Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-01-16

Harry Tyndall did not advertise
the lost pocketbook and when,
three days later, his note fell due, he
paid it and was free man.
1t is not necessary to recount the
successive steps in temptation which
finally led to the first dishonest act
of further hitherto spotless life.
How the pocketbook came there he
could not even guess ; but it was
there, it just supplied his needs, he
appropriated it and was henceforth
branded as thief in his own eyes.
The process was gradual one.
Ages it seemed to him from the
time the gentleman who held his
note entered his office until he
drew it from his safe and handed it
over to him. He had already de-
cided to use it yet he asked for time.
1T could not be granted. Minutes
crowded with the sharpest and Bit
tercst agony of his life passed. He
thought of bright, mOcking face
and voice sweeter than SIRENS !;
great beads of Precipitation fell from
his brow, and in an another moment
the cancelled note lay upon the table
before him; his visitor was gone
and he was saved.
Those months of financial distress
which followed were safely tided
over and then he devoted himself
to his business with a melancholy
desperation born of conscious guilt.
He went little into society and es-
pecially did he avoid Clara Berwick,
who, with perversity of mocking
mischief, tortured him with illusions
to the lost pocketbook whenever she
chanced to meet him. She was so
thoroughly good-natured about it,
so utterly careless and trifiing, that
he could not accuse her of malice (;
yet, his own conscience being the
sharpest accuser, he imagined knowl-
edge of his guilt when there was
none.
He did not conceal from himself
that the desire to remain in Miss
Berwick's sphere was the principal
cause of his rash act; yet, now that
he was still where he could meet
her, he shrunk from making an
avowal OF his feelings; he dared
not approach her with his love. So
he argued to himself, thinking that
he was strong enough to withstand
the temptation, although he knew he
had yielded to the lesser one.
But, disguise the fact IA we may,
VI oil nf nj 70 nnna
We say, "I will not do so and so,"
and 10 in month or year we have
done those very things and 1t has be.
come a matter of course that we
should have done so. We loudly
condemn the thief, the murderer,
the suicide; but human nature is
the same the world over. Under
the same combination of circum-
stances, we would have done pre-
cisely as they; for how could we
prevent it? BY the will? How
many of us will that such and such
things shall not be? Yet, when did
human will rise triumphant over
the grinding and inexorable laws of
creation-over those stern, unyield-
ing ambitions of law which we call
circumstances
Even as, In spite of his will, Harry
Tyndall had appropriated what was
not his; so, also, in spite of that
same will, he was at last thrown into
last thrown into just such circum-
stances az forced from his lips decla-
ration of love to Clara, though he
trembled as he made it.
Clara arched her brows a moment
in pretended surprise las if she had
not known his struggles all along,
then her old merry, mocking smile
flashed over her face and some BAN
tering words rose to her lips. but
they were unspoken; for there was
earnestness enough, and enough of
passion and pain, in his face to sub
due even her. He scarcely knew
what she said, but he went away
feeling as If his head would strike
the stars, because Clara loved him
and would marry him; but as he
walked along, he thought of the
pocketbook and his ecstacy died
away. Why should he, common
thief, rejoice because, under false
colors he had won a good woman's
heart? But he must play the ac-
cepted lover; and he did so, forget
ting, when with her, his own un-
worthiness. Sometimes he thought
to tell her all; again, he shrunk
from her scorn and the loss of her
respect.
But, one day when they were to-
gether, after short silence between
them, Clara said, suddenly:
Harry, did you ever find out
whose purse that was you found In
your office?'