The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-01-10

himself ungrudgingly to his work. He
wrote. read and planned with tireless
energy. He frequently forgot to eat
and slept only through sheer exhaus-
tlon. In the fullest sense of the word
he lived for the eliminating hour that
was to bring him failure OF success.
He seldom left Grosvenor square in
the days that followed except to confer
with his party. All his interest. all his
relaxation even. lay in his work and
what pertained to It, His strength was
like solid wall, his intelligence was
sharp and keen as steel. The moment /
was his, and by sheer mastery of viii /
he put other considerations out Of sight. |
He forgot Chilcote and forgot Lillian, /
not because they escaped his memory, /
but because he chose to shut them from /
it.
OF Eve he saw but little in this time
of high pressure. When a man touches /
the core Of his capacities. puts his best !
into the work that In his eyes stands |
paramount, there is little place for and.
no need of woman. She comes before
and after. She inspires, compensates
or completes: but the achievement, the
creation, is mans alone. And all true
women understand and yield to this
unspoken precept
Eve watched the progress of his la
Dor, and in the depth of her own heart
the watching came nearer to actual
living than any activity she had known.
She was an onlooker-but an onlooa1-
who stood. as it were, on the steps of
the arena, who, by a single forward
movement, could feel the sand under
her feet, the breath of the battle on
her face, and in this knowledge she
rested satisfied.
There were hours when Loder seem
ed scarcely conscious Of her existence,
but on those occasions she smiled in
her serene way-and went on waiting.
She knew that each day before the aft
ernoon had passed he would come into
his sitting room, his face thoughtful,
his hands full Of books or papers, and,
dropping into one of the comfortable,
studious chairs, would ask laconically
for tea. This was her moment of tri-
umph and recompense-for the very
Inconsistencies of his coming doubled
| its value. He would sit for half an
hour with preoccupied glance or with
keen, alert eyes fixed on the fire, while
his ideas sorted themselves and fell
into line. Sometimes he was silent for
the whole half hour, sometimes he com
mented to himself as he scanned his
notes, but on other and rarer occa-
sions he talked, speaking his thoughts
and his theories aloud with the en-
joyment of a man who knows himself
fully in his depth, while Eve slipped her
tea or stitched peacefully at a strip Of
embroidery.
On these occasions she made a per
feet listener Here and there she en-
couraged him with an intelligent re-
mark, but she never interrupted. She
knew when to be silent and when to
speak, when to merge her own indiyid-
uality and when to make it felt. In
these days Of stress and preparation he
came to her unconsciously for rest; he
treated her as he might have treated a
younger brother-relying on her discre-
ton, turning to her as by right for
sympathy, comprehension and friend
ship Sometimes as they sat silent in
the richly colored, homelike room Eve
would pause over her embroidery and
let her thoughts spin momentarily for
ward-spin toward the point where
the brunt of his ordeal passed, he must
of necessity seek something beyond
mere rest. But there her thoughts
would inevitably break off and the
blood fame quickly into her cheek.
Meanwhile Loder worked persistent
ly. With each day that brought the
crisis of Fraide's scheme nearer his &C
tivity increased-and with it an inten
: styling of the nervous strain. For i
he had his hours of eXaltati0n he als'
had his hours of black apprehension
I 1t Is all very well to exercise q ghos
by sheer strength of will, but one ha
also to eliminate the idea that gave
existence Lillian Astrupp, with he
manifested evidence and her ephemera
interest, gave him no real uneasinesS
but Chilcote and Chilcote's possibl
I summons were matters Of graver cor
sideration. and there were times whe
: they loomed very dark and sinister
! What if at the very moment Of fulfil
ment- But invariably he snapped tn
: thread Of the supposftion and turne
i with fiercer ardor to his work Of PREF
d aration
And so the last morning of his PR
/ baton dawned, and for the first tim
he breathed freely.
He rose early on the day that was
{ witness his great effort and dress6
slowly. 1t was a splendid mornin;
The spirit Of the spring seemed en-
, bodied in the air, in the pale blue SIX.
in the shafts of cool sunshine tn;
i danced from the mirror to the dressin
d table, from the dressing table to Il
{ pictures on the walls of Chilcote's va
II room. Inconsequently with its dancir
II rose a memory Of the distant past
. memory of long forgotten days whe
= as child, he had been hidden to wato
= the same sun perform the same IA