THE MALE FLIRT
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.