The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-10-27


She struck her hands together with
an inarticulate cry. She remembered
the laugh in Valiant's eyes as they had
planted the roses, the characteristic
gesture with which he tossed the wav-
Ing hair from his forehead-how she
had named the ducks and the pea
cock and chosen the spots for his
flowers; and she smiled for such mem
prizes, even in the stabbing knowledge
that these dear trivial things could
mean nothing to her In the future
She tried to realize that he was gone
from her life, that he was the one
man on earth whom to marry would
be to strike to the heart her love
and loyalty to her mother, and she
said this over and over to herself in
varying phrases:
'You can't! No matter how much
you love him, you can't! His father
deliberately ruined your mothers life
your own mother! It's bad enough
to love him-you can't help that. But
you can help marrying him. You
would hate yourself. You can never
kiss him again, or feel his arms around
you. You can't touch his hand You
mustn't even see him. Not If it breaks
your heart-as your mothers heart
was broken!"
She had turned into an unbeaten
way that ambled from the road
through track of tall oaks and pines,
scarce more than a bridle-path, wind
ing aimlessly through bracken-strewn
depths so dense that even the wild
roses had not found them In her
childish hurts she had always fed to
the companionship Of the trees. She
had known them every one-the black
gum and pale dogwood and gnarled
hickory, the prickly-balled button
wood" the lowly mulberry and the
majestic red oak and walnut. They
had seemed friendly and plying coun-
Selors, standing about her with arms
intertwined. Now, with the rain weep
.ng In soughing gusts through them,
hey offered her no comfort She sud-
denly threw herself face down on the
soaked moss.
ooh, God!" she cried. 'T love him
so! And I had only that one evening.
1t doesn't seem just. If l could only
have him, and suffer some other way!
He's suffering, too, and 1t isn't our
fault! We neither of us harmed any
Dne! He isn't responsible for what
his father did-why, he hardly knew
aim! Oh, God, why must it be SO
hard for us? Millions of other people
love each other and nothing separates
them like this!"
Shirley's warm breath made little
fog against the star-eyed moss. She
was scarcely conscious of her wet and
clinging clothing, and the soaked
strands Of her hair. She was so
wrapped in her desolation that she no
longer heard the sound of the perse-
vering rain and the wet swishing of
The bushes-parting now to a hurried
step that fell almost without sound on
he spongy forest soil. She started
- 9''7donlv to see Valiant before ',r,.
He was in somewhat battered
walking suit of brown khaki, with a
leather belt and felt hat whose brim,
stiff with the wet, was curved down
visor-wise over his brow. In an in
slant he had drawn her upright, and
they stood, looking at each other,
drenched and trembling.
How can your" he said with a
roughneSs that sounded akin to anger.
Here in this atrocious weather-like
this!" he laid a hand on her arm.
You're wet through
II don't mind the rain," she an
swered, drawing away, yet feeling
with a guilty thrill the masterfulness
Of his tone, as we'll as it's real concern.
"I'm often wet"
His gaze searched her face, feature
by feature, noting her pallor, the blue
black shadows beneath her eyes, the
caught breath, uneven like child's
from crying. He still held her hands
In his.
Shirley" he said, 'T know what you
7 went to st. Andrews that night, in
the dark. after I read your letter.
Who told you? Your-mother?"
mo, mol" she cried. "She would
never have told mel"
His face lighted With an irresist.
lble movement he caught her to him.
Shirley" he cried. at shan't be!
1t shan't, I tell you! You can't break
our lives in two like this! It's un.
thinkable."
mo, mol" she said piteously, push.
Ing him from her. "You don't under
stand. You are man, and men
can't"
Il do understand" he insisted ooh
my darling, my darling! 1t isn't right
for that spectral thing to come be
tween us! Why, it belonged to past
generation! However sad the out
come of that duel, it held no dishonor
/ know only too well the ruin ii
brought my father! It's enough that
1t wrecked three lives. 1t shant rise
again. like Banquo's ghost to haunt
ours! I know what you think
would love you the more, if 1 could
love you more, for that sweet loyalty
but it's wrong, dear. It's wrong!"
It's the only way"
Listen. Your mother loves you
If she knew you loved me, she would
bear anything rather than have you
suffer like this. You say she WOULDN'T
have told you herself. Why, If my
father
She tore her hands from his an6
faced him with cry. "Ah, that is it!
You knew your father so little. He