Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-06-01
2coPYR,oS4 1910 BY rng CENTURY co
copYRIchT n 5Y TIE SUCCESS CO

that, and she caught her breath.
Thank you-Philip."
We'll have our holiday, Jeanne, but
we must have a better understanding
frst."
mo! No more!I can't!"
But he went, steadily on: You said
there was only one way out, and I
knew what you meant. 1t is a way
out-a way that I can't deny your
right to take. If we're talking of
rights. During the five years that l
spent at Sandoyal I always regarded
1t as a right that I could exercise
when / chose. Perhaps that is n Of
the reasons l never exercised it. But,
Jeanne, If you elect to take that way.
l shall take It with you"
She struggled away from him, turned
and faced him with horror-stricken
eyes. "You must not say that! You've
no right to threaten me with that!
No right" Then, clutching at his
hands again, "You must promised"
Again she pulled her hands away
and covered her face with them. She
was trembling u~ncontrollably.
1T was not a threat" he said stead
lily. 1T was a promise, a promise
have the right to make. l make it
again, now, Jeanne-a solemn prom.
ise before God. Whether it's living OF
dying, l shall go beside you"
"No right" she repeated in a whis
per. What possible right could you
have to make a promise like that-a
threat that calls itself a promise?"
81 have the only right there is
Listen. Last night, when you were
lying there asleep, l sat thinking,
thinking about you, about the love
had for you; about the change which
that love had made in me and would
go on making after l had lost you. Fol
| faced losing you. l knew that wher
they sent a boat ashore for you,
should have to let you go without {
word. If I could have heard a prophecy
then, that today I should be telling
you | loved you, telling it with a cleal
heart and conscience, I should have
gone half-mad for Joy. 1t seemed al
if the thing could never happen. l an
a man with a stain upon me, and yes
terday that stain made it impossible
to say anything to you but goodby.
meant to say it, and take my wa.
through the air again and live out tn
rest of my life on what, from you
bounty, you had already given me.
"But the coming Of a new day ha
changed all that. 1t has given me tn
right to tell you what I have told yor
and 1t gives me the right to make tina
promise. Isn't that quite plain? Don
you understand"
81 must think" she gasped. "Yo
must let me think"
mo" he said, Il have not asked &c
an answer. There is nothing that 20
have to tell me. Nothing that II
waiting to hear. No decision that 20
must make. You understand what
said and you know it's true. Th
supreme fact in my universe l
Just you. That gives me tn
right to follow you wherever 70
go. But you are still free. 70
can stay here, where Fate has put vol
and let me stay here, too, being sur
that all the happiness in the 'worl
there is for me is to be found here a
your side, In helping you. And then
the torture of privation, loneliness an
despair become too hard"
She turned to him then and int.
rupted. Her words came quietly, III
accompanied by any gesture of her e:
pressive hands. She spoke with tn
. utmost simplicity.
"They won't be too hard, I think
; neither the privation nor the lionel
; ness. There won't be any despair
not with you, my friend. And-an
: we will follow my fathers gospel"
. She saw the blood go ebbing out
: his face, and then come back with
: surge. He drew in two or three grei
breaths of the keen, winelike al
Then, in a strangely matter-of-fa'
fashion, he seated himself beside he
: "That gospel begins with breakfast
: he said.