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WAITING.
73
"I fear the parting-/' he said, "tho I will love you unto death."
"Even after/' she whispered, "will I love you."
Her eyes grew sad with far-off prophecy; his filled with tears.
A cloud obscured the sun, and both shuddered as the shadow passed them.
"I seemed to know that it was coming," he whispered, then clasping her in passionate embrace : "Is it forever ?"
"I promise," she assured him; "whenever God wills, I will be yours."
"Whenever God wills," he muttered with vague unrest. "I wish I had the strength to take our lives in my own hands and shake them free of all restraint. The absence will be hard."
"For both of us," she said, "but I will bear it for your sake and help you by writing every day."
So they parted and her promise was kept.
Thru the years of his struggle and disappointment her light was his guide, her faith his inspiration ; it was
THE LETTER ANNOUNCED HER COMING.
high noon when he succeeded and the fruition of his hope seemed near.
Then came the cloud.
A letter arrived at his ranch saying that she was on her way to join him, giving the train she had taken, and asking him to make preparations for the wedding.
There seemed to be no spot on the horizon of his happiness.
In a state of high nervous excitement he prepared his house for the bride elect, gathered a great bouquet of wild flowers, summoned his friends and went to the station with an escort of adherents.
On every side there was laughter, happiness and a joining of sympathetic minds. Felicity was at its height when the hour of arrival was at hand, then the whole scene became dark, and he who had waited and watched long years, soothed and sustained by an unfaltering trust, became stricken with apprehension and paced the platform with extreme agitation.
He looked down the track with strained eyes, then turned them to the darkening heavens with anxiety. He remembered the cloud at their betrothal; what did the parallel of incident mean ? He stood still as if afraid to disturb his own thought, his full consciousness riveted on the ill omen. Friends tried to rouse him from the gloom of thoughts unbidden, but their questions elicited no reply. He broke away from them and paced up and down furiously impatient over the impotence of his position as time passed swiftly and no train appeared.
What had happened?
He trembled and paled.
The station agent was running towards him with a telegram in his hand, his face drawn with horror.
The message announced that the expected train had gone down thru a defective bridge into a stream killing every passenger on hoard.
The man who had loved, struggled and waited in vain Looked about him blankly. The girl of soft eyes and sweet face was not a reality hut a wraith, a fantastic dream of an overworked mind. Bright had been the