arm.
jerry, go back through the woods,
quick! That's my brothers wife com
ing up, and I can't let you meet her.
I can't"
But, Marion
mo, no, not word please, if you
ever cared for me, go now! [ tell you
she knows who you are-who you
were. Please. got"
And Jerry Hapgood went.
For a week Mrs. William Saybrook
wore the air of gentle gloom that be
longs to those who, through no fault
of her own, have sorely wounded
muchloyed friend. Then, one day, in
a letter from her husband in New
York she found these words
Il heard such a good story the other
day that I'm going to pass it on to you
I ran across a fellow that I met down
in Panama, and saw quite little of
that year before I came north and
found you. It was he who told the
story. He said twas such a good joke
that he'd Just got to tell some one
only he hadn't quite made up his mind
yet whether the joke was on him or
the girl
1T seems that years ago he'd had
the most romantic sort of a love af-
fair with an eighteen-year-old miss
somewhere up here in New England.
They had vowed undying love and 10y
atty after the fashion of impetuous
youth, and had then parted, he to seek
his fortune in the wide, wide world,
she to watch and wait
We'll, It seems that he traversed the
wide, wide world before he got
through with it, and, youth-lIke, his
vision of the eighteen-year-old maid
grew dim, aided by particularly ex-
citing series of adventures, including
wars and shipwrecks, not to mention
Imprisonment and serious illness, It
was the last that was his undoing; for
it was while he lay tossing with fever
that his new love-a beautiful girl
whom he had been ardently courting
for a year or so-found out about the
old, She got enough from his rawlings
and from a letter she found (while
hunting for some friends name to
write to Of his illness) to make her
suspicious; and when he got better
she put him through a merciless cate
chism. It was all up with him then
The girl refused utterly to have an
other thing to do with him, and per
emptOrily ordered him to go back and
marry his boyhood sweetheart, who
in the letter-had promised faithfully
TO wait for bim-forever, if need be,
We'll, he went He got the doctor
to write first, and sort of break the
ice; then he followed the letter. He
owned up to me that he was ashamed
of himself and meant TO make the best
of things. Girl Number Two had
opened his eyes to what q rascal he'd
been to Number One, and he came
back with a determined resolution that