A DAY ON TRIAL.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 325, 17 January 1907, Page 6

A DAY ON TRIAL.

l!v S, Roland Hall. f . Dust beyond the yard gate, where the moon was flooding the lawn with its silver, the spirited iron-gray horse was first pricking up his ears intently, then neighing shrilly and pawing the ground—impatiently awaiting his master’s return. But the master was still leaning against one of the tall white pillars of the old-fashioned country porch. Nature was sleeping, the whip-poor-will in the orchard had ceased his midnight melody and scurried away to Join his mate. The old mansion, with its garden, its yard of aspen trees, its lawn and its great wide fields, looked very beautiful and peaceful.

But the master was not thinking ol this, nor of the iron-gray steed champing his bit so nervously. His thoughts were fixed on something more He was standing in front of her chair. As she rocked slowly to and fro, the bright light of tho summer moon' fell across the pure white front of her dress and on the little white hand resting on the arm of the chair. He had held that hand only si short wliile ago, had kissed it passionately, bad vowed she was the -on* lie couid ever love —had Sis eloquently and and implored her promise. was spqaking now, but his voice 'had a touch of paid and humiliation in it. ‘'And must it be this ,way, Ruth ? Will you send me away to-night, knowing that I will be gone maybe for years ; tliat unless I may have your love I can never come back Ruth, how can you be so heartless not to even lot me know {whether you care for me or not ?”

Tho voic-e that answered was low and full of music, but St had the ring o! a woman’s voice. '‘Harold my dear hoy, have I not told you why ; why do you wish to continue a subject tdiat must be painful both to you and to me ? I have not encouraged you to say, what you have said to-night. Don’t go away thinking I am heartless ; I am not ! I appreciate more than you will ever know what you have said to me. But, Harold, I have known you all raj' life ; I have studied you more closely than you think I have. You are earnest, but you are so impulsive and so changeable. To-night you have said that I am the only girl you love or could ever love. How long do I know you .will feel that way ? Suppose I lovdd you with all my heart—gave you my promise and let all the idolized dreams of my life entwine with yours. How long do 1 know- that you would continue to love me?”

“Ruth, how can you think and talk that way? You seem to think that love is nothing but fancy. I will never cease *to love you as I do now. Dearest, if that is all you doubt, let me prove”—

He stepped forward, but the little baud was raised .with a detaining gesture.

Wait, Harold ; it lias not been a Jear since you were infatuated with Maude Archibald. I have nevgr tried to find out anything about it—l have never asked a question, but I have heard that you were engaged to be married and that you were the one that broke that engagement. I don't accuse you of trifling with the affections of a womanheart, but, Harold, you do know how hard it seemed to go with her. I have watched her many times after, that when she looked at you, and I know that it almost broke tier heart, although she mat' have been too proud to let you know it, and I hope she was !” She had risen to her feet and for the first time was speaking with spirit and emotion in her voice.

i‘Du you suppose I want a love like that ? Do you think a woman ought to give her heart’s tender love and her life away so easily ? Would it not be better for her to wait and know that' the ideal is real and forever true, even though the .waiting bo torture?”

Harold Prosser shrank from her Words, coining, as he knew they did, from her inmost soul.' Ho stood for a while with his eyes downcast and did not look, into her face. She was standing a little away from him and fie could see that the little hand was clenched tightly on her handkerchief. The iron-gray steed was fuming and frothing with the bit. The gentle fsunjmer night wind rustled the trailijjg vines at' the end of .the porch and . (To Be Continued.)