Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1919-06-21

On IL WOuiQnC De nice not TO.
"You don't believe in divorce, then3"
"Oh yes-yes, indeed-if people
don't get along together I think it's
wicked for people to live together IL
they don't love each other"
'Its love. then, that makes mar
riage sacred?"
Eyes. Yes, indeedI Of courseP
as it all right for two people who
are not Christians to live together ac-
cording to their creeds2"
GLOW do you mean"
"Well, the people who lived before
there were any Christians-or people
who never heard of Chrfstianity-was
it all right for them to marry?"
"Of course"
"It's not any one formula, then, that
makes marriage all right2"
"Of course not, it's the-the-"
''The lover"
81 think so. It's hard to explain"
Everything is, isn't it,"
Terribly"
There was more silence. He took
cigar from his pocket, held it be-
fore her for permission. She said.
please" He struck a match. She
glanced at his face in the little lime
light Of the match. It was very hand
some. A pearl of drOwsy luster
cleaned in the soft folds of his tie.
The hands sheltering the match were
splendid hands.
She watched the cigar fire glow and
fade and the little turbulent smoke
wells float into the air and die. One
of them formed q wreath, a strange,
frail, writhing circlet of blue flaments.
1t drifted past her and she put her fin
ger into it-her ring-fnger by some
wOmanly instinct.
"Now you're married to me-" said
Duane.
There was a sudden movement Of
his hands as if to seize upon her. She
recoiled a little; his hands did not
pursue her. They went back to the
steering wheel and chung to it fierce
~. She turned from his eyes, but he
gazed at her cheek, and she could feel
the blood stirring there in a blush.
''If you loved me, would you marry
me2" he said.
IL love I'm going to marry
somebody else."
Wheng"
"Some day."
"If you're not happy with him, will
you leave him?"
ooh, but I'll be happy with him."
| &C. hor bod
You've seen how seldom it worked.
If you ceased to love him, or he you,
would you leave him7"
"If is a large order. Maybe"
wouldn't it be wiser if two people
who thought they loved could live to.
gether for a while before they mar
riedT
She felt her muscles set as If she
would rise and run away from such
words. 'Mr. Duane don't think it's
nice even to be talking Of such things.
Besides, it's growing late"
"It's not so late as it would be if
you married a man and found that
your marriage was a CHASTITY mistake"
Hadn't we better start back?"
"Please don't leave me just yet,
This is very solemn to me. I've been
studying you a long time, trying to
get you out of my mind, and only get
ting you deeper in my heart. love
you"
IT don't believe it."
81 know it."
"Then you oughtn't to tell me-"
''Not tell a woman you love heri
Not try to save her from wrecking her
life and my Ownp
slow wrecking my-her life?"
81 believe that if you marry Clay
Wimburn you'll be unhappy. He can't
give you a home. He can't. buy you
clothes. He can't support you"
'aThat's not his fault, Just now
with the hard times and the war,
Please let's go home"
ITO my homer
That insolence was too appalling to
answer, or even to gasp at, or protest
against. 1t stunned her. He took adj
vantage of her daze to explain, hur.
riedly:
you're not going to be one Of those
silly, old-faShtoned idiot girls tnaC 9
man can't talk to earnestly and frank
ly, are you now2 OF course you're
not. You're not one Of those poor
things whose virtue consists in being
insulted every time anyone appeals to
their intelligence, are your No, you're
hne, brave soul, and you want to
know the truth about truth, and so dc
IL
'T'm a decent enough fellow at
heart. want to do the right thing
and live squarely as well as the next
fellow. I've got a sense Of honor, too
Of sort, and I take life pretty serl-
Ously.
II tell you. the world Is all turned
topsy-turvy the last few years. The
old rules don't rule. They never did
but people pretended to believe in 'em
| as - -. "a H..