The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1915-02-19
half-falling.

would be. Struggling. h%alf-falling,
blinded, she struggled on.
She lost account of time or distance
after the first quarter of the way.
The city seemed strange to her, even
as if she might never have been in it
before, and she wondered, in odd per
plexity, how she could walk so long.
Cars, some of them quite empty,
passed her; once she had to stop to
let one go by, and before it faded
ahead, she realized that she had known
all the time that it would have taken
her to the very door.
At last she reached it, and she was
surprised when the door opened, for
she could not remember having pushed
the bell.
The maid, who had known her since
and through her childhood, stepped
back from her in surprise. But Miss
Dimmis did not attempt to resist her
mute inquiry-her soft brown hair
was snow-shrouded, her deep eyes,
bigger than ever and more pleading,
cried out for sympathy, her last
shred of stamina was going in trying
to hold her slim young form erect.
Have they brought him back? Is
he"
Unable to finish 1t, she smiled pa
t~hetically, the faint smile of a tired,
hon -uiol and ho mad child
Poor dearl'
Miss Dimmis did not hear it, nor
feel the arm which supported her, al.
most bore her, into the big living room,
before the fire.
Miss Travis" said the maid, will
see you very soon.
In the deep silence, broken only by
the cracking glow, she looked about
her; his room, his chair, pushed back
where he had left it, only such a few
hours ago, to come to her!
On a table at the end we're his pa.
pers, an envelope addressed in his
strong, firm hand! She rose and
walked weakly to the desk, She had
his letters, but she wanted this too
another thing which should freshly re
call to her, through the dead future
his bigness, his strength, the splendid
manly vigor Of the man. She raised
1t to her lips, DULY, then turned back
In her absorption, she had not hearC
the step which came down the hall; In
: deed, she had turned quite casually
for II she had heard 1t. she would havl
looked round with no expectation Il
/ her glance,
Yet, when she turned, her shaker
@ senses shook as from a blow, for b
y was there before her. had sprung :
her and was holding her to him in hi
arms; holding her, yes, he had eve
!. raised her from the floor. MY child
my Dimmis, my poor, tired. frightened
n shaken dear" And then, because
was too much, she tainted quietl
6 away.
y She awoke unwillingly, for what tn
awakening must bring. and before sh
d could speak, her hands we're busy wit
d his hands, his face, his hair.
D What was II? What did 1t mean
/, Then for she thought that she too Wa
dead, she smiled.
II It was then with no negative forC
Il and passion that John Travis spok
h not questioning, for he knew her
N his love; but soothing her, in the wa
he had always longed to, until strengt
o should come back and let her tell h
q story as she would.
She told It, told of the paper, II
" headlines, the story Of the wreck,
his name there in the list Of thof
r found dead, told Of her daring then
come to him to tell all that, in h
n life, she had fought back for the sal
, of the career, told even Of the lett
which had come Just before he cam
r.. AS he listened, Travis passt
IN through It with her, with a face whiC
broke with love and glowed with fir
or II thought you were dead" sa
" Dimmis. And l came to tell you
and her face went back on his wit
,e shoulder, as she inished-"of II
love-"
n 1t was very short, his story. An a
cidental exchange of overcoats wi
- another at the hotel, and his takiI
II a later train, after a vain effort to fiji
the other man.
80 It was not YOU" she said, &c
IN on his strength, she had let hers
81 utterly.
NO" said John Travis, mo, dea
- est, for l have just begun to llve!"
m