The Washington herald., 1914-10-25

must tell me 50. / have done every
thing man can do to make you un-
derstand. But you do not want me
or my love. And my love says to me:
Don't send me there again to have
the door shut in my face Keep me
with you to be your inspiration, to help
you to live worthily' And so If shall
be-"
When Helen read that letter she did
not know what to do. She did not
know how to answer it. She
would have written and told Latimer
that she found she loved him very
dearly if in her mind there had not
arisen fearful doubt. Suppose his
letter was not quite honesto He said
that he would always love her, but how
could she now know that? Why might
not this letter be only his way of with
drawing from a position which he.
wished to abandon, from which. per-
haps, he was even glad to escape?
Were this true, and she wrote and said
all those things that were in her heart,
that now she knew were true, might
she not hold him to her against his
will? The love that once he had for
her might no longer exist, and if, in
her turn, she told him she loved him
and had always loved him. might he
not in some mistaken spirit of chiv-
airy feel it was his duty to pretend
to care? Her cheeks burned at the
thought II was intolerable. She could
not write that letter. And as day sue
ceeded day, to do so became more diff
hcult And so she never wrote and
was very unhappy And Latimer was
very unhappy. But he had his work,
and Helen had none, and for her life
became a game of putting little things
together, like picture puzzle, an hour
here and an hour there, to make up
each day. 1t was a dreay game.
From time to time she heard of him
through the newspapers For, in his
own State, he was an "Insurgent" max
ing a fight, the outcome of which was
expected to show what might follow
throughout the entire West. When he
won his fight much more was written
about him, and he became a national
figure In his own State the people
hailed him as the next governor, prom
ised him a seat in the Senate. To
Helen this seemed to take him further
out of her life She wondered If now
she held a place even in his thoughts.
At Fair Harbor the two hundred and
forty-nine used to joke with her about
her politician. Then they considered
Latimer of importance only because
Helen liked him. Now they discussed
him impersonally and over her head, as
though she were not present, as a pow
er, an influence, as the leader and ex-
ponent of a new idea. They seemed
to think she no longer could pretend
to any peculiar claim upon him, that
now he belonged to all of them.
Older men would say to her: q
hear you know Latimer? What sort
of man is he?"
Helen would not know what to tell
them. She could not say he was a man
who sat with his back to a pine tree,
reading from a book OF verse, or halt
ing to devour her with humble, entreat-
ing eyes.
She went South for the winter, the
doctors deciding she was run down and
needed the change And with an un-
happy laugh at her own expense she
agreed in their diagnosis She was in
different as to where they sent her, for
she knew wherever she went she must
still force herself to go on putting one
hour on top OF another, until she had
built up the memorable and necessary
twenty-four.
When she returned winter was de-
parting, but reluctantly, and returning
Unexpectedly to cover the world with
snow, to eclipse the, thin spring sun
shine with cherries clouds. Helen
took herself seriously to task She as
sured herself it was weak-minded to
rebel The summer was coming and
Fair Harbor with all its old delights
was before her. She compelled herself
to take heart, to accept the fact that.
after all, the world Is a pretty good
place, and that to think only of the past,
to live only on memories and regrets,
was not only cowardly and selfish, but,
as Latimer had already decided, did
not tend toward efficiency.
Among the other rules OF conduct
that she imposed upon herself was not
to think OF Latimer. At least, not dur
ing the waking hours Should she. as
it sometimes happened. dream of him
should she imagine they were again
seated among the pines, riding across
the downs, or racing at fifty miles an
hour through country roads, with the
stone fences flying past, with the wind
and the sun in their eyes, and in their
hearts happiness and content-that
would not be breaking her rule. If she
dreamed of him, she could not be held
responsible. She could only be CRATE
full
And then, just as she had banished
him entirely from her mind, he came
East. Not as once he had planned to
cor,s onI,, IN see her btt with hIare