The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1915-06-05

] Except III tuclT T6ldtlOu 10 COHlpleteu
state of happiness for his father In
distinctly he recognized them as essen
tials.
Ay. he was lonely. The house was
as bleak as the steppes of Siberia. He
longed for companionship, friendship.
kindness-and suddenly in the midst
| of 1t all he leaped to his feet.
I'm going out. gentlemen" he ex-
claimed. breaking in upon an unappre-
ciated tale that Mr.. Riggs was relat-
ing at some length and with consider
| able fierceness in view of the fact that
Mr.. Dawes had pulled him up rather
sharply once or twice in a matter of
inaccuracies. Excuse me, please"
He left them gaping with astonish-
ment and dashed out into the hall for
his coat and hat Even then he had
no definite notion as to what his next
move would be, save that he was going
out-somewhere, anywhere, he did not
care.
Somehow, as he rushed down the
front steps with the cool night air
blowing in his face, there surged up
within him a strong, overpowering
sense of tilial duty. 1t was his duty to
make the first advances. 1t was for
him to pave the way to peace and hap
piness. Something vague but disturb
ing tormented him with the fear that
his father faced grave peril and that
his own place was beside him and not
against him, as he had been in all
these lily directed years. He could
not put it away from him, this thought
that his father was in danger-in dan
ger of something that was not phys
ical, something from which, with all
his valor. he had no adequate form of
defense.
At the corner he paused, checked by
an irresistible impulse to look back
ward at the house he had just left. To
his surprise there was a light in the
drawing-room windows facing the
street. The shades in one of them
had been thrown wide open and a
stream of light fiared out across the
sidewalk,
Framed in this oblong square of
light stood the figure of man. Slowly,
as if drawn by force he could not
resist, the young man retraced his
steps until he stood directly in front
of the window. A questioning smile
was on his lips. He was looking up
into Ranjab's shadowy, unsmiling face,
dimly visible in the glow from the
distant street lamp. For a long time
they stared at each other, no sign of
recognition passing between them The
Hindu's face was as rigid, as emotion
less as II carved out of stone; his
eyes were unwavering. Frederic could
had the queer feeling that, though the
man gave no sign, he had something
he wanted to say to him, that he was
actually calling to him to come back
into the house.
Undecided, the man outside took
several hating steps toward the door
way, his gaze still fixed on the face in
the window. Then he broke the SPELL
1t was a notion on his part, he argued.
II he had been wanted his fathers
servant would have beckoned to him.
He would not have stood there like
a craven image, staring out into the
night. Having convinced himself of
this, Frederic wheeled and swung of
up the street once more, walking rap
idly, as one who is pursued. Turning,
w hfo h.
window. He received no response.
Farther off he looked back once more.
The Hindu still was there. Long after
he was out Of sight Of the house he
cast frequent glances over his shout |
der as If still expecting to see the |
lighted window and its occupant.
AS he made his way to Broadway,
somewhat hazily bent on following that |
thoroughfare to the district where the |
night glittered and the stars were |
shamed. he began turning over in his
mind queer notion that had Just sug-
gested itself to him, filtering through |
the maze of uncertainty in which he |
had been floundering. 1t occurred to
him that he had been mawkishly SEN
in respect to his father. His
had not changed-he was seri-
ously impressed by the feelings that
had mastered him-but he found him.
self ridiculing the idea that his father
stood in peril Of any description. And
out Of no particular trend of
thought, CROPPED the sly, persistent sus-
picion that he had not been altogether
responsible for the sensations of an
hour ago. Some outside influence had
nodded his emotions for him, some
cunning brain had been doing his
thinking for him.
Then came the sharp recollection
OF that motionless, commanding figure
In the lighted window, and his own
puzzling behavior on the sidewalk out.
side. He recalled his impression that
someone had called out to him lust
before he turned to look I'D at the
window. 1t was all quite preposterous.
ne kept on saying over and over again
to himself. and yet he could not shake
of the uncanny feeling.
Earlier in the evening, without warn.
ing. without the slightest encourage
ment on his part, there had suddenly
leaped into existence a warm, tender
and wholly inexplicable feeling toward
his father. At first he had been
by this unwonted, almost un.
natural feeling, which later on deyel
med into somafbipo ou;ta xo-.., a.. |