The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-12-10

The spell was broken. He drew her flushed
but rather frightened little face up to his,
and their lips met.
Harry FOulds had kissed other women,
but there had never been anything like this.
He felt as though he had been drawn up
into a world which had lain hitherto out
side his ken, a world where beautiful things
attained a new significance and mems
cOarser instincts were strangled at their
birth. She lay in his arms INCREASINGLY
enough, more like a child who has come
home to rest than a woman giving herself
up for the first time to the claims Of a
lawlesS passion.
Nevertheless, it was all a dream Of de-
light-the cling of her soft lips, the happi-
ness in her eyes, the soft, cOnfiding way
in which she nestled up to him on the
homeward ride. Those first words of his,
which brought them into contact with ugly
things, seemed to him uncouth and i'll
spoken.
"what abOut-yOur husband2" -.
It may have been necessary, but 1t
seemed like a terribly marring note. She
drew gently away. A queer, distressed little
smile parted her lips.
"Lennyr" she murmured. eyes, there is
Lennyv"
She relapsed into a brown study. Present
lily, as they drew near the streets of Mel
hampton, she withdrew her hand, sat up
right, and arranged her somewhat tumbled
hair with nervous little pats and smooth
ings.
"DOnt come in tonight she begged, as
they drew up in front of the shop. ITO
morrow
Tomorrow? p he interrupted eagerly.
She laughed up at him from the pave
ment onto which she had sprung lightly.
Tomorrow you ought to be wanting
some more of your special HOneydew," she
told him.
Then she disappeared with a little wave
of the hand, and his last reCOllectiOns were
of a backward glance, a look half of
trouble and half of joy in her great eyes,
a faint return Of that enigmatic smile
-. =. - -. 49, LA~n-
to his own abode, stabbed his horse, ate
and drank what the woman who attended
to his wants had left out for him, and,
catching I'D his hat and stick, climbed the
steep hill which was crowned at the top
by Tom Bakers ugly red brick villa.
He found his friend enjoying an after
supper pipe on a garden seat at the end
of the lawn, from which favored position
he had a magnificent view Of the sleepy
old red tiled town, and Of the mOOrs and
hills beyond. The ir-OnmOnger made room
for his visitor by his side.
"COme to sell me a pair of carriage
horses, Harry" he asked, facetiously.
The horse dealer shook his head.
"Pve come to ask you for a bit Of advice,
Go right ahead" his friend invited.
You be a man, Tom" his visitor began,
"well known hereabOuts for common sense
and having mixed with the world a little
| more than we others. Now l be in a diff
cult position and I want your advice"
Tom Baker sighed.
2 a. II ndu DGeu Il MdIIeE VI Il lOdu now
Harry" he said, you know well enough
e that I'm your man, but 1 tell e frankly,
r before you start that I'm not one Of those
, who understands these Placements about
L women. A wife I've got and married I've
. been for we'll nigh thirty-five years, and
I with Mary there ends and begins all l
e know about the female sex. We do hear
$ Of disturbances all the time, even amongst
. married people, Harry, but they're just
e matters 1 don't understand"
d Put your mind to it, Tom, I beg of
yOu," the other persisted, "fOr it's con-
: corning a woman I've come to see you,
=" I'm not exactly the sort of man that you
Y are and have been, Tom. I've lived laxer,
" in a sort Of way, though doubtless I'd
have been steadier if I'd met a woman like
Mrs. Baker and married her when 1 was
young. But that not being the case, In
driven to face matters as they are, and I've
e come to ask you, Tom, what is a man tt
]. do when he feels those things for a mar
s ried woman which he ought not to fee
d unless he's free to ask her to be his wife.
It "That be a serious question, Harry,
Tom Baker conceded, knocking the ashe
d from his pipe and looking reflectively int,
s its empty bowl.
10 Harry FOulds declared. "I'm free to ad
IF nit that I've not lived the life that 20
s have, Tom. I've had what you might cal
re triflingS with women, and / haven't care
q brassheaded pin whether they were mai
H. ried or not. And vet this very evenina
on WOllwOrthy Moor, I kissed q wOma
IN who's living with her husband, and I TEL
it you, Tom, that though in a way l neve
felt so happy I feel as though I'D don
something mortal wrong"
o. 1.-THE woman being Cliff the tobacconist
10 wife; ?" Tom Baker surmised, slowly.
THAT being She"
at "And she willing2"
he Not what you might call willing, bT
er yielding like" Harry fluids acquiesced, II
av luctantly. "We've been out together an
" alone many a time, but never has tn
he thing happened before. She's always mac
an me feel-well, it's hard to explain" Il
a horse dealer went on, gazing down at Il
o. grass, ''that if I once kissed her, wei
there'd be an end of it."
~, And there must be an end Of it." To-
d. Baker pronounced, firmly. All that 70
IT. say cOnvinces me, Harry, that a trif
p flighty though the young woman may see
d. to others, she's got a heart like all goo
to women. She's married to that poor col
ng sumptive fellow, and marriage is a thin
cd there's no honorable way out Of. You don
want to bring her to sin, Harry"
ee- God knows 1 DON'T" was the ferveI
ell reply. But / want that woman like / wa
in nothing else in life. Not just as a pla,
mate, you understand, Tom, but to keI
dy and look after, and worship always. 81
ng may seem flighty to you others but there
ay, something about her-and what it m'
MT be I can't tell-she makes me feel a bett
Tas man every time I talk with her."
ay The iron mOnger lOwly refilled his piI
The Harry" he decided, you've only o
course open to you. You told ne last we
en- about that offer you'd had from the 90
eminent to go to South America and b
his young horses. You'd best go, lad. You q
or, come back when you're cured, or VIII
Mt, the Cliffs have gone away but you'd be
his 60"
ere There was a long silence. 1t seemed
hit. Harry FOulds that some one was tuggi
a at a thing which had dwe1t in his hea
Cf not for a week or two but for all his III
"YOu reckon that, TOm2" he said at Ia
. 81 do, indeed" was the ironmOnge.
lsteady response. eff so be that she's I
fgOOd woman you think her, it's not I
lyOu to pull her down, Harry, and IL you
mistaken, and IL at heart she's one Of Il
other sort, she'd best be left where 8
is for you own sake"
There was a further long silence. II
Harry FOulds rose to his feet.
Thine we paid our respects TO M
DOwdsWel,'' he suggested laconical
"Lets be getting down, Tom"
Whether or not he discovered his ne
Of HOneydew, Harry F0ulds paid
promised visit to the tObaccOnist's the I
lowing morning. It was not such q visit
he was accustomed TO pay, however,
although Mabel was looking her prettie
with a delicate little flush in her che,
which had only recently come into e
dence, and although Leonard Gift, af
49, -~-r- 49, . -.