The fickle man was coming to have a last meeting with the girl whose
heart he had broken—whose heart was still breaking. They had been engaged
for two years, and he came out to the farm to visit her every time his
business allowed him to visit the town near to the girl’s home. He had
always lived in this particular country town, but had been traveling for
an educational institution for several years. He had always written to
Lizzie once a week while away, but of late he had often skipped a week,
and now his letters were growing colder and more unfeeling. It had been
rumored that he had another girl in town to whom he wrote almost daily,
and with whom he had been seen riding on the day he promised to call on
Lizzie and failed to appear.
It had been rumored that he was engaged to the other girl, but Lizzie
could not believe the rumor. She knew there was something wrong,
but hoped it would all be straightened out when he came. Again he
disappointed the girl and failed to come. He wrote her a formal letter
telling her that he had been detained in a distant town. But the
following day a gossipping neighbor said she had seen him in town the
previous night. She had gone into an ice cream parlor and saw him eating
ice cream with the girl whom it had been said he was going to marry.
For several nights her sister Maggie, who roomed with Lizzie, heard her
sobbing silently late in the night, sobbing as though her heart was
breaking. Maggie longed to console her, but was it time yet to speak?
Poor Lizzie still had hopes that the fickle lover would return and set
everything straight.
Two weeks later the flirt made another appointment to call at eight
o’clock. Maggie and her father retired, but Maggie did not undress. She
wanted to know how serious the matter stood, for Lizzie was simply dying
of a broken heart. If her sister broke down during the interview, Maggie
fully intended to go down and take part in dismissing the false-hearted
man.
At half-past eight there were sounds of horse steps and buggy wheels in
the road. Maggie heard a sob and smothered cry downstairs. Had her poor
sister broken down? But it was a firm step that walked to the door to let
the caller in. They greeted each other coldly, and for a moment there was
silence. Would Lizzie fail to defend herself? A moment longer and the
injured girl began:
“Do I understand from your neglect of me that you wish our engagement
broken?”
“Lizzie,” the man began coldly, “our engagement was all a mistake. I am
not suited to make you an ideal husband. I am not good enough for you——”
The girl interrupted:
“If so, then how dare you marry another woman? Don’t try to defend
yourself, sir. I know all. You tired of me because you met another girl
who suited you better, and you neglected me to anger me and induce me
to break the engagement. This I will never do. You must say the words
yourself. I loved you truly and sincerely—I still love you. It is not
a child’s love that will be forgotten in a few months or years. I am a
woman and love as a woman. I will love you after all the sunlights have
gone out of my life and my heart is dead within me. I can not help it.
You taught me how to love, and I learned the lesson too well. Now you
cast me off, but you can’t take the love out of my heart. I will still
love the man I once thought you were. I will love you always. You take
joy and sunshine from me and fill my life with shadows, but you can’t
take back the love you planted in my soul.”
“Lizzie, for God’s sake hear me through! Our engagement was all a
mistake——”
“Yes, a sad mistake—a cruel, wicked mistake,” she interrupted. “But I
wish you no harm, no ill luck. God will punish you for your cruel work,
I fear. I will even pray for you that you may be spared the punishment
that goes to the man who ruins a woman’s life—who steals the sincerest
sentiments of her soul and then throws them away, when he sees a new
heart that can be won.”
Once again he attempted to explain, but she requested him to go and leave
her alone, and he went. No one but himself will ever know the guilt and
shame he felt at that hour as he slunk from the house. Maggie could hear
her sister sobbing in the room below. She waited an hour and then went
down quietly and led her up to bed. She helped to undress the drooping
form and put her in the bed, and then got in herself and held the weeping
girl in her arms during the night.
Oh, it was sad, sad, sad. Do these men flirts ever dream of the
heartaches they bring to those who learn to love them and are then cast
aside like broken toys? And think of the sadness this heart tragedy
brought to the other members of Lizzie’s family. They watched her day
after day, seeing the lines of despair grow deeper and deeper every week.
And oh, how her sad, sweet face appealed to their love and sympathy.
After the announcement of the fickle man’s wedding appeared in the local
press, the sadness seemed to deepen for a few months, and then the poor
girl slowly came out of the shadows. But any one who knew her could see
that her poor heart was buried in the ashes of her early hopes, and that
her never-dying love still sat sighing in the ashes.