The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-28

I asked myself if I was Indeed a gen tleman measured from their stand
 point At any rate, could not remain
 one and be silent
 The colonel crossed the room and
 passed out into the hall, got up and
 stood leaning on the back of the chair
 in which had been sitting.
 Miss Ellen" said, T have some
 thing important to say to you It is
 not what you think" for pained ex-
 pression came into her face. ''It is a
 confession have to make.''
 "Yes, MT. Palmer" she said and
 turned from the window to face me
 The sun had come from behind bank
 of clouds and crimsoned the checkered
 panes of glass, and her hair, catching
 the rays that filtered through them,
 framed her in a halo and to me gave
 her the appearance of saint Her face
 was pale, and her long eyelashes were | fringed with tears.
 Miss Ellen,'' said softly, .1t was I
 who wrote those Ietters'' For moment she did not speak, and when she did her voice seemed passion less.
 'Then it was you, after an," was what she said "I had refused to en- certain the thought even until you yourself confessed it. Even now 1t seems too horrible to believe. And stopped speaking to my best friend merely because she half playfully sug- gested that it might be you-'' She said this more to herself than to me.
 ''Why did you not tell this to me be fore,'' I said. ''and would have ex- plained?'
 'FWhy did not tell youT' she asked, her voice breaking with anguish. Be cause I thought you were gentleman and you were our guest It would have been an insult to have mentioned it. Such a suggestion would have been a reflection on him you ridiculed and on me. whom you would have made be- Heve you loved had you dared to speak the lie upon your lips"
 Love youP' cried. T would die for you!'
 'It is the only way you could ever prove 1t now" she said. 4HOh,'' she con tinued, 'sf you had only leveled your ridicule at me alone! But father, poor old fatherS I am glad he will not see that last letter. He would hardly think that one funny"
 She looked at me, and her eyes sud denly seemed to blaze with scorn and contempt.
 ''Yes, see it all now, and the won- der is I did not see 1t before. It was he whom you described as a broken down aristocrat who descanted on politics and wrote pieces to the paper telling the president how to run the | government It was mother who dress l ed in wornout velvet gowns and sat in 1 state at the dinner her daughter had | cooked. and it was who cooked the | dinners and played sonatas and noe turnes for the amusement of our | guests. God, why did not see you as you were? Yes, and these are the hands, she cried in anguish and scorn, i holding them toward me that I might 1 see them, that have cooked your meals for the past four weeks, and 1 these are the same hands that played 1 for you while you smoked your pipe and heard father descant on politics! How poor and miserable we must have seemed to you! All that could have | forgiven. but you dared to soil my skin with your kisses. They will burn deep here,'' she said, pointing to her fingers, Hong after your -ingratitude has been forgotten"
 Ellen, for Gods sake have pityY' cried. T have laughed at your pover- y as II 4I WCIC AAJ OWas dIA never told this to you before-and l felt that the only use of my wealth in the future would be to relieve the bur dens of those you love. This night nay, this very afternoon-I was going to ask you to be my wife, from which moment your father, mother and broth CT would have been mine also It was this very poverty and the fortitude with which you bore 1t that have made me love you. After you spoke this aft ernoon I could not tell you of my love until I had confessed first that I was the author of the letters which wound ed you so deeply" |
 ''I am glad you spared me that last I can never forgive my self for being happy in your company or for spurning the hand stretched out to lift US from this degradation"
 Squire Hawkins" I said in bitter ness.
 'fYes, Squire Hawkins, whom you would have insulted as you have us. And to think that just because I had listened to him I believed myself un- worthy of your loyel You must ex-