The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-11
THE ADVERTISERS .s Y W
 ' .s DAILY SHORT STORMY
Copy risat. lsoo. by Daily Story Publishing Gel

eager eyes. The sufferer saw him and beckonins him to the bed introduced him, eaying:
 'tGracia, this is Dr. Boyd. who has
 been 50 kind to me. Doctor. this is Miss Gray"
 She went off into a spasm of cough- ing and Miss Gray raised her eyes to i tdose of the preacher demurely and dropped them again as she gave him
 her hand. As he touched her . thrill
 went through him like shock from an
 electric battery. He seemed suffocated
 and his knees trembled so they could
 scarcely support his weight. After a
 few commonplaces he passed on and
 hurried out into the open air. A wild,
 fierce joy took possession of him. He
 faced the situation squarely and &C.,
 knowledged to himself that he was
 madly in love with this creature he
 had met but twice and spoken to but
 once.
 And why not?" he thought to him.
 self. Why should I not marry and
 taste the joys of the world like other
 men of my profession She must be a
 good woman-most likely a Christian,
 inasmuch as she visits the sick"
 He walked aimlessly for hours, the hot blood surgtng through his veins and builded air castles of the future when love should share the throne with duty in his life. For several af- ternoons following he was at the hos pital at the same hour. Sometimes she was there and sometimes not. Ere quently he walked with her to the car she invariably took at s o'clock. She could not mistake his eager attention and she liked it and encouraged him distinctly. But she never invited him to call on her at her home. This puz- sled him but it had gone so far with him that he went on biindly, never questioning, only falling deeper and more msdly in love. He began to neg lect his work. His sermons grew com monplace and mechanical and lacked their former freshness and force. He realized this and realized also that he must bring the affair to & close. One day he asked her pointedly if he might call on her the next afternoon as he had something of the utmost im- portance to say to her. She flushed deeply as she dropped her eyes and an- swered yes and gave him her address anl the hour she would receive him.
 He left her at the car in delirium of joy and was hardly able to restrain himself to get through the ordinary duttes of the day. That night he at tended q conference of city pastors en- gagged in the organization of a move- lnent to suppress vice. It was held in a distant part of the city and lasted until midnight. On his way home he felt hungry and turned into a popular Shortly after a gay party came in and seated themselves at table to his right. A young man op- posite him said to a companions:
 By Jove, there is Gracia Gray. Shes the swellcst ballet dancer that ever struck the town. Have you. seen her do the skirt dance in 'MephistopholesT You ought to see 1t. She's got form that would make Venus look sick. Her troupe is at the Academy"
 Robert Boyd heard the words like one in a trance. The shock was so great that he scarcely realized the pur- port of the words. He turned his eyes toward the merry group at the side table and sure enough there was the girl to whom he was about to propose on the morrow laughing and talking wi.h party some of whom were some what the worse for liquor and all of whom were evidently Bohemians of>in nermost Bohemia. He arose. paid his check and staggered out.
 All that night he struggled with him. self in his study. He saw the utter in- of a matrimonial alliance with a ballet girl, but his physical na- -ure cried out at the thought of giving Ter up. Why should he not defy the world, marry her and live down the There was nothing neces- 'arily wrong about a girl because she | vas on the stage. Once allied to him | 'he would forget the allurements of heatres and in time assume her place | is a minister's wife as naturally as any | ,f them. But ballet girl! It would | certainly create a scandal. He even bought of giving up the ministry and | 'eeking a career in other lines. He tnelt and prayed for strength and fight.
 Finally as the gray dawn came through the eastern window. he saw dearly enough. It was passion against luty, the physical against the spirit ial. the flesh versus the spirit. Should le marry her and even succeed in liv ng down the scandal of it, still he 'aw plainly that she would ever be a distraction from the higher lines of luty.
 T am not strong enough to resist he temptation" he cried. There Is put one safety I must go away, God 1elp me, I must run away"
 Before noon the Reverend Robert Boyd was on his way to California as last as the limited could carry him and it was given out to his friends and published in the papers that his health vas broken by too close application to work and that he was compelled to ake rest. He was gone for six months. and then he returned and took ID the broken work.
 Ess friends said he aged twenty years during that six months stay in 'alifornia. .ad.