The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1897-04-03
XIII.
LOSS AND GAIN.

] ALL.
LOSS AND GAIN.
1t was early in July when Philip
began The campaign of restoration. He
made up his mind in the beginning
that it was to be race with death,
and, believing this, he did not spare
himself, though the heat during the
weeks that followed was terrific. 1t
was a dry summer, and in drought
the climate of the Chiwassee valley is,
to say the least, something less than
iDvigorating. For the first fortnight
Philip went about with the feeling that
the next day would finish him. Then,
as the barriers, hedging him on the
! side toward accomplishment grew into
respectable mountains of difficulty, n
winged spirit of energy, which was,
perhaps, only an unused heritage from
his Woodworking father, began to pos
sess him, breaking the bonds of habit
and lifting him out of the rut Of in
trospection. One morning he forgot
to count his pulse. and the daily analy
sis of his symptoms was omitted for
the first time in weeks; and that night
he slept with open windows, through
which the cool breeze from the noun
| tain blew across the bed, and no harm
came Of It. He was too busy to think
much about his infirmity at the time,
but week later he stepped upon the
patent weighing machine in the ro-
tunda of the Johanpisberg. and when
the pointer failed to record the usual
decrease he went TO his room and
dropped the half-used bottle of hypo-
phosphites into the CRATE. That was
the turning of the tide, and by the
time his fellow migrants in the exotic
city were beginning to wilt under the
fervid summer sun, Philip was growing
stronger in body and saner in mind;
finding certain tonic in series of de-
feats which were sharp enough to slim
ulate without being heavy enough to
crush.
And while he wrest1ed with the diff
! ficulties of the legal problem. the fire
burned within him, consuming some
| rubbish and shedding new light into
the dusky corners of the soul-chamber
hitherto obscured by the shadows of i'll
health and morbidness. The light was
not altogether welcome, though it ma
terially lessened the distance between
the ostensible Philip and Philip the
real. For one thing, it belittled the mo-
tive which was responsible for his
work. Allowing the promptings of
common humanity their full weight,
the fact remained that his enthusiasm
had for it's starting-point a desire to
win the approval of Elsie Duncan.
That was the new ideal, and his saner
thought told him that it was wretched-
ly inadequate; that it sprang from I'M
pulse and was degraded in the hour
of its birth by unfaith. Unworthy as
it was, it was still an ideal, and Philip
dashed himself into small fury OF
self-contempt when he discovered that
it was no longer the motive for his
exertions; that Elsie's appreciation and
Kilgrow's wrongs were secondary con
siderations in comparison with the
strenuous urgings of newly aroused
ambition squirting him on to wiring vic.
tory out of defeat for victory's sake.
He kept his room at Duncan's and
rode often up the valley, both for the
sake of the intimacy which the nature
of his quest made impossible elsewhere
and because he honestly wanted to be
true to the new ideal, and he went
oftener and stayed longer when he be
gan to feel the ground slipping from
under him in the small matter of senti
ment. He said rather bitterly that hi
must be true to something; that he
should lose what little self-respect his
tickle precipitancy had left him if hi
suffered himself to swerSe from The
plain path he had chosen in the day o.
illness.
For some of the doubts and much
of the dissatisfaction, Elsie was her
self answerable. She was frank with
out being confidential; she was affec
tionate and sympathetic, but she never
gave him an opportunity to add wore
TO those already spoken. She rejoice,
frankly in his stubborn perseverance
in the Kilgrow affair, and she was
openly thankful when the tide OF II
health began to ebb; but beyond al
this, Philip felt that there was bar
rier which he had never been permit
ted to pass. He told himself that i
was maidenly modesty--a nice refine
ment Of womanly delicacy which de
Tended her from the ambiguity Of hi
impulsive declaration; and in this he
lief he went about, seeking the op
portunity for palmer speech which
chance or something else persistent,
denied him. Sometimes it was Elsie.
mood; oftener it was the presence of :
third person - either Duncan or hi;
wife, or Protheroe. After such battle
mcnts Philip scourged himself dutiful
ly, heaping abuse on his own head for
not overriding such trivial obstacles
He insisted that he owed it to himseI
no less than to Elsie that there shout