Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-04-19

faee. No wonder his sermons had
suffered! He wondered that with his
days and nights of torture he had been
able to attend to his parish duties at
all. A vacation seemed a mockery.
What he needed was hard work to help
him to forget But, after all, did he
want that? Instead, with each pass
ing day, he pressed his own thorn into
his wounds afresh, and he knew that
he was not helping to answer his own
prayers. sAc
Where could he go? There was but
one person he longed to see, and that
he dared not do. Six months Before,
he would have gone joyfully to dozen
different places, where the eager faces
Of old friends would have gladly well
coined him. Now, he thought of but
was blank.
One afternoon in the preceding July
Robert Nelson sat in boat on the
river, with white, tense face, listen.
ing to refusal from the lips of girl
who was no less agitated than he
Two months before, Mpriel Warning
had come with her mother from the
neighboring city to spend some weeks
with relatives. From that Sunday
morning when the young rector had
first seen her kneeling In his church.
he knew that she was the woman he
had dreamed of from boyhood, and he
gave her the love and reverence that
only such man can give to woman
who is fitted to be his mate.
The worldly Mrs. Waring did not
realize that her carefully trained
daughter could think of poor coun
try clergyman, and permitted her to
do as she pleased. So there followed
weeks of long walks, visits to the
parish poor and especially boat rides.
They. ha d so many interests In COM
mon, and the young rector realized
the strength she could be to him in
his chosen work.
And tomorrow she was going home,
and this was their last day together.
While the boat drifted softly down the
stream, he laid his heart at her feet
To his dying day he never saw the set
ting sun without remembering how 1t
shone on her face as she answered
him.
"Mr. Nelson, had dreamed that
you would take such a step as this. Il
would not have permitted matters to
% so far. am to blame for this ter.
mination OF your friendship, which has
meant more to me than can tell you.
There Is no other man living whom 4
respect more nor to whom Swouldd
sooner trust my life. But am not
free"
Then you love some one else in
stead! have been foolish enough to
suppose YOU were heart free, and
might, In time, come to care for me"
Listen! When my father died, he
left some mOney--enough, had we
lived within our means. But mother
had been very ambitious for me. She
sent me to expensive schools. and
spent large sums of money to estab.
lish me In society. She is hopelessly
in debt. We are spending the summer
In this little town because she dared
not borrow the money to go to some
fashionable resort. as she has always
done. Do not look at me like that. Mr..
Nelson. did not know the truth Of
these things until few days ago.
$50 long as can remember she has
had friend, an enormously wealthy
bachelor, old enough to be my father.
1t has long been standing joke that
l am to marry him. / never imagined
until this week that she meant 1t seri-
ously. He and his sister are to visit
us next week, and that is why we go
back to the city. She told me that
unless / accepted him We are finan-
cially ruined and We shall have to
earn our bread, So shall be com.
PEELED to marry him. for her sake"
WATT interrupted the man in a
strange voice, "do you love this man?"
Love him? I'simply detest him! Oh,
/ know what you are going to say. that
am selling myself to him. But there
seems to be no other way. You see"
with pitiful attempt at smile, "how
useless 1t is. Mother will never give
her consent; and / cannot marry even
you without 1t. And now, let US drop
the subject, please. Here we are at
the landing"
All this passed through his mind as
he sat staring into the dying Goals. He
had never written, had obeyed abso.
lutely her implied request for silence.
But day and night her face was be-
fore him. He avoided every nook