Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-08-08
THE THRESHOLD.

THE THRESHOLD.
"And this is the very last time"
muttered the man az the door opened
1.-The very last time. - he repeated as
he sat waiting in the pretty, glowing
drawing room.
Then she came in, and the room be-
came beautiful, because prettiness was
not of her
They sat together and talked, and
during a little interval the mans heart
logged his elbow in an irritating way
and murmured. "This is the very last
time. -
"Yesr said the man aloud, and she.
smiling, asked to what his affirmative
referred.
Then they talked again on various
subjects which related to the man, for
she knew all his past and something of
his future.
"Why are you sad today?" she asked
after awhile.
The man hesitated. Because = - l
don't know why | am sad; at least
can't tell you. -
MAY tell you little story?" asked
She
please.
Listen, then, but remember my
stories are not personal. There was once
"A man who never was boy because he
had been unable to spare the time. Be
ing boy or even youth uses up lot
of time at the beginning, when time
seems short, and adds it ON to the end,
but circumstances and loneliness in
strange places made it impossible for
| the man III my story to invest time in
this way. So he skipped boyhood and
youth and went straight into manhood
in a strange country. +"
''And what effect on him did that
have?' asked he in the drawing room,
who had become interested after the
story's first sentence.
She who told the story smiled and,
continuing, said: st had ON him the
| effect of tropical sun upon vegetable
| life. 1t made him premature i'll all
ways, but strong also and glorying in
| his strength. A great deal was shut out
of his range of vision, and his life's linn
its were narrow, but in those limits
very intense. To him the world was
| himself-he and his work, his aims, his
strength. Nothing else you understand
| Having missed youth, enjoyment did
not come into his scheme He did not
| look about him for lifes soft lights and
its music and SO never saw or heard
| fbof, He baA M fi,,aa ,,
"AhP"
Eyes, it was pity. Well, then one
day, by chance, he met Femininity-
happened upon her, munching cake and
slipping tea. Femininity smiled prettily
at the man and offered him cake and
tea, which he took with nerveless fin
gers, gasping and staring the while in
| pleased amazement. Then Femininity's
rosy, dimpled fingers went tripping
daintily up and down the keyboard of a
piano and she sang to him, every note
in her ripping little ballad twanging
response on one of the mans heart
strings And he asked himself
Well, let me see. He asked himself
"Why," interrupted he who listened
III the drawing room-''why he had
never before known that this was the
world and how he had been led to think
that his life was the real life of the
world.
eyes. that was what he asked himself
And so dainty little Femininity, smil-
| ing all the while. drew aside the lace
curtains, which had hidden from his
range Of vision the Byzantine alley
wherein she lived, and he, looking down
the alley with her, decided that it was
the real world that his world SO far
had been dreary fantasy of his own
creation. The mans lights were not
wide or deep, but very intense, and of
course he laid his heart, new found,
reverentially and unreservedly at Femi-
ninity' feet. Femininity laughingly ac-
cepted the heart, and them
Meeting another man at the corner
of her alley said the listener, '.threw
the heart down, still laughingly, and
went back to the piano with her new
| friend. +"
Exactly. Well, now the man was in
q very sorry plight, because he had lost
his own world-the self created fan
tasy-and being forsaken in the new
world by her to whom his heart had
! been given he could not find his way.
Disillusion blinded his eyes with tears,
and, cropping about i'll the Byzantine
alley, hee-
He met Frou Frou. You must let
me tell this piece, said the man in the
| drawing room He met Frou Frou,
who happened to have wandered care
| lessly from out her Moorish alley into
Femininity domain. He looked like
man, so Frou Frou welcomed him with
fascinating, lower bohemian good fell
lowship, and swung aside the rich dra-
perry and heavy perfumed curtain which
had hid from his view the world of
brighter, flashing lights and dancing
music in which she lived. Looking into
| the world, the man drew a long breath
| of satisfaction, and, as Frou Frou chal-
lenged him with trimming champagne
glass appraised, he said, This is I'M
| doubtedly reality-the abandon of real
| life in the actual world--unlike my
previous fancies, which were absurd.
And when the very first grayness came
| anu the uasAIhB iShts paleu IN the
dawn hour, Frou Frou, being tired and
sleepy, carelcssly laid open the pages Of
her frailty private diary-and the man
read. Having read. he kney-, and was
numbed. SO. IN the ghostly morning
twilight. he gropea his way cut into the
No Man'g Land which lies between the
alleys of extreme and realized thet he
| had not fought the real world after all
| Still, he bad lost his own, and when
- Weil''-
/ No, = said she who listened. you
cannot tell this part. must, for he did
| not 90 info arnfhar all.v 1-c1n lr,,onu