Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-08-06

I
with quick sympathy, and she was 10
cmbudy the artists ideal of the other
half of himself which should divine
with sensitive intuition the subtitle
thread of genius in his work, \ hasty
review Of the results of his acquaiEt-
ance with Hester Latimcr brought out
with alarming distinctncss the fact
that sh" posscsscdro Of the attributes
of this ideal, save that, perhaps. her
charming individuality made il i'm
possible Ia say that she was not intel
lectual. She was positive and limo
Gently srlf-asscrtive; and she had al
ready given hima shockhy avery frank
| and ingenious criticism of one of his
stories which had appeared in a recent
number of one Of the magazines She
was essentially of her own day and gen
Grafton; and she apparently knew little
| and cared less about the subtler dis
| tinctions of motives and of character
which 80 torment and pcrplcS The
| student of his kind. Without in the
least suSpectiug il, and being, on the
| contrary, quite fully resolved To keep
in touch with bristling activity of
modern life, Hugh Ringbrand was
already beginning TO acquire the intro
| spectiye habit Of q closet-studcnt: peace
and quictncSs, and "A wcll-selectcd Ii
brary, seemed to comprehend the CON
| ditions most necessary to his wcll-bc-
! ing; and such an environment with the
! breezy personality of Hester Latimcr
for the central figure appeared almost
laughnblv homogeneous.
To do him full justice, Ringhraud
| tried very earnestly 10 reason his WAY
out of the emotional tangle in which lac
| found himself-the more insistcntly,
/ perhaps, because he felt his powers of
resistance slipping away from him in n
| closer acquaintance with Hester. The
| experience of those few weeks was en-
tirely without precedent in his we'll
ordered life. lie had said 10 himself,
in certain self-congratulatory moods,
that lie had successfully passed the age
when passion usurps the place of i'm
! partial Judgment; that an artist must
| he SO far removed from the emotional
side of life in his own experience as IL
he able 10 look upon il with the cool and
| dispassionate eye of a critical student;
and up 10 that unluclly moment when
/ he had seen Hester Iatimer trip across
I the platform at Chilwanee Junction he
found little difficulty in conforming TO
/ the artistic requirement. Now, how
| ever, The point of view seemed to have
veered so suddenly that il left him CROP
/ ing in a mist of uncertainties, in which
| he was sure of nothing but an over
wlelming desire TO possess Hester; n
desire which contcmptuously pushed
aside the arguments of reason as of no
weight and quite unworthy of tie
smallest consideration.
And then the incident of the evening
the indistinct shadow in the bushes,
/ Henry hasty and vindictivc intention,
| the coloners interference. and Hester
sitting unmoyed through il all. What
was the meaning of this warlille episode?
Were such things of SO little moment
in the daily life of the south that they
l could he passed over without comment?
| 1t would appear : since his hosts had
| Immediately ignored the incident rs
I though il had never been. Even Hester
| had been able to take up the thread of
/ inconscqucnt conversation again with
no visible sign of perturbation or en-
barrassment. What was the reason for
Henry's sudden and savage wrath?
Could the intruder have been common
marauder of chicken-coopS, or was he
a sneak thief hoping to find the house
unoccupied because there were no
lights?
The sinister meaning IN IIcnry's care
less reply answered these questions be
fore they had taken shape Could it
be possible that the I.atimcrs were in
yolyed IN one of the cruel Nendettas
about which he had heard and read =
was that what Hester meant when she
said her own family had not escaped?
And following closely upon the heels
of the latter question came another: If
he should enter the family, would lac
be expected 10 bear a part in any such
irregular warfare? No. that was not
quite the way 10 state il; say. rather,
could he reasonably hope to hold the re-
spect and affection of his wife upon any
other condition?
The night was cool, and the light air
sweeping up the side of the mountain
was grateful and refreshing after the
heat of the day, and yet Ringbrand
| grew uncomfortably warm as the in
evitable conclusion placed itself like a
gigantic exclamation point at the end
of his theories. The possession of
! physical courage in his own proper per-
son is not necessary qualification for
! the writer of stories. Ii is true that he
must recognize its existence, and he
must be upon sufficiently intimate terms
with its outward presentInents 10 be
able to imbue his heroes with proper
degree of contempt for their personal
safety; beyond this, the eNigencies of
| the art demand nothing, and the artist
himself may be the most humble votary
of the goddess of common sense. Some
such thought as this came to Ringbrand
as he made his way down the mountain.
The successive scenes of his uneventful
| life passed i'm review like the pictures
of retrospective panorama. Now that
he thought of il, he saw that all of his
| lines of conduct had been drawn
well upon the hither side of personal
aniagonism-that he had always been
/ averse TO anything approaching an ar
| bitrament of force. With well-mean-
ing sophistry, he had argued himself
/ into the belief that contempt for mere
| physical courage WAS part of the
thoughtful mans protest against bru-
tality and the unconvincing logic of
appeals to physical superiority; but he
remembered, with n sharp little sting
of modification, that these fine-spun
theories had been swept aside like cob
webs on the few occasions when he had
been brought face to face with personal
danger. 1t was not necessary TO go far
for an example; flush of shame glowed
| in his face when he recalled the small
| fit of terror that had seized him but an
hour before, when he had stood help
lessly watching Henry trying TO get
the lodging shadow within the range of
his rifle.
After that, his thoughts kept him but
indifferent company for the rest Of his
walk, and he reached Tregarthen, and
his room at the Ludlows', without hav-
ing arrived at any more definite eonclu-
sion than a determination to ask his
friend for an explanation of the Incl
dent at ''The Laurels," and to get there
with so much of the Latimer history as
Ludlow might be able to recite.
The latter enlightened him, cheerful