Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-11-13
THE
POWER or
TIPPY'TOES
BY MARY M. RAYNAL

selected with discrimination. the har-
nlony of rugs and curtains, the Arm
of the water-colors and bits of sAtu-
airy was something of a shock toIthe
man who had expected to be aAzed
into stuffy shut-up parlor. He bad
| left New York snow-bound and lur-
! mace heated he found here an ben
fire, also an open window thrdhgh
which came that mingled odor of R0-
man hyacinths, burning leaves, and
upturned earth which had meant
| spring to him in his childhood.
Wellford's being again in his old
home town had made this visit i'm
perative. somehow. Yet in his coming
he had hoped to find a commonplace
little village woman whose personality
would finally dispel that piercingly
sweet memory which had haunted him
through fifteen years.
Alert, keen-eyed business man of
atrophied conscience though he was,
this very consciousness of her near
ness was filing him with a remorse
and shrinking that would have car
rled him frors. ner house had she lin
gefed 9 moment longer. But there
was the sound of quick running feet
on the stair, and Caro- Accleton was
greeting him with friendliness which
eased while 1t shamed him.
Her autumn-brown eyes met his with
the old-time frankness, her autumnaf
hair was even more wondrously red
and gold than it had cleaned in his
memory. She was too fragile, her
pretty color was gone, and tiny net
of lines had sketched themselves
around eyes and mouth, but her beau
ty was far more appealing now than
it had been in her radiant girlhood.
They spoke of improvements in the
village and exchanged news of old
friends as naturally as any acquaint
ances might, meeting after an interval
Of years. But the man was reliving
their parting, in which he had held
her crushed to his heart. The woman
was tense with the memory of the
sob-racked nights which had followed
his deSertion.
uclI uIIIllh6 oPdlt nou OOCh ~
natural after all. During his long
struggle to establish himself in the
city she had slipped imperceptibly
from his mind. His letters had grown
briefer until they had finally ceased.
That was almost to be expected. The
unforgivable thing was his last letter.
In response to timid little appeal on
her part a plaintive assurance that
| she wouldn't mind poverty, that all
| she wanted was to struggle up with
| him, he had in unreasoning rage,
written not only of the impossibility
of marriage for him, but of his change
| Of heart
Seeing your Impotence / honestly
| wish that l could feel as l did one
| year ago. But l don't, and l can't,
| and that's the end of it,"
The words famed now in his minds
eye, so brutal in their youthful crude
ness that he could scarcely believe
himself the author of them.
AS he had said, that was the end
of it. Caro- had so effectually hidden
| the hurt in her brave little heart that
those around her had not suspected it.
! Several years afterwards he had heard
of her marriage. With womanly tact
she did not now refer to her husband
or her married life. That she had
money at her command was evident
whether or not she was happy was for
him to find out.
As they talked he was amazed at
her culture The vision of her beauty
and of her sweetness had never alto
gether left him, but her intellect was
a fresh discovery He had been too
callow himself in those days to call
out the latent possibilities in her. Her
questions in regard to metropolitan
affairs and the Old World, which he
knew so well, were almost pathetic
in their eagerness. If through books
and magazines she had so kept VI
with modern thought and progress
how she would expand in the wider
world in which he moved!
An evil thought was shaping itself
in the mans mind. He would take
her from this cramped life up to the
city, whose society she would adorn
He tasted In advance the pride Will
which he would introduce her to his
friends, their envy of this pearl of q
woman. Divorce was so easy in his
world, so much a matter of course
that no one would question his righ
TO her. He felt no pang of pity fol
the man whom he would rob, the maj
whose honest labor was providing tff
luxuries of this little home in whicl
the woman's life had blossomed,
He owed her reparation, Wexford
argued 1t was in his power at last
to make up for the brutality of hi
youth. And after all; since the,
couldn't have married then, wasn't i
just as well that this interval of com
plete separation and mutual growth
had been given them? z They coult