The Washington herald., 1908-05-14

SN5Al9 1DUNeNlAOiidi men, hcCitSu AAiat
the only way 10 eradicate this deplorahle
and morbid tendency was to follow up
public-school education with a cavalry
regiment.
They succeeded in breaking him Of his
Imaginative tendencies-it Is not difficult,
for a while He became very good at
sports. particularly polo, which. on &C
count Of its pace and picturesqueness, ap-
peals TO imaginative men. But he was
left 70 battle with vague yearnings which
he did not understand. He spent his
early youth searching feverishly for some
thing he did not know what. or even
where to look for IT, menu of life was
/ presented to him. He ordered every DISH
but left the table dissatisfied, and some
OF the dishes were very expensive.
At twenty-one he fell In love with Lady
Donoyle, and his starved imagination,
which had now lost all sense Of proper
tion, sent him wild over a married
woman of twenty-seven. whose husband.
dissipated brute, had treated her
shockingly, and then gone mad.
Lady Donoyle had acknowledged that
she was moved by his devotion. but
steadily refused TO run away with him.
/ The mere fact that her world would have
| found excuses for her deferred, and a
| sense of humor, which saw possibilities
| OF a ridiculous element, kept her from
yielding to the dictates of passion.
His baffied love- which was no boyish
| infatuation, as Lady Donoyle believed,
but a faT-reaching sense of affinity, drove
| him completely out of his course. He
gave up the army. and went IN for racing.
and anything else which held any meas
ure Of excitement. Being a very attrac-
tive man, many offers of consolation came
| his way. And as man opens book after
/ book, seeking something of real inter
| est, the young man took up one woman
after another. read the first chapter,
/ looked at the end, yawned, and tried
! something else.
Men are often called inconsistent when
/ they do the thing which their real nature
/ impels them 10 do. instead of the thing
which the worlds estimate had led ii to
expect.
| When Vandraken was shown into his
room. he looked up from a letter he was
writing. and observed: Hello, Van
| draken! I was just writing to you
No! Were your
Yes To ask you to let me have back
/ that letter ana not TO go near that chap,
Won TarSenheim. But, tearing up the
note. you have saved me the trouble.
| No, not that chair; the one By the win
| dow is twice as comfortable.
/ Vandraken took the chair Indicated.
| you are too late have just come from
von Tarsenheim.'
You havel You certainly didn't lose
much time. OF course. there wasn't any
thing in itg' His voice exhibited anxiety.
But there was. At least, when l was
| I hss
couldn't do Everything he said sounded
as natural and probable as the engineer
ing supplement Of the Times. or course,
/ he had a lot Of patter, like a conjurer
about souls, and auras, and planetary
vibrations, and things. Said he got II
out of a book saved from the Alexan-
drine Library But you couldn't help
feeling that when the patteT was all over
| he'd produce the rabbit from the hat all
right. He has samples OF the planetary
/ vibrations. all different colOrs. in glass
tubes and I must say they made me feel
a bit queer. But his long suit Is hypno-
tism'
What does the man look like?" queried
Ancestor.
a cross between the Wandering Jew
and a college don. Every bit as. coekgure
as a professor of mathematics. But,
say!-why have you gone back on the
idea? You were ever so keen on it last
night"
Last nights different. A mans ar
idiot to go by the decisions he comes tC
at midnight No one is sound at that
time. his morals are at their very worst
admit I thought It would be amusing
10 see first-class msteriallst in action
playing an unlimited game with unlimited
J arTr7fa -hf ha-
draken. the truth is. I had a beastly
dream last night I dreamt Ia been tC
funeral; and afterward-it was night
in the streets OF a great city, ,and the
streets were crowded with people. III
pointing upward. That made me look up
too, and there, in :he pitchy darkness
overhead, ! saw what they were point
ing at II was a coffin, floating in the
air You could tell il was coffin be
cause every nail was picked out in points
of fire; so were the handles Il was
travelling through space. Ike a comet. til
Il came over my head: then II began &c
fall All the people in the street shrieket
and ran, but I couldn't follow them, be-
cause my boots turned 10 lead-the way
your boots do, you know. in bad dreams
I thought the flying coffin was going q
drop on my head Il came down like
a falling star, right at me, but it fel
at my feet
Lord Ancestor had been sitting on the
edge OF the table. Now he came Ovel
and gripped Vandraken by the shoulder
Il tell you, it fell, splash! at my feet
and as the damned thing hit tie grounC
il burst into flames. and yOu-yes, you
Vandrakeni-sat up in that coffin. amonl
the flames, and cursed me. And YOU
I ha of 7rsrr1E
r II was written all over with vice and de
bauchery-the kind Of face you described
at the club last night. which puts yoJ
off your drink at the Bruterion bar. i
was your face as il would be after yol
had carried out your plans, and III,
scapegoat had shifted the results back {,
where they came from.
He let go of Vandraken's shoulder anC
looked out Of the window. ut was q hor
ribly vivid dream. I don't want any more
of them"
vandraken laughed mechanically. "st
cursed you. did I? Wonder why?"
Because I had got you into It, Yoi
reached out your hand-you wanted m,
to pull you out: but just as I was goinG
10 do IL, you turned into smoke, and Z
wind sprang up and blew the smok,
away in every direction-all over crea
ton l tell you, that dream has got OF
my nerves, and I have 10 PLAY for Rane
lagh, against Hurlingham. to-day. Blu
you'll give up that Won Tarsenheim bust
ness that I got you intO-eh? and II
never talk rot at night again"
Never eat lobster at night again-isn'
that what YOU ought to have said? Indi
gestion-that's eil 1t was. You'll be al
right after FIVE minutes at polo. Anyway
I'm not going to throw away a chanc'
ike this for the sake of a dream. Why
just think, Ancesteri-Tn be able 10 d'
any blessed thing / want. and no con
sequences! I can hardly wait TO be
gfn!''
There Will be some consequences
Even II Won Tarsenheim finds a scape
goat for you, there viii still be cnnse
auences. The eternal purpose viii taxi
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