Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-08-18

brain apprehended one thing. Cir
cumstance, not cowardice or any other
ignoble reason, had closed Hugo's
lips. He said slowly, with real feel
ing: This is going to be an awful
shock for poor JOY"
Never had Hugo liked him so we'll.
His first thought had been for her.
The sooner I see her the better"
said Hugo. 81. shall walk up to the
Rectory at once"
She'll forgive you," said Burgess,
with a sigh.
Never" replied Hugo, with grim
emphasis, because she won't forgive
herself"
Within half an hour he was on his
way to Hernshaw Magma.
Alone, and in the fresh air, he un-
derwent violent physical reaction.
II Joy loved him..
That possibility blotted out Burgess
and Angela. He started, hearing
strident laugh, hardly recognizable as
his own, for at last he knew what
with his experience he ought to have
known before: he adored her. From
the first she had captivated him, the
white witch. And if that other sor-
ceress had indeed changed him with
Circean spells from a man into the
unclean beast, this sweet creature
with entertainments as potent, but how
UNNECESSARILY different! had restored
to him his manhood Thanks to her
he stood upright.
UnconSciously he uuickened his
pace, for the blood was racing through
his veins. No woman had ever stirred
him like this. If she loved him! He
repeated this phrase again and again.
Each time it bit like acid into his
brain, deadening every tissue il touch
ed, shrivelling up honour and con-
science. He was in the relentless
grip of a tremendous temptation: the
greatest he had as yet encountered,
and the most insidious, because it at
tackled him with diabolical subtlety
at the very moment when he was
glorying in his strength. He might
be compared to an Anglo-Saxon giant
overthrown by some Jiu-jitus trick.
If she loved him, nd if he told her
that he loved her, if once ne held her
in his arms with his lips on hers
would she not find it easy to forgive
him? Could she, a passionate Great
ure-he had never doubted that-im-
pose terms after an unconditional sur
render?
He stood still, trembling, seeing
clearly the issues involved. The sense
that he could see clearly at such a
moment was a fact of extraordinary
significance, because Joy herself had
made such clarity of vision possible.
She had uplifted him. In her com
pany he had scaled peaks which soar
ed above blurring mists. And the air
in these attitudes was the very breath
of her nostrils. If he pulled her down
to the plains, she-the spirit and soul
of her-would perish. He would pos
sess her body-nothing else.
Was that enough?
The baser half of him roared
Eyes,"
Civil was ragged. Decisive battles in
the worlds history have been won and
lost in few minutes; the battles Of
the soul are sometimes Of shorter du-
ration. In this case the victory was
to the Powers Of Evil. No student Of
life will be surprised at this, because
the human will and the human appre-
citation Of higher things are bond
slaves to habit. During the past few
weeks Hugo Charters had lived
cheerfully enough, for others. A ca
pactiy or self-sacrifice had been born
in him, an inheritance from his
mother, an almost ineradicab1e part
Of his character and temperament. Al
ways it had stood out finely, dis
tinguishing him from the common
herd, and gaining for him many
friends at Elton and afterwards Never
had it manifested itself so plainly as
during the trial, although not half a
dozen persons perceived it at the
time. But, everything this divine in
stinct were years of self-indulgence,
the years when he had obeyed no law
other than the whim and inclination Of
the moment Often he had eeen the
better, reverenced it, and then, DELHI
erately, had chosen the worse. At the
supreme moment, when Angela had be-
guiled him into a blacker and more
shameful sin than any he had commit
ted heretofore, he knew what he was
doing and did it, because the flesh was
mightier than the spirit. The fanatics
practising absurd notifications excite
pity and contempt, but they grasped
Iilio u u.iA, WhiSu oSSilio
to have eluded our generation: there
never has been and there never will
be any compromise possible between
the conflicting claims Of body and
soul. Some would seem to be all ami
NAL, and, in living like animals, >recog-
nising no law higher than the gratif-
cation of appetite, these may be serv-
ing some mysterious purpose hidden
from finite understanding; others
recalls one or two shining examples
would seem to be all spirit, so far
exalted above their fellows, so i'm
mune from earthly faint and tempta-
ton, that they too must be considered
as not quite human: being placed
among US to diffuse a celestial rad
lance; the chosen messengers of the
Most High. Between these extreme
types, we other mortals wander to and
fro: now saints for a brief moment
now sinners for weary spaces OF
time. But is there one of us who, il
he were offered the choice, would
elect to be sinner rahter than saint?
Is there a man who sincerely belives
that the satisfaction born of the flesh
is a greater thing than the happiness