The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-06-01
An inherlta nee.
CIV caaTIotte Teller.)

His steamer chair was drawn up close
and facing hers, and ne was reading
aloud. She watched the play OF lines
about his mouth and studied his brow
and nose. Suddenly she sat up. push
ing back the red hood OF her cape. DO
you know" she broke in. mo one is
really interesting unless he has suffer
ed?''
The reader lost his place and said, with
some amusement: Where were your
thoughts? Don't you realize that the
heroine is just enjoying psychological
moment?''
I'm not at all interested in the hero
Inc; besides, she's borbid. l am much
interested In you''-she pulled her cape
about her and leaned back-"5ut 7 can t
interpret the lines in your fact ar al"
That's strange ne laughed. Three
days out from Cherbourg and still mys-
terious Do you always probe for secrets
so quickly?" There was a suspicion Of
sarcasm in his voice.
Il beg you pardon!" she said, letting
her eyes follow the steward with the
afternoon COTE. I'm not probing for
secrets. If I were I should be more skill
full"
He leaned over in half apology. IT am
not vain enough TO think that you have
more than a literary interest in the lines
of my face. You are a psychological vi
visectioinst. purely scientific, with only q
trace OF sympathy for the case in hand.
But do not look always for suffering.
There is little of it in the world. Men
are fools when they say they suffer-
The tone Of hardness IN his voice
reused her to contradiction, but the look
in his eyes kept her words back. In
stead of speaking she threw off her rug
and walked to the side Of the deck, look
ing down on the Storage. He Joined her
in apparent forgetfulness of their con-
versation.
The dead black CT that woman's hair
against orange'-he pointed TO a woman
below them dipping her black bread into
a mug of tea-"wouldn't that be eqective
in pastel?'
But you couldn't get those eyes I
should do the whole figure in clay, letting
the tragedy come out in the pose of the
head and in the lines Of the hands" She
spoke meditatively, without assertion.
That's good" he answered, but you
would need a bit of horizon, or at least a
deck rail. And why is it''-he turned with
the impatience of a man who leaves
tragedy to novelists-"that you invariably
see the pathetic side of everything"
She was puzzled again by the line in
his lower lip-was it hardness or repres-
sion? Can you see anything but trag-
edy down there? Look az the old NO.
man reading her Talmud and wiping her
tears on that dingy apron and that wo-
man with the sick baby-she must have
been pretty once: and all of them How
terribly homesick they must be-
The man shrugged his shoulders.
Come. let US leave them; they're happy.
II they are homesick that is sentimental
ity, for they have the waters under them
and the sky overhead. If II were all
black emptiness. then"-he stopped, and
then said, more gently: Don't you want
to walk? You ought not even to think
Of the world"
AS they turned the wind blew back her
cape and the red of 1t blotted the gray
of his coat. They paced back and forth
ne with a swinging gait and she putting
her heels down first. They were both
walked round and round the deck She
felt strangely oppressed. After a few
moments he stopped beside their chairs.
The band plays the Sunday service
about this time on the other side" he
said, land we'd better sit down before
some one else gets these places" He
covered her with a rug and leaned back
with his eyes on the far horizon She
watched the tired look in his eyes fade
out.
Then the chords of German choral
sounded out into the glare of sunlight;
they seemed to push the brightness aside
and to call the darkness to rise from the
depths of the sea. The girl closed her
eyes a moment to bring the sound
nerer. When she opened them, about to
ask the name OF the choral the mans
eyes, full-hxed o nthe distant line OF sky.
kept her still; they were filed with an
awful dread, with a repressed wilder
ness of fear and they had drawn all the
color from his face, until 1t had become
a dead white
As the music came to its sonber close
he turned toward her, and she bent over
and touched his hand II am sorry T.
she could not say more and the voice
reused him.
Il am afraid, now, that you will think
you have discovered a tragedy in me"
His voice was low, an dts tones pressed
back the tears in her heart; her hand
lying on his, grew cold, and he put his
other one over H.
Child. you are making II a little
harder for me- and yet I am glad" a
mist was sweeping between them, and h
leaend forward Il have Just come from
a physician who has told me that in 4
few months my mind will go out int1
the great darkness-rny father. and MS
father before him, became insane. but !
had such faith in my own strengthened
I cannot escapep'
For moment she was STILL then she
freed her hand from his and drew his
head down TO her shoulder.
Miles around there was the twitching
OF blue waves under q white mist-veil,
and all that nved-al THAT was human
was dimmed and softened.