Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-01-08

crumbles. It was to make the audacty impOssible-to tell you the truth and make it impossible-tha I came to night. The fact that you already knew made the telling easier, but it altered nothing"
 Eve raised her head, but he went resolutely on.
 Tonight" he said. "I have seen inte my own life. into my own mind. and my ideas have been very roughly shak en into new places.
 We never make so colossal a miS ourselves. Months ago, when your husband first proposed this scheme to me, 1 was, according to my own con. ception, a solitary being vastly i'll used by fate, who, with a fine stoicism, Was leading a clean life. That was what I believed, but there. at the very out set, deceived myself I was simply a man who shut himself up because he cherished a grudge against life and who lived honestly because he had a constitutional distaste for vice. Nv first feeling when 1 saw your husband was one of self righteous contempt, and that has been my attitude all along. 1 have often marveled at the food of intolerance that has rushed over me at sight of him-the violent desire that has possessed ne to look away from his weakness and banish the knowledge of it-but now 1 under stand
 II know now what tue feeling meant The knowledge came to me tonight. It meant that I turned away from his weakness because deep within myself something stirred in recognition of it. Humanity is really much simpler than we like to think. and human impulses have an extraordinary fundamental connection. Weakness is egotism, but so is strength. Chileote has followed his vice; have followed my ambition. It will take a higher judgment than yours or mine 10 say which of us has been the more selfish man He pauS- ed and looked at her.
 She was watching him intently. Some of the meaning in his face had found q pained. alarmed reflection in her own But the ave and wonder of the mornings discovery still colored her mind too viyi,ly to allow of other rans aielA1ioH> iee.=t'>>iite their proper valno The thril! of cxult1tion with which .ile .MiS:siFiN.s> born et Ghlcote's vice had dropped aWay from her men tai image of I.otirr was still to5 atSorb ing to be casiiy dominated. SAa loved and as fl by d miracle her love had been jus i;ie,i For the :ft.3acat the justification Was ali sli.,si some thing of eDafi.!eare, SelHethiA9 of the inuoccnce ta;lt comes net from igno- rance of evil. but from a mill sinSu- larly uncontaminatesl. blinded her to the danger Of her position.
 Ioder. waiting appreheGsVely for some aid, some expression of opiaoL, became gradually conscious of this lack of realization. Moved by q fresh impulse. he crossed the small space that divided them and caught her hands.
 sEve," lie said gently. Il have been trying to analyze myself and give you the results. but shan't try any more. I shall be quite plain with you.
 .from the first moment l took youf husbands place I WIS ambitious. You unconsciouslv aroused the feeling when you brought me Eraides message on the first night. You aroused it by your words. but more strongly, though more obscurely. by your underlying antago- nism. On that night though l did not know it, I took up my position; made my determination. Do you know what that determination was:'
 She shook her head.
 "It was the desire to stamp out Chil- cOte's fOotmarkS with my own. to prove that personality is the great force capable of everything. l forgot to reck- on that when We draw largely upon Fate she generally extorts crushing interest.
 .First came the wish for your re- spect, then the desire to stand well with such men as Fraide-to feel the stir of emulation and competition-to prove myself strong in the one career I knew myself fitted for. For time the second ambition overshadowed the first, but the first was bound to reas- sert itself, and in moment of esotism conceived the notion of winning your enthusiasm as well as your respect.
 Eyes face, alert and questioning. suddenly paled as doubt crossed her mind.
 'Then it was only-only to stand we'll with mel"
 q believed it was only the desire to stand we'll with you. believed it un- til the night of my speech-if you can credit anything so absurd. Then on that night, as 1 came up the stairs to the gallery and saw you standing there' the blindness fell away, and l knew