Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-04

i borrowed the keys from your
cousins" she said Il came to look
= for something I left here IA lone
time ago."
II see! Perhaps can help you
/ And it. I suppose you've lived in
New York right along?'
Except for the last year and a
half, which I've spent roaming about
Europe. l, too, have just come home
But tell me about yourself. How
does it feel to be famous?"
| Lethridge shrugged his shoulders
"I'm not conscious of any particular
thrills" he replied smiling.
You are married, of course? It's
stupid OF me to ask, but I've had lit
tie news OF you lately"
! Indeed, no. I've not even been in
love .1f ~. III
| mot since the fair Polly Hayden
banished hope forever from my
breast" he answered lightly.
II? What do you mean by that?'
she inquired curiously.
why. the usual thing. You haven't
forgotten the last evening here. in this
very house--how you were to give me
an answer to pertinent question |
had asked you. WE'LL got my an
swer, and stepped aside. That was
ALL"
"Yeu got my answer"
1.-The most conclusive kind. You
went off before / could get word
with you alone, went with man you
really preferred and left no message,
BY the way, was it that you dreaded to
/ infliet the wound Of telling me the
truth. face to face? I've always won
dered." aaa
| She was staring at him, wide-eyed,
one hand grasping the edge OF the
table.
Then it is true! You never got my
note!"
What note?" It was Lethridge's
turn to stare.
II left one for you. But shall tell
what happened?"
please do!'' His tone was per-
emptory with suddenly reused ex.
citement.
"You see," she began, her grasp on
the table edge tightening, when I
reached here there were crowds Of
people about you so that it was I'M
possible to speak to you by yourself.
had had slight headache when
left home, and by 10 o'clock it had
grown so much worse that I saw 1t
was foolish to try to remain the rest
of the evening. So slipped In here
for a moment, scrubbed a note to you
with my answer-and hid it.
wanted you to read 1t, alone, in the
quiet. after everybody was gone, Then
I gave directions to one of the SER
wants, told him where I had put the
note and how he was to tell you about
sisted on going home with me. and to
keep from distressing any one We slip
ped away with only hurried good-by
to your grandmother"
She paused. Lethridge looked at
her with strange expression.
II never got the message" he said.
" know it--now. But I didn't
know it the next day when was sick
in bed-that headache was the begin
ming of an attack Of gfip-and when
waited, thinking surely you would
come You sailed without even tele-
phoninga me. was angry, and my
pride was hurt. It didn't occur to me
until long afterward that there might
have been mistake. What | be-
lieved was that you had changed your
mind about how you felt toward me
and that you thought the safest way
out of it was merely to disregard nay
note"
ITO what servant did you give the
messenger" asked Lethridge after a
pause.
II think It was your grandmother's
old butler. | knew his face, and was
sure could trust him to deliver the
message"
Lethridge's face changed. "Wat-
son! remembers it all. The old
fellow was stricken with apoplexy that
! very evening and never regained con-
seriousness. didn't know 1t till next
morning. So that explains it. He
turned to her, again. "And where did
you put the note?' he inquired.
Here. In this room slipped it
into the silver lamp there"
With a quick gesture Lethridge
eached up into the carved recep-
tacle and withdrew his hand, covered
with dust He held yelloWed scrap
of paper which was wrapped around
something brown and crumbling.
THAT was rose-a pink rose
from my bouquet" said Mrs. Bar
row, with a nervous little laugh.
Slowly Lethridge read the faded
writing, his face paling. He finished
and put the note into his pocket then
stood gazing at her, a queer pain at
his heart. For moment neither
spoke.
"After-after I married. said Mrs.
Barrow, hesitantingly. II sometimes
wondered if something like this hadn't
happened. 1t was 80 unlike you to
act as fist accused you Of acting.
But I didn's feel right about trying
to find out when was Wade's wife.
would never come here even on the
small chance Of finding the note while
he was alive"
"Whiie Wade was alive?"
Eyes You knew, of course, that
Wade died-at Carslbad-two years
ago."
II hadn't heard it. Poor Wade! But
why do | say that? He must have
been happy. He had everything a
man could want to make him So"
She looked down at the faded car