Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-01-13
CHAPTER XI.VII Continued

the fireplace, and the walls were shud-
dering with crimson shadows. Her
hand was shielding her eyes, and as
she strove to fill the gaps in their
somewhat spasmodic conversation with
the trivial impersonal things that be-
longed to their old intimacy, the tiny
Pickering flames seemed to be dart
ing unfriendly fingers plucking at her
secret. Leaning from her nest of
cushions she thrust the poker into the
glowing resinous mass till sparks whiz-
zed up the chimney's black nav in a
torrent
Hoy they fly" she said. "Rickey
Snyder calls 1t raising a blizzard in
Hades. I used to think they flew up
to the sky and became the littlest
stars. What a pity we have to grow
up and learn so much! I'd rather
have kept on believing that when the
red leaves in the woods whirled about
in circle the fairies were dancing,
dancing, and that it was the gnomes
who put the cockle-burs in the
hounds ears"
She had been talking at random,
gradually becoming shrinkingly con-
scious Of his constrained and stumb-
ling manner. She had, however. but
half defined his errand when he came
to 1t all in burst.
'1-I can't get to it, somehow, Shir-
ley" he said with sudden desperation,
"but here 1t is I've come to ask you
to marry me. Don't stop me-" he went
on hurriedly, lifting his hand: what
ever you say, must tell you. I've
been trying to for months and
months, Now that he had started,
both chilled and thrilled her. Even in
her own desolation, and shrinking al
most unbearably from the avowal, the
hope and brightness in his voice touch
ed her with pity. 1t seemed to her
that life was strange tumble of I'M
escapable and incomprehenslble pain.
And all the while, in the young voice
vibrant with feeling, her cringing ear
was catching imagined echoes of that
other voice, graver and more self-con-
tanned. but shaken by the same pas
sion, in that iteration Of "I love you!
love you!"
His answer came to him finally in
her silence, and he released her hands
which he had caught in his own. They
dropped, limp and unresponsive, in
her lap. Shirley" he said brokenly,
maybe you can't care for me-yet.
But If you will marry me, I'LL be
content with so little, till-you do"
She shook her head, her hair making
dim flashes in the freight. mo,
Chilly" she said. ut makes me
wretched to give you pain, but must
Il must! Love isn't like that. 1t
doesn't come afterward. know,
could never give you what you want.
You would end by despising me, as
should despise myself"
~ won't give up" he said incoher-
emily. II cant give up. Not so long
as know there's nobody else. At the
ball I thought thought perhaps you
cared for Valiant-but since he told
me-"
He stopped suddenly, for she was
looking at him from an ashen face
"He told me there was no reason why
l should not try my luck" he said
difficulty. 81 asked him."
There was silence, while he gazed
at her, breathing deeply. Then he
tried to laugh.
Cali right" he said hoarsely. ut
1T doesn't matter. Don't worry"
She stretched out her hand to him
in a gesture Of wistful pain, and he
held it a moment between both of his,
then released it and went hurriedly
out
AS the door closed, Shirley sat down
her head dropping into her hands like
a storm-broken flower. Valiant had
accepted the finality Of the situation.
With a wave Of. deeper hopelessness
than had yet submerged her, she
realized that, against her own de-
cision, something deep within her had
taken shy and secret comfort in his
stubborn masculine refusal. Against
all fact. in face OF the impossible, her
heart had been clinging to this-as
though his love might even attain the
and somewhere, somehow,
circumstance. But now he,
too, had bowed to the decree. A kind
IF utter apathetic wretchedness seized
upon her. to replace the sharp misery
that had so long been her companion
an empty numbness in which, in a
measure. she ceased to feel.
An hour dragged slowly by and at
oHSIll SlS looC c1uu WILL SlOWly uD
The stairs. Her head felt curiously
heavy, but it did not ache. Outside
her mothers door, as was her custom,
she paused mechanically to listen. A
my pencil of light struck through the
darkness and painted spot of bright
ness on her gown. 1t came through
he keyhole; the lamp in her mothers
'oom was burning. "She has fallen
asleep and forgotten to-" she thought,
and softly turning the knob, pushed
he door noiselessly open and entered.
A moment she stood listening to the
ow regular breathing Of the sleeper.
The reading-lamp shed a shaded glow
IN the pillow with it's spread-out silver
lair, and on the. delicate hands
;lasped loosely on the coverlet. Shir-
ey came close and looked down on the
placid face. It was smooth as a. |
,hilds and smile touched it lightly
Is if some pleasant sleep-thought had
ust laid rosy fingers on the dreaming
ips. The light caught and sparkled
rom something bright that lay be-
ween her mothers hands. It was the
enamel brooch that held her own baby
.url and she saw suddenly that what