The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-12-19
CHA pTER XV-Continued.

udlFy was 10 De transformed INTO
bachelors dormitory. Lodges and
game-keepers' cottages were utilized
Every nook and corner in the ducal
mansion would be full
The bride-elect was cut of spirits
and inclined to look despondently
upon life. She was suffering the bit
ter pain of disappointed hopes. THE
Tragedy of a Skeptic Soul" despite
its depth of thought, it's exquisite
Typography and vellum-like paper
had been a dire and irredeemable fail
ure. The reviewers had ground the
poor little aristocratic butterfly to
powder upon the wheel of ridicule
They Fad anatomical Lady Mabers
involved sentences, and laughed at
her erudite phrases. Her mild adap
tations of Greek thought and fancy
had been found out and held up to
contempt. Her petty plagiarisms from
French and German poets had been
traced to their source. The whole
work, so smooth and neatly polished
on the outside, had been turned the
seamy side without, and the knots
and flaws and raveled threads had
been exposed without pity.
Happily the book was anonymous;
but Mabel writhed under the criti-
cism. She had long way to descend.
And there was the sickening certainty
that In the eyes of her own small cir
Gle she had made herself ridiculous.
Her mother took those cruel reviews
to heart and wept over them. The
duke a coarse-minded man at best,
with. soul hardly above guano and
chemical composies, laughed aloud at
his poor little girls failure.
It's a sad disappointment, / dare
say" he said. but never mind. my
pet; you'll do better next time, I've
no doubt"
Those horrid reviewers don't under
stand your poetry" protested the Ouch
ess, who would have been hard pushed
to comprehend it herself, but who
thought It was a critics business to
understand everything.
Il am afraid l have written above
their heads" Lady Mabel said. pit
eously.
Roderick Vawdrey was worse of all
Didn't l tell you The Skeptic Soul
was too fine for ordinary intelects,
Mab2" he said. You lost yourself in
an ocean of obscuiity You knew what
you meant, but there's no man alive
who could follow you. You must take
a simpler subject and use palmer Eng
lish il you want to please the multi
tude"
Mabel had told her lover before that
she did not aspire to please the multi
tude, that she would have esteemed
such cheap and tawdry success as hui
initiating failure. But she would have
liked some one to read her poems
She would have liked critics to praise
and understand her. She would have
liked to have her own small world of
admirers, an esoteTic few, the salt of
the earth, literary essences, holding
themselves apart from the vulgar
herd. 1t was dreadful to find herself
on a height as lonely as one of those
pleateaus in the Tyrolean Alps where
the cattle crop scanty heritage In
Summer, and where the Ice King
reigns alone through the long Win
ter
You are mistaken, Roderick," Ma.
bel said, with chilling dignity: Il
have friends who can understand and
admire my poetry, incomprehensible
and uninteresting as 1t may be to you. >
Dear Mabel, / never said 1t was
uninteresting," Roderick cried, humbly
everything you do must be interest
ing 20 me. But / frankly own / do
not understand your verses as clearly
as think all verses should be under
stood / will be truthful, even at the
risk of offending you"
Pray do" cyied Mabel, with iii.
suppressed irritation. Sincerity is
such q delightful thing. No doubt my
critics are sincere. They give me the
honest, undisguised truth"
Rorie saw that his hetrothed's lit.
erary failure was subject to be care
fully avoided in future.
My poor Vixen he said to him
self, with oh, what deep regret, per
haps II was one of tue least of your
charms that you never vrote poetry
Lord Ma,low was coIaing to Ash
bourne for the fortnight before the
wedding He had made himself wond
rously agreeable to the duke. and the
duke had invited him. The House
would be up by that time 1t was a
delightful season for the Forest. The
heather would be in blood on all the
open heights, the glades of Mark Ash
would be a solemn worle of scenery
and shadow, a delicious place for pic
mics, Irritation and gypsy .ea-drinkers
Lord Aallow had only seen the Forest
in the Winter. 1t would be a grand
opportunity for him.
Tha. visit to Ashbourne was one OF
the most memorable periods in Lord
Malloy's life. He was an impressible
young man, and he had been uncon-
sciously falling deeper in love with
Lady Mabel every day during the last
three months. Her delicate beauty
her culture, her elegance, her rank
all Charmed and fascinated him; but
her sympathy with Erin was irresis.
ible 1t was not the first time that he
had been in love BIZ a q eat many
timea But today, awakened all at
once 20 keen perception CT his hap
less state, he tol6 himself that he mad
never loved before as he Lived now.
He had been hard hit by Miss Tenn
pest. Yes, he acknowledged that past
weakness. He had thought her fair
est ard most delightful among women
and he had left the Abey House de
jected and undone. But he had quickly
recovered from the brief fever; and
now, reverentially admiring lady Ma
bells prim propriety, he wond cred that
he would have ever seriously offered
himself to q girl of Vixen's undisci-
pline41 and unbroken character.
He was deeply, hopelessls, irrevo-
cably in love; and the lady he loved
was to be married to another man in
less than a week. The situation was