The Delaware leader. (Laurel, Del.) 191?-19??, 1920-05-08

'If there's anything you think I'd
better say, or not say" He rose, out
of sheer inability to endure this in
genuous estimate of Carols heartache.
perhaps you'll tell me-because it's
time for me to be going over"
Angela had risen, too, and stood be-
side hirn. Her features were COM
posed. but still suggestive of inward
emotions little too tender to convey.
"If there's anybody in the world"
she said, "who could give Carol any
consolation just now, it's you. don't
suppose you ever were minister, but
you look as though everybody could
come to you and tell most everything,
and you'd help anyway, you'd
try to. So wish you'd you'd
sit and listen Carols got to
talk tc somebody, and when you're
hurt the way she is, you can't talk to
your family and you were a
friend of Dicks. And - She
allowed, and went on more slowly.
"You can use your own judgment, of
course but if l were in your place
I'd lie."
"Liew he repeated, aghast.
ayes, l would! He he
must have sent her some word, Mr..
Hillieedr~ He must haye!" She was
desperately serious now, and thor
oughly aroused. at means the whole
world to her! It's everything! Why,
even I've got more than she has, and
she was waiting for him to come back
to her! I'd lie myself black in the
face, but I'd tell her something
her anything I could think of to make
her believe he hadn't stopped caring!
1t can't do any harm now. 1t can't
hurt you. And 1 won't even ask you
whether you do or not. Only you're
here. and she'll trust you"
"Will she?"
"How could she help 1t? And 3.
and that's all. Please don't let her
think he didn't care!"
HNliard stood irresolute; chaos in
his brain. "Tll see." he sale
with difficulty. "I'll see."
won't you promise me? l won't
ask pu afterward, If You"
DOES 1t mean so much TO your"
Fer and ever so much. &.
WON'T yon please prom,se"
HYgazed at her moment, yielded
with sloY of reluctance
rasx=~a 49, x...---r--S ra.,-,,-s
| YOUR asked it. And because it's the
dearest, most generous, MOST thought
full hing ever heard of in all my
lifeS. And after that, can't we
be truly friends?"
Flushed perplexed, honored, she
gave him her hand with a hesltancy
which betrayed the deep sense of COM
pliment she felt.
81 don't think 1 could be prouder of
any thing that could possibly happen
to me-" she said.
Was it worth the blatant mummery
he had conceived and executed? Was
1t not worth that, and infinitely more?
She was proud of his friendship
and she shared that distinc-
ton with no one else in the entire
universe.
Proud of it, Hllliard was fulsome-
/
taneously glorified. He had come to
make the city proud, ignorantly proud
of the man whose deeds had merited
no renown. Here, at the very incep-
tion of his plans, a seventeen-year-old
girl vas 4aeSSRd of him as he was
Courage. Inspiration. Resolve.
He had won her respect by the prom
Use of a lie; and in this instant he
vowed TO deserve, by other and in
creasing lies if need be, the prestige
he was unalterably committed to gain
whereby the past should be as moth
ing, and the future should be mag
nificent citadel of reconquered dreams
She was proud of him, and she haC
approved the lie in behalf of Dicky
Morgan's memory. Unwittingly, she
had sanctioned the very purpose OF
his coming, and the method of his ap
proach. She had confirmed his owl
intentions, and given him the will II
advance. He was to act as the stancl
defender of her playmate persisted
and to make of himself a new and {
better man, worthy of the eulogie'
which. as trustee, he now accepted fo
the unworthy Morgan. He consecratet
himself to this end. Told himsel
tiercely that he would succeed. Ant
she was proud of him! 1t was an
other omen.
1t was eleven o'clock to the mlnut
when billiard. not quite so blithe a
a wedding guest, and yet not alto
gether as doleful as a mourner, waveI
his hand to a slender girl who stoo
on the veranda of house diagonall.
across the street, and went slowly u
the Durants' brick walk. He had an
ticipated the effect of this pilgrimag
upon his nerves, he had DISCOUNTS
it; and Angela's advice had given hin
an artificial stimulus for the moment
nevertheless, as the front door opene
to him, and he saw, over the head o
a smirking maid-servant, a hallwa
and vestibule unchanged, his, breat
, came little faster than usual, an
his cheeks went little darker.