Everybodys Chance | Page 4

don't mind telling you,
in strict confidence, that I loved Luce's mother-- God bless her!-- forty
years ago. I never loved any other woman-- I tried to, but I couldn't. I
had an awful fight with myself, after Grew won her, and I got the worst
of it, for I was obliged, as an honest man, to admit to myself that I
loved myself more than I loved her. To reform myself, I determined to
go on loving her, but for her sake only, and the way I did it was to do
just as I am advising you. I hadn't any marshland to clear, and there was

nothing in Grew's family history for the young man to be ashamed of,
but I put him into the one good chance which I had here, and I went
away to shift for myself. I don't deny that I hoped that something would
happen to break their engagement, but there didn't. I wish Luce were
my daughter, for there's no one I would rather see her marry than you,
but there are some things which one can't change-- some chances which
a man loses. Your chance is just as I'm putting it; I'm advising only
what I did myself, and what I never had cause to regret. I know, though,
it isn't the sort of thing to press on a young man too hard, and I'm sure
that, while you're in your present frame of mind, you don't care to listen
to any more of this kind of talk, so-- good-night."
"Good-night," was the response, as sharp as the crack of a rifle.
"Shake hands with me, won't you, Champ?" said the old man softly.
"No one else knows so well how to sympathize with you. Don't forget
that I loved her mother-- and lost her."
They shook hands as they parted, but Champ's head was in a whirl, and
his heart was thumping angrily. What? Help the man who had just
taken from him the prize toward which he had been struggling for years?
Pruffett had probably told the truth, but-- well, men were not all of the
same clay. Love Luce for her own sake? Why, what else had he thought
of but what he would do to make Luce happy? Had not his delay been
entirely because of his doubts and fears for her? What was most in his
mind whenever he thought of her-- himself? Never! He thought only of
her-- her great, deep eyes, her noble face, her womanly composure, her
strength of character everything that was best in womanhood, so far as
he knew women. He was sure that through his very admiration of all
that was best in her, he knew best how to make her happy, while
Charley, a mere good-natured, happy-go-lucky fellow, who had seemed
to be in love with half-a-dozen other girls for no especial reason, would
be utterly unable to comprehend the needs of so superior a nature.
Yet there was some truth in what old Pruffett had said about the ways
in which Charley could be helped to become a more fit husband. If
some one else could help him, well and good, but as to Champ-- . He
struggled hard with himself a few moments; then he suddenly stopped,

bared his head, looked upward, and exclaimed:
"Heaven help me, I'll do it-- for her sake! 'Tis my chance-- but what a
chance."
II -- IN THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY
Luce Grew told herself, after Charley had reluctantly gone home and
she found herself alone with her thoughts, that she wondered how she
had come to say "Yes" to the very pointed question which Charley
Wurring had put to her during a certain point of the lecture. Charley
had one of the sympathetic natures which are rare among men, or,
perhaps, less rare than the willingness of their owners to manifest them,
so Luce had always liked him. He was quick to see the application of
an argument, or the inner and better sense of almost anything that
might be said, so Luce had never failed to find him good company,
although she regarded him very much as if he were a boy, although he
was fully as old as she. She had been deeply interested in the lecture,
and her better self approved all that the speaker said; so it pleased her
greatly that when she looked at Charley for sympathy his face was
frank and open, and he seemed to be of exactly her own way of
thinking; while most of the young men about him were looking grim,
or were sneering, or exchanging satirical winks with other young men.
So, when the lecturer told the hearers that their chances were all about
them-- nay, right at their side,