The Elbert County tribune., 1910-01-06
CHAPTER xII.-continued.

Gradually he came to understand
that her determination not to marry
him was influenced by something
stronger than mere personal shrink.
ing from false marriage. She would
not marry, because she would not take
a selfish happiness at the expense of
her mother and those that depended
on her; but more than that, and deep
er, she would not by a rash promise
add one more to the marriages that
end In vain regret or divorce.
Gradually, too, he came to under
stand more fully what she had meant
by saying that If they were made for
each other they would find it out with.
out promises. and If not, 1t were a
thousand times better they should
drift apart Ard as he came to under
stand. an element of reverence min
gled with his love for her, deepening
and intensifying it.
He himself would not have ques-
toned. He would gladly have mar
ried. To him 1t would not have been
a test, but consummation But that
they were not to marry did not trou-
BILE him. Why should he ask more of
love that was proving the f,ilfillment
OF all the longing of his boyhood and
youth? 1t was transforming him
mind. body and soul. His frame,
which had been tall. spare, and loosely
built, began to fill and settle into
strength! his step became firm and
quick; his head took firmer poise
above the square shoulders; even his
eyes shared in the metamorphosis-
they lost their dreamy. pleading look
and became alert, laughing. and full
of happiness and a strange power that
seemed no longer to ask, but to COM
mand help and sympathy from all
who met their glance.
Something Of this change Derring
himself recognized. He knew that he
was alive. glowing in every fiber; but
he was less analytic in his happiness
than in his misery; he did not see
that his overfiowing vitality commun-
icated itself to everyone with whom
he came In contact. 1t was only when
some one spoke of the change that he
knew that it was being marked. He
exulted In his heart that no one
guessed the cause.
He was settled down and working
with vigor of which he had not
dreamed himself capable. Everything
bent before him. He felt within him
self power to conquer the world
should it stand in his way. Sometimes
he clenched his hands and stretched
his arms to their fullest to give outlet
to the play impulse that could not ex-
haust itself in work
In his inner life. too. a change. less
perceptible, but, no less real. was TAX
ing place. Sight and hearing were
opened to new beauty. Music had
become to him a medium of soul
speech: and the sordid city streets.
with their oyerhanging clouds of
smoke. started to picturesque life and
beauty.
A long archway with a slant of sun
shine at the farther end-an Italian
woman stealing into the shadow, a
huge bundle on her back and colored
kerchief about her head-wourd stir
his pulses like an old painting. The
unsightly process of building. with its
debris of mortar. bricks. and lath,
gained artistic value as his eyes took
in the grouping of the men at work
around the mortar-beds-the soft.
gray-whlte of the mortar, the dull red,
blue or orange of the shirts upon the
supple or stolid figures of the men,
with the play of muscle beneath.
Sometimes it was single figure. that
might have stepped from Ram
brandt canvas, appearing for minute
and disappearing in the shifting
crowd. Always, everywhere. there
was beauty-until Derring. seeing 1t
all, longed at times to relieve his
overcharged senses by loud cry-so
wonderful. SO overpowering. had the
Aoautv of the world become.