The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-02
THE HOUSE OF DEFENCE,

a mask. But for her he wore none: and
she often saw his inward torture. when
others only saw a pleasant, courteous
man, not gay, but with certain high
bred, quiet enjoyment of manner which
just now is slightly at discount in the
capital of the dominion of the king
Maud got up. from her seat in the
window, for the sun had wheeled fur
ther north, leaving it in shadow, and
closed the sash, still looking down the
ribbon of road which ran in whiplash
curves across the moor to- the village,
allowing herself again another moment
for somewhat somber contemplat ion.~
How inextricably soul and body were
mixed and mingled together: how in
timately and instantaneously they acted
and reacted on each other! Thurso's
anxiety for those people, a purely men
tai OF spiritual feeling, had kept him
awake last night, and he had come
down this morning with one Of those
racking neuralgia headaches to which
all his life he had been liable. His suf-
fering of mind had made his body
suffer, too, and that bodily suffering
had reacted again upon his mind and
had made the poor old boy SO horribly
cross. Then, since there was the days
work before him, for the sake Of which
he had come up here, and in his rack
ing pain he was really incapable of do
ing. it, he had taken the remedy, which
he had always by him, in case Of neces-
sity, but which he disliked taking just
as much as Maud disliked his taking it. :
But when after breakfast he had~said
to her. Maud: I simply can't go
down there, and if I did, I couldn t :
she had: agreed that it was an occasion !
Tor Iduudnu10. - 9s-.-
:. She strolled across to the. fire and
held out her hands to the blaze, which :
shone thru her fingers, making them :
look as if they were luminous in them
selves and lit from within. Then !,
suddenly, with little. dramatic ges-
ture. as if she carried her trouble, a
palpable burden, ins her hands, she
! threw it into the fire, and having con-
signed it to destruction walked back
to the window again. Yet, she knew in
herself that she had not disposed of it, !.
for it went very deep, it was very vital.
The sorrow of the world, how to recon
cile that with the perfect love that
made the world! Indeed, it needed )
strong hands or an indifferent heart to
cast that away + + But there at
last was figure on the road, and with
out putting on her hat she went out to
meet him. 'sE-~ - r
She saw at once, before she could
clearly see his face; but by certain
age and detection in his walk, that he
was suffering, but here, too, it seemed
to her that she could help him better
by sympathy.
"Dear old boy,' she called to him
before they actually met; "but have
you any idea that it is half-past 8,
and I've got such sinking inside,
Thurso, that Il don It suppose there was
ever such sinking known. I vote we
don't dress, SO we can dine at once.
/ I'M sure dinner is ready, because I
distinctly smelled soup and something
richly out of the kitchen windows. /,
nearly burst into tears, because L
wanted them all SO much And how
has the day gone?''
He stopped David's first strain had
not reached Saul.
Oh: Maud, it is too awful" he said.
''tTen fresh cases today. I don It know
this ! am perfectly useless. / can't
think; can face things Maud took
his arm.
''You poor old thing she said.
rHas it been bad all day2'
emo, it was all right in the morning,
but it came on again worse after lunch.
Well, not exactly after lunch, because
I didn' It have any, but after lunch
time. -
Maud gave little exclamation of
Impotence.
" Thurso, you are too bad!" she
said. "You know perfectly well that
if you go without food too long you
always get one of these headaches.
And it's no use your saying there
WASH It any time for you to have lunch,
because lunch takes ten minutes, where
as headache takes hours. It is fool
ish Of you, because you suffer, and it IS
wicked of you, dear, because it makes
you Of absolutely no use in the world"
He smiled at her; the infection of her
energy gave little life to him.
well, / forgot about lunch till the
pain came on he said; ttand after
I i =. :