The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04

4 A state and church when Felix Holt came home to Little Treby and shocheo the community by not only announcing that he was one-whch might have been forgiven-but by acting like one.
 He assailed the standards of proper so- ciety by declining to wear necKcloth and dressing like a workingman' He outraged all business principles by de- clining any longer to live on the income derived by his mother from the sale of her husbands Cancer Cure and Famous Restorative Elixir and Pills, because he asserted, after his five years study or medicine he had learned enough to know that they were worse than useless Scarcely had he struck this blow at the foundations of commerce before the dunn Bounded people of Little Treby learned that instead of following the genteel pro- Session of medicine he proposed to earn his living with his hands at watchmak- ing.
 His mother called on all the neighoors 10 witness that her husband had possessed a wonderful gift of prayer, and that his life had been that of a blameless Chris tian, proving deciseively that the medi- cines were on good religious basis and approved of in principle by the Bible It. self, though not specifically mentioned in the Sacred Book.
 Finding her son Felix impervious to her arguments, she sought the counsel of the Rev MT. Lyon. minister of the lnde- pendent Chapel of Dissenters. Mir Lynn groaned when he heard her voice in the passage of his little housed house not quite so good as the parish clerks but considered quite sufficient for Fl Dissent ing Minister. "She darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge" groaned he, fand angers the reason of the natural man. Lord, give me patience. l know that my sins are heavier for Thee to bear than this womans folly.
 The little, odd-looking, rusty old man listened ito her patiently, and then invited Felix to call on him. The young man went, prepared to hear Pharisaical doc Urine clothing cunning worldly advice in Biblical words: instead, the large brown eyes of the little minister kindled when Felix said: T know that the elixir is an absurd farrago, that the pills may be as bad as poison to half the people who swallow them and that the cancer cure might as well be bottled ditch water. If l allowed the sale of these medicines to go on, and my mother to live out of the proceeds, when I can keep her by the labor of my hands, I've not the least doubt that should be a rascal"
 MT. Lyon shook hands with the young man and indorsed his resolution. He agreed with him, too, in his decision to undertake manual labor and to become a vorkingman in order to be really able to telp them by sharing their lot
 The views of Felix Holt and MT. Lyon were not shared by the young woman who entered the room while they were speak ing ard whom the minister introduced as his daughter Esther. Esther was not tie type that one would expect to find in dissenting preachers humble house. hold A delicate scent, faintly suggest ing the perfume of garden was waited as she entered. Felix had the sense of an elastic walk the tread of small feet, a long, beautiful neck and a high crown Of shining brown plaits, with curls that foated backward-all things that sug gested a fine lady to him. A fine lady was always offensive to the young radical; as !. daughter of this rusty old Puritan, she was so incongruous as to be all most hated.
 Esther, for her part. bowed indifferent 1y- She glanced at Felix and thought him a most peculiar person; but even while she noticed his lack of waistcoat and cravat, she noticed, too, that he was not insignificant. Shaggy headed, strong limbed, with large, clear gray eyes and firm lips, he was striking, though rough.
 When she sat down she dropped a book. Felix picked it up. "Byron's poems" said he disgustedly. "Whati Do you stuff your memory with Byron, Miss Lyon? I suppose you admire Childe liar old and other gentlemen like him, full of unspeakable woes, who employ hair dressers and look at themselves in glasses"
 Esther replied to him in a fine, lady like way, with refined sauciness and sar- casm. She hardly knew whether to re- sent or despise the words of this uncouth giant who lacked all grace and charm
 
 unusual and ugly.
 "A peacock! thought Felix when he left "I should like to come and scold her every day. and make her cry, and cut her fine hair off,
 MT. Lyons congregation did not like Esther any more than Felix did, or thought he did. She had been educated in France and had accomplishments that struck the strict dissenters as being alto- gether unsafe for her rank. The richer church people were glad enough to en- gage her to teach their daughters, but for all that their imaginations were pros- trated by the incongruity between week. ly prayer meetings and conversance witt So worldly language as the French
 In return she despised their imperfect English, their vulgarity, their narrowness and their tasteless garments. She spen all her earnings on gloves, shoes ant hosiery. She was proud that the bes born and handsomest girls at school hat always said that she might be taken for g born lady. Her pretty instep, clad in g silk stocking; her little heel just rising from a kid slipper, her irreproachablt nails and delicate wrist were objects of delighted consciousness with her. Sht felt that it was her superiority that made her unable to use without disgust any but the finest cambric handkerchiefs ant freshest gloves.
 Mir Lyon loved and admired this unre.