Middletown transcript., 1912-05-11
to your

" yOui
"What are Words7 The heart
speaks to the heart, the soul whis-
pers to the soul. And so it was with
US. I had fought for you, you were
mine, mine. My heart sang it as l
painted and struggled over the rocks
carrying you. 1t said the words again
and again as 1 laid you down here in
this cabin. It repeated them over and
over: mine, mine! 1t says that every
day and hour. And yet honor and
fidelity bid me stay. 1 am free, yet
bound; free to love you, but not to
take you. My heart says yes, my con-
science no. I should despise myself
If l were false to the love which
my wife bore me, and how could I
offer you a blood stained hand!"
He had drawn very near her while
he spoke; she had risen again and the
two confronted each other. He
stretched out his hand as he asked
that last question, almost as if he had
offered it to her. She made the best
answer possible to his demand, for be-
fore he could divine what she would
be at, she had seized his hand and
kissed it and this time it was the man
whose knees gave way. He sank
down in the chair and buried his face
in his hands.
"oh, God! Oh, God!" he cried in
his humiliation and shame, "if l had
only met you first, or if my wife had
died as others die, and not by my
hand in that awful hour. can see
her now, broken, bruised, bleeding,
torn. can hear the report Of that
weapon; her last glance at me in the
midst of her iadescribable agony was
one of thankfuIness and gratitude. I
can't stand it, am unworthy even OF
her"
"But you could not help it, it was
not your fault And you can't help
caring-for me-"
"I ought to help it, 1 ought not love
you, 1 ought to have known that !
was not fit to love any woman, that
I had no right, that was pledged
like a monk to the past. l have been
weak, fool I love you and my hon.
or goes, love you and my self-respect
goes, I love you and my pride goes.
Would to God l could say love you
and my life goes and end it all" He
stared at her a little space. There
is only one way of satisfaction in it
all, one gleam of comfort" }" he added.
"And what is that?"
"You don't know what the suffering
lis, you don't understand, you don't
comprehend"
"And why not?"
Because you do not love me-"
''But I do" said the woman quite
simply as if it were a matter Of
course not only that she should love
him, but that she should also tell him
so.
The man stared at her amazed.
Such fierce surges Of joy throbbed
through him as he had not thought
the human frame could sustain. This
woman loved him, in some strange
way he had gained her affection. It
was impossible, yet she had said so!
He had been a blind fool. He could
see that now. She stood before him
and smiled up at him, looking at him
through eyes misted with tears, with
lips parted, with color coming and 60
ing in her cheek and with her bosom
rising and falling. She loved him, he
had but to step nearer to her to take
her in his arms. There was trust,
devotion, surrender, everything, in her
attitude, and between them like that
great gulf which lay between the rich
man and the beggar, that separated
heaven and hell, was that he could
not cross.
Il never dreamed, I never hoped
Oh" he exclaimed as if he got his
death wound, this cannot be borne" Z"
He turned away but in two swift
steps she caught him.
Where do you go?"
"Out, out into the night"
you cannot go now, it is dark;
bark to the storm, you would miss
your footing you would fall, you would
freeze, you would die"
What matters that?"
81 cannot have it."
| "It would be better so"
He strove again to wrench himself
away, but she would not be denied.
She clung to him tenaciously.
'T will not let you go unless you
give me your word of honor that you
will not leaye the plateau, and that
you will come back to me-"
81 tell you that the quicker and
more surely go out of life, the hap
pier and better it will be for you"
"And / tell you" said the woman
resolutely, that you can never go out
of my life again, living or dead" She
released him with one hand and laid
it upon her heart. ''You are here"
Enid" cried the man.
NO." she thrust him gently away
with one hand yet detained him with
the other-that was emblematic OF
the situation between them. mot
| uOW, HOI yet, let me lHluhy UuL pIOA-
Use me you will do yourself no harm,
you will let nothing imperil your life. y
"As you WILL" said the man regret
fully. 81 had purposed to end it now
and forever, but promise"
your word of honor?"
"My word of honor"
"And you won't break it"
81 never broke it to human being
much less will 1 do so to you!"
She released him, he went into the
other room and she heard him cross
the floor and open the door and GO
out into the night, into the storm
again.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Face in the Locket.
Left alone in the room she sat down
again before the fire and drew from
her pocket the packet of letters. She
knew them by heart, she had read and
reread them often when she had been
alone. They had fascinated her
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