The Ocala evening star., 1914-08-20

bit grimly, n ~ II |
have something
more than mere romance which al |
ways seems somewhat intangible to |
me-moonlight and summer nights, |
and the frivolity of things"
"Yes, but we men forget easily,
interrupted Davids, checking what !
promised to be a voluble discourse
on the philosophy of romance as inter
preted by Forde-'it's the women who
feel the iron in their souls, and who
live on and love on, and die with the
wonder of 1t undiscovered"
"Quite true" remarked Deming,
who had hitherto been silent and abb
stracted; "and I will tell you of just
such a case
Somehow all present felt that some
thing was forthcoming.
"Boys," he continued quietly and
with an odd depth to his voice, we've
been good pals, all Of us, and / alone
have been reticent and secretive-now
I'm going to show my hand.
when was twenty-five l was
rather unlike most men at the same
age. My life had been, and was, COM
posed of outdoor sports, and getting
ahead in my fathers business-ma-
king good the name he had left me.
"Women to me simply did not ex-
ist Just about then came my one
serious ness-typhoid-and l was
beastly low, nurses and specialists,
and vile treatment, and all that, and
finally tedious convalescence, bright
ened only by the unobstrusive but un-
tiring attentions of my housekeeper.
"One day when I was learning the
use of my limbs again, / was saunter-
ing about the house, and in the IL
brary chanced upon a book left
there. Presumably the housekeeper
had been reading it.
"The book contained some closely
written sheets of paper, and how
came to read something not for my
eyes shall never know, but read
them l did 1t is that letter that
makes the love of a woman forever
impossible for me- / carry 1t with
me always" his hand rose tentatively
to his breast pocket. THAT letter"
he resumed, laid bare woman-soul
the very quintessence Of woman.
hood-all the fierce tenderness, the
sublime unselishness, the glorious
self-abnegation of the love of wo-
man for the undeserving man. AS
read I knew that the writer of that
letter was the one woman In the
world for me.
'And felt, for the first time in my
egotistical, self-suficient career, a
strange doubt, a curious abasement.
''The following week I was to de-
part south further to recuperate, and
you may believe my departure was a
reluctant one.
I'm the interval my housekeeper
was slightly indisposed with what
eventually developed into typhoid, and
she must have felt some slight amaze
at my assiduous attentions and de-
lightful affability. l was positively
amorous with my floral donations.
We'll, as l say, went south, and
had been gone nearly a month when
was called home by a telegram
saying that my housekeeper had con.
tracted typhoid and had died. AS
she seemed to have no one to make
the necessary arrangements, would
come at once and attend to things
1 myse1f?"
Deming paused, and selected fresh
cigar with punctilious care.
II arrived home" he resumed, land
> found that the old doctor had done
everything, and that the funeral was
that night I disliked death as being
morbid, and therefore an undesirable
factor in my thoroughly well-balanced
makeup.
i However, 1 decided to go in and
I pay my last respects to one who had
served me well. She looked quiet
$ and quite at peace. Around her throat
was a slender gold chain with me
dallion attached. Careless hands had
laid 1t wrong side up, and bent over
y her and turned it over"
The cigar glowed fiercely red fol
q an instant, then Deming said very
n low:
my picture was in it, and under
d meath the name and the date in heI
= handwriting.
That's all, boys All night l sal
4 gazing at her, this woman who had
lived in my house for seven years, or
whom I had bestowed some briet
snatches of conversation or an occa
:. sional appreciative gift; this woman
II l loved too late, whom / might nevel
le touch-who would never know-try
ing to make reparation to the dead
for the blind stupidity 1 had shown
the living.
"In her dear, still face / read the
pitiful story-her hopeless love-hel
loneliness vowed then that as she
had lived and loved and suffered, sc