The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1897-02-27
A CASE In EQUITY.
copyright. 1906 by j. B LppIneou Col
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.

hACi NfSA nun vi AZ
cious."
"Don't blame yourself; stay in be-
cause l like it better. It's WEAKNESS
TO the flesh to go tramping about
alone"
Elsie put her book away and took up
her sewing. I'm not going to encour-
age you to stay in, anyway" she said.
with a pretty affectation of inflexibil-
ity; "and you ought to be ashamed to
call my mountain tiresome. / used to
almost envy your long walks"
"Why do you call it your mountain?"
because it's been my playmate ever
since l can remember. When | was a
little girl | used to sit on that big rock
behind the garden and read dear old
Sir Walter till | imagined ! could hear
the galloping of the Dragons in the
lower valley, and the skirling of the
pipes. up by the Pocket And I've never
quite lost the hope that some day I shall
meet a bonnie chieftan with his tai
of clansmen picking his way down
over the stones in the gulch."
"And you the daughter of a Low
lander. I'm shocked! Why, the very
first thing Vich Ian Vohr would do
would be to harry your fathers farm'
But if you know the mountain so well,
what's to prevent your showing me how
TO become interested in it? Why can't
you take tramp with me this after
noon?"
IL don't think l ought to take the
time; motherll be wanting me to help
about the house."
She bent lower over the sewing, and
Philip saw faint tinge of color creep
up to hide itself under the waves OF
bright hair on her forehead
"lhen l won't go alone" he protest
ed, obstinately, and as Mrs. Duncan
came in he appealed to her. Mrs. Dun
can, can't you spare Elsie to go up on
the mountain with me this afternoon p
"What for no?' was the ready an
swer. Ven bath be the better for a
bit walk in the open. I'm thinking the
bulk is keeping we over close to the
chimney neuk, Mr.. Thorndyke."
The appeal settled the question fol
Elsie, but her evident embarrassment
puzzled Thorndyke. For swift in.
STINT possible explanation thrust it.
self upon him, but he put the thought
away with a twinge of shame that he
had given it room. Doubtless Elsie
had her own reasons for her apparent
confusion, but they concerned him only
SO far as to make it advisable that he
should do nothing to place himself ir
false light before her. The afternoon
Tamble would give him chance to tel
her NJ re about himself, and if thu
vagedt suggestion which he had made
such haste to disown had any remote
, kinship to fact, the bare mention q
Helen's name would set the matter
right, and there would be no room fol
future misunderstanding. 1t was
clearly the just and honorable thing t.
do, and now that he thought of it, hi
reproached himself for not having
done it sooner. With different up
bringing, Philip might have seen thu
unavailable self-conceit in all this, an(
having recognized it he would hav'
been honestly and frankly ashamed o
it. Since he was not aware of it's ex
Xistence, his resolve to make conf
dante of Elsie took the comforting
form of an act of delicate and chivalri
thoughtfulness, and he looked forward
with magnanimous impatience to tn
time when he could give 1t speech.
A After dinner, however, when the.
were climbing the steep path leading t.
the summit of Johns mountain, tn
good resolution began to part with 1T
urgency. Elsie's embarrassment hat
disappeared, and in such irrelevan
talk as the scramble up the rocky trai
permitted, there was no opening TO
anything like condolences. With the de
lay Philip began to doubt the necessity
If he were not under sentence of dealt
it would be different, but in the light o
that tremendous fact, why should b.
go about to observe the unwritten law
of conventionality? 1t could surely b
no disloyalty to Helen if he allowed him
self to take what of sympathy and pit
this other young girl chose to give hir
out of the abundance of life and health
On the contrary, would not Helen b
glad, when all was said, to know tina
he had not died without the JUNCTION G
compassion? And Elsie?-that was
phase of the question which might we
be treatedaas wise man treats SLEEP
ing dog; it was the very hardihood G
vanity to suppose that her heart wa
touched by any emotion deeper tina
that of pity. knowing that his day
were counted, there could be no offel
ing save ut the shrine of womanl
tenderness and sympathy. In an
event, there was no occasion for haste
ne would wait awhile and see what cam
of it.
When one begins to argue with h
conscience it is foreordained conclr
sion that conscience will get the wors
of it. Lest Philip should be set down a
poor figure of q man, prone to do wca
things as are the sparks to fly upwar'
let it be said that he did only wha
seemed at the time to be good an
right. Love, or what passes for love,
not always accountable to logic or
common sense; it may, perhaps, be tl
adopted child of the intellect, but it
begotten and nurtured by the sense
Propinquity, contact, daily association