The Hope pioneer., 1897-08-26


teners in the room above. Thorndyke
turned to the old mountaineer. "You
see, row, Mr.. Kilgrow, what these men
will do. Your safety lies in kecping
out of their reach. Come with me and
I'll let you out the back way"
When Kilgrow had gone, Thorndyke
went down to the sitting-room. but
neither there, nor afterwards at supper,
did Duncan or Protheroe refer to the
unwelcome visitors; and Thorndyke
knew that the wary Scot had succeeded
in satisfying Protheroe's curiosity
without duplicating Kilgrow.
The young engineer brought letters
for Philip, one of which was reserved to
he read in the privacy of the attic bed
room. 1t was from Helen, and Philips
conscience bit him when he tore it open.
Then he smiled at his misgivings as he
read through the closely-written pages.
"The Mortons were here to dinner last
night" she wrote. land they wanted to
know all about you; where you were and
what you were doing. You know best how
little we could tell them. but they thought
1t odd that you should prefer the wilds of
Alabama in summer to Lenox or Newport.
They have taken a cottage just below us
for the season, and Derrick Morton has
brought his yacht around from Mount
Desert-I won't say Bar Harbor. That Is
gossip of the time and place, and could
fill pages with it, but suppose you care for
none Of these things now. And really
don't know just what you do care for: you
seem farther away in Alabama than you
would If you were in Europe: but fancy
that is because we are so utterly unfamiliar
with your present surroundings.
One thing must tell you, however. A
few of us here-Derrick Morton. the Van
Ruyter girls. Arthur Haxtell and his
brother Tom. Dorothy and John Berkeley.
and one more-have undertaken to redeem
the frivolities of our corner of Newport by
forming q reading circle. We read none
but new authors. and then we pick them to
pieces with refinement Of criticism that
would humble the most conceited beginner
If he could only hear us. I think it's pity
that some of them can't; don't you? I
| wish you could be here to help us. believe
you would make distressingly acute in.
quisitor. and the fact that you once tried
your hand at authorship would lend a Pc
culiar zest to your ccnsure. If it be true that
| the best critics are the unsuccessful
| writer's. Apropos. what ever became of
your much-rejected manuscript? should
| like to submit it as the effort of one of the
! submerged.
| II suppose you have no present thought
| you say in your letters infer that you arc
| enjoying yourself, after some primitive
| fashion, and, better than all else, that your
| health is improving. Because can believe
the latter, I can continue to spare you
| while the need exists and since the separa-
tion has to be, it is better that we should
| bear 1t contentedly. I should be sorry to
| have the good effect of DR.. Perevin's pre-
scription marred by any repining Of mine.
and so long as you feel that the out-of-door
! life Is helping you, 1 hope you will not let
| any strained sense Of your duty to your
mother or to me make you abridge 1t. We
| shall get along famously without our preux
| chevalier. and you are not to suppose that
we are obliged to go about uncared for be-
cause you happen to be buried in the forests
| of Alabama.
write often, If you feel like it, but don't
let it become bore There is nothing more
dreadful than having to write to some one
when you want to do something else. AT
fectionately. as always, HELEN.
| "P. ST. have been invited to join party
on Derrick Mortons yacht and If you don't
hear from me again for two or three weeks.
| you'll know l have accepted and that post
offices are not to be had for the asking"
Philip put the letter down with a
smile that was more than half a sneer.
When one sets out to make himself the
advocate of an unworthy cause, mental
short-sightcdness stands ready to dis
tort and confuse the judgment; and in
the case of letter, the dispassionate
Journalism of written language lends
itself easily to infcrential misconstruc-
tion.
"How could ever have fancied that
she had any warmth or depth apart
from the intellectual side of her char
acter?" he asked himself. "I'm sure
don't know, any more than know why
I always took it for granted that we
were divinely appointed to be the COM
ponent parts of that mysterious creation
which the marriage service declares to
be one person, but which all experience
says is still more than ever two. Could
| Elsie Duncan write such a letter as
that to the man she loves? Would she
turn neat phrases and Bah! the
comparison is absurd! And yet, on the
other hand, it isn't fair to blame Helen
because I don't happen to be the one
man in the universe who is capable of
calling out the best there is in her; and
I don't blame her. She may find the
right man yet; it's barely possible this
cruise in Morton's yacht will turn out
to be more nearly divine appointment
than an agreement made by our fathers
while we were in swaddling-clothes."
Thus Philip. in plausible attempt
to justify himself. How should he know
that the cool and dispassionate letter
was only part and parcel of the hard
task Helen had set herself in the begin
ming? How was he to guess that she
had steadily resolved from the first to
say nothing that would tempt him to
turn back to his hurt? BY what inner
prescicnce should he have been enabled
to read between the lines the passionate
yearning that was so resolutely effaced
in the written words? AS he stood at
his window looking out into the calm
stiffness of the moonlit night, what
good angel was there to tell him that at
another window in far-off New England
the writer of that letter knelt with wet
eyes, beseeching the Merciful One to
protect and preserve the absent lover?
There was none; nor was there any in
ward monitor to hint that propinquity.
the charm of an innocent face, and a
simple outpourng of womanly SYM
pathy had united with his own moral
and physical weakness to turn him
aside from the plain way of rectitude
and honor.
(To BE Continued
| Must Be an Astrologer.
Ignorant people think that an as
tronomer is also an astrologer. Sir John
Herschel orce received letter asking
him to cast the writer's horoscope. An
other letter-writer requested the dis