| Show T aps t 1906 bs dally story pub co I 1 the new ring and the old love dear in the old days I 1 would have dearest b t to day another man acquired first mort gage on that till by virtue 0 placing a diamond ring on a certain finger of what ou once called the fairest hand in the world why I 1 should choose you a man and a former lover as my confidant and honor you with the arst news of my engagement I 1 know not perhaps it ia because of mem ones which will not down even though the flashing of his ring seems to reproach me tor not letting the dead past bury its old love Is this cettei treason to hima I 1 do not think he would so consider it for he has told me I 1 do not ask that you love your former admirers less it you will love me more that speech won for him my hand it not my heart leonard Is not jealous and in that he is ke you jealousy may be flat bering to a woman s vanity but it Is destructive to her peace of mind yet a woman loves with her heart not with her mind and where the heart 1 concerned a woman does not think she feels so I 1 sometimes wish that leonard were less phlegmatic that he had more blood in his veins and less of ice that he were more e you that Is treason and yet my bonds are still too oung to teach me dis crealon do you know what a tempha alon a diamond ring Is to a but tor that I 1 might have waited waited for you would you have careda rachel waiting tor her jacob gave evi dence of no greater patience than mine are all new englanders like john aiden too bashful to speak for themselves 7 but I 1 will not compare you to john alden lou have a higher sense of honor than that unjustly lauded puritan for you would not be tray your friend perhaps if 5 ou were that kind ot a man I 1 would not be writing this letter yet in penning this echo of eden I 1 prove that I 1 am but an erring daughter of eve are you a son of adama to morrow may tell ah me I 1 wish the morrow were to day and yet I 1 dread the morning s dawn would I 1 love ou more on a pedestal towering to the clouds and unattained or kneeling at my feet all mine own but with the dirt of desire on the hands you reach forth to clasp minea who can read a woman s heart and be even she herself cannot do that can I 1 then aare to hope you will understand these heart throbs trickling through my pen in inky in discretions 7 if ou do not understand should one reproach the text book because he does not read its meaning spare me in your reproaches for in love the end sanctifies the means in what on earth have ou faith it not in mea it doubts distress you now what mean the protestations of the pasta I 1 can say no more my selfishness and my hope grow dumb my heart brims over with silence the deity can invent no greater purgatory than will be mine it you cannot forgive your LILIA II 11 the letter which reached him my dearest dick may I 1 not call you by that sweet old pet name once more even though a few days must elapse before the law will confer upon me the right to own you before the my dearest that first word claims you mine the second tells you that you are still the dearest of all men to me I 1 am hysterical silly delirious with joy to know that I 1 may soon give my self to you the fact that I 1 am mar ried and its accompanying man I 1 had quite forgotten may god forgive me you already have for if I 1 err it is be cause of you of my love for you whether leonard forgives me does not dear richard matter nothing matters now afo long is we two love and may begin to live I 1 am dating this letter the first time la three years tor since we earled there have been no dates in my life nothing but a blank a blank only you can help the future to fill and make pregnant with promise in a few days my bonds will be broken leonard preferred a alon but has consented not to oppose my application for a divorce which al ready has been made there is to be no scandal the utmost secrecy Is to be observed the judge has een rashly promised to 1 the cas out v I 1 A f 4 wt of the newspapers when the law severs the old bonds it will tie an other nuptial knot as soon as you wish with you as my lord and master bondage would be sweet I 1 have been a wife in no more than name since leonard found me cry ing over yo ir letter on our wedding night we have lived our separate lives meeting only at d and in society oh dick why did fate and uncle sam fail to deliver my former mes sage to youa doubtless it is now in the dead letter office that cemetery of buried hopes I 1 have come to be thankful that like the writer my let I 1 never needed you so much as now ter went astray I 1 would not have you say in the coming years as did the first occupant of eden the woman tempted me your tall but arouses the mother instinct I 1 long to kiss away your hurt as did my own parent in the days before you came to be the embodiment of my ideal my demi god yet son of adam you shall no longer sue at my feet let me look levelly into your eyes together we will rise to sunlit heights and forget the shadows lurking in the valleys of our past edith tells me you will return home sunday I 1 h mger for a sight of you for two years you have kept away your absence was hard to bear but perhaps it was as well I 1 could not have remained true to the man the world called my husband had you been nearby have I 1 been true to hima alas my thoughts have been traitor for none belonged to him 1 wronged him in that I 1 had no love to give him in aught else god is my judge be you merciful and together we will atone for the past not in sor rowing penance but in joyous living dare I 1 come to see ou at your home and so defy conventions and your for you I 1 dare all things even to laying my heart bare even to tearing away a woman s most sacred attribute her modesty and showing myself to you with soul naked but un ashamed lou need not forbid me I 1 shall come your sister loves me as you know only less than she loves her brother yet I 1 do not need even her as an advocate let your own heart plead tor me and I 1 do not tear its judg ment I 1 never needed you so much as now I 1 am weary told me away from the world in your arms let us tor get in the dawning of a better day the hideous dream of those missing years 1 am overwrought nervous the sud den drip of salty tears has blinded my eyes and the page is a blur before me I 1 know not whether my pen is loyal to my heart but you you under stand when I 1 only hint at what I 1 dare not give a voice there are some things so sacred that to reduce them to words would be desecration I 1 await you once before I 1 said come and you heeded not this time I 1 know you will obey tor this message will reach you heaven and all its angels will see 11 safely to its journey s end my love from your love LILIA |
