Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1913 — ONLY A LOVER’S WAY [ARTICLE]

ONLY A LOVER’S WAY

By JAMES H. HULL.

Tn the spring of the year the path called “Lover's Way” led through a tangle of budding wild rose bushes and trailing In October the woodbine was still there, a glcry of red and gold, and the sumach crowded its luxuriant foliage and rich mahogany tinted blooms until there was scarcely room for lovers to walk. Dorothy Penfield hurried through the Way one autumn day with eyes that would not see the beauty of the tinted foliage on either side. There was a scared look in her face and her little hand clenched a letter tightly. Out of the Way was the broad drive that led up to the big mansion on the » hill- Old Cato, driving the carriage horses for exercise, stared after his young mistress with rolling eyes. “Miss Dolly done got a scare. I reckon!” he muttered clucking to the lazy sorrels. “Her am >de greates’ young lady fer gettln’ scairt at little er nothin’.” Put Dorothy thought she had cellent reason to be disturbed this afternoon. She hurried into the house and went straight to the library where there was a hickory fire on the wide hearth. Curled in her favorite chair before the fire was her dearest friend, l isa Mason.

“Dear!” cried Lisa in her pretty gushing way. “I’ve been .waiting an age for you " Dorothy frowned. '1 came right back, Lisa. I haven’t been gone fifteen minutes.” Lisa was quite unabashed. “WelL I’ve been waiting all of five minutes, anyway.” Dorothy tossed aside her red felt hat and curled herself on the hearth rug with her round white chin cupped in one pink palm. Suddenly as if just aware of the letter she carried, she tossed it into the fire and resumed her former position. Lisa gazed curiously at the letter and to Dorothy’s keen disgust the flames licked the envelope open and spread the sheets wide for anyone to read. Dorothy wished she had not possessed such a splashing handwriting. Certain words of the burning missive stood Out strongly before the* turned black and shriveled away. “Dearest Phil.” “The day has been so long ” “You can read your answer .” “Ever yours, Dolly.” There were many sentences—dozens of them —in between the first and the last that no one could read except the hungry flames, for there were several sheets of paper thickly covered with the loving words that had dripped from Dorothy's hasty pen.

Lisp Mason read the words shamelessly and then turned round eyes upon her friend. Dorothy's head was bent in deep dejection. '’Well. Dolly girl,” said Lisa briskly, slipping down beside her friend, “I received your note asking me to come over and consult about the wedding fixin's —here I am and here you are glum as can be. Let’s talk about pretties." she coaxed. '‘There’s nothing to talk about,” said Dslly turning sad eyes on her friend. “There isn’t to be any wedding.” “No wedding!” shrieked Lisa. “No trousseau? No fixin’s?” “No, nothing!” returned Dolly with an air of finality. “But, you said this morning that you wanted to see me about the wedding plans, and I’ve got my bridesmaid’s dress half made and—”

“Oh, keep still!” snapped Dorothy, ■with tears brimming her hazel eyes. Lisa stared; her pretty mouth trembled as if speech would not be confined, but by a supreme effort the little fair-haired girl regained her control and her natural keenness. “It's a quarrel, I suppose?” she asked tentatively. Dolly shook her head. “There is no quarrel—only I’ve simply found him out!” “Found out about Phil Waring?” “Yea.” “Well, what about him? I thought he was a perfect dear, and if it hadn’t been that his brother was ten times dearer in my estimation, you would never have won Doctor Philip, my dear.” Dolly shrugged her Indifferent shoulders. “But you are still wearing his ring” reminded Lisa with a curious glance at the diamonds on Dorothy’s "finger. “1 had forgotten,” said Dorothy, slipping off the ring and tossing it into the waste paper basket so temptingly near at hand. “My, but we're reckless!” muttered Lisa. “Love letters In the frames and diamond rings in the waste paper basket.for the servants to find? I heard that Phil Waring half-starved himself to buy that ring for you.” Dorothy's winsome face went very white. “I don’t believe a word iof it,” she declared. “But it's a waste of money for him to buy a ring like that for a girl he doesn’t care for.” “Doesn't care for?” shrieked Lisa, losing all patience. “Why Dolly Penfield, everyone knows he’s the most devoted idiot in Franklin county—so there!” “Devcged to some other girl!” flared Dorothy. *•• w Lisa suddenly wilted. “Another girl? Who Is It?” “I don't know anything about her •save that he meets her In —Lover’s Way—and I hate him —the cowardly ideceiver!” choked Dorothy. "Lover’s Way?" echoed Lisa with a dazed expression.

