Page:A fool in spots (IA foolinspots00riveiala).pdf/207

 *row you are only my friend's wife. Not a word, not a thought of yours or mine must destroy his trust. Our past will lie buried as in a deep grave, no tears bedewing it, no flowers marking the spot."

So sorrowfully, even despairingly, were the words uttered that it seemed Cherokee's turn to comfort.

"Think of me as almost happy since I know that you love me so." she said, smiling through her tears.

"Tears from you for me," he cried. "Bless you, bless you; may you think of me as one whose loyalty to another is loyalty to yourself," he murmured. "I must go away and meet you no more. Pass a few busy, taskful years, come and go a few brief seasons of stimulating activity and wholesome intercourse; then I can hold out my untrembling hand to Robert's wife, and forget the lover in the friend; now let us part."

She stepped forward and extended her hand; he kissed it and pressed it warmly, and then the dream was ended. A matter of a moment, true enough, but death itself is but a moment, yet eternity is its successor.

Cherokee took the path to the house; her eyes held a troubled light as they looked back, Marrion was standing where she had left him, in a hopeless attitude. His head drooped low with a slow motion