Year: 1879

you pity me, he said, l thank
you for it. You understand what
there is to pity me for. You can
we'll afford to pity me since you
have won what have lost. I
wish you all the happiness had
hoped for myself"


Ill don't understand YOU,
Robert said with q strange thrill
at bis heart. I have won nothing
that you would have priced"


"Doy you call Helen Hunts love
nOthing2 Alstyne cried. 1 would
give the world for it, if had it to
give"


"You are mistaken, answered
Robert. -


But Alstyne interrupted him.
~ am not blind, be said. She
loves you, and you will find it 50
when the day comes for you to
tell her what you must some dav.


She loved him! There was a
world Of rapture in the thought.
But-and the haunting spectre
which comes to sit by your hearth
aud mine came into his heart
then-their Ways of life were so
far apart that they could not be
bridged over. He could never
ask this woman to stoop to his
lowly life. And he could not lift
himself to hers. And yet she
loved him! He could not for one
moment forget that. And to
know it was 50 sweet, so unutter.
ably sad!


The days after that, went by
more like dream than ever. He
tried to keep away from her, but
his heart would not let him. He
tried to school himself to the
thought that, since lie might not
have her tor his own, he ought
not to think of her IA man
thinks of the woman he hopes to
win But he could not do that.
He could only love her, and tell
himself that his love was but a
vain one


But it conld not always go on
that way. Fate took the matter
iu her own hands at last.
Robert was at work in the
meadow one afternoon. The load
ed wagon was driven away to the
barn, and he sat down to rest
until its return. AS he sat there,
Helen came down the lane. She
saw him, and came across the
meadow and sat beside him under
the old apple tree.


What they talked about they
never could tell. He remembered
III a vague way, that they saw a
darkening sky, but that was all,
until the sudden fury of the sum
mer shower broke upon them. A
flash of binding brightness, a
cry from her, u crash, as If heav.
en- aud earth were being rent iu
twain-and he was by her side,
with Ter head upon his knee, and
he was crying over her in a wild
inc0herent way, telling her that
he loved her.


"Oh, my darling! he cried ont
in the wild Outburst of long pent
up passion, l love yon! l love
you ! and you are dead"


"Are you sure of that Robert
sue said, struggling mp into a sit
ting posture with the color com
lug back intO her cheeks. I was
stunned a tcifle for a moment
nothing more"


81 thought you must he dead
you were so pale, he said. If
had Known


"Well, what 7" she SAID shyly
when he paused.


II would not have said wha
l did, he answered slowly, For
give me Helen. At such times w
say things We would not say il
sober mOments.'


Robert, she cried suddenly
you said you loved me. If it i
true, why should you not tell M
SO? What keeps us apart -
His face was pale with pain
, his heart. The time had com
, when he must speak.


~ tell you what keeps us apart
, lie answered. You belong to ;
| sphere of life so much above min
/ that love cannot bridge over th
I distance between U.s."
{ "Robert, she cried, her Who'll
: face aglow, is that the reason VIII
J YOU have kept silent! Becaus
, l have lived in a world you knO
q but little about, you imagine
{ would be wrong for you to as
r me to follow my heart? Poo
I foolish Robert! Love is more I
f me than all the world beside, al


your life is the happiest one
ever knew. l should make
4 sacrifices in taking it in place