Illinois News Index

Highland Park News-Letter (1904), 11 Mar 1905, p. 1

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He was sitting beside the library table, looking over the pictures in “Fox's Book of Martyrs"â€"a collectiori of , grini ’ and ghastly distortions, theft néver could doanything but disgust me. I drew an garmchair, close (to the tilde, too, and leaning for- ward; spread my bends to the blaze of the single - lg, that had burned down to a hot red upon the ‘henlrth. He was, I knew, looking intehtly at 'me, ,'.nudying ‘mv fawn: and. J .mmt have plan-H Ma V fallen?” he broke the silence by saying: . (Win- hd link) IADI my my tothe um. B] LA which we: directly urea ' the hell. expecting to and Annie and Willi“ hybli both there. but William yes “one. Annie. he aid. but! been celled above mire. a; read her lawmaker to sleepâ€"e lenghty and. y leek-00 I had Willlem to myself. To In, . did I a}? Surely this in not correctly set. down. to:- I mung pley e put flan we: not Dor- othy Lee a ell. "Dbl-othy," he said, “something impels me to give you my fullest confidence, and I am assured that ‘it wit! not be misplaced. Listen! Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why I, a gentleman, finger here in this God-toenken western English colony? Have you thought So manly of me as to suppose it ' “I fiould that I fiche an artist, for I should like to make a pieture of you, as you ‘ook to-night we in that am an chair, with the fire being- at out a“ the thee" and rippie of your hair, the pansy flue of your eyes, the delicate peach bioom of ”our cheeks and lips. Dorothy,” he said, leaning toward me, "has no one ever told you how beau- uful you are?” m I have never lost the trick of assuming at will a 02mg: ‘n‘im mam wr ms befiéht 1 put on the guise of truthful six, or seven, and made answer, nodding my head at him: “Have I even: been told that I was pretty?. 'iOh, many and many a iime! But tha: needs flat. to be done, so 'long as-I can c’limb up to a. mirmr and catch a glimpse of my face!” He looked a trifle disconcerted, but for all that, went on to our mutual undoing: “You are a strgnge little creature,” he said; “you are by. all adds the brightest wanm' that I have ever met; and yet you are in the same breath a winsome coquette of sixteen. Dorothyz I wonder (God only knows how I woode‘t) what it would be like to be loved by you! This much I know, Hut if once you twined your arms about a man’ s neck. and laid your ‘red lips to his, you would be master and he slave! fot even the meiuory of that caress would render him power- less to forsake you. Aye, you would hold him in magic thrall.” We lint I shoul‘d not have let him go on. ‘It would doubtless look better to you people of to- marrow to hue me set dawn that at this point I rose up in scam and rebu‘ked him for a bold bad md faithless man! But I did no such thing I lured him by my siknce 'DOR.0T-H}” Volume 17 r, and IX“ , By LAURA lD/ITTON FESSENDEN‘ love ; HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS, MARCH w.mn‘uwmrm was from preferen'te! Do you think mouthing it contains,â€"nve one girl who shall be Wk“,â€" could hold me? I know you are thinking that I allude to Annis! Think it Annie if you will!" Could I be dreaming? , “Why do you Say no word to me?” he whis- pered, drawing nearer still; “yet I need not ask you. dearest. why you ole: in protest. Woman in her love for power over individual min, titles as' gladly over the body of her prostate rival as did the relentless goddess Alectol Aye, sweetheart, do not deny it! I have reed your hurt like in open book. Strange an it may dapper, we misshapen mortals have more power over the gentler-sex than is tiveo to perfect men. 'William Slukespeu-e knew whermfrslefwgfitvwhen h: 144.“; an iady‘nfi'ffi‘ curses across her murdered .hugbond’s bier to an 'aye' and 'if my lord u'ilt' tothe wooing» of Richard of Gloucester." ' time's lost a." ”mi with the heroine i'fof getting herself into such nn'cicss perplexitia. 