The Prescott daily news. (Prescott, Ark.) 1907-1941, 1914-02-09
HER LAST LONG SIGH
BY GRACE G. BOSTWIck.

ana closing the small drawers, one by
one. He was searching for a photo
graph that she had kept on her desk
"a likeness taken in hor early girl
hood, long before he had met her.
AS he felt clumsily about among
the papers letter fell out He start
ed to replace it, but caught sight of
MS own name In the familiar writing
and paused He opened it with trem-
bling fingers.
Il did the best l could" he said,
slowly to himself Il couldn't help
not caring. l thought l could-at
first. | thought it would come with
time. God! how hard 1t has been.
how bitter hard!" He passed his thin.
nervous hand YEARLY across his col
orless face. AT least she never
knew, never suspected, nor cared,
either way" he said bitterly. She
was as Indifferent as-as l was"
L wonder If she knows now" he
breathed. Il wonder if she knows
and understands. She never seemed
to understand anything | used to
wonder how anyone could feel so lit
tie and live | tried once to tell her
how l felt and she laughed Said
needed something to tone me Up.
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps | am
morbid chap. Poor Helen!" he
sighed as he pored over the letter in
the failing light. He sat up, startled.
Dear" he read, Il couldn't hope
ever to make you understand how |
love you. You have just left me-
cold, unlov.ng, careless, as you always
are-and (poor foolish, loving thing
put my starved arms about your chair
and laid my lips passionately against
the spot where your dear head has
lain. Dearest, no man was ever loved
more deeply, more tenderly, than you
are. o, the sadness, the heartbreak
Of ii all.
Il want you to know if you are left
and you will be-that have always
cared. Dear, | know how it is with
you | know that the bonds have be-
come so irksome that they have worn
into your very soul. If you had cared.
John, we should have been very hap
but have not dared voice it for fear
% that look! that cruelty Indifferent.
hard careless look! 1t burns into me
as l write md | writhe under the
torture OF it,"
He sat with his head on his arms
for hours. Once he cried out in
agony: MY God. If l had knownl
II had known"
At Last he climbed the heavy, dark
stairway to the room above to face
his dead. He turned back the white
coverlid with hands strangely steady
after his long vigil
Her face was oddly girlish as 1t
was in the little photo. He felt vast
tenderness yelling up within him as
he looked
IF l could tell her just once and
see her smile as she used to smile
before!" He buried his face in the
clothes at her side at the recollection.
He remembered suddenly that she
had been possessed OF a horror of
burial with life still existant. He
started and looked again, piercingly.
into her still face. 1t was not mar
ble-like as the faces he had seen in
death A sudden hope clutehed at his
heart
Helen" he cried. come back!
You are mine child; l have always
loved you-always. I didn't know.
o child, open your eyes to met" His
face went gray with the effort of his
life. He was straining, striving
against death, the conqueror himself
He prayed by all he held sacred. BY
his mothers memory. BY his belief
in love, by the prayers of the long
gone dead, and holding her two cold
hands in his own, he chafed and
warmed them unweariedly, repeated
ly. calling to her, pleading with her,
begging her to come back.
The passionate warmth of his ap-
peal softened the cold stiffness of her
fingers. They seemed to him to be
growing plant. human.
Helen" he called for the last time.
Helen child, it is I-open your eyes
to mel" 1t was the impassioned APP
peal of soul to soul
Then slowly. YEARLY, unwillingly.
as Of some child waking from sleep
of deep exhaustion, the cold. white
lids lifted and the familiar eyes
looked into his own. though family
as from a long distance. The shadow
of smile parted the gray lips-the
lips of death.
You are going to live!" he cried,
loudly. you cre going to live-for
fa1t cold nold fara