The Adair County news., 1918-12-25
CHAPTER XVIII.

SuAT En- Avttts
Perhaps it was because they had
seen so many horrors during the past
four-and-twenty hours, that these
seemed all to have fallen away thai
night at staff headquarters. There
was a brief hour of rest after inter.
minable labors, the lines had been held
ond the great assault repealed in con.
fusion; for that hour every man seemed
bent upon forgetting the incidents OF
war, and something like gaiety ruled
in the messroom.
ALI the past seemed very far away to
Captain Mark Wallace as h stood
with Eleanor in the little cottage gar.
den.
when the auto comes to take you
back to the hospital shall feel thai
my new life has lost the best part OF
it's PROMISE" said Mark.
1t was a long and extraordinarily
imaginative. speech for him, and he
stood shamefaced after he had said it
like boy who has delivered a grown
mans aphorism.
Captain Mark" said Eleanor, "yor
knew who was, and you could not
you could not have believed my father
innocent, and yet you had faith in me
You must have suffered when used tc
talk about my dreams of him, and you
hid your suffering and your knowledge
because Of me-"
"That was nothing, Eleanor"
Captain MARI" she whispered, bend
ing toward him. IL kissed you to
day." -ef.-s:~ .~a'-'~-- = 49,. 49,
@That was nothing, Eleanor"
captain Marki What do you mean
How dare you"
Mark looked utterly disconnected. "a
meant mean, Eleanor, I'm Just You
old guardian-a sort Of old friend, YOU
know, and you were glad 1 had come
back safe."
20, Captain Mark % said Eleanor,
shaking with helpless laughter which
disconnected him still more; and yet
he thought her lashes were wet with
tears. Captain Mark, are you really
GUMS " 1udhS hc say
"Say what, my dear?"
"That it ought to have been YOU"
"But you mustn't let that worry you,
Eleanor. It's often done in such cases
I just thought you were too old to
kiss. You know, wanted to"
20 thank you, thank you," said Flea
nor YEARLY. Captain Mark, you dear,
absurd guardian of mine, I see you
aren't going to spare me. So listen. /
love you, and have loved you only, and
nobody but you, all through my life,
from the time got your first letters to
the time you came to see me at the
Misses Harpers' school, and from then
to now"
Mark looked at her in incredulous
joy; he was no longer capable Of feel
ing establishment, but it all seemed like
happy dream, unreliable but, while it
lasted, dear beyond all imagining.
"The Colonel knew it. And-others.
Everybody did but you. And do you
know why I have told you what I've
often pinched myself to keep from tell
ing you? Because you loved me with
out exactly knowing 1t"
"But did know it, my DEAR"
without exactly knowing it, and
! when you admitted little bit of it to
yourself you were prompted TO commit
those foolish acts, to be so rude to me
! and hurt me so much. But woman is
never deceived. She always knows.
knew"
"My DEAR" said Mark solemnly, "you
IInve Deen everything IN the world TO
t me since that very first day outside
| Santiago"
"Of course have. AS you have been
to me. And that is why told you, SO
! that we two should not be unhappy all
our lives. You see, dear Captain Mark
it isn't as if you didn't care for me. II