Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-18
Eve,,;,,g Story
in EXTREME MOMENTS.
BY Martha McculIoch Williams.

BY Martha McculIoch Williams.
Copyright, 1911, by Associated Liter
airy Press.)
II wish" Dallas began, half
turning away his eyes.
"a woman sighs: Il wish!' A man
should say: 4 will Helen May
quoted, mischievously yet with
faint flush.
Dallas laughed uneasily. IF could
will. I would have no need to wish"
he said.
Indeed! Can't you tell me the
wonderful wish?" Helen asked. He
shook his head, but irresolutely.
"You wouldn't understand he
murmured. signing family after the
last word.
"Wouldn't +? What stupid l must
bel" Helen laughed, pretending to
pout afterward
! Dallas got. up and walked the
length of the ROOM At the fireplace
he said abruptly over his shoulder;
II wish 1 had never seen you or else
could marry you."
whether or no?" Helen countered,
her eyes dancing.
He turned short about. mock
me! All you like!"' he said. you
knew from the beginning l wasn't free
to choose Marcia's father made
me-but for him should never have
got a start. I've paid the money-in-
sisted on it the first minute l could.
But gratitude! Heavens! All I am
or ever shall be, won't begin to pay
that. And he has set his heart on
having me In the family-Marcia
herself acquiesces- doubt If she
greatly cares"
"You are wrong. Sac does care"
Helen said also rising. "You are as
much an outward and visible sign OF
her fathers wealth and consequence
as her motor or her tiara
"And nothing more? Lord! If
thought So Dallas began.
Helen put up her hand impera-
lively for silence THAT was hor-
rid spech--truth generally is she
said.
Forget it. please-it makes no DIFF
ference and remembering will only
hurt
Notwithstanding shall remem.
Ter" Dallas said, his voice low ano
hoarse.
Helen went a pace toward him.
IA wise man would marry Marcia
out of hand" she said. She is 50
handsome, her bridegroom cannot fall
to be fond of her"
II am fond of her-so fond l
thought loved her-until you came
into my life," Dallas said, little
shake in his voice.
Helen's eyes met his long gaze
steadily. "Are you sure you know
what love is?" she asked clearly.
IF / loved, neither heights nor
depths, nor principalities nor pow
ers. nor any earthly things could
come between me and my beloved.
"I see. you despise me as a cow
ard" Dallas said, half turning away.
"No-nothing more than wise,
a very wise person. she answered. q
little bitterly. prove the wisdom py
leaving me at once"
Dallas would have caught ner 70
his breast-she pushed him away
pointing silently to the door.
AS 1t closed behind him she sank
down, shaken with gusty sobs. Sne
had hoped he would stay IN spite OF
everything-here as everywhere. rate
stood -..arcia's friend.
It was hard. Marcia was her cousin
once removed big, slow, splendid.
phlegmatic Helen herself was bit
Of human quicksilver-she had not
meant to let herself really love Dallas.
The affair had begun. indeed, IN her
determination to show that once. II
no more she could triumph over MAJ
cia. Marcia had everything
friends. the love Of real man, even
though she was not going to marry
him. And as the wife Of Dallas she
would have honors-perhaps almost
the highest in the land. Already men
smoke of him as a darling of the gods.
Things came to him. unasked, ap-
parently, that other men sought
through toilsome years, yet never
found. He was rising. thirty-hve-lt
was part Of the situation that, dlsre,
garding all temptations. he had waited
to match himself with his benefactor's
daughter. He had played with her.
a dimpled, rather heavy creature, mad
watched her grow into an ugly Dig
girl and later a magnificent woman.
She had accepted him as part OF the
picture since she was ten she mad
said placidly to all talk of her future.
II am going to marry Eugene, SO
he can really belong to daddy !.
Then had come the episode o.
Doctor Ware-the last man IN the
world one would have thought to go
down before her He was as big, as
vital as she was-moreovera quite
as rich. Science had been his ruling
passion until one day he woke sud-
denly to the fact of Marcia. There
after, for three months. he had been
her shadow-she had made his world
indeed. When it came to an end
with her soft-spoken NO. he had
flung himself anew into work-hos-
nitai work, and highly paid. He
gave away, though, each month more
than thrice his salary.
Therefore it was into his hands
Dallas. almost mortally hurt, fell
within an hour from the time he
Quilted Helen. He was unconscious,
barely breathing, his heart beats the
merest ghosts of pulsation. Doctor
Ware grew nearly as pale-hold him
self as hard as he might, he could
not quite push to the back of his