“Lisa Mason!” cried the exasperated Dorothy turning on her friend with sudden fury, “I wish you would stop echoing my words like a wretched poll parrot!” Miss Mason regarded her friend with pkying eyes. “Why you poor thing, you're just green with jealousy,” she said with cruel deliberation.

“Don’t you dare pity me!” cried Dorotljy fiercely. “If you had been there—if you had seem him —if you had seen her?” Her voice broke suddenly.

“Tell me about it, dear,” urged Lisa with a sudden change of tone. Dorothy turned her head away and looked into the fire.

“You cannot know that half way down Lover’s Way there is a holb in a hollow tree that Phil and I ca.ll our postoffice. Sometimes he leaves a note for me when he cannot come up because of some sudden call —and again, when I know that his patients need every moment of his time I write him a letter and leave it thgye so he can get it when he passes the end of the way. “This morning I had a special message for him and I wrote it, and after luncheon I went down to put it in the’ hole, expecting to return at once because I knew you were coming this afternoon to talk about —wed—wedding things! “Well, I hurried down to the Way, and I had nearly reached the hollow tree when around the little bend by the butternut tree —you know where it is, Lisa —I saw Phil; he was talking to a girl in a scarlet coat and her horrid yellow hair was against his coat sleeve, and he, patting it with his hand in the most loverlike way.”

“No—no —no —l don’t believe it!” cried Lisa violently. “It really is true, Lisa. I don’t know who she was because her face was hidden —but I suppose she was pretty—although Phil always said he preferred brunettes. And she looked as though her hair was fixed with peroxide or something.”

she was a patient who was feeling ill—or something,” suggested Lisa faintly. “Humph!” sniffed Dorothy coldly.

“You don’t seem to have much faith in the man you promised to marry,” remarked Lisa tartly. “You’ve thrown your ring away and broken your engagement with Phil Waring, the dearest and truest of men, when you don’t know but what there is a perfectly logical reason tor what you saw today.” “That cannot be proved.”

Lisa Mason arose and patted her tightly clinging white serge skirt into place. “I’m strongly tempted not to prove .it to you, you have so little faith in the best of men,” she said. .“How can you prove it?” demanded Dorothy, also rising.

Lisa pointed dramatically to the leather couch in the corner where the warm afternoon sun came in the window and rested on a scarlet coat.

Dorothy looked and two pink spots flew to her cheeks. “You?” she demanded scornfully. “Yes, my dear, it was my ‘horrid yellow head’ that rested on the manly arm of Dr. Waring,” mimicked Miss Mason, with evident enjoyment and a bit of spite in her manner; “and please note, Dorothy Penfield, that the color of my hair is my own and always has been, as you very well know! ”

Dorothy was looking very cold and frozen just then. Even the pink spots had feded away. Warm-hearted Lisa ran to her and put her arms around the shrinking shoulders. “It’s suctt- a foolish mistake, dear, and all my fault,” she cried remorsefully. “If you had remained I would undoubtedly have fallen on your shoulder as well as Phil’s, and bedewed your pretty frock with my tears! I know he felt mighty uncomfortable all the time! Of course you didn’t recognize my new scarlet coat—isn’t It a beauty? Aunt Anne brought it from Richmond today. “Well, to make a long story short, and to drive the tears away from your dear eyes, I had a wretched quarrel with Ralph last night, and he went away in his impetuous manner, threatening to leave for the north today, and go to the other end of the world. “I didn’t sleep a wink last night, and all morning I waited for him to come and make up, but he didn’t appear. So after luncheon I started down to Dr. Phil’s to ask him if he wouldn't see Ralph and tell him for me that it was al) a mistake. Just as I reached Lover’s Way I saw the doctor’s car at the end of the Way, and his coattails were just disappearing among the sumachs. “So I ran after him and fell weeping into his arms, and frightened him most to death. He kept asking: ‘Has anything happened to Dolly? Is Dolly all right?’ until I just howled out what was the matter, and then he laughed and said, his young brother needed —just fancy my feelings, Dolly —he said Ralph needed a good oldfashioned are the very words he used! But he did comfort me beautifully, in such a nice elderbrother sort of way,‘and he said Ralph would come around all right —he said that Ralph had been glooming around all day. %

“So —so —Dorothy, shall we talk wedding things?” ended Lisa smiling archly at Dorothy’s radiant little face. Then she added swiftly: “Here they come, z Dolly, Phil and Ralph—and Ralph is bearihg peace offerings—■candy and flowers,” “\Valt!” cried Dolly, breathlessly, as she fumbled in the waste paper basket. “Wait* Lisa, don’t let them In until I get my dear ring!” (Copyright, 1»13. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)