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fefct- 5 THE TWO WOOINGS. rJ By Willis Hollowdeane. "You are my affinity and in you 1 have found my soulmate, dear est and fairest. Other men may long for you, but to me you be long by right of the call of the soul. In some bygone age your soul and mine were mated. Per chance in Egypt's hoary land we walked within the shadow of the sphinx or wandered hand in hand in the gardens the Babylonian monarch built for his adored queen long before the dawn of Christianity. Phridgia ! Your name alone proclaims you my own. Philip and Phridgia ! Think, my darling and my affinity !" The man's voice was soft and low and the young girl gazed spellbound at him, drinking in every word. How tame and lifeless were George Damson's utterances. "Phridgia, you know I like you awfully, and I want you to marry me as soon as I get my farm paid for; won't you?" She had promised then, six months ago, and his little ring, the color of her blue eyes, was on her finger now, but that was be fore she had met this wonderful man, Philip Carrington, who was staying in the neighborhood for a few weeks. "Romeo loved Juliet with a mad, sweet passion that came to maturity in a single night, yet he knew nothing of love compared to me," Philip Carrington went on, and certainly if experience in sundry love affairs of a more or less discreditable character gives knowledge, then Philip certainly had th'e advantage of Romeo.' '1 "Men have willingly given up their lives for love of women," the soft, low voice went on, and love ly little Phridgia sat staring into the black eyes and absorbing the poison. She was seventeen, he thirty, so what chance had she against his worldly knowledge? There was nothing to restrain her but the memory of her dead mother and her promise to George. To .her a promise was sacred. Unfortunately, just at this crit-, ical time George was away, and her uncle, with whom she lived, never noticed anything, and so this child went daily into the woods to. meet the fascinating stranger. At first he spoke only in gener alities, but day by day he grew more personal until at last he asked : "When are you going to be come my bride?" The girl raised her startled eyes. "Never," she said with trembling lips. "Never? Then you have been playing with my most sacred feel ings. You have been making a mock of me," he cried. "No not that," Phridgia said slowly. "I cannot marry you be cause I have promised another." "Do you love this other?" She cast down her eyes and thought of George poor, honest, bluridering George, with his big, brown hands aid clumsy clothes. "Oh, no," she said almost bit-, terly. "Do you love me?" The man's fc Su "k. A?