Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-05-06
The Argus Daily Story
The Circlet-By Julia G.. Dana.
copyrighted 1911 BY Associated Literary Bureau.


he acted outwardly as though he had
ventured upon ground on which he had
no right TO tread. Iuwardly there was
great change in him toward his
fiancee.
When he went home that night the
warning he had received against the
American beauty, the hints as to her
plebeian origin. the mystery attending
her inheritance, all came up before
him to throw him into fever that no
other cause could have effected. Sup
pose this circlet should have some con-
nection with either Of these matters.
Absurd. There was much more rea-
son to suppose that 1t concealed
blemish, q birthmark, or perhaps one
of those scars of unusual size and ugli-
ness that are left by a vaccination.
And yet would this woman, about
whom there was an impressiveness
that affected every one who came near
her, refuse to tell the man she was to
marry that on her arm was a trifiing
blemish2 II the first supposition was
absurd the second was more so. No:
there was some mystery connected
with the circlet-a blot, a weakness.
There was a weakness in this strong
woman, a very strange weakness, a
weakness that no one could conceive
as existing side by side with a being
of such mental and spiritual caliber.
but what it was or what was the mys-
terry it shielded Percy was not destin-
ed to find out from Miss Denton. He
was to learn it by accident.
The secret grew and festered and
throbbed and panied till the lover
could stand it no longer. He was 4
masterful man in self control and sue
ceeded in concealing what he felt from
the woman he loved-not that she
failed to discover that something had
come between them or that she did
not realize that the secret she had re-
fused to tell him was on his mind.
What she did not know was that he
was trying to make up his mind to re-
sign her. All the traditions of his fam
lily We're against his marrying a wo-
man who had no pretense to an aris-
tocratic birth and about whom, despite
her evident fine character, he feared
there might be something wrong. He
determined to absent himself from her
for awhile to determine If he could
| not forget her.
He was tempted to SO to America
and investigate her past on the ground
where she lived, but he banished the
! idea in n moment. Investigate the past
Of the woman he was to marry! He
would wed no one who would not
| H. - = Ill g.
| No; he would go down to Italy. The
beautiful lakes, Maggiori, Como, would
inspire him with other thoughts, and
the American-he shuddered at the
thought that she might be an adven-
turess-would gradually be effaced
from his mind.
So he bid Miss Denton adieu, telling
her that he would run over to the con-
tinent for brief season of recreation.
intending to advise her OF the pro-
longation of his absence later by let
ter. The morning after his arrival in
Paris, taking up a newspaper-the con-
tinental newspapers are mostly socie-
ty journals-his eye met the following
item, copied from an American paper:
Miss Helen Denton. an American girl
whose name some years ago was In every
ones mouth. is creating a sensation In
| London society. Miss Denton Is tho
| daughter OF lighthouse keeper on tho
! New Jersey coast and when sixteen years
| old during storm carried a line in a boat
TO a yacht that was going to pieces on a
bar near the lighthouse where she lived.
thus saving the lives of the yachtsman
and his family. He left an enormous for
| tune a part of which went to the heroine
who had succored him and his wife and
| children.
Percy started from his seat, took the
paper to the window and read the
item again and again.
And this was the woman he was
trying to get away from! But the cir
cleti What could that have to do with
don and find out.
The next evening he called upon his
fancee and without mentioning his
unexpected return handed her the item
he had cut from the Paris paper. She
heaved sigh.
"It's all out that am a plebeIan. 1
release you"
"WIll you now tell me why you wear
the clrcletf"
Raising her sleeve. she showed him
tattooed picture in blue ink OF a girl
rowing a boat.
What does it meanT' he asked
''The men at the life saving station
put 1t there"
And the letter H."
"Oh. they thought I had done some
thing remarkable. 1t was not so. I
only pulled out to a wrecked yacht
with lIpe In tow"
THE letter stands for heroine. does
1t notf'
81 suppose it does"
He stared at her in wonder Great
heavens! Have you been concealing
from me that you are heroine TO fur
Their conceal that your father was a
. lighthouse keeperY'
YES"
: He had no words for such a woman.
He took her 10 his arms and covered
, her face with kisses.