The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-16
Continued from Last sunday.)

from Last SundaY.1
Yes. Then / knew you in college.
GU must have been before my class"
The bearded one nodded. Senior
to your freshman" said he.
The younger man scrutinized him.
Chester Kent" said he softly. What
on earth are you doing behind that
bush?'
Kent caressed the maiigned whisk-
ers. Utility" he explained. Patent.
impenetrable mosquito screen. I've
been Off in the wilds and amor was
going back presently"
Not until you've stopped long
enough to get reacquainted. declared
sedgwick. Just at present you're
going to stay to dinner"
Very good. Just now you happen
to be in my immediate line of interest.
1t Is fortunate circumstance for me,
to nnd you here; possibly for you,
too"
Most assuredly." returned the other
with heartiness, Come in on the
porch and have hammock and pipe"
Oid interests sprang to life and
speech between them. And from the
old interests biossomed the old easy
familiarity that is never wholly lost
10 those VINO have been close friends
IN college daya Presently Francis
SedgWlck was telling his friend the
story of his feverish and thwarted
ten years in the world. Within a year
OF mis- graduation his only surviving
relative had died, willing to him a
considerable fortune, the income of
which he used in furtherance of a
hitherto suppressed ambition to study
art. Paris. his mecca was first a
task-mistress. then a temptress final
ty vampire. Before succumbing he
had gone far, in a few years, toward
the uevelopebent of a curious tech
niGue of his own. Followed then
two years of dissipation, a year OF
travel TO recuperate, and the return
10 Paris. which was TO be once more
the task-mistress But to his ter
ror and self-ioathing, he found the
power of application gone The mus
Gle or his mind had become fiahby
He quoted to Kent, with bitterness,
the terrible final lines OF Rossetti's
Known in Vain:
when Work and WIN awake too
late. TO gaze
After their life sailed by, and hold
their breath.
An who shall dare to search through
what sad maze
Henceforth their incommunicable
ways
Follow the desuitry feet of Death p"
when Work and VIII awake too
late " repeated Kent, but is 1t too
late in your case? Surely not, since
you're here. and at your task"
But think of the waste. mani Yet
here am, rs you say, and still at1ie
to fight. All by virture of a woman's
laugh; the laugh of woman with
out virture II was az the Moulin
de la Galette--perhaps YOU know the
dance hall on the slope of Mont
martre-~and she was one of the
dancers. the wreck OF what had once
been beauty. and one must suppose.
innocence. Probably she tho@sl2t me
too much absinthe-soaked 10 hear or
understand. as / sat half asleep at
my table, At all events she answer
ed, full-voieed, her companions ques-
ton Who ts the drunken foreigner
by saving. He was an artist. The
studios talked Of him five years ago
Look at him now! That liz what life
does TO us, mon ami. I'm the woman
az II: that's the man OF 81 | stagger-
ed mp. made her bow and prom
ise, and left he laughing. Last month
/ redeemed the promise; sent her
the first thousand dollars ] made by
nay own work. and declared my debt
discharged,
\ heavy cloud Of smoke issued
from kents mouth, followed by this
observation: THAT formula about the
inability 10 lift ones self by ones own
boot-straps fails to apply in the spir-
itGal world
Right You can pull yourself out
Of the ditch that way: but aftcrward
comes tie long hillside, Life has
seemed all tilted on edge. at times,
and pretty slippery. with little enough
to cling to"
Work" suggested Kent briefly
Wisdom turks behind your screen.
Work is the answer
Good or bad, it's the only thing.
Which kind is yours"
Presently you shall sit in judge
ment. Meantime. suppose you &C
count for yourself"
Chester Kent stretched himself
luxuriously. "A distinguished score
tary OF state has remarked that all
the news worth telling on any subject
can be transmitted by wire for TWEEN
ty-five cents. The short simple an,
nails OF the poor In my case can be
recorded within that limit. Post
graduate science. Agricultural De-
partment Job. Lectures. Inventions.
Judiciary Department expert. Signed.
Chester Kent Ten words-~count
them---ten.f
Interesting, but unsatisfying," re-
seFsad- his friend Cant you expand
n bit7 / suppose you haven't any dark
secret in your lifeP'
mo secret dark or light" sighed
the other. THE newspapers won't
let me have"
"Eh? Won't let you? Am to in
fer that you've become a famous per-
son? Pardon the ignorance of expa-
triation. Have you discovered a new
disease. or formulated a new theory