Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-11
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l should not try my luck" he said
difficulty. II asked him."
There was a silence, while he gazed
at her breathing deeply. Then he
tried to laugh.
"All right" he said hoarsely. Tt
it doesn't matter. Don't worry.
She stretched out her hand to him
in a gesture of wistful pain, and he
held it moment between both of his,
then released it and went hurriedly
out.
AS the door closed, Shirley sat
down, her head dropping into her
hands like a storm broken flower
Valiant had accepted the finality
of the situation. With wave of
deeper hopelessness than had
yet submerged her, she realized
that, against her own de-
cision, something deep within her had
taken shy and secret comfort in his
stubborn masculine refusal. Against
all fact, in face of the impossible,
her heart had been clinging to this
as though his love might even attain
the miraculous and somewhere, some
how, recreate circumstances; but now
he, too had bowed to the decree. A
kind of utter apathetic wretchedness
seized upon her, to replace the sharp
misery that had so long been her
companion-an empty numbness in
which, in a measure, she ceased to
feel
An hour dragged slowly by and at
length she rose and went slowly up
the stairs. Her head felt curiously
heavy, but it did not ache. Outside
her mothers door, as was her Gus
tom, she paused mechanically to lis
ten. A tiny pencil of light struck
through the darkness and painted a
spot of brightness on her gown. 1t
came through the keyhole; the lamp
in her mothers room was burning
"She has fallen asleep and forgot
ten it." she thought, and softly turn
ing the knob, pushed the door noise
lessly open and entered.
A moment she stood listening to the
low regular breathing of the sleeper.
The reading-lamp shed a shaded glow
ON the pillow with it's spread-out sill
Yer hair, and on the delicate hands
clasped loosely on the coverlet. Shir-
ley came close and looked down on
the placid face. 1t was smooth as a
childs and a smile touched it lightly
as if some pleasant sleep thought had
just laid rosy fingers on the dream
ing lips. The light caught and spark
led from something bright that lay
between her mothers hands. 1t was
the enamel brooch that held her own
baby curl, and she saw suddenly that
what she had all her life thought was
a solid pendant, was now open locket-
wise and that the two halves clasped
a miniature. 1t came to her at once
that the picture must be Sassoon S,
and quick thrill of pity and yearn-
ing welled up through her own de-
lection. STOPPING, she looked at it
closely. She started as she did so,
for the face on the little disk of ivory
was that of John Valiant.
An instant she stared unbelievingly.
Then recollection of the resemblance
of which Valiant had told her rushed
to her, and she realized that 1t must
be the picture of his father. The fact
shocked and COMPOUNDED her. Why
should her mother carry in secret the
miniature of the man who had
killed
Shirley's breath stopped She felt
her face tinging and a curious weak
ness came on her limbs. Why, in
deed, unless-and the thought was
like wild prayer in her mind-she
had been mistaken in her surmise?
Thoughts came thronging in panic
haste, the l4th of May and the cape