Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-21

haps necessary for the common run of
humanity. But this was Nothing.
Still it sufhced ever afterward, year after
year, to make everything Nothing for each,
the other being absent Only when they
were bending their heads together in the
solution of problems in ar: and letters, which
they alone-and together-could compre-
bend. did they really live. Mrs. Hill:ard
might be in the dining room eating bread
and honey with her children or receiving
callers in her drawing room, and Mr. Henry
might be in his counting room counting out
his money-they did not consider all that
any part of existence that made life worth
living. The duties required of them in their
households and in society they got through
somehow, but the only relish in anything
for either was when the other was sharing
it,
And yet it is with the most discreet in
frequency that they are to be seen together
by themselves, although they are In truth
walking hand in hand every step through
every day of their lives. So long as they
know the whereabouts of each other, when
they can see one another across room, or
even across the fields from their windows,
they are measurably content. when they
wondering. paraiyZed for either play or
work; miserable--only the more miserable
for their wealth. futile to free them. Yet
there is nothing that the servants, most
vigilant of detectives. have ever talked
about. Absolutely Nothing!
Still, every morning glass of fresh
flowers on the window sill of billiards
studio Is the greeting returned by the OPEN
ing of window In the studio over the stile
Every night the turning up of light in Hill
liards studio sends good night across
his lawn to a curtain in the other, which
has been raised to receive it, and then Is
lowered in answer.
1t is Nothing, ard yet neither can sleep If
1t be missing now
I surprised Hilliard one day when he was
distinctly not bored. 1t was at a O'Clock
and private view at a studio in town.
The little company had gathered half I'M
consciously about him, fascinated to silence
In listening to his animated observations SO
rare OF late-the wise, broad, witty, peue-
trating yet generous way in which he dis
exemplified. Mrs. Henry was his COM
pan!on, dressed in dark velvet gown, COM
Ing high about her slender throat Her
pale, long, distinguished face was glowing
Ike lily in bloom. Her eyes could not con-
ceal her delight in the rapt Difference paid to
billiard. But it was the coming half hour
together in the carriage on the homeward
drive that was exalting both till they were
already floating in the only heaven they
dreamed of or cared fer.
Nothing? Is it nothing that in these
days two with every resource at their free
command. two for whom all the rest of the
world Is nothing, hold themselves nobly in
hand unwilling that other hearts than their
own shall be wrung. resolved that no mock
snail be borne by others for their sake con-
Vinced that no such shock as they might
give 1t were they to fly from their orbits
should be borne by a social order already
staggering under accumulated scandals?
. Nothlng! Is there anything loftier saint
Her. more heroic than such sacrifice. sucb
abnesaton, such crucifixion of self for
others? In saints and heroes of the storied
PAST 90 We call such remuneration Nothing ?