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Show M sWii . t Jt - LOVE THAT LIVES I I ::t By WILLIAM L. VISSCHER. I w.'.v.'A'.v.w ... ..' After dinner, In Arthur Johnson's "smoko-houso" tho two cronies sat: Mnjor Tom Bob Hurt, bachelor, ox-sol-dlcr, and relic of romanco; his companion, com-panion, Arthur Johnson, little mare than half tho ngo of tho major. Toward tho cud of a specially good cigar tho major had sat for somo minutes, min-utes, "lost to tho world' apparently. "Mnjor, I'll bet a horso that you arc thinking, this minute, of somo prehistoric prehis-toric lovo affair. Ah! you sly old pi-rato!" pi-rato!" "Arthur, boy, you llko me, don't you?" queried tho major, In a volco full of pathos and touched with nolle!-tudo. nolle!-tudo. ' "Who docs not, major, that knows you?" "Well, I'm glad of that. You aro Just tho kind of a friend I llko to hnvo. You aro fond of mo without having any very good reason for It. "In this way you remind mo of a sweetheart I had once got her yet. as lo that. But her husband and I are friends. "Often alio and I call each other 'Honey, which Is a common expression expres-sion of friendly affection In tho South, whero wo both enmo from. "Now It may eeem funny to you, but that llttlo woman doesn't know that I UU1 1IU1UUJ . "Is sho blind?" tho younger man promptly nnd bluntly asked. "Of course sho's blind. Blind as, n bat, nnd yet her cyos nro as good as anybody's. Sho Is simply n living exemplification ex-emplification of tho trlto old saying that lovo Is blind. "I'll toll you Just how It was, and I'll test your credulity right at tho start. Mako you smile, too. "I waB a handrfinio boy. "Geo' but you do laugh, don't you? And yet 1 had tried to proparo you for It. Well,' I was haudsomo. That sweetheart sweet-heart of initio and I grow up to lovo each other, Jutt naturally, and In fact wo didn't know It until too Into. "When tho war camo 1 went. Beforo Be-foro tho stdrm of patriotism wn3 over, a great, big ninn, who wns not nearly so practically patriotic or Idiotic as I was, came along thero nnd told my sweetheart things that 1 had not thought to tell her. Moreover, ho was accumulating gold whllo I was not gathering anything moro substantial than glory, but I wan fairly windrow-lng windrow-lng thnt. It han melted llko tho snow forti of boyhood. "Thoso who had tho direction of hor ways directed her toward him and ho gathered her In. Ho hns hor yet. "After tho storm went down, Btrnngo nn It may I'coni. there was no calm for me perhepa thero was too much calm. "At first I frequently saw my old sweetheart, then camo long spoils when I tfii'n't eoo her at nil. At last it dawned upon my opaque heart and brain that I was In lovo with that llttlo llt-tlo woman, and always had been Sometimes I thought 1 would try to steal her. But 1 thought butter of It. and sho Heaven blos3 her! wouldn't havo thought of It at all. "l did tho noxt worst thing, now-over. now-over. I told her thnt I loved her, nl-ways nl-ways had and always would. To my utter astonishment, dismay, and hap-plness, hap-plness, thereby pcrploxlng mo more thin over, sho confessed thnt sho had lovsd mo In tho old days, and but sho loves her husband. ' "Tho other day X wns telling her that sho was tho only womnn I had over loved and that sho was always a pearl. Sho snld: "'You'ro a denr old fellow, but you must not talk that way.' '"Oh! That's all right: I said. 'I am old nnd homely enough to bo a privileged character.' "Sho leaned over, her elbows on tho inarblo between us. hands to hor faco, nnd looked Benrrhlngly nnd Inquiringly In-quiringly Into my eyes. Then no If drenly bewildered nnd nnnzed, she said: "'N-o-o! ro you homely, Honey?' " 'Yes, indeed, picturesquely homoly. Don't you seo thnt I am oJ:l, and wrinkled, wrin-kled, and bald, and stooping, and ano, nnd querulous, and Tdfjcty and' " 'No,' Bho exclaimed, 'I ouly seo my gallant hiy sweetheart, and his patient, pa-tient, knightly, hidden colli. 1 remember remem-ber tho flash of your cword in tho sunlight sun-light that morning when, os tho boy-captain boy-captain that you wore, marching with your men to tho " ir, vou saluted tho cheering village girls In passing. Tho gleam nt Ihnt b'adn has always kept you and your oyes no.'oro mo.' "Say, my con I havo clung to a spar nmld tho crnulir? canyons of tho ocean, until dceited ortuthlcES and unconscious un-conscious upcr i '"-.- ''retch of whlto beach on an nrid island of tho seas: t" havo faced tho Ho-"' ''-occo nnd foro-most foro-most local flro of oattlo, tlmo and again, and felt Its f.ery Drcath blow back tho brown lock's thnt then wcro mlno; InsMmd bv a s-practhlng whoso achievement nilsht bo borno to her. I havo poured out a stream of Impassioned Impas-sioned eloquuica beforo nn audience of heroes and statesmen, until they climbed lo chairs ar.d, tables yOltng: '0)d man, you'ro a king!' But nover evon In tho deopest Intensity of any Instant nt such tlme3 ns these havo 1 had such satisfaction and triumph, or more ot a yearning for raoro of lifo. than when my old sweetheart leaned over nnd said, with tho light of lovo In .her eyes and Its music In her volco: "N-o-o! Aro you homoly, Honey?'" t San Francisco Argonaut. |
