Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-10-19
MARY ROBERTS PINEHAR1
UTHO2 or X" the NAN IN LOVER TEh"ETc.

rum iilS even breathing anu NtHtuftu
In. SO light was his sleep that she
dared not. touch him. She knelt very
quietly by the bed. and kissed the cor.
ner of his pillow.
Ward spent his Sabbatical year In
Oxford. He had thought to find peace
by exchanging one form of activity for
another, but with the less arduOus du.
ties of his work there he had more
time to think. He found the old pain
even greater; his restlessness grew ON
him. In the three years since ElinOr's
flight he had done many things. He
had left Nottingham for New York,
and could feel his usefulness now
only bounded by his strength.
BIT the old zest of life was gone. He
was restless, heavier of spirit There
had been times when he had thought
that he was forgetting, only to dis.
cover, through II stray resemblance.
while his heart pounded and his blood
raced that his forgetting was only the
numbness of suffering.
Once, on the Strand in London. he
came face to face with Boroday. Ward
would never forget that meeting, its
quick hope which died into the old
ache at BorOday's words.
81 have not seen her." he said. II
am always looking. Perhaps she ii
wise, to break with us all. Still. we
loved her. have never married, and
she was like my own child
He had taken a clerkship in Lon
don, he said. While, of course, he did
not say so. Ward read between his
words that he was done with the old
life for good He held out his hand
snd the Russian took it.
IF | hear anything" Boroday said
'Tll let you know. Once or twice she
wrote me; from Liverpool once, after
she landed, and again from here. Then
the police closed up the Dago's place,
which was the only way she knew to
reach me. I've never heard since"
'Then you think she may be in Eng,
land?' Ward asked eagerly
The Russian shrugged his shoulders.
perhaps, If she is living. She was
not strong. Sometimes wonder"
So, after all, Ward took an extra
pang away with him from the chance.
meeting. gWhat IL. .tafter all. his watch,
! fng and waiting meant nothing? If
she were gone beyond earthly find,
stHg7-~De1ih fW kisa, .alGGt be Il hegin.
ming only, door to eternity. hui all
the philosophy and hope of his 'faith
did not FIJI his empty human arms.
That night -heswalked the london
streets until dawn.
He came back from Oxford ut the
end If his course there. Home was
calling, and work, blessed work, that
brings forgetfulness.
On the last Sunday before he sailed
he attended service in Saint Paul's. He
knew the church we'll. In those earlier
days when philosophy had taken his
young brain by storm and his faith
had rocked he had gone to Saint
Pauls. Something in the very soidity
Of the old church. in It's antiquity. In
the nearness Of those dea,land gone
great ones of the earth who had lived
and died secure in his teachings, had
slcndied him.
And now, when IL was his heart that
f.iled. and not his soul, he went there.
II was there that he found Elinor.
She was just in front Of him, in the
prim garb of an English army nurse.
And il was no resemblance that reused
his first interest. What he saw was
only n slender girl. kneeling. and evil
IDENTIFY in tears. She was very thin :
he saw that. and her shoulders henyed
convulsivey. But as the service went
on She grew queter. Wien she rose
from her knees ut last, she was quite
calm.
1t was then that he knew her
Ward watched her with IN ache in
his throat. She looked frail. sad. AL
ways in his mind he had pictured her
In her summer garden, Il flower herself
among her flowers, or as she had
looked that night in old Hiary's IL.
brary, the night when, to save him.
sha had told him tha vhu,nuful trut ia
about herself. And now he found her
here, wearing the garb Of service, and
on her knees!
So fearful was he of losing her that
he stayed close AS the congregation
moved slowly out of the church. She
did not intend to go: he saw that. She
stenped ont of the crowd and waited
" MA , I, IN i \