The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 30, 1906, Page 7

® e ADE this catendar for boym ,‘lncaum ite awful hard, nd the ays on Toith verscs printed down BeloW. fellow Wants to find Surth or sise hiy birthoa He 1s them Off; of eourse he gota A Rcolaing then, of semething wWorst. \ a just because he wants o fina A ey and date on which they fan, Now thibk how easy that would 1f only calendars were small. And s0 I've printed this In ink, “Tis all that eny fellow needs: 1t tells important holidays And also speaks of some brave deed, T The Virgin’s Shoe Countinued from Preceding Page brether-in-law"—— eke looked The brother of the lord eof the Yes?" sald Anneke. Go and see if the Baroness Ronda - ts anything, girl. I fancy I heard 2 bell e innkeeper's giece stumbled ward the doorway, but suddenly, esitating, she cast herself back be- fore the great lady. “My secret! My secret!” she cried. It is safe with me,” answened Helen. As urs with me," answered the mewhat recovering herself, T have none,” replied Helen. Ten minutes more befors the closed fiy can be here” sald the wolce of scar van Blitterswyk. Anneks Bon- gers gave & u:'tl. -crnn, of alarm. What? Anneke? Surely you recog- nize me?" sald Oscar. Your mnobleness,” she stammered, as not altered at all.” You didn't use to ecall me ‘your nobleness,’ mejuffrouw.” Ehe was a child,” interposed Ielen tmpatiently, “and yeu, Oscar, you are nearly th ty now," “Twenty-elght,” he protested, an- I know. I think veu are very much ch ed. Your hair seems turning gray.” He laughed. “Not as bad as that. Well, Anneke is changed, too. She looks lovelier even than she promised.” ‘Oh, Baron Osecar, you never ssid h things before you went away!" 4 the girl. No, but T am going to now.” He fed from one woman to the other. Somehow they do not sound as natyral here,” retorted Helen, “as they among the cocoanuts and women very beautiful” questioned Anneke, “under the palm trees?” Not half so beautiful, Anneke, as ast 1 didn't see any.” exclaimed Helen. 1 @idn't look,” he continued, mnet heeding her. “I was satisfied with memories thet—that weren't half so good as the reality.” Have you come back from the dead, on Oscar,” demanded Helen, “to this sat of thing to village girls?" Yes,” he replied. “I have come back from the dead to say this sort of thing —to one village girl.” Oh, it's cruel of you to laugh at me!" eried Anneke. I am not laughing, by God" re- plied the Baron. And after that befell 2 solemn pzuse. “You are pretty, of ecourse, little Anneke,” began Helen in & peculiar “Every one can see that. You st often heve seen it, in your glass, on the faces of men! Baron Ronds was saying so only just nmow." “Who?" burst out Osear, “That— No, I dem’t want to use epithets, Any gir1 can see for herself what sort of man Louis Ronda is. " Helen bit her lips, “He, too, w dear Oscar, “ll rather & judge fine women. “Then God pity the woman he &é- mires." “Sipce when, may I ssk, has it be- come your habit to praise womesn to theilr M”f’ and blame men behind their . “Do you want me, Helen, to say kind things of Ronda™ “No, nor extravagant things of peor 1ittle Anneke her® Eee, you have made her guite uncomfortable. She must get back to her dirty glasses. And you should go help your brother—as Louls 1s doubtiess dol t the herses.” “Anneke, I shall come to see you to- morrow. I have something to say to vou,” was Oscar's only rejoinder as he obeyed this clear order to withdraw. For, indeed, the heart of Helen could not have endured much further parley, She swept fiercely after the frightened girl. “Here! Listen to me,” sald, “¥our secret is safe with me on one condition—one condition only.” "I don't understand. What condi- tion?" “That you are publicly engaged to be married tomorrow.” “Engaged to be married? Your nobleness Is laughing at me—as Baron Oscar was.” *¥es, he was laughing at you; you are quite right. But I am not laugh- ing. I am sager to have vou engaged to be married to Joop Bengers, your cousin, in accordance with your uncle's wish and your own. “Joop has never' “I know thet. Have we not ali heard him say..a few minutes ago, that he never would?—that he was waiting te be asked? Tonight is the Christ- night, You have your chance tonight only. Tomerrow after mass your en- gagement must be known," “I do not love deep,” replied An- neke, “Talk no twaddle to me about love matches, girl,” cried the Baroness, “To me of all women!” Bhe checked her- self, “A woman marries where her duty lles. Yours is here, with your relations of the Lion." “I canpot. Don't ask me! “If your engagement is not made known tomorrow, after mass, I shall tell the Baron Oscar van Blitterswyk that you love him." “You will not dare!” shrieked An- neke. But the Baroness Helen laughed. “You will not dare!. Great lady though you be, you are a woman like me! You will not tear this, my secret, my secret of all the long hopeless years, out of my bosom, to filng it into the dirt.” “Well,” said the Baroness, outward- ly calm, “go and tell him you belleve the same thing of me.” “I have no wish to do so,” answered cke simply. “Or to my husband. We will laugh over it, all three together. Begin! 1 am ready for the fight.” “I do not want to fight any one” said Anneke. “1 only want to keep my secret—the agony and the happiness of my life.” “Ah," said Helen. And thoughtfully she continued: “Nor do I want to be unkind to you, believe me. Every woman has in her life some secret, fancied or real, as this which seems 80 terrible to you. And she acts sen- sibly and makes the best of it. After &il, you don't want to marry Baron Oscar, do you?”’ Anneke trembled. “I only want to love him from a distance, as I have foved him hitherto.” “Quite s0. And now, belleve an older and wiser woman, you can only do that reasonably as another man's wife,"” “Not that” sald Anneke. “Never A “¥ou must!” There was o change of volce, a a8 of breaking passion, of force uering force. “I leave you no alf ve.” “To love one man and to marry an- other,” asid Anneke boldly, “it 18— “inien started, quivered, 12 sty I“It: " she shaking, H 3 3 “Too much pity. I would eave you and him and myself, My I do not know what I am ea: s - ty! Is th , aickly word? Is this & case for pity, paltry pity, be- can_there be between you and me,” pleaded the tortured girl. “Let me cregp away in peace. What understanding, what sympathy can there be?” “The sympathy of our common care for his happiness; nothing more, noth- ing less. You talk of your ridiculous * affection for him; you, who would ruin him!" “I swear to you he shall never hear of 1t.” “Any moment you may betray your- self. You were very near it this even- ing!" (The othér made a weak gesture of denial.) “Worse than that,” cried the Baroness. “Any moment he may, Girl, men are such fools! T tell you, if he were fool enough to speak of honest love to you—and, 1 know him, he wouyld speak of no other—then you would be fool enough, I warrant you, to accept his sacrifice, to rulu his !ut\llr- — : “¥You talk—you, of your miserable love for him! I love him! I--there, you see, I keep back my secret mo longer. I will save him. I! My love “in ltke a furnace next to your little, puny tallow candle.” What? You couldn’t sacrifice your poor little love for him, while I—I—fool. see what I dig! I love Baron Oscar!™ The pent-up cry broke forth at last. It scemed as if it rent the heart from which it_came, “For God's sake, hush!" cried An- neke, but too late, for Blitterswyk stood before them. In the couttyard the carriage could be heard rumbling out. Only for a second he atood there, motionless, before them. Then he burst forth. "“Blood and thunder, who sald ‘T love Baron Oscar?” The veice was'" “Mine,” sald Annek “I was very young,” she went on, eagerly. “He was very handsome amiable. Madame"” (she turned Helen), “I trust to your kindness and the Baron's to Keep my ailly little girl- ish secret. No one knows of it but you and he “And, of course, the feeling is long over,” sald Blitterswyk, tapping his boot with his cane. “Does vour nobleness think I could have spoken of it else?” “Quite so, quite s0,” sald the Baron Blitterswyk. “And ‘besides, as your uncle tells me, you are soon going to marry your cousin, Joop.” “No, no!” =ald Anneke. *I am not going to marry at all” “‘At least,” interposed the Baroness, coldly, “let her wait till he summons up courageé to ask her!” Blitterawyk laughed moodily. * the booby swears he never will. can avail yourself, however, of the privilege of this night, Anns . They left Anneke alone with her glasses. She hegan clearing away again, in the cold winter night, The girl remained, motionleas, by the doorway. The thoughts she was think- ing overwhelmed her so increasingly that she whispered them, in soft ut- terance, aloud: “'Anneke, you have grown even lov. lfer than iised,’ " sh "Xo. he’ wasn's. Iughing a¢ me. Noas eke- half so beautiful as you, Anne of thou knowest in sm his wife.” 8he ¢ I a‘iev Eu ma: . 254 Sodhe ana” sarrow. For such &3 hers there could be no ¢ Tollef. ¢ crept gloom; with 3%‘{.7:111:::?»'“ Wflhfi Vi 3 m the t}fll-nufl:fl w = & chill steps. ', aloft, and" hung it on a p n of the stone. “Oh, Virgin Mother of God,” she murmured, and now the tears streamed K fuing 0o S ed R X "'i‘"" mro\l::}_‘um o grene powed 1o, et Al mav on, mfii“‘gf.«m"“m. e oco " et 4 t 73 help i 3 putld ".:. fine thou canst help And yet! And yet! ‘When she ceased her desperate tionings for a moment and sanlk utterly weary, it was into his arma that she drooped, like a flower. He gather- ed her close in them atrong “Baron!” In vain trled to lift herself, quivering. “Never that again, Anneke! All the way from the Indies I have come back to fetch you." She lay silent, vainly wishful to protest. “I went to India,” he hurried om, at her ear, “to escape from you, from all Blittergwyk, from my stepbrother, my ~—many things. I have come bask to tell you I have enough over yondar for both of us—plenty. We will go back there together—shall we not?-—as seen as possible, you and I ot me?’ she murmured: “mef” es. you. As soon as I heard that Helen had married my brother, I knew I could come over and clalm you." “The innkeeper’'s niece,” she whis- pered. “I am utterly unfit.” “Nobedy knows anything of such matters over there. See, I jumped off the box in the snow and hurried back to tell you. What have you dome to my sister-in-law to make her suddealy praise you and say you were better than mest of ua? Waell, haif an hour ago I let out my secret Intentiomally to Ronda. I khow he will betray me and so prepare my E “Say that you have waited for me all these years.” “I have waited,” she began. ‘Ne not waited, for waiting means hape. I never expectsd anything: how could I? But I have never loved any one but you." He laughed happily. “And why, if you expected nothing, did you hang up that shoe in the porch? Tell me, what wera you asking for, Anneke She dropped her head even lowen “Ah, do pot"— His hand way under he was drawing her up to cannot expiain,’ she stam- ut our Lady has understeod.” g0 have I understood,” he snswered low. Vary softly he released r for a moment and took down the ttle alipper and hid it away under his And the other shoe, Helen's, that 13y dlacarded on the pavement he lifted mv and hung it where Anneke’s had “We can leave her that, all that™ mered, “And look round before up. . “You must wish me joy, Burgomas- ter," "wlh. said, quickly, “for this i my future “And what's to become of me™ ex- Bon, “I am an outcast “My good Bongers, over yonder in India it will make no difference a8 , alL”