Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1893-10-05
CHAPTER III.

1t was close upon II when at length
he quilted the house The mood of the
night had changed light drizzle filed
the air A red vapor rolled across the
sky, broken in places and giving glimpses
of deeper murkiness beyond Fog horns
beloved from the river. Freight trains
like dingy serpents crawled past the
western boundary Of tho college campus
and went kissing into the fog He paused
irresolute for moment after the gate
changed behind him, Chen crossed the
street and entered the college grounds.
An unquiet spirit possessed him as he
strobe along the familiar paths He was
only a trespasser i'll this place where
hitherto he had roamed at will, but
whether he was seen or not was Of little
consequence. He had escaped from his
quiet room into the wet massy darkness
to question himself The vapor that
garbed every tree in ghostly robes, the
| light sweep of the wind passing his ear
like woman's sigh, the peace here and
the reminders of life on the river and
market places beyond were all old and
dear to him. They had helped him be-
fore.
1t was not of his rejected play he was
thinking. Somehow the keenness of the
sting left by failure had subsided. In
fancy he saw woman's face -Virginia's
face. 1t seemed to float before him,
sometimes the eyes hidden as with a
veil, sometimes the sweet, proud mouth.
He was filled with this new feeling
that in the twinkling Of an eye had
rushed over him. Was it love? Love!
Oh, the ecstasy ringing in the soft VOW
els as he murmured them in tender
semitoneI
Hitherto he had written of love, had
| believed that he understood it. But to-
night in every fiber he felt the illimita-
BILE, untranslatable difference. He had
been like a blind man dwelling on the
beauty of the light he had never seen-a
stay at home describing the marvels of
lands never journeyed through. His
heart had been sleeping while in his
writings he had prated of passion
But this sweeping forgetfulness of self
even in a bitterly critical moment; this
reaching out to and flooding immersion
in the personality Of another; this mad
ness that shook him, trailing its seduc-
tive sweetness over his soul and making
him light headed; this insistent burning
in his blood; this yearning newly born
this was love.
He flung himself into u restful position
against tree and looked over at the win
dows where at times Virginia's shadow
touched the shade. His face had grown
haggard; his eyes were alight Oh, he
loved herl Itseemed nasw he had always
loved her.
''To tell her-oh, to tell herg' was his
unuttered cry. s'Oh, if l had something
to offer worth her taking mot my beg
gars portion, not the ashes Of my dreams.
Virginia-dear, tender, sweet voiced,
strong hearted Virginia, am not fit to
love you"
And now state of feeling beyond ex-
preston or definition assailed him and
held him as i'll coil. 1t was strange,
subtle, exquisitely sad. The mist and
rain were part of it, the blustery dark
ness, the troubled breath in the trees, the
longing and indecision in his soul, the
ache of passion, the ambition so hmitless
and unavailing, the dull acquiescence of
the conquered.
How merciless destiny seemed in that
momentl How empty the world! The
race so long, so firing, ending g-even at
the best-in what!
He was stirred to an ecstatic sadness.
Something vital quickened in his con-
| sci0T7Snnss