Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-09-23

come, not till then.
 She is more than ever a superb object to contemplate. She is full of excite ment and restless energy, says brilliant things and laughs often, but her laugh, though musical as n peal of bells, has no mirth in it. It is defiant, mocking and cold. Deeply as I sympathize with her 1 cannot say I understand her, nor do l understand myself. What do l wish to do?
 Sometimes am sure that she cares for me; at other times I doubt it. But say she does, am I willing to take to myself a woman of whom l know nothing but that she has beauty and a great soul-a woman who it is probable is sailing un- der false colors and who has been wronged, either morally or materially, by another man? AS regards the last, however, l cannot look at her and be- lieve that she has ever lost what women hold most dear. She is too proud, too inaccessible for that And yet l must confront that possibility too. Well. then, if it were so, could excuse it?
 have always held myself superior to the conventionalities of life. Even when outwardly conform to them it is but to avoid remark and reserving the freedom of my own thought. It has always been my belief that civilization is unjust to women. Whatever is best in human na- ture is theirs, and it is by taking advan- tage of those better qualities that men oppress and degrade them. It will never be well with the world until woman rules it-not with the strong hand, but with love. Love is the basis of her na- ture, and it is by giving all to love that she falls; but, were men true lovers, fall she never would. It is by her generosity and by his selfishness that she suffers.
 Nevertheless, once fallen, she is capa- ble of becoming more dangerous and wicked than man himself. But this is because she knows by the long and bitter experience of her sex that the world is thenceforth against her. We call her n sinner, but how wide is the difference between her sin and the crimes of men! Her sin, at the worst, is a sin against herself, and she is the sufferer. Man sins against his fellow men for the sake of his own gain. Yet the thief and the murderer are not punished more re- morselessly than is she, for death itself is light penalty compared with the lingering tortures of life of shame. If she were made the object of compassion and protection instead of scorn, she would still remain good and pure-yes, pure, for impurity begins only after love has been profaned and obliterated.
 Sinhre's fault has surely been gener- ous one. but though she may have made a tragical mistake all is not yet lost for her. Love has led her astray. May not | love redeem her also? She stands now | at the point of peril. One step more, and | it is too late! If l can win her now, should I cherish her or reverence her | less than if she came to me fresh and | unbreathed on from her mothers bosom! The world may doubt it, Sinfire herself might hesitate, but in my own mind there is no doubt at all. If she loves | me, then that love condones all. And should any one sheer, let him beware! l Who am indeed that should judge | her? There is no crime" said Goethe that might not have committed" go further and say that 1 do not hold criminal many of the things that mer in the spacious interests of society have arbitrarily adjudged to be such. Action, should be estimated not in themselves but according to their motives and con sequences. A lie may be wrong, but not the lie that saves friend from un merited disaster. A theft may be wrong but not the theft that deprives the drunk ard of his fatal draft. \ murder may be wrong, but not the murder that re moves monster from the earth. Tn, binding together of man and woman may be wrong, but not if the bond be al interior, a voluntary and loving one S. S,,, l,of
 me to shrink from Sinfire were she a,
 wicked as she is beautiful. If her eyei
 have looked upon hell, yet there can b, no heaven for me where she is not, an(
 that dark experience of hers would only
 unite us more absolutely.
 Is it 1 who write in this way! Am
 in earnest? Is not this q mere intellec
 tual passion-diversion .hcr-which
 cultivate for the sake of variety and oc
 cupation? l have never kissed Sinfire
 have never told her that loved her
 I have no reason to suppose that sh,
 loves me-Quite the contrary! Ant
 what, after all, is this mystery of intrigu
 that invests her but a sheer invention O
 my own? have seized upon know no
 what hints and innuendoes and appear
 ances and have welded them togethe
 with the ardor of an impassioned imag
 ination into an ingenious chain of cir
 cumstantial evidence.
 A tenth rate lawyer in frontier vii
 lage would pull it all to pieces in fiv
 minutes of cross examination. He woul
 prove to the satisfaction of the dulles
 jury that there existed not the slightes reasonable ground for my suspicion
 and inferences; that l was wantonl
 malgning my uncle, my brother an [ my innocent cousin, whose suppose,
 gypsy extraction was due solely to he
 happening to be good looking brunette
 The jury would bring mo ill guilty c
 malicious libel without leaving thei
 seats, and should be sentenced withou having a word to say ill my own defense And this is Frank Mainwaring, Esq
 NJ. D.!
 At all events ought henceforth t : entertain profound respect for this ill
 agination of mine, the power of which have never until now appreciated. It certainly the most effective feature ( my character, apart from which posse: . no life or activity worth mentioning. is not only my imagination that hf made me fall in love, but were the a tributes which have imagined to inve; 2 my lady love proved to be nonexistel 7 should undoubtedly cease to feel u : slightest interest in her. It is not he :, self that love, in other words. It I something that have endowed her wit . something proper to my own mind . in short, myself! And cannot love m
 self without going into raptures and h
 roics and know not what more an : worse? Decidedly, Frank Mainwarin l. Esq, NJ. D., you are neither more nt T, less than a fool!