The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-30


 He spoke quite naturally, and did not seem to be aware that he was making a cynical seatement. Neither did he lift his eyes to her. He walk ed slowly, keeping his eyes on the ground.
 Olive felt a strange fascination in his presence; moreover, she could not feel that she was speaking to a stranger. She had a feeling that she had seen him before, heard him speak before. And yet everything about him was strange. His voice was not familiar to her, and. it had a peculiar fluid tone which sounded un-English, and yet she fancied that she had heard it somewhere. As she listened, she found herself recalling the past, and thinking of the days before the dark shadow fell upon her life. Without knowing why, she found herself thinking of Leicester. The strangers cynicism reminded her of the night when she first met hlm. She remembered how Leicester had dominated the gathering at her fath- CTS house, and that sine had found herself admiring him, even while she had disagreed with everything he had said. The same thing was happen ing now. Herbert Briarfield, of whom she had thought great deal during the last few days, seemed to have sunk in the background. He was one who did not matter, whi the man who was stranger had beoauuse she found herself putting a double meaning on everything he said. Of course this might be be- cause, owing to the Eastern associa- tions, he would regard things diff ferently from the way an English man would regard them; but she had spoken to men from the Orient be- fore, and they had not impressed her in the same way. Still, she felt a kind of pleasure in matching her wits with his, even although she felt she might not come off best in the en- counter.
 "But would not your attitude of mind be fatal if it were universal, signore?" she asked.
 Pardon me, I think it is univer- sal"
 "You mean that we are not anxious to find the truth?''
 Exactly. Mind you, I do not say that you English people who boast of your honesty do not in theory hold that truth is the great thing to be sought after; but in action, in life, no. Let man be true to truth and he is put down as a madman, a fool"
 Would you mind giving an ex- ample?"
 A dozen if you like. Here is one. It is a commonly accepted theory that well-being, happiness, depends not on what we possess, but on what we are. That to be- is more than to have How many are true to their creed? One in a million Where one spends his energies in en- fiching his life, a million spend theirs on seeking to obtain what by com mon consent is evanescent. If half the energy were spent on beautifying character that is spent on getting on' in the ordinary acceptance of the term, what Christians call the mil lennium would come"
 Are you not assuming grea, deal, signore 2"
 ''But what, signorina?"
 That you. understand the motives of the human heart?" He shrugged his shoulders.
 "One judges by what one sees," he said. And it is best to content one. self with that. The man who looks beneath the surface goes mad"
 And yet you are not mad?" and she laughed gaily.
 T am not sure," he said, and there was a quiet intensity in his tones mo, am not sure. Sometimes think ,I am h But what then, sig norina? We. have our little lives te live. our littlfa part to play on the worlds stage" &
 Again she wss reminded of Leices ter, and as she thought of him a kind of shivar passed through her. Thi. was Is cestar over again; but an other Leicesker-a Leicester with { diherence.
 <"But why pray it. if it is so bad?'
 "Ah. signorlila, do you not. think have asked th}At question a thousand times? But thSen I have lived in thu East. What c4sn a man do agains fate? The Arabians have got holt Of great truthA Kismet. Is not al philosophy centerred in that?"
 "No." she said. T do not think so If that 5 trues tfl en every bad deet done would be 6he expression O Gods will Eyesy murder, outrage and abopinatfon Aas His sanction His bend hiction." .
 "signoAna has n4ver lived in thu East?"
 T do pt see that that. matters"
 signors ticordo lau yhed quietly.
 ssT+ ic v4frochino +rA ',