The San Francisco call., 1904-02-07

you carried the other night. II there
were nothing better beneath the mask,
1 might play, too"
Did you learn this at the convent"
gasped Crailey.
There was a world there in minia-
ture," she answered, speaking very
quickly. Il think all people are made
of the same material. only in such diff
ferent proportions. 1 think a little
world might hold as much as the larg-
est, if you thought it all out hard
enough, and your experience might be
Just as broad and deep in a small cor
ner of the earth as anywhere else. But
/ don't know, / want to understands
want to understand everything [
read books, and there are people-but
no one who tells me what ! want I"
stop" He lifted his hand. Il won't
act; shall never play for you again.
He was breathless; the witching silence
was nothing to what stirred him now.
A singular exaltation rose in him, to-
gether with the reckless impulse to
speak from the mood her vehement
confidence had inspired. He gave way
to IT.
II know. 1 know" he said huskily.
i
feel. all you wish. 1t is all echoing
here. and here, and here!" He
touched his breast, his eyes and his
forehead with the fingers of his long
and slender hand. We sigh and strain
our ewes and stretch out our arms in
the dark, cropping always for the
strange blessing that is just beyond our
grasp. seeking for the precious un-
known that lies just over the horizonl
It's what they meant by the pot of gold
where the rainbow ends-only, it may
be there. after all"
They stopped unconsciously. and re-
n1ained standing at the lower end of
the Carewe hedge. The western glow
had faded, and she was gazing at him
through the darkness, leaning forward,
never dreaming that her tight grasp
had broken the sticks of the little pink
fan.
Yes" she whispered, eagerly. You
are right; you understandy'
He went on, the words coming faster
and faster: eve are haunted-you and
by the wish to know all things, and
by the question that lies under every
thought we have: the agonizing Whith-
er? Isn't ii like that? 1t is really
death that makes us think. You are
q good Catholic: you go to mass; but
YOU wish to know. Does God reign, or
did it all happen? Sometimes it seems
so deadly probable that the universe
iust was, no God to plan it, nothing but
things; that we die as sparrows die,
and the brain is all the soul we have. a
thing that becomes clogged and stops
some day And is that alp"
She shivered slightly, but her stead
fast eyes did not shift from him. He
threw back his head, and his face up
lifted to the jeweled sky OF the moon
less night. was beatific in its peaceful
ness. as he continued in an altered
tone, gentle and low:
'I think all questions are answered
there. The stars tell 1t all. When you
look at them you know. They have put
them on our flag. There are times
when this seems but a poor nation;
boastful, corrupt, violent, and prepar-
ing. as 1t is now, to steal another coun-
try by fraud and war: yet the stars
on the flag always make me happy and
confident. Do you see the constella-
tfons swinging above US, such unimag-
Unable vastnesses, not rowing or crash
ing through the illimitable at haphaz-
ard, but moving in more excellent
measure and to a finer rhythm. than