Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1913-09-25
HER LAST LONG SIGH
Ry GRACE q. 6osTWtck-


and closing the small drawers. one by
one. He was searching for n photo
graph that she had kept on her desk
"A likeness taken In her early girl
hocI, iong before he had met her.
AS he felt clumsily about among
the papers a letter fell out. He start
ed to replace 1t, but caught sight OF
his own name In tho familiar writing
and paused. He opened 1t with trem-
bling fingers
Il did the best | could" he said.
slowly to himself. Il couldn't help
not caring | thought l could-at
first. | thought 1t would come with
time. God how hard it has been,
how bitter hardl" He passed his thin.
nervous hand YEARLY across his col
orless face. AT least she never
knew, never suspected, nor cared,
either way" he said. bitterly. She
was as indifferent as-as | was"
II wonder If she knows now" he
breathed. Il wonder IL she knows
and understands. She never seemed
to understand anything. used to
wonder how anyone could feel so lit
tie and live. | tried once to tell her
how | felt and she laughed Said
| needed something to tone me up.
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps / am
morbid chap Poor Helen!" he
sighed as he pored over the letter in
the falling light. He sat up, startled.
Dear" he read, Il couldn't hope
ever to make you understand how |
love you. You have just left me-
cold, unloving, careless, as you always
are-and | (poor foolish, loving thing
put my starved arms about your chair
and laid my lips passionately against
the spot where your dear head has
lain. Dearest, no man was ever loved
more deeply, more tenderly, than you
are. O, the sadness, the heartbreak
of it all!
Il want you TO know if you are left
and you will be-that have always
cared. Dear, | know how it is with
you. l know that the bonds have be-
come so irksome that they have worn
into your very soul If you had cared.
John, we should have been very hap
Ply, love your work, your interests,
but have not dared voice it for fear
% that look! that cruelty Indifferent,
hard, careless look! 1t burns into me
as I write and l writhe under the
torture Of It,"
He sat with his head on his arms
for hours. Once he cried out in
agony: MY God, If l had known!
II had known!"
At last he climbed the heavy. dark
stairway to the room above to face
his dead He turned back the white
coyerlid with hands strangely steady
after his long vigil
Her face was oddly girlish as it
was in the little photo. He felt vast
tenderness yelling up within him az
he looked.
If | could tell her just once and
see her smile as she used to smile
before!" He buried his face in the
clothes at her side at the recollection.
He remembered suddenly that she
had been possessed of a horror of
burial with life still existant. He
started and looked again, piercingly.
into her still face. 1t was not mar
bie-like as the faces he had seen Ia
death. A sudden hope clutched at his
heart.
Helen" he cried, come back!
You are mine. child; l have always
loved you-always l didn't know
Q child, open your eyes TO mel" His
face went gray with the effort of his
life. He was straining, striving
against death, the conqueror himself
tie prayed by all he held sacred By
his mothers memory. BY his belief
In love, by the prayers of the long
gone dead, and holding her two cold
hands In his own, he chafed and
warmed them unweariedly, repeated
ly, calling to her, pleading with her,
begging her to come back.
The passionate warmth of his ap-
peal softened the cold stiffness OF her
fingers. They seemed to him to be
growing plant, human.
Helen" he called for the last time,
Helen child, it is I--open your eyes
to mel" 1t was the impassioned APP
peal Of soul to soul.
Then slowly, YEARLY, unwillingly,
as OF some child waking from a sleep
of deep exhaustion, the cold. white
lids lifted and the familiar eyes
looked into his own, though family
as from a long distance. The shadow
OF smile parted the gray lips-the
lips Of death
You are going to livel" he cried,
loudly You are going to live-for
me" He felt her cold. cold face
against his own hot cheek. He heard
her sigh-a long sigh OF rapture that
was almost a sob-then blackness.
In the little study below the sick.
room-the room of resurrection-a /
lew hours later Atherton again fum-
oled about his wife's desk for the lit 1
Tie photo Again his awkward hands |
tumbled the contents Of the drawers 1
N reckless confusion, but at last they
closed on the treasured picture. Tears |
oI JOY. the great tears that rise out /
~