Show til i t m nil 1111 faint ir ir A flear heart c never won fair lady ba EVERETT MACBURNEY H t m ma H H H l l H H aike alke und I 1 had for gome some time been excellent friend but it never occurred to me ni to loob upon her as anything any thins more ban than a frit I 1 she was a great flirt and practiced lr wiles on most any mam who lie came along but not dot on me one dav the u surprised me by saying john why hive hire you never made lova lore to me IOU ou mean why have I 1 never jofred the innumerable caravan of those WAO bow do da r to you and ani whom you seid bead on their ay iy gadder sadder but wiser on the contrary its the truth sou you dont consider nalder co that if I 1 made love to you and you sent me on like the others oar our companionship would bo be spoiled why MY should that be necessary yr 1 I dont know ita tho the hla ie ault sult in such case cases itow do you know I 1 would send yon 0 on n 1 I dont but I 1 a d bt bet ten to one you w would she made no reply to this we were sitting on a rustic bench in the gar den she waa was toying a rose one of 0 the last of the summer tumbling it against her lips directly under her nose I 1 knew very wi wt be the was doing it because bere was something in it zM estive of a kiss the lips and the rose being very much alike don dont I 1 try to fool me alice weve be been e n mighty good friends and ive felt I 1 complimented that youve thought so much of me you dont care to interfere with our friendly relationship im going away tomorrow and I 1 dont know whether come back or not if I 1 do I 1 want to find ond my old chum here just aa as shea always been suppose you find me married in that case you 11 etui stul be my friend alice and I 1 your friend tom and doubtless your husband and I 1 will come to be good friends too I 1 said this in to a half hearted way I 1 knew very well that marriage make a lot of 0 difference la to friendships several of my men chuma chums had married and I 1 bad had come to consid r such friend ships as destroyed by wedlock at auy nuy rate none of them were over ever the same afterward alice didn dian t aa she hoped how so too she cledt fulua fumbling ling the rose against her lips in a tantalizing fashion and dida t say anything it was plain sho she had broken through the hedge thit divider 4 the realms of friendship from those of lovo love and was looking about tier her in the new domain it Is said that love begets love at I 1 any rate there wits that in her action to inoculate me and yet I 1 knew her eo so well that I 1 dare trust her I 1 had seen men hang about her for a few months sometimes only for a few weed ben then suddenly drop off and nev er again be even seen in her ber company our dur ing tue too buzzing of ot the bee about the flower dower I 1 bad had called the bee a fool should I 1 now make a fool of myself what la Is the pleasure jou ou take in beating a mau to make love to you en cou raging him to propose to you and then sending him off air about his buel bust ness 7 I 1 deny that I 1 bare hare ever done such a thing I 1 thimas this nas a pretty definite statement I 1 wol Jered if affet all thero there woon t some troth in it did these fellows conjure up when it was not intended was there some thing in alice e x treatment of them that looked like flirting bat but was not na flirt dirt ing or was she flirting and yet of doing eol sol far be it from me a man to analyze a woman a mo tires in sah matters I 1 have some alms believed they dont always know themselves tue mcelvea alice had never acted in this way toward me before and I 1 was at a loss lolls to attribute to her a motive for her dolny so I 1 could not believe that ahe he had bad suddenly made up tier her mind thi I 1 sha she wanted me ine or that the she was willing to destroy our friendship to satisfy a whim it if thee thea the a e was a middle course between tape two I 1 had not the pew er to discern it IL my surmises ended lost just as all of mans surmises with regard rezard to woman an attio intentions S must ever end pad in uncertainty and aed yet should I 1 analyze myself in the matter would I 1 come out any better I 1 am now in dined to think that I 1 bad had always felt for or alice a desire tor for her pow possession that I 1 hid id not realized at least this I 1 is the only explanation I 1 can give for my action on this occasion possibly there mere may bavo have been a bit of 0 curl curiosity dosity a of the hunters instinct both enforced re by a feeling that a lifetime passed with her har would be an agreeable arree able cue well I 1 eald said at last 1 I 1 will glie you an opportunity to sho show w whether you are in earnest or ahel ier this Is last just B ach each a case as a yon YOU have hare been frough often before I 1 love yo yoi I 1 will you be my wife looking back at this prop proposal osal I 1 won der bow I 1 could hive hito opposed supposed that 11 ny girl who was interested I 1 Ite rested la 13 a man purely for love c could cold old have been satis batts I 1 fled tied with it abere was no more warmth in the be tone with which 1 I poke spoke the word words than thin in the words them elves selves I 1 might ne as well wet I 1 have spoken a fl into a phonograph ab and thep set the machine grinding them thom out to her ber while I 1 rend a it newspaper indeed indea dirtat alt hen then ti ts me to 0 o be a ti corn coal considering that she first arst broached the subject or at least gave me a tint lint a as to her feelings now seekim to roe me to hivo li ire awell little ass its than an 1 insult