The Washington herald., 1913-08-10
o get in the primaries against jim

Hall"
Wiley" put in Janet slowly, "las
week the Governor was asking abou
Curran of the News"
Wiley flushed, disconnected for once
He felt that Janet was shrewdly read
ing him. He had met Gov. Delro,
once-the fighting anti-ring Governo
whom the rebellion of the North in
surgents had put in the chair. But tina
Delroy remembered him! After all
with his philandering old News had b,
really done something? He raised hi:
eyes to see Janet smiling fondly a
him, that old affectionate camaraderi,
OF the days long dead. Harlan, too
smiled. 1t was rather droll to con
slider this obscure country editor as Z
time his fathers law partner, now ont
of the most powerful figures of the
Lower House. What, then, was Wiley
Curran in the new civic conscience Of
the State. What hidden forces vert
arrayed against the old order, the easy
dominance of property and class &c
which privilege had given a sort OF
sanctityf He had his first feeling Of
class Consciousness, now, with these
challenging friends. And slowly hi:
thoughts went back to Aurelie, to that
sullen .resentful shame with which he
had become aware of his failure tc
reconcile his love for her with his
sense of obligation to his parents, their
tradition, breeding, their love and
hopes for him. This seemed deepes,
in him. this abiding sense of honor to
them, to their gentle birth and the
manners of their kind. There were
two sorts of right, then-the clamor of
those who fought up to seize the good
of life, and the steadfast resolution OF
those who possessed this good and
would hold it against the Others. Moth
ing new in the problem; it was the
problem of democracy. Harlan was
| considered an amiable and democratic
young man, yet he could not define the
certain reserves in himself and why
! it was almost impossible to pass these
reserves or admit others to them. al
| though they were the common under
standing of cultured people every.
| where. That was it-this bond of cul-
tured people! And social rebels, po-
litical rebels; the eternal spirit of re-
bellion of any sort did. not have this,
or cared nothing for 1.-THE rough
and-tumble of life left little time for
its fneness. That was left TO those of
the established order, an aristocracy to
which, much as he hated the word, he
must belong. That was why he could
acutely see Aurelie as the little vul-
garian, after all OF obscure origin and
social gaucherie once she was placed
with people of his sort. His sense OF
orderliness dctested any such thing,
and so. in his cooler moments, he told
himself he did not really love her. She
had touched him with the pathos of
her love for him, the pathoS of her
defeated gayety and courage, the mea-
gerneSs of her life; that was all, he
told himself He had been sorry for
her-that was all But he wondered
at his anguish and his shame that night
she ran away from him.
His thoughts came back 10 his
friends in the News Office In this
dIngy shop the sense of social revolt
conferred: it was not strange that
through the News Aurelie had come TO
this abominible notoriety; all the
things about Aurelie that would exas-
perate Harlan. would merely delight
the vagabond soul of Wiley Curran. 1t
was no use being angry at Wiley about
it; his yellow dog OF a paper would
merely yelp the louder.
Even now, when Janet Vance and
Arne were trying TO compel a mo-
ment's serious thought in Mr.. Curran,
the editor was yawning. "Me-for
Congress- And you actually think /
am beginning career? Janet, yester-
day | was kicking away at this old
job press when a drummer blew in
here and tried 10 sell me a set of desk
stamps. He was one of those ingra-
tiating boosters, and, as | had my hat
on he thought l was about twenty
one. He set down his case, as | didn't
stop work. and began to tell me how
much good it did him to see young
man fighting away down here TO make
a start in life.
Il said, Stranger, what you see here
is no start in life; it's hnish!"
Miss Vance did not smile-at first.
Then. at Wiley's rueful discontinue
she did. But she said sternly: Wiley,
I'm ashamed of you!"
so am I, Janet" He crossed his
legs over tine waste-paper basket and
sighed. But I'm growing up-slowly.
l Know what Arne means. The tramp
tramp of his northmen-the big-limbed
students up the hill. And I see his
leaders, too. | know what Delroy is
and means. Good God, 1 gave my life
10 the West!" He sat forward, his eyes
shining. Only It was its poetry and
its epic bigness that got me, not its
outcry of conscience, its political ideal
ism: Arne felt that: he brought it
back TO us here in the South, And l
know. Janet! Something at last has
stirred mep
Arne arose and was winding his big
silver watch. MAYBE now you'll get
hustle on and change the News to a
daily"
THE bank turned me down on that
dinky loan. And when | tried to get
it in Earlville, some mysterious power
blocked me there. l know we'll enough:
its all because of the fight made to
get the town to take the pumping con-
tract away. from Thad Tanner and
have municipal plant
Harlan stirred. His father was a
director of the bank. He did not like
Wiley's insinuation; but then his ia
ther did not like Wiley. He muir
INJURED some inconsequential badinage
and followed Arne out to where the
student-farmer was bringing his mud
splashed colts to the News horse
block. ...
Il WISH muttered Arne, you'd get
Wiley into this. He's got a chance