The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-11-22

cause, coupled with her unfiagging
energy, had found vent upon the lee
ture platform. The curious crowded
to her feet at once, so bold, so radical.
SO beautiful and SO innocent. One of
her first converts had been the only
son of multi-millionaire. bygone bo
nanza king of the Pacific slope. His
conversion was not so much an effort
OF pure reason as of primal passion,
although that fact was in no wise ap-
parent to her. She would find that
out later. This modern Hypatia
skilled in the learning of the schools
burning with exhaustless zeal, per-
meated with fiery energy, was yet as
innocent in some ways as any of her
humber sisters. AS that good Book
which she disdained in the newer illu-
limitations which had come to her,
might have said of her, she was in the
world but not Of 1t.
Unconsciously she fulfilled many in
functions of him who had she but
known it was the greatest of philoso-
piers. Naturally she kept herself
unspotted from the world. Yet when
the young man who had engaged her
affections proposed to her that they
should put her theories in practice
after some hesitation she had acceded
to his proposition. 1t was a species of
selfimmolation not far from heroism
that made her consent. Indeed, she did
not realize how heroic it was. With
no other ceremony than clasp of the
hand and an unspoken, wordless
promise of trust, devotion, single
! hearted alliance, publicly and before
God and man, without a thought for
| the one and with no full realization
of the thoughts of the other-at least
on her part-they had gone away to-
gether, hand in hand; he and she to-
gether, in love like any other pair
since Eve mated with Adam in the
dawn of the worlds first morning.
Yet there has never been an Eden
| of which man has known without its
| serpent. In the cabin of that gorgeous
| first week or so of the adventure had
been filed with fdyllic happiness, hap
piness so great that it was strong
enough to quiet certain low still, small
voices of conscience which the woman
rightly ascribed to strange atavism
of ancient prejudice to which her phil
osophy was as yet unequal.
However, such conditions did not
long persist. Her disciple was in
clined, presently she found to her sor.
, row, to take a somewhat lower view
of the situation than suited her own
high-souled views. The ardor Of her
devotee cooled as his passion in
creased. Shut up in the narrow con-
fines Of a ship-great and splendid
though this yacht was beyond magma
tion-little characteristics heretofore
unsupported developed in the mere
man. The course of true love was not
so smooth as the summer seas over
which they sailed. The air in which
they lived was ruffled by fiurries in
which experience would have found
presage for coming deeper storm. The
similar earthly alloy in the companion
image which was made of pure gold
all through, and finding it not, re-
sented it desperately. The convert
having gained his desire, weakened in
his principles. There was no relaxa-
ton in his devotion, in his tenderness,
in anything outward and visible, but
the high philosophy which had made
the joint effort almost self-sacrifice
of demonstration was slowly vanish.
ing from one heart while the other
chung the more tenaciously to it.
1t was the DID, old story In a little
the catspaw developed into the tenn.
pest. When 1t appeared 1t came with
surprising swiftness. The woman
found that in neither abstract thought
nor mental speculation was there any
protection for her. There might be
no God in heaven, but there was a con
science in her breast. Finally she
broke away from the man so far az
she could do SO when they were both
in the same ship of which he was lord
and master. She would have nothing
more to do with him save that which
common decency and the bare civil
ties of life demanded of her. Denied
the privileges upon which he had
counted, the man grew savage and
showed the cloven foot. The disagree
ment became a quarrel. The quarrel
ran through several phases. Ashamed
of himself he had recanted at first
Then he had sworn again allegiance
to the specious philosophy which she
now realized he had only professed
consciously or unconsciously. that he
might possess her But she was no
: deceived. There was no truth in his
. words; his asseverations carried M
conviction to her soul, Again h
stormed and ragged; once more hi
apologized and appealed, but thu
a. periods of calm grew shorter and thu
I periods of storm grew longer and NOR
] vehement. The woman alone wa
steadfast. She was overwhelmed witt
}. shame, the horror of the situation wa
rising upon her
She began to realize how helples
she was. Under the inspiration of
g belief, which was as honest as it wa
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