I 1 r ally MIT thought I 1 u as putting her in to a poaul in to declaim declare her lore lave tor for me if t ehe she hul bid such love to declare where ss a I 1 atis is simply putting her in a po to accept me for a husband if the he caso to do so sho she sat silent toying alth kh the rose roie though now eho she was pulling it tn to pieces breser presently Pres ertly aly she he sil I 1 no I 1 think it la is ruled that we shall act pet get frittum phlp I 1 ar 4 much moro disappointed than I 1 hail had chught I 1 would bo be nt thia this reply 11 it I 1 did not enow show it ti in my action mr nir did t upbraid her I 1 sita aim ply said suld hat that I 1 would do my best to miln tain our past friendy friendly status vi but whether it could bo be maintained or not idaj I 1 did ti v t know I 1 hoped it itt could I 1 rose her my band bond which she took without Alt hout warmth bade her good by and told lier that I 1 would see her again before my iny depart re but I 1 dian t the barrier that I 1 feared would be the result of lovemark lov emak ing bad had come betheen botn can us I 1 could not take leave of 0 her both as a rejected lover and as a friend therefore I 1 would not tale leave of her nt at all I 1 departed without seeing her I 1 considered that I 1 bad had joined the I 1 innumerable car avan aran the of my journey was to in a business in which I 1 had been beel invited to take an interest find tal ing that it looked favorable I 1 embark ed d in it and for five fire years was absorb ed idd in it at the end of that time I 1 concluded to tako take a vacation with two objects lu la view ono one was to take a rest the other a go back to my old hame and visit old friends it nas about the same t me of year as when I 1 hadine bad had a Lne away that one aft ernson a few days after my arrival I 1 went to call on alice who wae wits now midway between girlhood and old mald hood I 1 found her in the garden where I 1 had left her five tire year years before tending her po ft ere hearing boroo one coming up the walk she raised herself and with a trowel in her band hand stood looking nt at me I 1 saw that ehe she lie lecog nihed me but whether she experienced pleasure of pain palo at seeing me again I 1 could not determine she had bad always bad had tho the faculty of concealing her feel ings blip welcomed me with nith a certain cor duality and ond led let me to the sanu rustic rustle seat on aich wo we bad had sat during our last and Mp morable interview you are not married I 1 believe lel leve I 1 aid raid 0 NO o 1 I have hare often wondered why it Is that girls suh sueh as you are or were with lots of suitors very often don t marry at all 1 I suppose it its a because they don t meet tho man they wint or that tue U thuu totcy want loeffen t wani want gnem for my part I 1 would not marry any man unless he loved me out but men have hare loved yon you whom you t want I 1 1 I 1 have had men tell me we they loved me who meant it and I 1 have bad men tell me they loved no me who at any rate they told me in such a half halt bearded lie arted way that it meant nothing I 1 picked up my ears the brat first time in the years that bad had intervened senca my proposal I 1 realized that it was half hearted could it be that she referred to mine as such a proposition 1 I 1 remember ehe she continued on that afternoon after when you were here last you upbraided me for trifling it ema setma to me we that if it a man loves a weman end and proposes to her to gratify a curiosity as to whether she la Is trifling fing or not with him he Is the more reprehensible hen sible of the two there was something sadly reproach ful in this that mado made me wince if you refer to me I 1 certainly have paid for the wrong I 1 committed though I 1 do not admit the charge for I 1 have lived a lonely life since I 1 could only attribute your Ind IlTer ent tone to curiosity you were wrong I 1 did not realize hat my proposal was halt half hearted but I 1 wid admit that I 1 did not know your refusal meant eo so much to me we do not know bow much we desire an no object till we find we cant can it have it IL then we fret and fume and refuse to be comforted I 1 in that case if the object la Is at last attained we find and no comfort in it IL sot not eo to the not getting what we covet shows us that wo we did not real ize bow how moch much no e wanted it IL I 1 admit that when we talked of this matter year years ngo ago I 1 wae was ferr denul ul of a refusal fear ie Is no weapon with which to make love I 1 it Is I 1 a good weapon with which to keep those apart who should be together IL slight trembling in br her vol yet when she be said sald this struck a ard in my heart bearl I 1 bad had not oly bogl injured myself but her I 1 had bad nothing to say may why did you go away without coming to see me as you said you dl 7 1 I could no longer come as a friend ani sol I 1 did not wish to come as a rejected lover but enough of this alice 1 I who thought I 1 had some insight into a 3 womans nature have been a fool afy 3 y stupidity has cost me I 1 pain I 1 now know that under my youthful you was concealing an en dudicz love not a love lore such bj ai way a pass ataway ayay at a breath but one that growing slowly becomes an absorbing mission passion finding that words were inadequate to express nil gill I 1 felt I 1 took her in my arof armi and told the rest in cr teases five years lot lost she said through tear t on account of f a misunderstanding they shall be made up for by a greater intensity of those that are ta t tome come |