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

said. "And I have said all, too You will
get well. l know it. since you feel like that.
And now let dismiss altogether what is
past. 1t wasn't you who did all this, 1t
was just evil possession. But that is driven
out now; your words have told me that
Bells for meals were very frequent on this
thoroughly well pleased with their fire.
quency, for she had at sea that huge sense
Of bodily health that requires much to eat
and many hours to sleep. The desire for
sleep was shared by Thurso. and when just
as she finished speaking the bell for tea
tinkled UP and down the deck. she went
down to the saloon, and he to his cabin with
the expressed intention not to appear till
dinner time, nor indeed then IL he felt dis
inclined to move. This desire for sleep Sir
James had said, was one that should be
in the vestibule that led on the one side to
the cabins and on the other to the saloon.
1t was possible good night that Maud
wished him. His valet would bring his
pear.
TIL that afternoon, when at last Thurso
showed that his will was not dead yet that
his face was set forward. that something
Of spring and the power to rebound was in
him yet, Maud had not known how near
despair she had been, or how forlorn did
she In her Utmost self feel that this hope
was for which she was bringing him over
sea. Slender and dim as it had been. she
had still chung to it, and now how strong
and firm 1t suddenly became, when she
knew that Thurso responded to 1t too, and
was willing, eager indeed, to put himself
into the hands of Infinite Love to work for
him the miracle which the finite skill of
mortal treatment despaired of accomplish
Ing. In that great upspringing of hope and
JOY which had come to her that afternoon
the confined walls of the dining saloon could
not hold her long; her instinct was to be
up again on deck between the huge sea and
the huge sky, SO as to let her soul go forth
without the distraction Of near objects and
the proximity of other human beings into
the presence Of Divine Love. All this autumn
she had been realizing slowly and dimly
her, 1t was t.ssEd not to believe in the reality
of them) that only one power-that of
God-had any true existence. that all else
was false. But now that realization was
was growing daZzlingly bright for already
the miracle had begun. already hope had be-
gun to spring from what doctors had de-
clared was soil utterly barren, incapable of
bearing fruit.
Tie upper deck was quite empty when
she came up again, the sun had already
set and in the darkening skies the stars
had begun to come FORTH and she walked
forward to the bow of the ship in order
to be quite alone. The very rush Of air
round her, the boat Kissed forward into
the west, where light still fingered, seemed
to her extraordinarily typical of what was
happening spiritually to her. All around
her lay the tossed darkness and pillows of
the unquiet sea, but just as this mighty
snip WENT SIllOOtIly ana evenly through
them, so through the waves and fretful
foam of human trouble her soul went
straight towards the brightness in the west.
She had doubted before she had often and
often striven to realize what she in her
inmost soul believed; but her unbelief still
needed help. But now help was brought
to it.
to herself For nothing can exist by the
side of the Infinite; all else must vanish"
She walked back along the decks that
We're beginning to simmer with dew, I'M
conscious Of all else in the wonder and
glory of the truth that was falling in gold
en- rain round her. And below her feet, a
few yards only away, Thurso was lying in
his berth, not asleep, but very wildly
awake, in his own hell-paradise. He looked
no longer on the bare white walls of his
cabin, for blue acanthus leaves covered 1t,
and the stars shown like dewdrops on
them, and in the center the sun was the
golden heart Of azure flower. 1t had
required full dose and no quarter or half
measure to bring him there, but he was there
now One thing only troubled him little,
and that not much, 1t was only like an
echo, not an authentic voice. and that was
the memory Of the words with which he had
so comforted his sister, He could not re-
member exactly what they were, but they
be helped now, but he wished he could get
rid of the feeling they gave him. He could
not abandon himself absolutely and utterly
to the bliss Of his vision. They came be-
tween MIN anu II ike little MIN OF
gray.
AS rule, he slept well, especially after
an opium debauch. But tonight, when,
soon after he had eaten a little dinner
which his valet brought him, he undressed
and went to bed, he felt not exactly star
ing wide awake, but DULY, stupidity awake.
1t was now about IL, and since the effects
of the opium usually wore off after six or
seven hours, leaving him. as the vividness
of sensation begun to fade, very sleepy and
languid, he could not account for his in
ability to sleep. Then his disquiet began
to take more definite form. He felt if
somebody, Maud, was in his cabin. looking
Eess which she had turned on him at the
end of their interview on the deck. This
conviction became vivid that he spoke to