Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-23

God, my God" he cried. "G am mean,
but what there is Of me has knelt to you
by night and worshiped you by day.
When you were little you were in my
heart and you have grown up in It. When
you were little there was room there
for other things, but now that you have
grown UP you have filled it-all Of it
every nook and Granny"
A tremor went through Clem's body.
She rested the fingers of one hand on
Alan's head and tried to turn up his
face. But he held IL close to her knees.
"tf you want me, Glenn. IL you want me,
then there must be things left-thlngs
1 have never-could never give-to any
one else. But 1 ant ashamed to pour
them into your lap-I must pour them at
YOUR feet"
NO" said Glen gravely, "T do not
want you to pour things at my feet It's
got to be eye to eye or nothing, and If
there's any man left in"
"Clem," broke in Alan, there Is enough
man left in me IL you'll only give me
time. Time to groom him. You can un-
derstand that, Glen? You know what
grooming and a clean stable will do for
a shaggy horse?'
Clem nodded. How much time do you
want?"
Alan hesitated. "A year." he said 'In
make n year do it,
You car have six months" replied
Clem and added with a smile, That's 10
per cent under office estimates"
Then forgetful OF hours and meals and
the little things in life that do not count
when human souls mount to the banquet
of the gods. they sat side by side and hand
in hand on n big rock and stared with un-
seeing eyes at the gray world. with you
beside me-" said Alan, "all skies are blue
and filled with the light of single. steady
star"
Clem did not answer, but in her eyes
content and knowledge, tenderness and
strength. pleasure and pain played with
each other like the lights and dappled
shadows under n swaying bough.
CHAPTER XLI.
WHEN Glenn and Alan reached home
w long after the lunch hour they found
the Hill athrlll with news. Alix had re-
ceived a cable and had left at once for
town. She had gone alone. That could
mean but one thing-Gerry was at last
coming back.
1t was from Barbados that Gerry had
cabled Ever since he had written his
short note to AliX, through long doubling
weeks at Piranhas and longer days of
questioning and hesitation on board the
slow freighter that was bearing him
home, Gerry had been fighting himself.
Only Lieber's sudden death and his burial,
to which Gerry had ridden posthaste, had
come in between as a solemn truce.
On the frelghter he had time enough
and to spare to think. He had spent
hours going over the same ground on the
short bridgedeck, staring out to sea, max
ing over and over the circle of his life
from the time he had left home. He re-
membered sitting thus on the way out.
He remembered the turmoil his mind had
been in and the apathy that had followed
the long rest at Pernambuco, the trip
down tho coast and up the river, the
glorious misty morning at Piranhas. Mar
gartta. catastrophe, awakening.
What did that awakening stand for?
Again he thought, IL he could choose
would he wish to be back as he was be-
fore-as he was on the way out? A voice |
within him said NO"
In those days when once more his |
thoughts demanded to be seen in their |
relation to Alix, that steady voice within |
him was his only comfort. The flood at |
Fazenda Flores had swept away all that
his hands had done. but the things that |
FaZenda Flores had done for him could |
not be swept away by any material force.
They stood and feared nothing-except \
Alix.
Wherever his mind turned, It came |
back to AliX and found In her an impasse. /
AliX assumed more and more the portent-
Gus attributes of one unattached, sitting |
in judgment over his acts. His memory
Of her frailty, of her iower-like detach.
ment from the bones-the skeleton-of
life, her artificality made her seem lud-
crously incongruous In the role of Judge
He could not picture her, much less es-
innate the sentence she would pass. His
thoughts led him daily up to that impasse
and left him. Then came the doubt and
he question-why should he lead himself
bodily to the impasse at all?
He was still fighting this point when
1e reached Barbados, but there an Incl
lent befell which brought new light TO
his mind and then a new peace to his soul
He had gone ashore at Bridgetown
simply because his whole body. perfectly
lttuned by three years of long hours of
oil, was crying out for more exercise
han the narrow decks OF the freighter
,ould afford.
When the little group OF passengers
cached shore, with the exception OF Gerry
md an old returning Barbadlan. they all
urned In the same direction as IL by
common impulse.
CONTINUED TOMORROW.