Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-01
The
Lost
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Creator of Sherlock Holmes
Copyright, 1912, by A. Conan Doyle }

Just say the word-teetotal. vegetarian
aeronaut, theosophist, superman. I'll have
try at 1t, Gladys. if you will only give
me an idea what would please you"
sns Laughed at the tes t mace of
don't think my ideal would speak like
that" said she. He would be harder,
sterner man, not SO ready to adapt him.
self to silly girls whim. But. above all.
he must be a man who could do, who
could act, who could look death in the
face and have no fear of him, a man of
great deeds and strange experiences 1t
is never man that / should love, but
always the glories he had won: for they
would be reflected upon me. Think of
Richard Burton. When 1 read his wife's
life of him / could so understand her
love! And Lady Stanley! Did you ever
read the wonderful last chapter Of that
DOCK! These are the sort of men that a
woman could worship with all her soul.
and yet be the greater, not the less on
account of her love, honored by all the
world as the inspirer of noble deeds.''
She looked so beautiful in her enthu-
siasm that l nearly brought down the
whole level of the interview. l gripped
ment.
I'VE can't all be Stanleys and Burtons,"
said 1; besides We don't get the chance
at least, 1 never had the chance If /
did. L should try to take it..
But chances are all around you. 1t is
the mark of the kind of man I mean that
he makes his own chances. You can't hold
him back. I've never met him. and yet
seem to know him so well. There are
heroisms all round US waiting to be done.
It's for men to do them, and for women to
reserve their love as a reward for such
men. Look at that Young F'renchman
who went up last week in q balloon. 1t
was blowing a gale of wind; but because
he was announced to go he insisted on
~xt ~S~,I IL
dred miles in twenty-four hours, and he
fell in the middle of Russia. That was
the kind Of man 1 mean. Think Of the
woman he loved, and how other women
should like to be-envied for my man.
II have done 1t to please YOU
But you shouldn't do 1t merely to
please me. You should do it because you
can't help yourself, because it's natural
to you. because the man in you is cry
you described the Wigan coal explosion
last month could you not have gone
down and helped those people in spite of
the choke damp
IT did"
you never said so.'
There was nothing worth bucking
about
II didn't know" She looked at me with
more interest. THAT was brave Of you
II had to. If you want to write good
copy you must be where the things are
What a prosaic motive! 1t seems to
take all the romance out of it. Fancy
George stirring up the dragon in order
to get copy out of him! But still, what
went down that NINE She gave me her
hand, but with so much sweetness and
dignity that 1 could only stoop and kiss
it. II dare say l am only foolish
woman with young girls fancies. And
yet 1t Is so real with me, so entirely
part of my very self. that I cannot help
acting upon it. II I marry 1 do want
to marry a famous man.
why should you not?' I cried. 1T is
women like you who brace men up.
and see If I will take 1t! Besides, as you
say, men ought to make their own
chances and not wait until they are Civ
en-. Look at Clive-just a clerk. and he
conquered India. BY George! I'll do
something in the world yet!'
She laughed at my sudden Irish effer-
vescence. why not?" she said. You
have everything a man could have
youth. health. strength. education. ener-
gy. l was sorry you spoke. And now
am glad-so glad-if 1t wakens these
thoughts in your
And II do"
Her dear hand rested like warm velvet
upon my lips. mot another word, sir!
You should have been at the, office for
evening duty half an hour ago: only
hadn't the heart to remind you Some
day, perhaps, when you have won your
place in the world we shall talk it over
again."
And so it was that found myself that
foggy November evening pursuing the
Camberwell tram with my heart glowing
within me and with the eager determine
ton that not another day should elapse
before I should find some deed which
was worthy of my lady. But who-who
in all this wide world could ever have
imagined the incredible shape which
that deed was to take or the strange
steps by which l was led to the doing
Of 1t?
And. after all, this opening chapter
will seem to the reader to have nothing
to do with my narrative, and yet there
would have been no narrative without 1t,
for II Is only when a man goes out into
the world with the thought that there
are heroisms all round him, and with
the desire all alive in his heart to fol-
low any which may come within sight of
him. that he breaks away as I did from
the life that he knows and ventures forth
into the wonderful mystic twilight land,
great rewards. Behold me. then. at the
office Of The London Courier" on the
staff Of which / was a most insignificant
unit, with the settled determination that
very night, II possible, to find the quest
which should be worthy of my Gladys!
Was 1t hardness. was it selfishness, that
she should ask me to risk my life for her
own glorihcatiOn? Such thoughts may
come to middle age. but never to ardent
three and twenty in the fever Of his