The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-04-24

but names to her, and to be part Of
the wild tide of life that sweeps
through a great city. For long time
she fought against her desire, but in
the end it conquered her. The deadly
monotony of the life she led, the
weary sameness Of the faces she knew
SO well, the oft-told tales of places
where nothing happens, got upon her
nerves until she felt that she must
either commit suicide or end life in a
madhouse. Then, summoning her
courage, she went to her husband and
told him of her longings, her despair.
1T isn't that don't love you," she
said, hurrying over the words that
she knew wounded him like stones
thrown by cruel hand, "but there Is
something that tells me that must
60 away to the life that is calling me,
or I will die. You-you have seen the
world, you have your workout IL
have never been beyond these hills
that smother me. / have nothing to
Misunderstanding but the days that
are all alike. Let me co." she walled,
"let me go only for three years. It
isn't much out Of lifetime, and I
will come back and be your slave the
balance Of my life"
For reply Jim Benton took the
slender little figure in his arms and
pressed it tight against his breast so
that she might not see his face, but
she could feel the beating Of his heart,
and once 1t seemed to her 1t almost
stopped. At last, however, he found
his voice.
Poor little girl" he said, poor lit.
tie song bird that was given wings to
fly and that I have Gagged" and then
he let her 60 from him to the life she
craved-freely, and ungrudgingly, and
made the way easy for her feet, for
the big silent man, keeping his faith.
full watch over the trust confided to
him, had powerful friends IN the great
city, who put his wife in the way Of
realizing her ambition.
From the first she was one Of those
destined to success. Her glorious
beauty and her superb voice attracted
attention at once, and added to this
was strange, Elusive, intoxicating
vitality--a sense Of the Joy Of living
that was almost madness-that swept
INT
caught and carried them along with
her in an irresistible Juror. Up and
up she went by leaps and bounds in
her profession Of The Queen Of the
Cannibal Isles" She had, as the Angel
had said to the manager, her little
world at her feet
1t was at this flood tide of her sue.
cess that she had turned her face
homeward. The three years that she
had asked for had expired, and not
once in all that time had she seen her
husband. Not once had he asked her
to come back to him, or repined at the
loneliness of his lot Now she was
going to the mines once more, and as
the train bore her on and on to her
destination, she strove in vain to
pierce the veil that hid the future.
Could she 60 back to the lonely mo-
notony of that life? Was one mans
devotion worth the adulation of a
thousand? Had she the strength to
cast the goblet of success away from
her just when it was trimming to the
full with all that's most alluring in
life? She could not answer.
She had not answered the question
when she arrived at the lonely sta.
ton Of the lonely little mining town.
She had not written Jim that she was
coming, and she made her way alone
to the little cottage where he lived,
and pushed the door softly open. The
rooms were vacant, and she wandered
from one to the other until she came
to the one where her husband lived.
There was his big desk, with his pa.
pers and his little piles Of ore to be
tested-orderly, business-like as she
remembered them, but over in one
corner, hanging against nail was
something pink. She went over and
touched it. 1t was little pink linen
| gown that she used to wear before she
Z, went away, and that Jim had liked to
see her in. In a flash Of intuition it
came to her all that it meant-the
lonely man, deserted, heart hungry,
who had faithfully kept the little cast.
off love, as the only thing he had left
Of the wife he had lost. The pathos
of It cut her like knife. She dropped
down on her knees and buried her
face in the folds of the dress, and
when she got up her eyes were bright
with indescribable tenderness, and she
knew that this had answered her ques.
ton.
A minute more and she had slipped
off the Paris gown she wore, and put
on the old pink frock, and then she
heard Ums step along the hall, and
she turned to greet him.
Lorraine he cried, and staggered
against the wall as II he had seen a
ghost, but her strong young arms were
about him, and her dear head on his
breast.
"Jim-Jim," she sobbed, 1--WE come
home at last. know now that there
is something better than fame and
glitter, and tinsel, and that the love