The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-26

pity for which he felt little, if any,
 shame. It came being a case of
 simple self preservation. he thought. and did his best to harden his quivering Celtic heart
 'I mustn't get interested in him." he said to himself. despairingly- TT mustn't get sympathetic. or Lulu will scold so."
 Lulu was the inimitabiy incongruous name of his wife, frm-lipped. even-handed New England woman. set by Providence. so she said, as a guard idolized. She was undauhted by his rise to great 2 with as unshaken certainty that she knew his wants and needs better than he. as though he were sti1l young Michael Burke, the handsome and TO- mantle emigrant who had captured her heart
 It had not been she alone. however. who had sent him upon this enforced vacation which he now trying so conscientiously to guard intact. The whole worshippinga parish. seeing fatigue in his keen. gentle eyes. and traces of strain about the mobile. eloquent. wen-beloved mouth. had risen and insisted his going away to a remote New England nook in the noun tafns where he would not be known
 The last condition was the idea of the great nervespecialist, of his parishioners who with drew from the position of adoring anection. com to all St James people when their rector was in question. long enough to regard pr. Burke as lease"
 He must go where people will not know him. was his verdict ..He must wear pepper-and-salt suit and red necktie If necessary. so ndbodyu think hesEat eiefgymah. and he must not sympa- thize with living soul, Don't some of you know place where everybody's fat and prosperous and complaeentg He has simply borne our burdens and lived our lives in his wonderful way so long that he must have a rest His insight into suffering humanity has grown unnaturaly keen, and he cannot see any of us faintIng for some subtle. spiritual lack that he does not. with his marvel- lous skill, bring to us what we need But it's at the cost of his very hearts life. and. he must be naturally and humanly selfish for time. or the ex- quisitel5 fine machinery which makes hri what he is will snap in n thousand places
 The nerve-specialist was one of the vestry and this homily delivered at the first vestry meet ing after his examination of pr. Burke Each of the vestrymen loved his rector as much as the nerve-doctor. and each of them repeated the hortation fin his own words to the tired man. Moreover. each of them told his wife, and each wife repeated 1t to Mrs Burke. What Mrs. Burke said to her husband is not recorded. but 1t was probably vigorous. for he set out upon his quest fur quiet genuinely alarmed about his condition and firmly resolved to be approach to n cabbage as possible. And here he was upon the second day feeling his heart go out towards the young boy-rector of the little mountain parish in of those swift rushes of intuitive insight which made him so worshipped by his parish. but which, had also reduced him to the state of pallor and nerves in which he found himself.
 He struggled valiantly against this obsession. He took solitary walks and rides over the enchant- ing country trying to forget the sad note in the boys voice and the perplexed and mournfulIy be- wildered look in his eyes He told himself impa- tdently that he like machine which was worn too smooth-running for practical purposes. He had been used. half-humorously. to think of himself as a. contrivanee which sympathy upon the pushing of button But it had escaped from his control The reverse-cogs longer worked. It ran sympathy indiscriminately, as though the button had stuck fast and was pushing in all the time
 Thus he reasoned to himself when he was away from the little boarding-house where he and the young Mr. Melville the only guests, and he went back to the appetizing meals sure of his tress But as he noted with the unerring eye of great souI-specialist the signs spiritual unrest and diagnosed the case from stray indications in the conversation which would have meant nothing to anyone less gifted with the magical insight was his he felt miserable certainty that would succumb before long to the temptation put his wise. kind hand and give just the touch to this unbalanced life that needed
 It was after moonlight walk with the young rector that he finally felt himself conquered Up fo that time he had repeated despairngly what his wife was always saying to him: Suppose had not happened alongs He would have pulled through somehow" But that night. he lay tensely awake. watching the steady patches of moonlight the porch outside his window. he realized, that this selfish zhirEing of respopsibilits-a cal