The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1893-01-27
CHAPTER XVI.

Two years passed away quickly To Alice
and Harlan they were years filled with
many varying emotions, though no strik-
Ing incidents occurred to change the even
tenor Of their lives. Harlan read law In a
htful, cratic way, attended lectures at Co
lumbia and spent a good deal of valuable
time writing verses Such poems as he
deemed worthy Of preservation he sent 10
the magazines, using a nom-de-pitme for
fear that his father would be displeased at
his effort to conquer the severe ascent Of
high Parnassus." Many of his poems were
published and the encouragement he thus
received whetted his desire for literary
fame. Once in awhile he would confess
his aspirations to Alice and, perhaps, tell
her of his latest success. 1t soon became
evident to him, however, that she had no
sympathy with his literary ambitions.
1t is true that she was intensely fond of
reading, and her tastes had always led her
toward the best fruits in the garden of
letters. But it is one thing to admire
poetry and a very different one to be mar
ried to poet.
Alice possessed a certain narrowness Of
mind that was partially hereditary and
partially provincial. Though she had
spent hours in Westminster Abbey and
had seen there clearly written by
nations hand the great truth that
the poet, be he worthy of the name,
wins undylng laures fairer far than
those that crown the brows of warriors
and statesmen, still did she retain some-
thing of that old-fashioned prejudice
against those who follow the Corvcian
nymphs that many wiser and broader
minded people than herself still entertain,
3 Philharmonic hAr it1rrp,oD+ +oII
Harlan could never become a great poet,
True he was something more than a
clever versifier, and she realized that the
verdict of certain prominent critics in his
college days had established the fact that
when time had mellowed his muse he
would take fairly high rank among the
lesser poets of America Nevertheless she
could not overcome her dislike for those
who WELD the pen and are generally de-
scr. bed as literary men,"
Was Alice wro.g? Was Alexander Otis
wrong? Would it not have been wiser. know
ing, as they did, the youths bent. to have
encouraged him in the line he longed to
take2 They were all three at fault. The
father, always generous to the boy, had
been less sympathetic than was polite.
Alice, during the two years that followed
her marriage, had showed a lack of tact
to put it mildly, in not entering more close
ly into her husbands aspirations. Last OF
all, Harlan himself, was by no means
blameless. He had discovered at the end of
the year, what he and others had long sus-
pected, that he had no love for the law and
that in his case. as in so many others. a
round peg was to be thrust into a
square hole. 1t would have been
far better in the end if he had frank
ly acknowledged his detestation of the
profession before him, insisted upon his
right to take the path that nature had
formed for him, and, instead of devoting
himself openly to the law and by stealth
to literature, to have publicly chosen the
only line in which success seemed certain.
But he knew that his father and his wife
would be bitterly disappointed if he aban-
boned his books and lectures and devoted
/ his whole time to his pen. He did not pos
sess the strength to endure their displeas-
ure, and so, discontinued and unhappy, he
continued to make a certain nom-de-plunae
/ famous to magazine readers, while at
tempting to gain sufficient knowledge Of
the law to save him in the future from ut
ter failure.
something OF all this was known to job n
Arnold who had become const mt visitor
at the nome OF his former chum. One
evening, when Harlan and his father had
! departed to spend an evening at their
club, Arnold preached the subject to Alice.
Harlan was very ambitious to win a
( name in letters in the old days" he began.
Does he do any writing, now"
| Alice flushed as she met the steady oaze
of her questioner.
Frankly" she answered. "Idon't know.