The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-12-03


caressiDg strayed--
In those days he always thought of her as
the one fair woman who was to make life fair
to him, and through all the dreary years that
followed his love for her was SO strong that it
held him always high and pure, Perhaps,
after all, he had been hasty in thinking she
had married Mr. Eveleth, he thought, with a
wild CLEAN of exultant hope. Why had she
ever cared for Ralph Eveleth? The question
came again to his mind, and was as unar-
swerable as it had been when he first asked
it 10 years ago. In fact, her friends all asked
this when Miss Kelsey seemed to be drifting
on to that fateful crisis of her life.
Even those who did not know her very
we'll felt it would be to her one lifelong trag-
edy; not, perhaps, in outer trial. but in inner
endurance.
An ordinary woman might have been very
happy as the wife of Ralph Eveleth. Even
a woman of superior endowments, if her
nature weresstrong and self-centered. and if
net too fine fiber. might have found life
satisfying to her at his side But Genevieve
was not strong woman. She was just
gifted, sensitive, highly-wrought girl. with
infinite possibilities in her nature-both ways.
A woman of singular earnestness of pur-
pose. of a clear brain, of warm, loving
heart. Delicately responsive as was her ma
could not live her highest life with Ralph
Eveleth. She was too receptive, too generous,
too sympathetic not to be tinged by the color
of the atmosphere in which she lived.
Mr. Eveleth was not wholly a bad man
indeed, he had many elements of superiority
He was man of rather brilliant intellect,
but fatally weak in moral power-a man to
always do the thing that at the time seemed
easiest without much care how it affected his
own future or that of others. He lacked
steadfastness and energy of purpose.
Miss Kelsey was new revelation of wo-
manhood to him. He had not the delicacy
of insight to fully appreciate her rare gifts,
or to comprehend her tender sweetness, but
he admired her brilliancy, and resolved to
win her for his own.
But there were depths in her nature he
had never sounded--chords " hose melodies
his touch could never waken: there were
forces all undreamed of by him. ou...c day,
Ray Converse had then said, these forces
would stir and demand their fruition, and in
that day the tragedy ofliving would come
upon her.
And so it was that he had trembled for Gene
vieves future when he saw her gravitate to
Ralph Eveleth. He did not think that her
higher nature consented to it. And in that
he was right, for she went on as one borne
by an irresistible fate. But the crisis in her
fate came sooner than Mr.. Converse could
have foreseen.
There had been some kind of an early
promise between Genevieve Kelsey and
Ralph Eveleth which he went out into the
world and held lightly, and which she held
sacredly in her heart. She was so true in
her nature that she only measured him by
her own pure constancy In those years her
strongest tie to him, perhaps was her con-
seriousness that he had need of her. and it
was in this perfect unselfshness of her
nature that the trouble came For the
love of one will not make sacred bond
that demands for its perfection the love of
two. In these first days of sunny sweetness
she did not question much of life. She was
satisfied in being. Vague desire touched her
at times, as she watched the sunset fires burn
ing low in the west, and the artists creative
fire stirred in her. But its forces were to wait
for other years.
At times she was a curious compound of
undeyeloped impulses and powers. The un-
rest of genius was upon her, and touched and
swayed her with its half needed upliftings
She had q vague consciousness of waiting for
some touch that should crystalize the half
real dreams and half-dreaming realities that
made up her life; some event that should in
terpret her to herself.
The event came. Ralph Eveleth's letters
suddenly ceased. A silence that neither
thought nor words could break fell between
those two who had promised to walk the paths
of life together.
For months Genevieve Kelsey wrestled
singlv and alone with a sorrow that was as the
very depths of the dark valley to her. 1t
seemed as if her strength could no longer
avail, and she yielded for a time to the con-
slant, dumb anguish of patience.
Then came other days. Youth and hope
are strong, and the forces of her character
asserted themselves. 1t was then that that
rare courage and sweetness that character
lied her, rose to determine and shape her
life 1t was this subtle fneness and strength
of her nature that Ray Converse had felt in
him. In many ways he knew her better
than she knew herself In his heart
he always carried her sacredly, and
he consecrated to her the deepest
reverence of his nature. Half unconsciously
he sometimes felt that the time would come
in her life when she would have need of him,
and he held himself pure and strong above
his pain for this time.
So absorbed was he in all the scenes in
which memory had carried him backward
that he reached the studio of which he was
in search with feeling of surprise
The crimson curtains were closely drawn,
and the sculptor sat alone among his
marbles. These men touched common
ground at once St. John had all the
keen instincts that are the BIRTH
right of every artist, and he understood the
silent intensity of Mr. Converse's feelings
when he asked who was the subject of the
artists sketch.
1T was modelled from the face of young
lady friend of mine-Miss Kelsey" politely
replied st. John, and the face of Mr.. Con-
verse grew luminous.
"Will you permit me to ask her address
sir? She is an old friend of mine," he said
and, penciling the number and street st
John gave him, with hearty clasp of the
sculptor's hand he babe him good-evening.