The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-06-10

, Without flinching he recalled to HIM
self:
81 am done with that forever"
he said steadily. That l swear!
Fate and l shall have one more
tussle together. and it shall be in
the old country. If only she could
forgive. God. What fools men are,
Tall and gaunt with marks of re-
cent illness, he stood packed closely
| in amongst motley crowd in the
front row of the gallery He had
waited two hours for his seat, but
after all it was worth 1t. There was
a roar of applause-then an intense
silence.
She was singing!
| The man looked down at her with
dim eyes and a bitter heart.
| She was his wife. She had been
his faithful and true wife through a
very furnace of adversely. And he,
weary of the struggle against fate.
had left her-left her coldly. deliber
rately, out of the rankest and most
brutal selfishness.
He remembered the letter he had
| left behind-he was going abroad,
anywhere out of the mesh Ct their
cursed poverty. If he could he would
send her money, but she had better
not rely upon It, Life altogether
had been a failure. He meant to
make one more effort alone and I'M
trammeled.
The brutal, hateful cynicism of
J his leave-taking had moved him often
| to wild disgust many times re-
pented Of If he had succeeded he
would have fastened to acknowledge
| it-pride alone in his constant sue
cession of failures had kept him
silent.
And now it was too late, too late
| for anything She had become IA
| nous! He watched her delicately
graceful movements, listened to her
arch laugh and merry silvery voice
as she moved about the stage-the
cynosure. as usual, of crowded
London theatre.
She had once belonged to him
to him, that half starved and de-
jected looking man. the consort of
| coster-mongers and Arriets. of
whistling lads and screaming girls,
And he loved her still. He had
realized 1t on that Christmas morn
ing year ago. and if he had found
her poor and suffering he would
have taken her in his arms and turned
once more to face the battle of life.
Something like this had been his
dream shattered now into thou
sand pieces
She had no need of any help of
his! She was in another world.
Without doubt she did not belong
to him any more. How could he ex-
pect it? He had himself cut the
bonds.
"She was free" he had said. "to
go her own way. as he was taking
his" Only, as his way led to ruin,
so had hers led to fortune.
1t was month ago since he had
found her; nearly every night since
then his chance earning during the
day brought him here to the same
theatre to see her. He had gone
without food more than once rather
than be absent. Long before the
doors had opened he had taken his
place upon the sidewalk, waiting
| with a sort of logged patience which
took no heed of time.
And after the show every night
he made his way steathily around
to the stage door. and pressed
against the wall, saw her step into
her cab and drive past him.
He had cunningly chosen his
place so that lamp-post from
opposite shone into the cab, and
unless she was leaning back he
could catch a glimpse of her face,
Tonight he shrank back into
his accustomed corner There was
little disturbance at the stage
door, and. as the night was dark
he ventured to cross the road to