The Irish standard., 1897-01-30

meet bonnie chieftain Will, his tail
! CT clansmen picking his way down
| over the stores in the gulch.
Sand you, the daughter OF q Low
lander. I'm shockedl Why, the very
first thing Vich Ian Vohr would do
; would be to harry your fathers farm!
But il you know the mountain SO we'll.
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 ought to take the
time; mother'il 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.
'"Then 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 afternoons"
! swer. "Ye'll bath be the better for q
bit walk i'll the open. I'm thinking the
| bulk is keeping We over close to the
chimney neuk, Mr.. Thorndyl<e."
| The appeal settled the question for
| Elsie, but her evident embarrassment
puzzled Thorndyke. For swift in
st;.nt possible explanation thrust it.
self upon him, but he put the thought
away with twinge of shame that he
i 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 in
false light before her. The afternoon
1amble would give him chance to tell
her more about himself, and if the
vagrant suggestion which he had made
such haste to dis;own had any remote
Einship to fact, the bare mention of
Helen's name would set the matter
future Misunderstanding. 1t was
clearly the just and honorable thing to
! do, and now that he thought Of it, he
! reproachcd himself for not having
done it sooner. With different up
bringing. Philip might have seen the
unnalleable self-conceit in all this, and
having recognized it he would have
been honestly and frankly ashamed Of
it. Since he was not aware of its eX-
istence, his resolve to make conf
dante Of Elsie took the comforting
form of an act,of delicate and chivalric
tl,oughtfulness, and he looked forward
with magnanimons Impotence to the
time when he could give it speech.
After dinner, however, when they
were climbing the steep path leading to
he summit Of Johns mountain, the
good resolution began TO part with its
urgency. Elsie's embarrassment had
disappeared, and in such irrelevant
talk as the scramble up the rocky trail
permitted, there was no opening for
anything like condolences. With the de-
lay Philip began to doubt the necessity.
If he were not under sentence OF death
it would be different, but in the light of
that tremendous fact, why should he
80 about to observe the unwritten laws
of conventionality 1t could surely be
no disloyalty to Helen il he allowed him
self to take what Of sympathy and pity
this other young girl chose to give him
out Of the abundance of life and health.
On the contrary, would not Helen he
glad, when all was said, to know that
he had not died without the JUNCTION of
compassion? And Elsie?-tl,at was
phase of the question which might we'll
be treated as a wise man treats a sleep
ing dog; it was the very hardihood OF
vanity to suppose that her heart was
touched by any emotion deeper than
that of pity. knowing that his days
were counted, there could be no offer
ing save at the shriNe of womanly
tenderness and sy1ni thy. In any
event. there was no decision for haste;
he would wait awhile and see what came
fof it.
When one begins TO argue with his
conscience it is a foreo-tlained conclu-
sion that conscience will get the worst
of it.. Lest Philip should be set down as
poor figure Of a man, prone to do weak
things as are the sparks to fly upward,
let it be said that he did only what
seemed at the time to be: good and
right. Love, OF. what passes for love, is
not always accountable to logic or to
common sense; it may, perhaps, be the
adopted child of the intellect, but it is
bcgotten and nurtured by the senses.
Propinquity, contact, daily associa ton,
the fairness Of one object and the near
mess of another, all these influences
were, in Thorndyke's case, opposed to
what was unconsciously becoming day
by day more Of an abstracticn-his
fenlty to Helen. And, besides, when
one firmly believes he has made his
salaam to the king of terrors, the con-
viction may SO distort the mental and
moral vision rs to make one practically
color blind '"f so
Half an hour after Elsie and: Philip
had disappeared in the forest Protheroe
rode up to the gate with a packet of
letters for .Thorndyke. When he
learned that. the invalid and Elsie were
ON the mountain together. he seemed
quite as anxious to get away from the
farmhouse us he had just been to reach
u. On inc way DaciA W tO"H ,!!c Ha0
another impatient argument with him
self, coming out Of it as on a former oc-
casion, with u certaiu,measure of philo-
sophical resignation. for which he paid
rather dearly i'll the coin Of disappointed
hopes. :
~.
VIII.