Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-04-25

old lawyer put on his hat and went
out, and, as he descended the stairs, he
clawed the air viciously, and said, with
sort of nasal yawl: "Y-a-h! there'll
be hair after all, bristles as big as cat
tails!"
John Earling walked on into the
night with the future before him. He
was sending his heart ahead of him
with his hopes, desires and inclina-
tions feeling about in that great, dim
region, much as clear sea-water might
enter and feel about in some long,
shadowy, grim and rock-strewn cave.
into his bosom, and he felt, whatever
might come, whatever he might suffer
of blight, or poverty, or bitterness at
the hands of fortune, he never could
be a craven trickster to win her smiles.
All the tides of his nature set the other
way. How could he bear to be a kind
of pensioner on the injury of others? A
sort of almoner at the doorway of mean
ness! No; if his conception of manhood
must be reversed, his ideals of purity
and honor be broken, he would aban-
don the line of life he had chosen. He
and the ground could at least be honest
with each other; and he thought again
of the pillow. Labor might be brutal
ling, as some fine souls had held, but
he doubted if 1t could be as vitiating as
to work in a cloud of strife and evil. He
would go forward at any rate, and he
swore in his heart, there in the dark
| ness, that if events should at last force
him the width of hair from the line
| Of honest conduct he had lain down,
re would abandon his profession for
some simpler field of action. He would
| he hanacf bo would ho 1ct anH nm
| right, he would be a man, in spite
of the vipers, vapors, snares, pitfalls
and avarice of the time; and he went
out into the starlight with his fists
clinched and walked away beyond the
limits of the town, feeling his heated
| heart beat steadily in presence of the
| majesty and beauty of the clear cool
night.
Over him the heavens were open 10
a vast height and sown with God-quar-
ried silver, about him the smell of
flowers, and below him the river, di-
viding the meadows like a road of
| phosphor. How paltry thing life had
seemed an hour ago! How evil thing
| almost, when he had been close upon
the marrying game man had made of
| it! Now, how divine! How above 9TH
er earth-life the life of man seemed,
when he stood alone in presence of the
smoothly moving universe with his ear
| against the woodworking heart of
| silence!
! Musing so, he heard at length the
| courthouse clock boom family the
hour of midnight, and he turned back
and went homeward across the fields
by the sweet winds, and his feet among
| dc 1n Ixyf he n yr;o NJ
the moon and dew. AS he came to the
edge of the town he looked up quickly,
as if some influence had suddenly
touched him, and saw that he was be-
fore the old attorneys house.
He stopped moment and
looked up at the chamber windows
and wondered behind what lattice
Maun was sleeping; like some dark
poppy floating on the deep of dreams.
Then he went on thinking how he1
beautiful movement was a portion OF
the lovely and eternal motion of the
worlds, much as a sea-dropi is portion
of the undulating ocean, when sudden.
ly he came face to face with the still
book-keepcr, who gave frightened
fearful exclamation as their faces
glanced in the moonlight and passed
into shadow.
John Earring went onward turning
over in his mind the silent and curious
life of this black-eyed man. What
was the mystery that chung about him
What indetinable disease was it tha
led upon him? Some secret, cancer
Gus grief, perhaps, or some gall-like
disappointment that was lasting hi.
whole life through. He knew tina
Joels book-keeper was respected, anc
left alone. What else of praise, o.
blame, or wondcrment was whispered
about he had heard but little of
since, from work and study, hi
ears had not been much open t.
the gossip of the town. In truth
neither of these men, the one just il
the doorway of manhood, the othe
well rearward in that many-aisled edi
flee, had seen much of each other O.
the society of Openstone. The younge
had kept under roof and close to hi
books; the elder at his work, or gliding
about in perpetual quiet, and both de
Ginning all social overtures, until the,
had become well ignored by TIN
starched and ribboned flutterers of tn
town. The CAV moths, however, tina
glanced about and displayed thei
wings in the social Examinations O
Openstone were not over-many, TO
the mass of Openstone folk, like tn
denizens of most thriving Western
towns, were digging industriously afte
"a certain unholy root, that saint ano
sinner, be it recorded with blush
quite equally in these modern days
seem to feel a gnawing need of. Ye
: doubtless more than one strange ant
instructive history was in progress il
Openstone under its ordinary and I'm
alluring surface, as, indeed, there
} wherever the many-colored bubble O
, life is blown.
On the next evening but one Johl
Earling, feeling the hand of the no
August day laid heavily upon him
went to wax when the sun was Ell
: ting, and found that his feet went YER
willingly toward the old attorney
t house. Often during that day tn
form of Maun had come softly into hi
fancy, giving his thoughts a pleasan
taste, and now he went forward wit