Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-08-13
her LAST LONG SIGH
BY GRACE G. BosTWIcK.

ing the letters and kilograms over
listlessly. TT isn't as though she had
cared" he repeated, DULY, opening
and closing the small drawers, one by
one. He was searching for a photo
graph that she had kept on her desk
"a likeness taken In her early girl
hood, long 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 the familiar writing
and paused. He opened 1t with trem-
bling fingers.
81 did the best I could" he said,
slowly to himself. II couldn't help
not caring. l thought 1 could-at
first. I thought it would come with
time. God! how hard it has been,
how bitter hard!" He passed his thin,
nervous hand wearily 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"
~ wonder if she knows now," he
breathed. II wonder If she knows
and understands. She never seemed
to understand anything. I used to
wonder how anyone could feel SO lit
tie and live. l tried once to tell her
how I felt and she laughed. Said
I needed something to tone me up.
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps I am
a morbid chap. Poor Helenl" he
sighed as he pored over the letter in
the failing light. He sat up, startled.
Dear" he read, "I couldn't hope
ever to make you understand how l
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 1t all!
81 want you to know If you are left
-sand you will be-that have always
cared. Dear, I know how it is with
you. I 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
py. love your work, your interests,
but have not dared voice 1t for fear
% that look! that cruelty Indifferent
hard, careless look! 1t burns into me
as l write and I 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 I had known!
If had known!"
At last he climbed the heavy. dark
stairway to the room above to face
his dead. He turned back the white
coverlId 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 as
he looked.
IF I 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 horror of
burial with life still eMstant. He
started and looked again, piercingly,
Into her still face. 1t was not mar
ble-like as the faces he had seen In
death A sudden hope clutched at his
heart
Helen" he cried. come back!
You are mine, child; I have always
loved you-always. I didn't know.
o 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.
He 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. 1t is I-open your eyes
to mel" II was the impassioned ap-
| peal of soul to soul
Then slowly, wearily, unwilllngly,
as of some child waking from 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 nve!" 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.