Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-08-02
A SIN NOT TO BE FORGIVEN
DY LIZZIE W. cHAMPNEY.

DY LIZZIE w. CHAMPNEY.
1t is not my purpose to exonerate Allan
Halsey. Doubtless he richly deserved the
punishment which he brought upon himself,
but his fault at the first was an iEconsiderate
one, and the system of hypocrisy in which he
found himself entangled was entered upon
from the good natured impulse of shielding
his friend. That friend was Andrew Steele.
They had been chums throughout their col
lego course, but their paths bad diverged
widely during the four years which had
elapsed since their parting under the shadow
of alma mater. Steele had studied for the
ministry, growing gentler aud moro melan-
choly narrow chested and possibly narrow
minded, but always pure Of soul and tender
Of heart, as he bent over his books. Halsey,
on the contrary, had plunged at once into the
! world. His aim in life was to become O
journalist. He could adapt himself easily to
circumstances, and when he found that the
highest prizes were beyond his reach he low
cred his ideal and accommodated himself to
the actual, and at the end of four years was
quito content with what he would have
spurned at the outset, a regular position as
pulpit reporter of one of the leading news
papers
II think little of my experience would
do you good he said to Steele, as they sat
together in the summer on the clover under
the old orchard trees of his friends home.
sit would give you chance to improve Your
style, by a comparison with that of the most
eloquent and scholarly men of tho day 1t
would broaden your theological ideas, and
give you points in composition and delivery.
Ii you will submit to taking few hints from
me can put you up to a thing or two. There
are certain lodges that these great guns are
not above using, which are remarkably kill
ing, and | doubt whether they are over
taught in the seminary. If you are going in
for divinity you might as well be at the top
of the heap, a regular doubly distilled d. D.,
and the pastor of a wealthy city church. l
have come TO the conclusion that the minis
try is better field for smart man than
journalism, and l almost regret my choice
You see you have less competition; nearly
all the brilliant fellows take to the law the
regular digs to medicine, the long headed
ones to politics or business those mistaken
beggars who care more for glory than gold
hang on to art or literature, while only the
chaps without any particular vocation are
left for the ministry and the book agencies
Now don't fare up. Can't you see that it ia
the luclliest thing in the world that it is sol
If you have clear idea from the start what
you mean to accomplish, you can just sail in
! like whale among the fishes.n
| Andrew Steele answered quietly: "You
do not understand my aims | am physi-
cally unsuited to lead the career You have
| marked out for me. | have not sufficient
! health to carry out what I wish, and that is
to teach the suffering to endure
Halsey scanned his friend anxiously "You
| do look trine used up" he said. 81 am glad
/ accepted your invitation to spend fort
| night with you, for | am going to take you
in hand. We win pass week or more in the
woods; hunting and camping will soon give
tone to your mind, as well as to your COM
plexion, and you will bid goodby to morbid
| self abnegation as soon as you land four
! pound bass
But Halsey found that he had a difficult
task upon his hands. His friends melan-
| choly was deeply rooted in q frail physique
| The dark woods and mountain soitudes
seemed to increase his gloom. He took nc
interest in sport of any kind, and it was evil
dent that some settled trouble was preying
upon his mind
| - W HAT Is IL, lotceles fldlSpJ asked
one evening as his friend sat modify
and dejectedly regarding the smoIder-
J ing embers. SIS there a lady in tho
case, or is it money? Out with it like a
man; the very telling of the annoyance
will make it seem less. I'll warrant you that
I've been in a dozen tighter Places
sit is my health, 2 the other replied. II
| fought for it all through my college course,
| but it was Of no use. Two years ago l broke
down utterly with nervous prostration.
| left the seminary, and was recommended to
| put myself under the care of a Dir. Corcoran,
| of . 1t was most proyidential thing.
| He took me into his family and his good wife
nursed me like a mother. | was so weak that
| l could only lie stin like a little child and
watch the leaf shadows of the maple playing
| upon the wall. Twas with them three months,
and they treated me like a son. You have
| guessed that there was lady in the case.
Before the three months were over / had
| fallen in love with Miss Corcorann
Every naturally and quite the proper thing
under the circumstances. | suppose she
brought you your Cruel and read aloud to you,
famed your fevered brow and all that
only wish such piece of good luck would fall
TO me-
''You are quite wrong. In all that time
never saw Miss Corcoran.n
Halsey whistled.
Whom having not seen / love- used to
repeat to myself again and again in those
| days Miss Corcoran was in Philadelphia
completing a course of medicine which she
had begun with her fathar. They told me
that she was fitting herself to SO out as mis-
sionary, and she wished to make herself use
full among the women and to gain admittance
! ho, nh
| family was q large one, there We're others
! staying in the house and l was given her
room. / have never known much about
women, and all the dainty fittings of that
room were revelation to me 1t seemed to
bring me very near 20 her, and, as | told you,
/ used TO lie and study one object and then
another and il seemed to me that | could inn
ngine from them just how she looked as well
| as her tastes and mental characteristics
| There was q cabinet desk beside the window
| and the carpet in front Of it was
more worn than before the dressing
table That told its story to begin with.
The decorations Of the room were of an
eastern character An India shawl was
draped to form O curtain, Tunisian prayer
rug was spread beside the bed and a Daghes-
tan one in front Of the CRATE. There was a
Moorish plaque over the mantel, and boxes
of japanese lacquer, a bamboo easy chair
from Calcutta Turkish embroideries and
scarfs, and other suggestions of the Orient
scattered about This was not the indis-
criminate gathering of fashionable devotee
of brc-a-brac; there was consistent method
in all and it indicated fixed purpose. All
the trend Of her mind was to the cast, and
the books in her small but well selected
library showed the same taste. As / i'm
proved in health / read them through, and
sometimes returned to make "a note in answer
to the penciled queries upon the margin.
She had been studying Arabic, but seemed
interested in all Asiatic literature, and had
secured everything that could be had through
translations from the ARABIAN Nights,
and the Koran to Matthew Arnold's
works, and the poems of Omar. There was
portfolio of photographs and engravings
reproductions of the works of French
oriental painters, views from Dore's Bible,
photographs of Palestine and Egypt, the
bazars of Cairo, the gardens of Damascus
and the minarets of Constantinople and the