'It only (on all occasions) rcquirgd» Clatiésa. and Belinda to use the eyes and the cars and the moderate sense that God had given them to bring thingsâ€"even in_the fin! volumeâ€"(“mt of chaos and hito harmony! But it a body how much ‘s‘tratigéf' “and? rial-i“ miréal is every day life than the most highly drawn fiction. Now, if I do-not say why;I did not rise up and tell William Leytown all that I felt about his meannes‘s arid cowardice to Arinis, in thus addressing me, it is because I could not than and mum! now compre- bend my motive. ' You know, little book, that I love him, and to makeit- ah thew”: heismyfirsthve: I do not know when and how it began to be; but I think it was-\r‘I the beginning a womanly pity for his help-w léss 5; this made me encourage his confidence, and by degrees I salve him mine, and so there came to be a time when with no added warmth upon my check no quicker beating of my pulses, I placed his name night antmominz with the deer home names of father, mother, sigters and brothers, on whom _I asked the All Father's blessing ere I said Amen. I must be Just to him, in the writing of this d0wn for 'I have no wish to do him wrong. He had ne‘er openly wooed me; but surely, wbrds are not needed. and for long months until this very day, when Annis had come to me, to tell me of her betrothal, I had rested as surely in the sunshine of his suppoxd' affection, as if in sooth he had shouted it to our little world from a housetop. I had believed that he did not speak. beause he felt himself nnwmhv he did not speak, because he felt himself unworthy, through his heipiessfncss, to ask any gir’l to share his life. 50 through all the hours that had planed since Anni: told me. I had tried to hate him. But on this night and in tfiis hour of which I write, my In .the romancesjtka: I haw: rad'l have often- V Lilâ€"3+ V ~ love wu at. its {allddmhut Ink! team}! gun he should never know! Not be! And no my butt. responded to my will and but evenly, an, quietly, and my eyes were cold and clear and dry. until I chanced to look too long into his face. ' He had such deer blue eyes! eyes such as a mother must joy to see in the face of the bebe that coo: upon her breast; such eyes as make a’ woman feel a new. strange tenderness stirring in her heart. He had such a broad, white brow! Such dear lips! I only know that I had him in my arms, holding him close, and covering his face with my kisses. I only know-that I showered upon him words of ten- derest endearment. I did all thisâ€"I who had never cared for Inueh caressingâ€" and as I held him thus Perhaps something in my face (it felt pinched and drawn) moved the master of the house to com- passion; perhaps, in his great strength he realized ‘how small and slight I woe. Perhaps he did after all, comprehend human love, and saw that it had driven me beyond myself. Perhaps he saw that, all too late, I was filled with shame and repentance, or, mayhap, it came to him, how once in the long ago the Friend of public-ins and sinners had stooped low and written upon the sand, rather than see woman's' degradation; perhaps he recalled to mind the‘ words then spoken, “Neither do I condemn thce”â€"-«for in a quiet, gentle voice, he spoke to me. He called me “Dorothy" as tenderly as my mOther might ' " Dorothy, he said, “ why shonl'd you speak of leaving the home into which you have brought so much joy and helpfulness? Think what Eunice would lose, in a thousand different directions, by your absence, and Annis has sore need of you. T5111 which has happened here, to-night, is no pineal matter; pity in dose 'akin to love, and the more lovely the woman's nature. the more gemmly the giver,- it is only innocence!“ purity th't openly he murmured hack some tender, honeyed words. words engraver: through an eternity upon my soul. Then in an instant, he thrust me from him, hurling upon me a burden of reproa'chful, «- that mu in stand like one d3: seated there! And “it the doom n, 1905 3mm 2;} hé'QZem‘éa t} 13‘ $21” force .personified. And when William Leytowu M ceased to speak, I turned toward Nathan Birdsey and I said: "‘It is a‘dark and‘storngy night! You can hear for yourself haw the wind is howling. ‘Lct me stay until the morning and then I wflf go! I have never before been untrue Ltn you, or your: hm respect; you_have heard what he has said to me, what he hasnalled me; it is descrvgd; he Should spam a woman who'falls sci low as to 'woo him." ' Then there came ~a silence, and m it only the deep, muffled bellowing of an oncoming blast broke the stillness. v Number :5

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