Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23


but she had not then set herself. as she
did now, hour after hour. TO fght and van
qush any such tendency in him. With
heart lifted high with hope and faith, she
denied that. She affirmed that his health.
being a good thing. It could not let itself
be a slave to an evil thing, for thus evil
would be stronger than good-a thing I'M
thinkable. No, the strength that was COM
ing back to him. slowly indeed. meant SO
many efforts. SO many repulses of that NOR
tai and earthly habit that had become
intimate & guest of his soul. That hide
Gus, dwarfish shape which he had admitted.
with its blear eyes its trembling hands.
clothed IN the shroud and cerements OF
sensuality, was being pushed and dragged
out again. II was hard work. none knew
that better than she. but failure was i'm
possible, and well she knew that. When
at last they got II to the door of his soul,
and got that door open so that the sunshine
of infinite love poured in. with what cry
of joyful amazement would he see that
that dreadful figure that seemed now
real was nothing. and that il had no real
existence. 1t was cheating them all the
time she knew it was only in the twilight
of his soul that what was only a shadow
seemed to be real
Now and then, too the real Thurso, tho
kindly. courteous gentleman who had been
to her so well-loved a brother. came back.
and he and Maud would talk about old
days before ever this shadow blackened
his path.
And they would live over again I'm that
light of memory. which often lends n
Nividness to that which is remembered
which 1t did not have in life, some windy.
nota BILE day on the moors when Thurso shot
three stays, or some memorable morning
by the river when Maud killed six salmon
before lunch.
"Oh. Thurso. and I should have killed
the seventh. do you remember. but | let
the line get round that rock in the roar
ing pool and he broke me-
BY gosh, L remember" he said. You
We're. / was awfully happy all that sum
mer. l had hideous neuralgia, | remember
and it rather spoiled my pleasure, but 1t
didn't spoil my happiness. How do you ex-
plain that?"
why. nothing can spoil ones happiness"
she said answering his question without
But he got up suddenly.
Il get the heart-ache to think of it ALL"
he said.
She rose too.
"Ah, Thurso, it will come back" she said.
He looked at her with sudden face OF
gloom
And your" he asked. And Lily? How
can either of you forget? 1t Is absurd to
say that things can be the same Not even
God can put the clock back, and say it is
yesterday"
NO, dear" she said, but the sun rises
again. and today becomes tomorrow.
'Heavness may endure for night, but
Joy cometh in the morning"
The bitter mood was pouring in on him
again.
"Ah, a phrase!" he said.
Yes but a true one she answered.
But these hours were short and rare, and
1t was seldom that he was even able to
think regretfully of the past For the most
part he was suspicious and bitter. or silent
full only of the one deadly desire. All day
1t was in his mind. and at night he dreamed
of it, But the days that must elapse
before they reached New York began to Ice
reckoned by hours. his despair and dispirit-
edness Were sensibly lessened. Maud no.
ticed that.and sometimes he spoke hopefully
of the new cure that to be tried; YET as
often as he did this his voice rang a false
as a cracked bell. and she knew ii was not
this that he looked forward to, but to es-
Gaping from the prison of a ship. where his
desire was denied him, to the compara-
tive freedom of dry land, where there were
chemists, drug stores. Yet with his
returning strength his craving no longer
seemed to grow proportionately. There
was some check on it. unantcipated by Sir
that, and his brain, she felt sure was
scheming to get it. But the madness and
raving of desire had not appeared, and al
ready they We're steaming slowly up to the
relentless city.
Thurso and she were standing on deck to-
gether as they drew near. on a morning of
crystalline brightness. The land was white
with snow, but the air was MINDLESS and
she felt that even the town. which
has the credit of possessing not the worst
climate In the world, had its beautiful days.
Higher and higher rose the huge, many =
stored buildings and from the pale Of lie OF
the winter sky they passed into the region
of gray smoke that overhung the city.
From the wide, tenantlesS space of the
ocean they slid into more populous waters:
stately liners We're leaving for eastward
ports, and in a moment from the desert OF
the high seas they passed into the crowded
waterways, full of broad-decked ferry
steamers and the innumerable hooting Of
sirens. Already, before they touched the
shore, each felt that stimulus of air and in
tense activity which New York eXhales-
the atmosphere of continuous, unremitting
effort, that makes every other town in the
world seem dronish and lazy.
The huge bulk of their ship moved up to
its berth, towed in sidewise. like some tired
fish, by two or three tiny, bustllng tugs.
And on the landing dock Maud saw a fig
ure she knew, tall and serene with no great
coat on. for all the chilliness of the morn
ing, and across the space of water that
separated them her heart leaped lightly to
him. She did not consciously think of her
self; it of Thurso she consciously
thought when she there the man who
had hicked across the ocean the message
that 'he would cure him." but subcon-
sciously, and not less eagerly, she leaped to
him because he was he. Then she turned to
Thurso.
There is Mr.. Cochran" she said How
kind of him to have come down to meet
u.s.
1t was yet long time before the ship
was berthed and the landing planks put
out, and Maud had not known how his
heart, too, had leaped board when he
had caught sight of them standing on deck.
To him, too. the leap had been double-he
longed to save the one from mental. error.
he longed to draw near to the other with
that flame of human love which yet has
been kinded at the fire which is divine.
Then thew all three.