GUATEMOTZIN: THE LAST OF THE AZTECS. 



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often, and have prayed for you in 



your loneliness. I pity you from my 



hi. " 

 eart. 



41 And why do you pity me?" I 

 asked. 



" For the uncontrollable spirit that 

 rages within you. Oh, Allen, even 

 now I see you vainly endeavoring to 

 suppress it. It has caused you to 

 drive all your friends from you. Even 

 I had not been acquainted with you 

 one hour before you deeply offended 

 me. 



"It is well enough for you to 

 preach to me," I cried hotly, "you 

 are prejudiced ; and were I an angel 

 you would yet see in me only a devil 

 incarnate." 



A look of intense pain whitened 

 her delicate features, and without 

 another word she turned and passed 

 out of the door. I bowed my head 

 in my hands, angry at myself that, 

 without cause, I had again offended 

 her. 



"Allen!" 



I did not look up, for I knew who 

 stood beside me. 



" Allen, twice before have I listened 

 to the voice of pride and turned from 

 you on account of your bitter tongue, 

 and each time I have regretted I had 

 not been more forbearing. What 

 makes you so bitter ? You are more 

 like a Philistine than a Christian 

 man. You not only offend me, but 

 you cannot live in peace and har- 

 mony with your own father and 

 brother." 



" Do you believe there are some 

 wrongs that may not be endured ? " 



"Surely; but you have not such 

 wrongs." 



" You yourself have wronged me," 

 I exclaimed. 



"In what manner?" 



" In our first meeting you say I 

 offended you. You laughed at and 

 taunted me when I was painfully 

 oppressed by a sense of inferiority. 

 You goaded me into a rude remark, 

 and when I humbly craved pardon 

 you spurned me from you. I was 

 then suffering from the knowledge 

 that your accident was due to my 

 folly, and was anxious to atone by 



being of service to yon. I have been 

 miserable ever since." 



She paled a little and said, so low 

 I could scarcely hear her voice : 



" I am sorry I repelled you after 

 you candidly acknowledged your 

 fault, but I was piqued at your pre- 

 suming to kiss me in my helpless 

 condition." 



"When you fainted I feared you 

 were seriously injured, and I was 

 wild with grief and despair. When 

 you regained consciousness, in my 

 delirious joy I kissed you. I was 

 hardly responsible, for I felt a- 

 though 1 had murdered you." 



" I am rejoiced to hear it was not 

 through presumptuous folly, but you 

 were wrong to cause me to injure 

 myself. I suffered severely." 



"Your sufferings wen- not more 

 acute than my own. I could not en- 

 dure the thought of you limping 

 home, so I hurried to the farm with 

 the intention of hitching our train 

 and placing it at your disposal, even 

 if you would not allow me to accom- 

 pany you home. On the way 1 met 

 my brother, who was driving to town. 

 I begged for the rig ; he refused, and 

 I insisted that he should at least take 

 you home. After I confessed I had 

 unwittingly injured you. he reluc- 

 tantly consented to see you as far as 

 Main street. At the same time he 

 promised not to tell you who had 

 sent him to vour assistance, as I 

 feared you would not consent to ac 

 cept aid through me. ( m his return 

 he unblushingly told me he had be- 

 trayed me in acquainting you with 

 the fact that I had kicked your hat 

 over the bank' into the bushes below ; 

 he listened to your reproaches, and 

 concealed the fact that I was his 

 brother. He knew I had been accus- 

 tomed to rough play with the coun- 

 try girls of our neighborhood, and I 

 believed the hat belonged to one of 

 them. Alter I met you 1 was anxious 

 to rise above my sphere, and desired 

 to enter a medical college- last S 

 tember, but my ambition was thwart- 

 ed by Steve, who influenced my father 

 not to advance the money for my ex- 

 penses. Tin- (arm is mine, the money 



