The Washington herald., 1914-12-27
By RUPERT HUGHES
With Illustrations ty James Montgomery Flagg

MN on the wires.
He decided. that he must resign
from the army before he was dismiss
ed from the service for bringing dis
grace upon the uniform. There were
officers enough whose Irregularities
were overlooked, but they had kept
from the public prints. Forbes had
not only sinned, but had been found
out .aa
He felt like a mortgager who sees
himself foreclosed and sold up. He
had lost Persis, and he was about to
lose his career. He wrote out his
resignation, addressed the envelope,
sealed it, bent his head down in his
arms above it, and gave himself up
! to despair. His loneliness was almost
more than he could endure.
By and by letter was, brought to
his room. He had refused 10 answer
the telephone, and nc ignored the
knocks OF the hall boys. This letter
was pushed under the door. 1t was
from Ten Eyck:
Dear Harvey-Just a line to tell
you that my heart aches for you and
with you. The thought OF Persis
dead is almost unthinkable, nearly TN
bcarablc 10 ME. What it must be to
you | dread TO imagine.
j always remember the old Persian
philosophers motto when he was
tempted to enjoy too much or grieve
too much over grief: This, too, will
pass away
You are too big a man TO let this
or anything break you down. Bend
to it, but don't break
IL nrcrrc 70 mo fbat ,.1,r v,,a,- ranI
little time to recupcrate, where you
bawlcd under your window.
On Long Island I have a little
shack on a sandbar on the edge OF
the ocean. How would you like to
run down there for few days? You
can do your own cooking. Ii you
wish I'll go along; but il you'd rather
be by yourself | won't go. I think
you'd better be by yourself and think
it all out
enclose time table with the best
trains marked.
Take a closed taxi to the station,
and you'll not be noticed. II l can
do anything, command me.
Affectionatcly yours.
MURRAY TEN EYCK
Not a rcproach. Not an 81 told you
So" Not a minimizing OF the trag-
edy. Just a life prescrver thrown to
a man in deep waters.
Forbes wrote:
God love you for this. III never
forget. I'll prove my gratitude by
sparing you the ordeal of my COM
pany
He packed a suit case, bribed a.
porter and an elevator man, and es-I
capped from the hotel by one of the
service elevators and the trade en-
trance. He swore to Heaven that this
should be the last time he would
sneak or cover. He reached his des-
tination without remark and found it
congenially dreary.- ..
There was a furious storm that
night. Wind and rain hogged his
cabin, and the sea cannonaded the
beach. But the shack survived, and
the beach was still there in the morn
ing. There was only the wreckagc
of little schooner cast ashore.
At first Forbes rallied against the
heartlessness OF the sea. But grad
ually he came to understand that the
ocean is not heartless; If simply obeys
its own compulSions, and the wrecks
il makes are those that should not
have been out upon the waters or
those that got in the way OF the laws.
That was what Forbes had done.
As he strolled the sands or sat and
watched the endless procession OF
waves, waves, waves, hurling them
selves upon the shore to their own
destruction, in his thoughts memories
came up one after another, like waves:
memories of beautiful hours that
seemed to have no meaning beyond
their own brief charm; visions OF Per-
sis in a thousand attitudes of enchant-
saw her at the theatcr, 1.-the, exposed,
incandescent; he clasped her in the
tango; he clenchcd her hand at the
opera; he saw her riding her cross
saddle in her boyish togs; he olasped
her in Sthe taXicab in the rain; he
walked with her in moonlight and in
the auroral rose; he galloped along
side her, strobe with her in the
woods; nc held her in his arms while
they watched the building burning
gorgcously at night; he saw her in
all the lawless intimacies OF their
secret life-careless, childish costa
sizes and wild throes of rapture.
Then he remembered what she had
told him of Ambassador Tait's warn
ing: The world is old, my child, but
it is stronger than any of us. And it
can punish without mercy
G He was tasting now the mercy of
the world, and Persis, lying in cold
white state, as he imagined her, was
the visible slain sacrifice on the altar. |
They had indeed sinncd. She had
chosen wealth instead OF love, and
then had tried to steal love, too. The !
simple fact was that they had been |
They had dupcd and sneaked
and feastcd on stolen sweets. Their !
punishment was just. Many others
had sinncd more viciously and pros
pered in their sin or repented COM |
fortably and suffered nothing. But
they were not to be envied altogether. |
Somehow to his mans heart it'll
brought strange kind of comfort to |
feel that this ruination was not a wan
ton cruelty, but penalty cxacted. 1t
made the world less lonely; it re-
placed chaos with law and order.
Perhaps other souls would take warm
ing from their fate; perhaps other
guilty couples would be frightened
back to duty; perhaps somebody
by the scarlet allurements of |