The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-03-18
CHAPTER XIV.
The Shiverina Heart.

81 hope you may always be as hap
Ply as you are kind
David Noe! started awake next
morning at dawn with that sentence
ringing as clearly in his brain as if
it had just been spoken beside him.
He looked incredulous.y around the
empty room before he was satisfied
of the trick his fancy had played him.
She was not there, the girl who
had so gently answered his gross
ruderess that first night. Why should
she be there? He had outworn even
the patience of princess.
Noel sank YEARLY back on his pill
low. The night had stripped him Of
his last arrogance. 1t was not that
Rosalind had escaped out of his
reach. With the resources in his
power, he knew that he could find
her But dared he try to do so?
The humility Of the boy in the
street had come back to him. too late.
How could he plead faithful love who
what else had he to offer; he knew
better than. to suppose his wealth
could sway the girl who had left the
Bruce household to toll in dancing
school for Vasii Arloff's bread.
And yet she had cared for him in
those weeks after his accident. Was
that mere charity? Surely he had
not read awrong her eyes in the mo-
ment when they and his own We're
alike uncovered?
Yet she had gone from her home
to avoid him. and, by Anitra's hand
consigned him to the bitter punish
ment of knowledge Of his great mis-
take Could her flight have had any
other meaning?
With low exclamation. Noel
started erect. When she had wishe ed
him happiness On the first night OF
their meeting after the dance, he had
already told her of the House of the
Little Shoes. She must have known
him from that, Joined with Bruce's
letters to her. She must have known
that he had loved her image-and
she had wished him happiness But
happiness meant herself!
Self confidence and hope CAME
flooding into his head. What if he
had offended second and athird
time? Surely it ,was not in vindic-
tiyeness, but as sign of possible
pardon, that she had left him the
doll When had she been wantonly
cruel? Cruelty it would have been
to taunt him too late with the knowl-
edge that she was the lady of his
dreams.
Noel struck the bell for Benito so
that it pealed a clamor of haste and
assertiveness. 1t was so early that
no one else was awake. With ridicu-
lous sense Of freedom, Noel went out
to the street alone.
He meant to go first to the dane
ing school where the exquisite daugh-
ter of Vasili strove to teach some Of
her grace to duller mortals. AS he
called taxicab, he remembered
Anitra, whom he had twice ungallant-
ly deserted the last time after de-
spelling her of her bracelet and the
magic shoes. Suppose the doll had
some further message unnoticed in
his agitation of the previous after
noon? Suppose what Anitra had held
was the answer to his letter? It
must be SO! Why had he not seen
that before? He again gave the ad-
dress Of the old house near Washing
ton square.
No one hindered his entrance. He
observed this time that the black
walnut stair rail, broken by his fall,
had been mended with some cheap
new wood painted dark. That was
now ne had tried to patch his own
romance, and luckily failed, he
thought, recalling those months Of
almless search for q wife. what q
sell sufficient cad he had been.
The door Of the apartment stood
open. As Noel strobe IN, 1 slight
figure came from the room beyond.
i Faa Rosalina Arloff, with the
doh In her arms. She halted like
an arrested sunbeam on the thresh-
old. The morning brightness was all
about her. in her shining hair, CLINT
Ing in her wide eyes tinting warmly
her pure pallor.