The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-15

he made love to her, as all the young
men she meets always do, sooner or
later, but l have no fear of any rustic
ENHANCEMENT for her; she has never
been really interested, save in one af-
fair. We are quite powerless-we have
| done everything; but we cannot alter
her determination to edit your paper
for you. Naturally, she knows moth
ing whatever about such work, but she
| says, with the air of triumphantly
squelching all such argument, that she
has talked q great deal to Mr.. Ma
cauley of the Journal Mr.. Macau-
ley is the affair have alluded to; he
is what she has meant when she has
said, at different times, that she was
interested in Journalism. But she is
very business-like now. She has
bought a typewriter and purchased a
great number of soft pencils and eras-
ers at an art shop; l am only sur
prised that she does not intend to edit
your miserable paper in water-colors.
She is coming at once. For mercys
sake, don't telegraph her not to; your
forbiddings work the wrong way. Our
only hope is that she will find the con-
ditions so utterly discouraging at he
very start that she will give it up and
come home. If you are a man you
Will help to make them so. She has
promised to stay with that country
girl with whom she contracted such
an incomprehensible friendship at Miss
Jennings
"Oh, James, pray for grace to be
man once in your life and send her
back to u.s. Be a man-try to be
mani Remember the angel you killed!
Remember all we have done for you,
and what return you have made, and
be Il man for the first time. Try and
be man! Your unhappy sister-in-
law, Martha Sherwood"
Mr.. Fisbee read the letter with
great rising delight which no sense
of duty could down; indeed, he per-
ceived that his sense of duty had
ceased to conflict with the one strong
hope of his life, Just as he perceived
that to be a man, according to Mar
tina Sherwood, was, in part, to as
sist Martha Sherwood to have her
way in things; and, for the rest, to be
the sort of man she persuaded ner-
self she would be, were she not wom-
an. This he had never been able to be.
By some whimsy of fate,or by a fail
ure of Karma Tor, perhaps, by some
triumph of Kismetic retribution),
James Fisbee was born in one of the
most busineSs-like and artless cities of
a practical and modern country, of
money-getting, money-saving parents,
and he was born dreamer of the past.
He grew up a student of basilican lore.
of choir-screens of Persian frescoes
and an ardent lounger in the some
what musty precincts of Chaldea and
Byzantium and Babylon. Early Chris
tan Symbolism, a dispute over the
site of a Greek temple, the derivation
Of the lotus column, the restoration
of Gothic buttress-these were the
absorbing questions of his youth. with
now and then lighter moment spent
in analytical consideration of the ex-
tramural decorations of st. Marks The
world buzzed along after it's own fash
ion, not disturbing him, and his alb
sorptions permitted only a faint con-
seriousness of the despair of his rela-
tives regarding his mind. Arrived at
middle-age, and a little more, he found
himself alone in the world Though, for
that matter, he had always been alone
and never of the WORLD, and there
was plenty of money for him with
various bankers who appeared to know
about looking after it. Returning to
the town of his nativity after sundry
expeditions in Syria-upon which he
had been accompanied by dusky gen.
tlemen with pickaxes and curly, long
barrelled muskets-he met, and was
married by, lady who was ambitious,
and who saw in him (probably us a
fulf1iment of another Kismetic punish
stined success. Not long after the
birth of their only child, daughter,
he was called to fill the chair" of
archaeology in a. newly founded uni
versity; one of the kind which a state
and a millionaire combine to purchase
ready-made. This one was handed
down off the shelf in a more or less
chaotic condition. and for a period of
years betrayed considerable doubt as
to its own intentions, undecided wheth-
er they were classical or technical; and
in the settlement of that doubt cay
the secret of the past of the one man
in Plattville so unhappy as to possess
past. From that settlement and his
own preceding action resulted his
downfall, his disgrace with his wife's
relatives, the loss of his wife, the rage,
surprise, and anguish of her sister,
Martha, and Martha's husband, Henry
sherwood, and the separation from
his little daughter which was by lar
to him the hardest to bear. For Fis-
bee, in his own way and without con-
sulting anybody--it never occurred to
him, and he was supposed often to
forget that he had a wife and child
had informally turned over to the uni
versity all the money which the banks
had kindly taken care of, and had Civ
en- 1t to equip an expedition which
never expedited. A new president CT
tne INSTITUTION was installed, he talk
ed to the trustees; they met, and
elected to become modern and practi-
cal and TECHNICAL: they abolished the
course in fine arts, which abolished
btsbee's connection with them, and
they then employed his money to erect
a building for the mechanical engineer
ing department, His wife and her
kinsfolk exhibited no brilliancy In hold
ing totally irresponsible man down
to responsibilities. and they made a
tragedy OF a not surprising fiasco.
Mrs. Fisbee had lived in her ambitions.
and she died of heartbreak over the
discovery OF what manner OF man she
had married. But. before she died, she
wisely provided for her daughter.
Fisbee told Parker the story after
his own queer fashion.
you see. Mr. Parker" he said, as
they sat together IN the dust and it,
ter Of the Herald" Office. on SUNDAY
afternoon, you see. / admit that my
sister-in-iaw has always withheld her
APPRECIATION from me, and possibly her
dlaapproyhl Is Well f0undedI shall
say pr0bsi0iE. My wife had also 4 con-