The champion. (Arcadia, Fla.) 1895-1911, 1908-10-15

decadent, realizing an ugly propensity
to a deplorable finale. A consistent
career of loose living had carried
Hugh far since those college days
when he had been dubbed "Satan's
shadow" While to Harry Sandersou
the eccentric and agnostical had then
been. as Il were. the mask through
which his temperament looked at life,
to Hugh It had spelled shipwreck
Harry Sanderson had done broadly as
he pleased He had entertained whom
he listed had gone Summing" had
once boxed to finish for a wager a
local pugIlist whose acquaintance he
affected, known as Gentleman JIM
He had been both the hardest hitter
and the hardest drlnker IN his class,
yet withal its most brilliant student
Native character had enabled him to
persist, as the exasperating function
OF success which dissipation declined
TO eliminate. But the same natural
gravitatlon which In spite Of all aber-
ration had given Harry Sanderson
classical honors had brought Hugh
stires to the imminent brink OF expul.
sion. And since that time, without
the character which belonged to Har-
ry as a possession. Hugh had contln'
ued to drift aimlessly on down the
broad lax way Of prodigacy
The conditions he found upon his re
turn, however. had opened Hugh's
eyes to the perilous strait in which he
stood. he was a materlalist. and the
taste he had had of deprivation had
sickened him. In the first revulsion,
when the contrast between recent
famine and present plenty was strong
upon him, he had been at anxious
pains to make himself secure with his
father-and with Jessica Holme. Har.
rvs mental sight-keen as the hunters
sight on the rife barrel-was sharpen
ed by his knowledge of the old Hugh
an intuitive knowledge gained In a
significant formative period He saw
more clearly than the townfolk who
In a general way had known Hugh
stires all their lives. Week by week
Harry had seen him regain lost
ground in his fathers esteem Day
by day he had seen him making studi
GUS appeal to all that was romantic in
Jessica, climbing to the favor OF each
on the ladder Of the others regard
Hugh was naturally poseur, with a
keen sense Of effect He could be
brilliant at viii, could play a little on
piano, banjo and violin. could sing q
little and had himself well In hpnd
And, feeling the unconscious chord Of
romance vibrate to his touch, ne had
played upon II with no unskillful fin
gers.
Jessica was comparatively free from
that coquetry by means Of which wo
mans instinct experiments In emotion
Although she had been artist enough
before the cloistered years of her Hind
ness TO know that she was comely. sh,
had never employed that beauty In the
ordinary Establishments of grIish fas
cination But steadily and unconscious
ly she had turned In her darkness
more and more to the bright and ten
der air with which Hugh clothed al
their intercourse Her blindness hat
been Of too short duration to have de
veloped that fine sense-perception. Will
which nature seeks to supplement th'
darkened vision. The ineradicabl'
marks which III governed living has
set in Hugh's face, the self indulgence,
and egotism, she could not see Sh'
mistook impulse for instinct She rea,
him by the untrustworthy light Of !
colorful imagination. She deemed hin