The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1920-01-07
HE DAILY
SHORT STORY
GALLEY FOUR. j.. 80. %" :. Z.
SHORT STORY ......... :. 49,.
q - tBXNpoRoThY DOUGLAS.

fAk IlyHbShotTiI bSSSErN0'
Copyright, 1920, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate)
TNALE moonlight shimmered down
through the barren trees; bar
rem, yet strangely, really lovely,
they were rearing their silvercd
branches mp through the soft shadows
Of the garden.
But Avis saw none OF 1t. Slim and
white and suIlen, she made her way
carelessly through the glorified even
ing woods that skirted her fathers
estate, She was blind to all the beauty
In the world--unseeing, unfeeltng,
save her own hurt fingered. She
wanted TO close out all living things
from sight and never more sense the
caressing touch of beauty. ~
Life had turned on her viciodsly
and wrenched from her hold the only
living thing she wanted, and Avis was
suffering over the loss of man, as
she thought no one else had ever SUI
fered in the whole OF the world.
Her eyes turned languidly toward
the lit.e lake where the pink pond
lilies used to grow. And In spite OF
her conviction that life was one grand
failure and men poor atoms OF wreck
age drifting about at the mercy Of
tie6z. Avis grudgingly admitted that
The moonlight on the lily pond was
rarely beautiful.
"Bnt treacherous," she meditated
ironically, like love-beautiful on the
surface, but tainted, horribly unsare
DRY, in the depth Of it.. IT
Avis hetveda sigh. She was of SUI
ficient YEARS to know, though she 7e-
fused stubbornly to admit 1t. that
Jeffrey Arnold was not the kind c.
man to harbor so sincere and true a
love as Avis had given him. He had
fled to another woman, and Avis was
left with Jagged love thrusts in her
sensitive nature, making her feel that
life was an impossible state for her
During their fervid courtship she
had known but blinded herself to his
limitations. She had been deaf to the
council of minds other tn n her own
and had chung to her love for him
through all adverse criticism.
Now Arnold had thrown her over
and i.fe was sorry thing for Avis.
Suddenly from out of the shadows
of the barren trees slim boyish fig
ure stroye painfully with the deep I'M
dergrowth to make his way into a
clearing. He was feeling his way
cautiously yet with certain familiar
ity, among THe silver birch trees. His
hand, white and ethereal in the moon
light, fascinated Avis and she watch
ed it moving from tree to tree.
He was making his way slowly but
surely toward the deep. pond. The
white calm of his finely chlsled face
was now clear in the light. There was
q world of interest ,+of exquisite final
hy there, as If in his human blindness
he had found far greater outlook, an
expanse of vision rare to the open
eyes. There was no, hope in the face
only a quiet surrender to greater
power
He must be walking in his Sleep"
thought Avis and realized that she
must stop him before he reached the
edge Of the pond. The shock OF icy
water might prove fatal. She arose
stealthily and quietly SO as not to
brighten him, and gently as lily
brushing its mate she slipped her
hand through his arm, then tur ed
MIN from the pond. @
Against her arm she felt the mans
heart quicken its beat.
Who is that ?" he asked quietly.
You were walking straight into the
water Avis said, conscious that her
voice was strangling with emotion.
This nan was blind-blind to all the
beauty Of this moonlit world! Blind
and little over his first youth! And the
laugh that sprang from his lips was
bcyish, actually boyish.
Avis shrank from her own petty
nferiority. Her scantly, meager
troubles ,stung her consciousness into
utter shame. She suddenly hated Ar
nold with a hate that flung a. huge
carpet over her former love and
sfnotheredi 1t for all time. She hated
herself too, for the moment of weak
ness she had allowed his desertion to
rive her. In vivid flashes these truths
flung themselves before her.
But the blind boy was speaking
and Avis heard him with startling
clarity of brain. 1t seemed as If her
heart had been thrown wide open
swiftiyvthat he might enter.
thought knew every inch of this
wonderful place. AS a kiddie every
Tree and every curve of the wee lake
vas familiar to me. Funny-if had
bumped off hereafter going right
through the great war"
Half consciously Avis drew the
BOY IS arm nearer her side. They had
blinded him, then, those beasts of the
\ snemy Sepuntry.
II they had only blinded me be-
ore. he said, as IL he had sensed her
thought, only scant half hour so
that IScould have remembered my
pals as j saw them dashing headlong
Dyer The top, full of life, manhood
The brayest, and finest pals God ever
put breath In" He drew breath
and ceased speaking, but his silence
was more terrible to Avis than a
vivid word picture, for while his
body had taantened she knew that he
was racked with i'-ward sobs. He was
struggling to co., that flash of
wreackage lei within his brain
lns' before sight had been snatched
iini.
Stnalthily, like prisoners escaping
rom crushing confinement, the tears
squeezed through Avis eyelids and
splashed down over her hands.
But don't think I'm gutter" the
man finally was saying. 81 am thank
Jul to have known so brave a set OF
men, honored for having fought be-
side them. And il the good Lord wills
that ] am never to see with the physi-
Eal eyes again-weil, certainly have