The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-06-01
REIMBURSEMENT
BY ALICE WEBER.

} mon sense after the blind unreason o
affection, and there was nothing to hell
except the newness of the life abou
her. 1t was as if she had gone bacl
to the very beginning of things. In ,
way she had. She and her father wer'
living outside a French village in {
weather-beaten house across the Dor
der from New Brunswick, with cool
J stove, two beds, rough table and 6
couple of chairs. Her father was like
} a boy in this environment and did the
cooking, while Ann made determined
} effort to find glimmer of light, other
wise called sanity, In the darkness thai
encompassed her.
When she reached st. Attegat, dur.
ing the early days of June, she had
been too Indifferent to care for the
quaintness of her surroundings. Her
father had been alarmed about her
health, and the family physician, I'M
able to discover cause for her Illness,
had sent her where he knew the air
was sweet and pure.
AS she sat listless under the shadow
Of sugar maple. Ann thought of his
words. She had honestly tried to bring
herself into touch with the life about
her, but health was as yet too far away
for her to have any other feeling than
one of indifference.
Her life was primitive in the ex-
IRENE. She was miles from a rail-
| road and the mail came but once
| month. She and her father were de-
pendent upon neighbor. Mr.. Chandler,
for that and he had brought it for the
first time that evening. There were
no letters. She had expected none. but
the longing of the spirit cannot always
be subjected to pride and there were
times, like the present, when it seemed
as If nothing mattered but the sight
of the man she cared for. And she
had given him up. The cruelty of 1T
was that she had learned she was but
the means to an end, had stumbled
upon the knowledge within a week of
her wedding day.
In the Corcoran art gallery she had
paused beside the entrance to one of
Tie TOOIuS Wueu lllG IUuTluuT Vi tOlCeS
caught and held her attention.
mo, | do not love her." she heard.
Fortunately | am interested in no
other woman, else it might go hard
with me. Her father is wealthy. She
is rich in her own right and | will be
able to crafty ambitions hitherto mere
ly Dreams" AS he finished speaking
two men came face to face with Ann
and she looked directly into the eyes
of the man she had expected to marry.
Pride came to her aid in her effort to
adjust herself to her new outlook upon
life, but In the end she was bundled |
off to st. Attigat, and here she met |
Mr.. Chandler, with whom her father |
found congenial companionship. He |
had a way Of watching her that was |
her conscious she was not good to look |
at. She became oversensitive about
her lack of color and one day rum
mayed through her trunk for her van
ty box and was chagrined not to find
t.
/
)erceptibly the outdoor life was MAX
ng difference in Ann. She took
ong walks and would stroll off for
lours alone. One evening she did not
eturn. Chandler, with her father.
ound her on the edge of the river
With a twisted ankle and dislocated
houlder. She had slipped from the
ock where she had been fishing, she
old them later. {
When they discovered her Mr.. Nor r
an promptly went to pieces. She was
II he had, and if anything happened
ably. Mr.. Chandler carried her home
18th about as much feeling as If she
ad been bundle of rags, she thought. Z
! the moment when a glimmer of rea-
On made her try to recover her dignity L
nd slip from his arms. 1t was then f
e gave her little shake and told her
, lie still.
Just the merest jingle, but it sent y
eedles of flame all over her, and she /.
new nothing more until she was on 4
er bed with the two bending over her. =
Between them she was made COM Il
rtable; yet she was not comfortable j
her mind. She could not under -
and the odd look in Mr.. Chambers Y
-es when she had first opened her ri
vn, and now, after month of mac q
vity, she was still puzzled She had =
It seen it since. He gave her under. 4
anding and pleasant friendship, but q
at was all. q
And she had begun to care The n
ought troubled her. Was she lacking 4
constancy that she could so soon u
rget one man for another? But as r
e looked back upon those feverish =
VS., she told herself she had been in Y
re with love. That, she knew, was U
t the real thing, and she had discov-
ID this, here in the midst of ma r
chad learned to distinguish be- y
cen the false and the true, and with e
her heart she prayed that the thing
It makes life perfect would come to Z
Ind 1t came unexpectedly, as so U
en- happens. She was alone, trying
the first time to walk about the r
Use, clinging to whatever offered sup -
t, when she heard footsteps. Turn "
hastily, she saw Mr.. Chandler -
1ding in the doorway with arms out q