The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-07
PEGGY O'NEAL \

} pearance of right and be a hypocrite
| when / may not be a saint"
Peg was presently better restored
| to herself. In the very moment when
1 the gates of my soul would open TO let
it forth to her and 1 gave myself into
her hands to be fashioned by her as
I she would, Peg began to gather steadi-
| ness. 1t was she to now think and
| speak and decide for both of US; for
myself, / was clean swept away. l
/ was not to know this new strength
| of Pegs from her tones alone. or the
/ trend of what she uttered; l could feel
her heart-throbs become firmer and
| more slow as she lay in my arms, and
/ il was in them l read the truth of her
| resolve.
Watchdog" said Peg, in a way
| most sweetly solemn, II think nothing
of myself. If it were / alone to be
unmade, I'd never leave your arms
| again. Come veal, come woe. here
would l bide, and while your arms
were round me the worst would change
to be the best. But / will not see
you under the mire of mems tongues.
| Dear one, you would die! You are one
! whose life grows on his honor like
flower on it's stem; disgrace would cut
you down and you would die. And
yet, I am glad 1 love you; l am glad
| ! care nothing for myself. Let my
cloth, harsh as nettles, yet will l ex-
ult while I draw it's folds about me.
| / will go on as a world would say
! should; and If the way of life lie steep,
! I'll still climb on and think 1 toll
for you; and if it be stony and if it
bruise my feet. I'll say I suffer that
| to keep you safe; I'll make my grief
my Eden and find in the endless woe
of your surrender a nobler. higher,
more immortal transport than would
| have owned me in your arms. And
| there will be another world" Pegs
| tones swung low to my ear, and mysti-
| cal. Watchdog, there be lives after
this"
Peg was silent for a space, and would
turn even and cool and in way of
content. I, on my part, might neither
say her yea nor nay, for l was in
the hollow of her hand like pebble to
| be retained or cast by her into the sea
, as she should conclude.
And somehow / was no longer in the
dark. l loved her; and yet / knew
| Peg was not to be for me; she had
said the word; she would go and
would stay; for all her soft beauty and
| that love for me which spoke in every
| fiber of her being, the truth flowed in
on me like tide that in no way
might l change her or shape her or
! move her from her will. Against my
l i
would be saved to myself and 1 would
lose her; she would do it all. What
! was it the General said? He would
save Peg from Peg? 1t was she who
| now would save me from both her
self and me when my love-sown mad
ness was hot to make a wreck of all.
Eyes, Watchdog. Peg continued
| dreamily, there will come another
! life" Then of the suddenest twining
, her arms about my neck more tightly
| still and until she chung there like a
! part of me, she cried out as though
her soul spoke: kiss me, sweetheart;
kiss me, if it be but once. This night
at least is ours"
1t was she who would command.
grew drunken on her lips while my
thoughts would stray and stagger. 1
could know nothing, act nothing, be
nothing, save as she would have me.
Her hot arms were as the arms of
summer torrents to hurry me along;
her lips were like the lips of whirl-
pool! 1t was a kiss-a kiss of the
infinite-and would lay its velvet touch
upon the ultimate reason of existence.
And so Peg went away; and for my
portion / took up my old life, which
now was as dark and chill and hollow
as a cave.
Now what should there be more to
! tell? What matters it how secession
|
signed his vice presidency to later creep
back to a seat in that Senate where
he had sat on high and ruled? Or how
the General fought and slew the Bank
Who is there to care for the story of
the Generals reelection, when Van
Buren, came with him for the second
place? Who, l say, would bend the
ear of interest to such tales as those
when now our Peg was gone?
The General never again took UP
with me that matter of his cabinet
and it's dissolution, and how he scat
tered it to save Peg from herself. One
evening, however, as he smoked and l
sat bitter and listless, 1 pumped a
question at him.
IF it were to save Peg from Peg"
said l, why did you defer so long?
Why did not you dispense your cabinet
months before? Or was it that you
failed to note Pegs peril of herself till
just before you acted??" This last
with a great sheer
ut was plain to me from the begin
ming how Peg was won to YOU" said
he.
Then. in the beginning why did not
you act?"
How could I? Peg was under fire
for her fair repute. Had l broken up
my cabinet, it would have been Pegs
death blow. Folk would have told
because she could not be defended. No,
i must give her time for triumph; that
achieved, the rest might happen and
she be made secure in Florida. 1t
was the one trail, and I followed it"
The General came over to my chair.
"Old comrade," said he with world
of goodness in his manner, ''if l have
thrust a thorn in your heart, forgive
me. If friendship can cure, that thorn
will be plucked away"
On another day the General was in
a temper of abstract PHILOSOPHERS. It
lay in a hot time of summer and his
moods flowed lazily. His fancy would
run away to the topic of woman and
her helDlessness.
Beautiful and sweet, she Isl he
was saying, land a blessing, too; but
the man must ever bear upon his mind
her weakness, and be her buckler even
from herself. He must be on guard
for both. For she is as a child, and
no wise deep nor fortified of any root
ed strength. Your man. on the other
hand while wanting those traits of
beauty which shine forth in woman
like the stars at night, is withal safe
enough. He is cold like an iceberg,
and like an iceberg he rides steadily
through every gale with nine-t enths of
him beneath the sea. Your tempest
can go no deeper than the surface; it
cannot search the oceans depths, and
so the man swims safely"
Where the General would have
brought up in these tongue wanderings