The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1907-04-26
CHAPTER xxIV.-contlnued.

little harbor, | saw Mowbray Lang
don's Incidence at anchor. | glanced
toward Steuben Point-where his
cousins, the Vivians. lived-and
thought | recognized his launch at
heir pier We saluted the Incidence,
he Incidence saluted us. My launch
was piped away and took me ashore.
{ strolled along the path that wound
round the base of the hill toward the
6ennels. At the crossing of the path
down from the house, | paused and
fingered on the glimpse of one of the
corner towers of the great snowy
palace. was muttering something
listened TO myself. 1t was: Null
holland. Mrs. Mulholland and the four
little Mulhollands." And l felt like
aughing aloud. such a joke was 1t
that / should be envying a policeman
MS potato patch and his fat wife and
ais four brats. and that he should be
In position to pity me.
You may be imagining that. through
al, Anita had been dominating my
mind. That is the way il is in the
|
here are men who brood upon the
! impossible, and moon and maunder
away their lives over the grave of
lead love; no doubt there are people
who will saw that, because | did not
shoot Langdon or her. or myself, or
fly TO desert or pose in the crowded
places of the world as the last scene
of a tragedy, | therefore cared little
about her offer them this sugges-
ion: A man strong enough 10 give
1 love worth woman's while is
strong enough to live on without her
when he finds he may not live with
ner.
AS | stood there that summer day,
looking toward the crest of the hill,
at the hooking mausoleum Of my dead
dream, ! realized what the incessant
battle of the street had meant TO me.
There is peace for me only in the
storm, said !, But, thank God, there
is peace for me somewhere.
Through the foliage | had glimpses
OF some one coming slowly down the
zigzag path. Presently, at one of the
turnings halfway up the hill appeared
Mowbray Langdon. What is he do
ing here" thought /. scarcely able to
believe my eyes. Here of all places!"
And then | forgot the strangeness of
his being at Dawn Hill in the strange.
ness OF his expression. For it was APP
parent, even at the distance which
separated us, that he was suffering
from some great and recent blow He
looked old and hagaard he walked
like a man who neither knows nor
cares where he is going.
He had not seen me. and my i'm
pulse was to avoid him by continuing
on toward the kennels / had no ,es-
pecial feeling against him: ! had not
lost Anita because she cared for him
or he for her, but because she did not
care for me--simply that to meet
would BE awkward, disagreeable for
us both. At the slight noise of my
movement to go on, he halted, glanced
round eagerly. as if he hoped the
sound had been made by some one he
wished TO see. His glance fell on me.
He stopped short, was for an instant
disconnected: then his face lighted up
with devilish Joy "You!" he cried.
"Just the man." And he descended
more rapidly.
At first / could make nothing of this
remark. But as he drew nearer and
nearer and his ugly mood became
more apparent felt that he was look.
ing forward to provoking me into Civ.
ing him a distraction from whatever
was tormenting him. | waited. A few
minutes and we were face to face.
outwardly calm, but my anger slowly
lighting up as he deliberately applied |
to 1t the torch of his insolent eyes. He !
was wearing his old familiar air OF |
cynical assurance. Evidently. with |.
his recovered fortune. he had recov- /
cred his conviction of his great SUI
periority to the rest of the human |
race-the child had climbed back on
the chair that made it tall and had |
forgotten its tumble. And | was won
dering again that |, SO short time
before, had been crude enough to be |
fascinated and fooled by those tawdry |
posings and pretenses. For the man. l
as | now saw him. was obviously shall !
low and vain, slave TO those poor
"man-ofthe-world" passions--ostenta. |
ton and cynicism and skill at vices old |
as mankind and tedious as tread !
mill, the commonplace routine of the |
idle and foolish and purposeless A /
clever, handsome fellow but the more |
pitiful that he was by nature above I
the uses to which he prostituted him. (
self
He fought hard to keep bis eyes stead /
lily on mine; but they would waver and /
shift Not, however, before had |
found deep down In them the begin |
nings of fear. you see. you were /
mistaken. said |. you have nothing !
to say TO me--or to YOU"
He knew had looked straight to the I
bottom of his real self, and had seen
the coward that is in every man who I
has been bred to appearances only |
Up rose his vanity, the towards sub /
stitute for courage.