for a moment he was speechless. Assured by his silence, she
continued: " I have always had confidence in you. I believe you
can have chosen no one who is not worthy of you. Tell me who
she is, and why you have not spoken of her."
Who had told her? That the question was the strategic guess
of shrewd woman's wit did not occur to him. There was but one
thing for him to do, to tell the whole story. Then he continued
his plea with all the earnestness of his nature. " Flossie, I loved
you first and last—it is my duty—l cannot love her as, for the
sake of happiness, a woman must be loved—"
Flossie stopped him again. Like a knife thrust into her heart
came Harold's confession, but her's was the heart of a true
woman. The thought of bringing sorrow to another girl who
loved Harold and believed in him far outweighed her own sad
ness. From another than Harold such words would have brought
scorn and despising, but she knew that he was not a trifler, and
pitied him.
" Harold," said Flossie, in as firm a tone as she could com
mand, " as long as you both may live, pray God to make you true
to the love you have spoken."
Bitterly he declared that life would be a failure. " Remember
your duty," she replied earnestly. " Besides you are mistaken
in your discouragement; you will recover."
Harold detected such a depth of feeling and bitterness in her
words that he was encouraged. " But, Flossie," he persisted,
" I cannot enter upon a life with which I can never be satisfied.
Didn't I tell you that I cannot see the depth of feeling, of soul, in
Hazel that my heart demands ?"
" Ah, Harold, you. might have seen it if you had shown her
that she has all the love of which you are capable."
She arose to her feet. No longer would she trust herself in
the presence of his magnetic, irresistible influence lest she forget
her duty. " Harold," said she, in a very low voice, " you
remember Elmer Mason; he has asked me to be his wife."
With these words the sun of his life seemed to go out. Stag
gering to his feet, he cried : " Flossie, forgive me, and believe
that all I have said was prompted by my innermost soul." He
could say no more, and he bade her good-night.
That night there was two sad hearts in Fenton. Flossie cried
herself to sleep. Harold did not sleep at all, but he made one
resolution—to ask Hazel to release him. How often he lived
The Free Lance.
[JuNn