Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug 1911-Jan 1912)

66 THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE K pied two girls coming down the pathway. One of them was Edith Saunders, of whom he knew his mother wished him to think all the world. He felt a little angry with her that she should come along at this moment and collide, as it were, with his cherished plans. As a result, he feared Edith and treated her with a slight coolness of manner. He saw no reason, however, to J^ear her pretty companion and was more than cordial to her. That, then, was how James met Helen Greenberg, and how all the plans and fond hopes of so many people began to crumble and fall. During the weeks that followed, James did not pursue his law work with the same diligence with which he had either planned or begun it. He spent many, many precious hours strolling in the Park, near where he had met Edith that day. But Edith no longer appeared on the scene. By his side, with a glorious radiance in her eyes that had for many days puzzled her parents, walked Helen. One balmy day in early June they both instinctively sought a secluded spot ' ' far from the madding crowd. ' ' James was very serious. Helen trembled from the sweet emotion that clasped her. Instinctively she knew she was about to hear the sweetest story ever told. Both the law and the prophets were forgotten. ' ' Helen, ' ' began James, taking both himself and her by surprise; " Helen " He seemed unable to proceed. But their eyes spoke, and sang, for that matter. She knew, and he knew that she knew; and the next moment he had caught her in his arms and drawn her close, very close, roughly at first, then ever so gently. "Oh, Helen, Helen, I love you," he told her thru the masses of hair that brushed his face, bringing an ecstasy all of its own. "Yes, James," she whispered. And when he kist her the large eyes were wet and shone like jewels. James took from his pocket a tiny plush box. Within sparkled a wonderful diamond. "When, dear Helen, will you marry me?" At the sight of the ring the girl paled and stepped away. James ' words brought forth only a shudder. For one moment she saw clearly the far-reaching consequences of their act. "Oh, James,' ' she began. But the next moment she was in his arms. "I cant live without you," she murmured. "I cant. I cant." They determined to begin braving the consequences at once. But when they arrived at Helen's home a sudden and terrible fear of the Rabbi 's wrath filled them both, and James decided it would be best to defer speaking to him. Helen looked down fondly at her ring as she was entering the house. Suddenly she paused with a slight shudder, removed the ring and placed it on the chain of the locket about her neck. A feeling of dread possessed her as she entered the door of her father's house. Two days later James drove up in his runabout to a point near the Greenberg home, where Helen, filled with evident anxiety, awaited him. They rode away to the quiet little village of Suffern and were married by the Justice of the Peace. That very afternoon Eabbi Greenberg and his wife decided to have a serious talk with their daughter and to confide in her the plans which they had been quietly arranging for her future. They had been somewhat vexed in her want of interest in them thus far. But Jacob Levin had been invited to dinner that very evening, and Jacob had not been backward in telling the girl's delighted parents how very much he thought of their pretty daughter. But Helen had strangely disappeared, and by late afternoon their vexation had turned to anxiety as to her whereabouts, when she was descried entering the yard with a young man. The two old people's hearts leapt with sudden joy at the thought that