Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-22

you to your old friends Mt the convent
near Bruges, whose charity would have +
given your flight, and who might have shell
tered you in peace and security till this tenn
pest should be oyerpast."
'Peace and security away from yOu" l
should have broken my heart in week.
You could never have been cruel enough to
send me awayv
do you NIppose / would not rather have
you here, pet?' he asked, looking up at her,
drawing down the pale fair face to meet his
own, and covering it with kisses; 1.-The light
of my home the guardian angel OF my life.
The brief half-hOurs that we can spend to-
gether thus and thus and thus" with kiss
after each word, ''are better than year of
commonplace comfort; our meal Of bread
and haricOts is better than dinner at Big
mons in the golden days of the Empire that
is dead, when dining ranked among the fine
arts. Did Won real my last article in the
Drdpedu, Kathleen?" he asked in conclu-
sion, with little look which BETRAYED the
vanity of the successful journalist-the man
who believes that he mOu.ds and makes
public opinion.
did / read tP" cried Kathleen ''why, I
read every word you write! THERE'S no
one 80 eloquent, no one else whose prose is
so full of poetry-eXcept, perhaps Victor
Hugo-but like your style better than his"
she added quickly, lest he should be Offend
ed; "only, CASTOR, sometimes as l read /
fear that you are not wise, that those grand
glowing words of yours-words that burn
like vitriol sometimeS-may fire train
which will lead 10 an explosion, an eXplO-
sion in which we all may perish. Think Of
all those people at Delleville and Menil-
mOntant, and Montmarte and ClignancOurt
many and many Of them honest nduStri-
Gus souls, desiring only right and justice,
but others stepped in crime, misery hatred
"a seething mass, fermenting in the corrup-
ton of idleness and sin-ready to arise like
poison cloud, and spread death and ruin
over the city. Do you remember last Sun
day, when we went for long walk in those
streets beyond the Boulevard Richard Le-
noir? There were faces in the crowd, Gas
ton, that made me shudder, that made me
cold with horror; faces of women as well rs
of men-yes, think the women were worst
faces which haunted me afterwards"
"There are blouses and blouses, Kath-
leen," said CASTOR at her earncstness. You
cannot expect that men and women who
have toiled and grovelled for two-thrds of
lifetime in arvation-who have seen
all the sMendors and pleasures, and com
forts of this world pass by, affair in the dis
lance, no more to them than pictures in n
magic-antern-you can hardly expect that
! kind Of clay to dress itself up in smiles on
a Sunday afternoon, and to sing hymns Of
| thankfulness to the Creator"
Il should not have been surprised that
| they looked discon;ented," said Kathleen,
''but they all looked 50 wicked
"Discontent and wickedness are very near
| akin" answered her husband. "Whcn there
is work for all, and food for all, you will
see very few Of those wicked faces. / ar
/ one of the Apostles of the Rel gion of Col,
/ lectvism, and when that is the creed of
! France there shall be no more starvation,
no more discomfort, no great masses Of
wealth locked up in foreign loans or distant
| railways; no millionaires' palaces, with a
: million or so sunk in pictures and brio u
! brdC; but the money won by the laborcr
| shall be in the POCKET of the lab0rer, and
! there shall be no such thing aS stagnant
! capital. We have seen enough Of Dives, n
! his purple and fine linen, Kathlecn; it is
/ time that lazarus should have his turn.
Dives means the individual: Lazarus means
! the nation.'
'But it. when the PrUssians have gone,
You are going to do away with millionaires,
who is TO buy Philips side1oard?' demand
ed Kathleen, perceiying that this paradise
| of COllectivism was not without its incon-
veniences
mo one" answered CASTOR lightly.
philip is fool to create such white ele-
! plant. The age Of personal luxury, pomp,
! and show, and wild expenditure was al out
come Of the Empire; il meant rottenness
and corruption bribery, falschood, debauch-
/ cry, an age of cOurtiers and CocOdettes,
stockholders and card-sharpers. In the age
| that is coming there will be no carved oak
sideboards worth twenty thousand francs,
no tobelin tapestries, no SevreS porcelain.
There will be bit of beef in every mans
! pot-dufeu, a roof over every mans head,
food and shelter, light and air, and cleanTi-
ness and comfort, and free education for
ALL"
And it is towards 1,tS all your articles in
the Drdpcdu tend?" asked Kathleen naive
ly.
ITO this and to this only
81 am so glad. / was afraid sometimes
that You were urging the people to act as
they acted in 93, when King and Queen,
| patriots and priests, and helpless innocent
| people weltered in their blood, yonder, on
the Place dc la Concorde."
my dearest, l preach Communism, not
Revolution" answered CASTOR, in all good
faith. I'VE have no princes to STAY. We
have got rid of Badinguet and all that can
allie; we have n clear stage and no favor
and it will be our own fault if France does
not rise regenerated, purified, chastened by
her misfortune, n yertabC Phgnix, from
the ashes Of ruined towns and vil.ag IS, from
the dry bones of a slaughtered army"
"And there will b, nobody 70 buy poor
Philips sdeboard' concluded Kathleen
sorrowfully full of regret for the enthusiast
i'll the little workshop below stairs.
Ii seemed TO Kathleen as if q world, in
which there were no rich people to buy
works of art, no beautiful women clad in
satin and velvet, no splendid carriages
drawn by thoroughbred horses, no palace
windows shining across the dusk with the
yellow light of myriad wax-candles, no gar
dens seen by htful glimpses athwart shrub
berry and iron railing, would be rather a
dreary world to live in albeit there was
bread for all, and kind of holy poverty as
of some severe monastic order regning