The news=record. [volume] (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon) 1907-1910, 1909-11-10
CHAPTER IV.-(Continued.)

peeta, come! It is folly to try and p
p-persuade him. Let US leave the saint
to his prayers! But let him remember
sinner!' Come!"
He proceeded towards the carriage;
but Pepeeta seemed rooted to the
ground. and David was equally inca
pable of motion. While they stood
thus. gazing into each others eyes,
they saw nothing and they saw all.
That brief glance was freighted with
destiny. A subtle communication had
taken place between them. although
they had not spoken; for the eye has
a language of its own.
What was the meaning Of that
glance? What was the emotion that
gave 1t birth In the soul? He knew!
1t told its own story. To their dying
day. the actors in that silent drama
remembered that glance with rapture
and with pain.
Pepeeta spoke first hurriedly and
anxiously: What did you say last
night about the light Of life? Tell me!
/ must know
Il said there is light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world"
And what did you mean? Be quick.
There IL only moment"
Il meant that there Is q light that
shines from the soul itself and that In
this light we may walk, and he who
walks in It, walks safely. He need
never falll"
Never? I do not understand; 1t is
f,1l hut I do akax a
"Pepeeta!" called her husband, an
grily.
She turned away, and David watch
ed her gliding out of his sight, with an
irrepressible pain and longing. II sup
pose she Is his daughter" he said to
himself, and upon that natural but
mistaken inference his whole destiny
turned. Something seemed to draw
him after her. He took a step or two.
halted. sighed and returned to his la
bor
But 1t was to a strangely altered
world that he went. Its glory had van
ished; 1t was desolate and empty, or so
at least 1t seemed to him, for he con-
founded the outer and the inner
worlds, as 1t was his nature and habit
to do. 1t was in his soul that the
change had taken place.
Thoughts which he had always been
able to expel from his mind before,
like evil birds fiuttered again and
again into the windows Of his soul.
For this he upbraided himself; but
only to discover that at the very mo-
ment when he regretted that he had
been tempted at all, he also regretted
that he had not been tempted further.
All day long his agitated spirit alter
mated between remorse that he had en-
joyed so much, and regret that he had
enjoyed so little. Never had he expe-
rienced such a tumult in his soul. He
struggled hard, but he could not tell
whether he had conquered or been de-
feated.
He heard again the mocking laugh
ter of the quack. and the singing
words of his cynical philosophy once
more rang in his ears. What this
coarse wretch had said was true, then!
Much Of his youth had already passed
and he had not as yet tasted the only
substantial joys of existence-money,
pleasure, ambition, love! He felt that
he had been deceived and defrauded.
A contempt for his old life and its
surroundings crept upon him. He be-
gan to despise the simple country peo-
pie among whom he had grown up,
and those provincial ideas which they
cherished in the little, unknown nook
Of the worlC where they stagnated.
During a long time he permitted
himself to be borne upon the current
of these thoughts withort trying to
stem 1t, till It seemed as II he would
be swept completely from his moor
ings. But his trust had been firmly
anchored. and did not easily let 20 its
hold. The convictions OF lifetime be-
gan to reassert themselves. They rose
and struggled heroically for the DOS
session of his spirit.
Had the battle been with the simple
abstraction of philosophic doubt the
good might have prevailed, but there
obtruded itself into the field the con-
crete form Of the gypsy. The glance
of her lustrous eye. the gleam of her
milk-white teeth. the heaving of her
agitated bosom. the inscrutable but
suggestive expression of her flushed
and eager face, these were foes against
which he struggled In vain. A feyerish
desire. whose true Significance he did
not altogether understand. tugged at
his heart. and he felt himself drawn
by unseen hands toward this mysteri-
Gus and beautiful being. She seemed
to him at that awful moment, when his
whole world of thought and feeling
was slipping from under his feet, the
one only abiding reality. She at least
was not an impalpable vision. but SOL
Id, substantial. palpitating flesh and
blood. Like continuously advancing
waves which sooner or later must un-
dermine dyke. the passions and sus-
picions of his newly awakened nature
ws<s sapping the foundations of his
belief.
At intervals he gained little cour-
age to Withstand them. and at such
moments tried to pray; but the effort
was futile. for neither would the ao-
customed syllables OF petition spring
to his lips. nor the feelings Of faith and
devotion arise within his heart
CHAPTER v.
Violent emotions. like the lunar tides.