The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-04-18

with Valiant, It had been Of the
vaguest. His choice Of her rs Queen
Of Beauty had seemed natural hon.
age to that swift and unflinching act
Of hers which had saved his life.
There was in her mind q more OBJ.
vious explanation Of shirley's altered
demeanor. perhaps it's Chilly Lusk."
she had said to herself. Have they
had foolish quarrel, wonder7 All.
well, In her own time she will tell
me-"
There was some relief to Shirley's
overcharged feelings in the very dis
comfort Of the drenched weather: the
sucking pull Of the wet clay on her
boots and the flirt Of the drops on her
cheeks and hair. She thrust her dog.
skin gloves into her pocket and held
her arms outstretched to let the wind
blow through her fingers. The mois.
ture chung In damp wreaths to her
hair and rolled in great drops down
her coat as she went
The widest, most secluded walks
instinctively chose enc of these today.
1t was the road wherein squatted Mad
Anthony's whitewashed cabin. "Dah's
er man gwine look in dem eyes, honey,
en- gwine make 'em cry ell cry" She
had forgotten the incident of that day.
when he had read her fortune, but
now the quavering prophecy came
back to her with a shivering sense of
reality. "Fo' dah's fab en- she ain
afeah'd, en- dah's watah en- she ain
afeah'd. Els de thing whut eat de
ha'at outen de breas'-dat whut she
afeah'd of" II it were only fixe and
water that threatened her!
She struck her hands together with
an inarticulate cry. She remembered
the laugh in Valiant's eyes as they had
planted the roses, the characteristic
gesture with which he tossed the wav.
Ing hair from his forehead-how she
had named the ducks and the pea.
cock and chosen the spots for his
flowers; and she smiled for such men,
cries, even in the stabbing knowledge
that these dear trivial things could
mean nothing to her in the future.
She tried to realize that he was gone
from her life, that he was the one
man on earth whom to marry would
be to strike to the heart her love
and loyalty to her mother, and she
said this over and over to herself in
varying phrases:
"You can't! No matter how much
you love him. you can't! His father
deliberately ruined your mothers life
your own mother! It's bad enough
to love him-you can't help that. But
you can help marrying him. You
would hate yourself. You can never
kiss him again, or feel his arms around
you. You can't touch his hand. You
mustn't even see him. Not If it breaks
your heart-as your mothers heart
was broken!"
She had turned into an unbeaten
way that ambled from the road
through track of tall oaks and pines,
scarce more than a bridle-path, wind.
Ing aimlessly through bracken- strewn
depths so dense that even the wild.
roses had not found them. In her
childish hurts she had always fed to
the companionship Of the trees. She
had known them every one-the black
gum and pale dogwood and gnarled
hickory. the prickly balled button.
wood" the lowly mulberry and the
majestic red oak and walnut. They
had seemed friendly and plying coun-
sellers, standing about her with arms
intertwined. Now, with the rain weep
Ing in soughing gusts through them,
they offered her no comfort. She sud.
denly threw herself face down on the
soaked moss.
"Oh, God!" she cried. 81 love him
80! And had only that one evening
1t doesn't seem just. If could only
have him, and suffer some other way!
He's suffering, too, and 1t isn't our
fault! We neither Of us harmed any.
one! He isn't responsible for what
his father did-why. he hardly knew
him! Oh, God, why must it be so
hard for us? Millions Of other peopl.
love each other and nothing separates
them like this!"
Shirley's warm breath made little
fog against the star-eyed moss. She
was scarcely conscious of her wet and
clinging clothing, and the soaked
strands Of her hair. She was AZ
wrapped in her desolation that she n,
longer heard the sound of the perse
vering rain and the wet swishinp q,
the bushes-partlng now to hurried
step that fell almost without sound on
the spongy forest soil. She started
up suddenly to see Valiant before her
He was in a somewhat battered
walking suit of brown khaki, with q
leather belt and felt hat whose brim
stiff with the wet, was curved down
visor-wise over his brow. In an in,
slant he had drawn her upright, and
they stood, looking at each other.
drenched and trembling.
How can you?" he said with q
roughness that sounded akin to anger
Here in this atrocious weather-like
this!" he laid hand on her arm,
You're wet through"
II don't mind the rain," she an
swered, drawing away, yet feeling
with guilty thrill the masterfulnes:
of his tone, as we'll as it's real concern
I'm often wet"
His gaze searched her face, feature
by feature, noting her pallor, the blue
black shadows beneath her eyes, thu