San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-11
PARTING LEAVES
MARGARET
UNHAPPY
Take Up New Life in Little
Cabin in Distant
Spot.
CONTINUED from Page 1. Part 81

CONTINUED from Page 1. Part 81
DRY of this great sweetness. Nothing
would come between it and her.
Andrew would not be alone. He
would go on enduring, rescntinG, sor
rowing. All the gentle strength, al
the fine, hidden fire of his spirit
would be dimmcd. In a few years the
Andrew that she loved would b
killcd-body and soul.
She shut her mind grimly against
this remorsclcss picture. Their last
day came-their last hour. The pol
ished madrones were dark and sill
vercd in the starlight. Now and then
a leaf fluttered-a bright, crystalline
sound in the dim, rnonastic quiet.
There are no words TO soften mo-
ments such as these. Once Andrew
wound his arms about her, pressing
his lips against her throat.
She said family: "Oh, Andrew
what great wrong I've done you
I'm loving me?"
"Ycs-in loving you
A smile went over his white face.
His eyes dwelt and dwelt on hers.
1T can not be, Margaret. that we
are never TO meet again. u is past
accepting. Grant this-let me conc
twice each year. I've thought of
this. IL can be done. Two weeks
from each year, let me live
She turned from him forlornly.
Twice each year? Then 1t would
how things like that would end. No
we have had an hour-lct US keep
faith with that"
He said Silly: This is harder than
death. / would find it easier to die;
easier to know, Margaret, that you
we're gone, than living to let you
THE PARTING. i
They went on, drawing their souls
the closer with this living pain.
But in the morning Andrew car
ried their bags to the train. Nora
Lee pulled his head down and whis-
pered: why don't you come. too.
Andrew? Plcase-will you? Maybe
some day."
He laughed. but he said quietly,
forcing Margaret's eyes to his, Yes
some day I'll GOMEZ Believe this,
Margaret.
mo. Andrew-do not hope"
He caught her hand swiftly in both
of his. The besoeching prayer on his
h. sn1
a sob. But suddenly he smiled: My
darling-thanks -
She turned quickly because the
smile was too much TO bear.
Then he was standing with his hat
in his Handwriting. Nora Lee said
-Look--his face is getting smaller
oh. hes novel against the tree"
Margaret did not turn. Her heart
was sick with terror as Of death.
The ashen heat of summer lay on
the white floor of the valley. Ali
about them in towering mOnotonous
circles, the gray, naked mountains
ranged.
Like a dot in the vast emptiness
stood this small abandoned cabin.
Sagcbrush, dusty and sullen in the sun,
crowded about the fence and half way
up the walls. No flower-no color
no sound.
Half a mile distant. dropped like
doomed exile in forgotten waste, was
the two-roOmed s,,hOOlhOuse.
INTO LONELINESS.
Margaret pushed open the gate 20
the cabin. FOrebodings crept up
and made a deadly weight about her
thought. .-..
Nora Lee turned with frightened,
angry tears: ~Oh Marmee! Didn't
he make a mistake: This can't be
the place. We're not to live here:
On. we can't live here all alone"
But this was their new home-a
remote and deadencd place-nothins
to do-no one TO see. They and the
mountains.
Margaret went about putting gold
en- gauze on the windows putting am
Der shades on her lamps. She said !
gaily: -Wait-we will make the des-
ert bloom"
But the desert gripped her with
a thousand nhmcleSs breads. She
stopped short with panic many a time
those first months. whispering in de-
spair: What have ] done: Good
God-whst have I done to be so pun
ished?"
The hot, silent mountains Cypress
ed her with their terrific bulk. They
pushed down upon her, relentless
walls Of a vast tomb from which
neither she nor the child would ever
escape.
When the snow came, she thought
If Siberia and the terrible book,
Crime and Punishment
Then she thought, too, Of that last
walk through the trees, the polished
msdrones all silvered by the stars.
She felt Andrews arms frightened
about her She said wildly: Il will
send for him.
ITnnAin...I ro...l.-....