River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-01-15


oh if / had never come home, II
| had even not gone to Judge Gil5ert's
office that day! 1t was fate, Joe. /.
was fate. ! can see ii all now We
boast that we dominate circumstances,
the gods laugh and are our masters
still. Looking back the way we've
come from that first night | met you
here can see that every step, relent-
less as death, was leading to that day
when ! learned the truth about my
father"
And you know"
Everything. That's why I'm here.
II was really such a little time ago
that l came back to Belmont, yet it
seems ages. Oh, why didn't you go
away You must have seen how 1t
had to end. Since ! came home and
first met yorI, I've lived and suffered
and grown old. And I had dreamed
such dreams!" Here she paused as II
to fight back the painful memories Of
those rainbow dreams. Then she adj
mitted them. And they became roster
and rosier-because of you. Even the
disappointments my fathers lack of
polish caused me were nothing-be-
cause of you. Then you ceased 70 see
me, and / didn't understand
Il wanted you SO very much-then-
and you did not come / know now
what it was: the election was coming
on, you had begun to fight MY father.
You knew / didn't realize his position
in Belmont. I'm sincere. / want you
to know | understand how hard it was
for you, my d-because-l be
lieye you loved me-sincerely
Sincerely, Gloria" His reply was
almost a sob. you know I begged
you TO go away / would have fol-
lowed you, and you would never have
known"
That's true, but the gods laugh and
owed 1t to my father to remain with
him in Belmont. Then came the day
in Judge Gilbert's office. Did ever d
girl have a courtship crowded into half
an hour? So short time there was
between those few words of love and
the rude awakening which followed
that there remains to me now not
even o sweet memory Of That avowal
which all girls cherish So And then
well that's why I've come today.
couldn't let you go away without ask
ing you to forgive me for what
s. in Judge Gilbert's Office"
There's no need of speaking of for
more"
She was not to be deferred from her
set purpose, and therefore affected not
to hear. going oee.'3:-Ss't * ~. ner
narratt@.s
.'s0u see, | was proud OF my father.
All my life he'd been an ideal not
reality. and I thought him incapable
of anything else. 1t turned out / was
l said about you
mo, Gloria, you just didn't under
stand
But just the same, | was wrong,
and wanted to tell you so before |
went away l knew / should not be
here when you return, and so came
today"
You're not going to leave Bel
Yes, / am. Do -ou think | could
stay!" Her tcte made Wright's heart
sink. mo, l lack the courage, Joe,
the moral courage. There's that much
of the butterfly left in me. I'm not
strong and brave like you are"
Gloria could not know how his
and bravery were Slipping
from him little by little as they talk
ed. Her very presence was weaving
it's subtle spell about him, sharing him
with her wan beauty, maddening him
with the thought that he was losing
her So she was going away. He
wondered why, specializing on how she
had come to learn the truth. This
led him to ask:
''But your father?'
Had Wright known what piteous
outburst this would evoke, he never
would have spoken
MY father! What am | to him?
haven't seen him from that day. Since
then I've been with Mrs. Hayes. When
| learned at luncheon that you were
going away, I had to come because |
can't forgive myself for what 1 said
in Judge Gilbert's office that came
near ending SO - disastrously - for
you"
please don't think Of it," he begged.
Il don't connect you in any manner
with the attack on me-"
but I do she insisted, because
know the truth" Here was the whole
reason for her coming, she told her
self. Since you're in this fight to
stay-eyen though you're fighting my
own father-I want you to have all the
protection that knowledge of the truth
will afford I've come to warn you. -
Wright saw that he had not made
her understand that he was giving up
the fight.
But I'm going away"
YES, you've told me; but you're
coming back again because you know
your place is here. There's work to
do"
He recognized instantly that it was
her wish for him to remain. Her be-
lief in him, such as it was, centered
about his efforts to make Belmont a
better place. Not wishing to explain
what pain it would constantly give
him were he to do SO, he avoided the
matter by referring to her own future
what are you going to do?"
81? I'm going abroad in few days
What does your father saysto that p
Gloria's lip curled with scorn at the
question. Her answer came with the
| GOODNESS of a woman of the world