Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-28
Copyright by Bobbs- Merrill Co,

you won't prosecute for trespass, Mr..
Long -Leggy Sedgwick."
"Leggyi" The artist had whirled at
the name. "Nobody's called me that
for ten years.
Just ten years ago that you gradu-
ated, wasn't it?"
Yes. Then knew you in college.
You must have been before my class
The bearded one nodded Senior to
your freshman" said he. -
The younger man scrutinized him.
Chester Kentl' said he softly. What
on earth are you doing behind the
bush? 2"
Kent caressed the maligned whis-
kers. utility" he explained.
"Patent, impenetrable mosquito
screen. I've been off in the wilds, and
amor was going back presently
mot 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 inter-
est. 1t Is a fortunate circumstance
for me. to find you here possibly for
you, too"
Most assuredly," returned the
other with heartiness. Come in on
the porch and have hammock and
pipe"
Old interests sprang to life and
speech between them. And from the
old interests blossomed the old easy
familiarity that is never lost to those
II, f,tk l. -.
days. Presently Francis Sedgwiek was
telling his friend the story of his
feverish and thwarted ten years in
the world. Within year of his grad
uation his only surviving relative had
died. willing to him a considerable
fortune, the income of which he used
in furtherance of a hitherto sup
pressed ambition to study art. Paris,
his Mecca, was first a task mistress,
then a temptress, finally a YAM
pire. Before succumbing he had
gone far. in a few years. toward
the development of a curious tech
nique of his own. Followed then two
years of dissipation, year of travel
to recuperate and the return to
Paris, which was to be once more the
task-mistress. But, to his terror and
self-loathlng, he found the power OF
application gone. The muscles of his
mind had become flabby. He quoted
to Kent, with bitterness, the terrible
final lines of Rossetti's known in
Vain:
when work and will awake too late
to gaze
After their life sailed by, and hold
their breath,
All! who shall dare to search through
what sad maze
Thenceforth their incommunicable
ways,
Follow the desultory feet of death?"
when work and will awake too
late, repeated Kent. But is IL too
late in your case? Surely not, since
you're here. and at your task
'"But think of the waste. man! Yet
here I am as you say, and still able
to fight. All by virtue of womans
laugh; the laugh of woman without
virtue. 1t was at the Moulin de la
Galette-perhaps you know the dance
hall on the slope of Montmartre-
and she was one of the dancers, the
and, one must suppose, innocence.
Probably she thought me too much
absinthe-soaked to hear or under
stand, as | sat half asleep at my
table. 9At all events she answered,
full-voiced, her companions ques-
tnon, Who is the drunken foreign
er?' by saying, He was an artist.
The studios talked of him five years
ago. Look at him now That is what
| life does to us, mon ami. I'm the
woman of it: that's the man of 1t.
I staggered up. made her a bow and
promise, and left her Slaughing.
Last month I redeemed the promise.
sent her the first thousand dollars
made by my own work, and declared
my debt discharged"
A heavy cloud of smoke issued from
| Kents mouth, followed by this OBJ
servation THAT formula about the
inability to lift ones self by ones
own oot-straps fails to apply in the
spiritual world"
right You can pull yourself out
of the ditch that way; but afterward
comes the long hillside. Life has
seemed all tilted on edge, 1t 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 judy
ment Meantime, suppose you account
| for yourself"
! Chester Kent stretched himself lux
uriously. "A distinguished secretary
| of state has remarked that all the
news worth telling on any subject car
| be transmitted by wire for twenty
five cents. The short and simple an
nails of the poor in my case can be
recorded within that limit. Postcard
uate science. Agricultural department
| job. Lectures. Invention. Judiciary
/ department expert. Signed. Chester
Kent Ten words-eount them-ten.'
! Interesting, but atisfying," re.
! torted his friend. Cant you expand
a bit? suppose you haven't any
dark secret in your life?'
mo secret, dark or light" sighed