The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-04-12

greet iesI Gud he has asked me
10 lEIse H.
Tor In 4Jut I've waited she look
ed ~ him in silence. and ia that silence
he read ga BEES e-es the reflection OF
his Own expire ion.
"And yCi: she asked ia suppress
ed voice What answer did you
give:
lie watched her for an instant. tax
ING a strange pleasure in her flushed
face ana brilliantly eager eyes; then
the joy or conscious strength, the sense
OF opportunity res;ained. swept all 9th
er considerations out OF sight.
Il accepted" he said quickly. Gould
any man who was merely human have
done OtherwiseT'
That was Loder's attitude and action
on the night of his jeopardy and his
success. aEG the following day found
his mood unchanged. He was one of
those rare individuals who never give
promise overnight and regret ii in the
morning lie was slow 10 move, but
when he did the movement brushed all
obstacles aside. In the first days of his
usurpation he had gone cautiouslr. half
fascinated, half diStrustful. Then the
reality. the extraordinary tangibility OF
the position had gripped him when,
matching himself fer the first time with
men of his own caliber, he had learned
his real weight on the day of his pro-
test against the Easter adjournment
With that knowledge had been born the
dominant factor I'm his whole scheme
the overwhelming, msistent desire to
manifest his power: that desire that
Is the salvation or the ruin of every
strong man who has once realized his
strength Supremacy was the note to
which his ambition reached To tram
pie out Chilcotes footmarks with his
own hand had been his tacit instinct
from the first Now 1t rose paramount.
1t was the whole theory Of creation
the survival of the f1ttest-the deep.
egotistical certainty that he was the
better man.
And 1T was with this conviction that
be entered on the vital period of his
dual career. The imminent crisis and
his own share In It absorbed him alb
solutely. In the weeks that followed
his answer to Fraide's proposal he gave
himself ungrudgingly to his work. He
wrote read and planned with tireless
energy He frequently forgot to eat
and slept only through sheer exhaus-
ton. In the fullest sense of the word
he lived for the eliminating hour that
kr Av,tK. Hof1
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 i
like solid wall, his intelligence was
sharp and keen as steel The moment |
was his. and by sheer mastery OF will |
ne put other considerations out Of sight.
He forgot Chilcote and forgot Lillian,
aOt because they escaped his memory. |
but because he chose to shut them from
It.
OF Eve he saw but little in this time
Df high pressure. When man touches
lhe core Of his capacities. puts his best
INTO the work that In his eyes standE |
there is little place for and
40 need Of woman. She comes before
and after She inspires, compensates
N completes; but the achievement, the
.reation. is mans alone. And all true
women understand and yield to this
precept.
Eve watched the progress OF his Ia
,oF, and in the depth of her own heart
he watching came nearer to actual
living than any activity she had known.
,he was an onlooker-but an onlooker
Who stood, az II were, on the steps Of
he arena, who. by single forward
movement, could feel the sand under
Ter feet, the breath of the battle on
Ter face, and in this knowledge she
ested satisfied. /.
There were hours when Loder seem +,
d scarcely conscious of her existence,
nut on those occasions she smiled in :
Ter serene way-and went on waiting
The knew that each day before the aft
rnoon had passed he would come into
lis sitting room, his face thoughtful.
lis hands full of books or papers, and,
ropping into one of the comforta BILE,
tudious chairs, would ask laconically
or tea. This was her moment of tri-
mph and recompense-for the very
of his coming doubled ?
IS value. He would sit for half an Z
our with preoccupied glance or with
cen, alert eyes fixed on the fire, while
is ideas sorted themselves and fell
ito line. Sometimes he was silent for =,
lie whole half hour, sometimes he com "
rented to himself as he scanned his .
otes, but on other and rarer occa-
ons he talked, speaking his thoughts !.
nd his theories aloud, with the en- =
,yment of a man who knows himself "
lily in his depth, while Eve slipped her "a,
"a or stitched peacefully at strip of -
nbroidery.
On these occasions she made a per 9,
'ct listener. Here and there she en-
him with an intelligent re- l.,
ark but she never interrupted. She =.
new when to be silent and when to y,
,eak, when to merge her own individ-
Atty and when to make 1t felt. In y,
ese days of stress and preparation he os