Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1910-04-29
CHAPTER xII.-Continued.

Gradually he came to understand
that her determination not to marry
him was influenced by something
stronger than a 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, it were q
thousand times better they should
drift apart. And as he came to under.
stand, an element of reverence min.
gled with his love for her. deepening
and intensifying 1t.
He himself would not have ques.
toned. He would gladly have mar
ried. To him it would not have been
a test but a contamination But that
they were not to marry did not trou.
Bile him. Why should he ask more of
a love that was proving the fulf1llment
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 a firmer poise
above the square shoulders; even his
eyes shared in the metamorphosls-
they lost their dreamy, pleading look
and became alert, laughing. and full
of happiness and strange power that
seemed no longer to ask, but to com
mand help and sympathy from al
who met their glance
Something of this change Derrina
himself recognized. He knew that he
was alive. glowing in every fiber; Blu
he was less analytic in his happines.
than in his misery. he did not SCI
that his overlooking vitality commun
icated itself TO everyone with whom
he came in contact 1t was only whei
some one spoke of the change that h
knew that it was being marked H
exulted in his heart that no on
guessed the cause.
He was settled down and worlkin
with a vigor of which he had nc
dreamed himself capable Everythin
bent before him. He felt within hin
self power to conquer the worl
should il stand in his way. Sometime
he clenched his hands and stretche
his arms to their fullest to give cutie
to the play impulse that could not e.
haust itself in work
In his inner life. too, change. les
perceptible. but no less real. was tai
ing place. Sight and hearing wer
opened to new beauty. Music ha
become to him a medium OF sol
speech: and the sordid city street
with their overhanging clouds
smoke. started to picturesque life an
beauty.
long archway with slant of SUI
shine at the farther end-an Italia
woman stealing into the shadow
huge bundle on her back and colore
kerchief about her head-would st
his pulses like an old painting. tt
unsightly process of building. with /
debris of mortar, bricks, and lat
gained artistic value as his eyes toe
in the grouping of the men at wor
around the mortar-beds-the sol
gray-white of he mortar, the dull re
blue or orange of the shirts upon Il
supple or stolid figures of the me
with the play of muscle beneat
Sometimes it was a single figure, TIL
,nioht have stepped from Raj
brandt canvas. appearing for mimi
and disappearing in the shiftff
crowd. Always. everywhere, the
was beanty-until Derring, seeing
all. longed at times to relieve n
o,ercharged eeases by loud cry-'
wonderful. so oVerpowering. had Il
i, auty It the world become.