The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-04-08

| thar sne mas Deen. Anu when she has
to confess to herself that the child Of
her affections, the thing that has
4 come. from her, the climax Of her own
/ being, is, in fact, all unworthy, a
creature Of the dunghill, not only
base, but incapable of comprehending
/ what is good and true, that final dis
4 enchantment is too great for flesh and
blood. Nature, merciful, sometimes
\ blinds the woman's eyes, makes her
incapable Of judging, fills her with
fond folly that sees no imperfection
In her own-and that folly is blessed.
But there are some who are not blind
ed by love, but made more keen and
quick of sight. She lay silent and
listened while Beaufort performed
that melody in her. ears, feeling a
| poignant sweetness in it, since at least
1t was the most beautiful thing for
i him to do, yet with every word feel
Ing more and more the anguish of the
failure, and the depth Of the death
wound which was in her heart.
There are boys who torture cats
! aRd dogs and tear flies asunder, and
/! yet are not evil natures" Beaufort
said: they have not the power of
realizing the pain they cause. They
want imagination. They know moth
4 ing Of the animals they hurt, except
that they are there In their power to
be. done what they please with. MY
/ love, Tom is like that-it is part of
the dreadful cynicism that young men
seem to originate somehow among
! themselves. They think they are the
subjects Of every kind Of interested
vile, and that such thing as-thisn
| Beaufort was not philosopher
enough to name Toms act more dis
tinctly-3is nothing more than sort
of balance on their side."
Lady Car opened her eyes, which
were clear with fever and weakness,
lucid like an evening sky, and looked
at her husband with piteous smile.
My dearest. he said hastily, II
am saying only how they represent
such things to themselves. They
don't take time to think--they rush
on to the widest conclusions. The
thing is done before they see or real
lie what it is. And then, as tell
you, they think themselves the prey,
and those-those others the hunters
and take their revenge-when they
cam
But it was hard to go on with that
argument with her eyes upon him.
When she closed them he could speak.
When they opened again in the midst
of his plea, those eyes so clear with
fever, so liquid, as If every film had
been swept from them, and only an
all-seeing, unquenchable vision, yet
tender as the heavens, left behind
he stopped and faltered In his tale.
and then he took refuge in that last
resort of human feeling-what was t,
be done? The expedients by which
wrong can be made to appear as if it
were right, and trouble and misery
smoothed away, so that the world
should believe that all was well?
The conclusion, which was not ar
rived at for some time, was that
which old Lord Lindons took credit
to himself for having suggested be-
! :
fore, "and which snight have put
stop to all this, " he said with wave
Of his hand. It was Africa and big
game for two or three years, during
which "the young woman the fam
lily spoke of her as If she had no name
Should be put under careful train
ing. 1t had been ascertained, still by
Beaufort. who conducted himself to
everybody's admiration, that "the
young woman" had no bad antece-
dents, and that SO much hope as there
could be in such miserable business
might be theirs. Tom was so thor
oughly broken down by the discovery
which humbled his clownish pride to
the dust, and made him feel almost
as poor creature as he was, that he
gave in with little resistance to the
dictates of the family council. No
unhappy university man, however,
was beguiled into accompanying this
unlikely pupil. He was given into
the hands of mighty sportsman.
who treated him like powder boy.
and brought Tom, the lord of the
Towers. the wealthiest commoner in
the North. the experienced man of
Oxford, into complete and abject SUBJ
jection-which was the best thing
that could have happened to him.
The young woman" was less easily
subdued. She wrote to her relations
that it had been all mistake, but
that family reasons had made it i'm
possible for her husband and herself
to disclose the true state of affairs
before. That, instead of being Mrs.
Francis Lindons, she was Mrs. Thomas
Francis Lindons Torrance, of the
Towers her dear husband being the
son Of Thomas Torrance, Esq, of the
| Towers, and of Lady Caroline Lin
dons, the daughter of the Earl of
Lindons, from whom dear Tom took
his second name, as they might see in