The Bourbon news., 1913-09-05

BY r. n. LANCASTER.

The discussion had begun While
| they-Allan and his sister Maria
| waited for breakfast. 1t was the morn
| ing of Ash Wednesday.
ooh, of course, you don't approve of
| fasting because you can't do it. Men
| like to think they are a great deal
stronger than women, but the truth is,
they are the weaker vessel
We'll, my Lord, Maria! If nothing
else will satisfy you, will try it. I'll
go down town now without my break
fast and stay there till dark. You
needn't have any dinner prepared for
me, or supper either"
Allan departed for his Office for the
| first time in his life without a good
| breakfast inside of him.
By twelve o'clock Allan's head was
raging with pain and feeling as heavy
as though loaded with lead.
By four o'clock he was feeling sick
and wretched. He put on his hat and
went out to seek relief from fresh air.
His flight carried him to the resi-
dence districts, into a quiet street,
where a gray old house looked over
rusty gate upon an empty square.
Myrtle Fleming lived in that house.
She opened the door to him herself
because the rest of the family and
their one servant had gone to church.
She did not look at Alan's coat, but at
| his jaded eyes; and by way of greet
ing, she said gently:
"You have a terrible headache,
haven't you? Come into the dining
room and let me fix up some coffee
| for you"
Thank you-but don't bother he
protested family.
do you," she ventured doubtfully,
"ever eat scrambled eggs?"
"The kind you cook with chopped
| ham," he asked with interest
Myrtle turned that he might not see
the quick tenderness that filled her
eyes. NO." she said, "the kind you
serve on slices of cold boiled ham,"
1t was a square meal before they
got done with it, and the strong coffee
cleared Allan's head like magic. When
it was all over and he was leaning
against the mantle with his cigar, AL
Ian looked down on Myrtle in a
chastened spirit.
Tell me- Allan said unexpectedly
edo women suffer so much?"
Myrtle started. Suffer, why?"
Maria said this morning that a
man didn't believe in fasting because
he couldn't do it. I tried it, he added
laconically.
"And it made you i'll? am not sur.
prised."
81 don't see," Allan murmured, how
fasting could ever take the form of
good thing"
well, in times of great mental an
guish, fasting does take the edge off
of suffering"
Allan looked down at her thought
fully did you ever break your
heart? Oh, didn't mean to be inn
pertinent. But-all girls do, don't
they?"
Il don't think I ever exactly be-
lieved in broken hearts," she told him.
No" he said decidedly, I've al
ways felt that way about you; that
you were the sanest woman I knew;
that it would be- like heaven to live
along with you day after day; that you
would always be gentle and refined
and controlled; that you wouldn't turn
the whole house into cosy corners one
week and the next send all the beds
into the garret and expect a man to
sleep on pillows; that no matter how
down on my luck 1 might be, the feel
of your fingers in my hand would
make me a man again in a minute;
that-Myrtle, didn't mean to wound
you! | wouldn't have brought tears
to your eyes for the world. Don't
you know that?" He bent down anx-
iously with his hand on the back of her
chair. "P try my best to do the
straight thing by you"
"I know it."
"But you think you couldn't learn to
care for me-that way?"
""Oh, of course I could"
Then what is it that distresses you
so, dear? If we care for each other
nothing else matters, does it?''
81 am not distressed" she said.
"But you were ready to cry min
ute ago.
ooh, WE'LL" She smiled with touch
of mischief. Don't you think you'd
be ready to cry if you had been keep
ing Ash Wednesday every day for a
good while?"
''Not il they were all like this one.
It's the first Ash Wednesday T ever
kept. What are you smiling at? I
did come very near to keeping 1t. I
tasted from daylight till four o'clock,
and you are the loyeliest woman in
the world, sweetheart! Did you know
that?"