The Benson signal., 1917-05-26

he is the HICn OF MS FAMILY to gradu-
ate at Harvard and three of his for
bears were engineers, his grandfather
noted and his father wOrld-famOus. He
fairly idolized his father. The affec-
ton between them was delightful. The
king could do no wrong. Meade was
quick-tempered and not very receptive
to criticism, but he would take the Sc
verest structure from the old man with
out a murmur."
"Here we have" said the woman,
who had listened with strained atten-
ton, ian early devotion to a person
and an unbounded respect for his at
tainments. Go on"
'"The next point is, Meade was in
ordinately proud Of his family reputa-
tion, especially in the engineering
field. Of the two of the line who were
not engineers, one was a soldier and a
distinguished one, but his career had
little interest for Meade. I have heard
him say that there had been steady,
upward movement in his family, that
had reached it's elimination in his ia
|
engineer, but he never dreamed of go
ing any higher or even approaching
the altitude Of the other man."
"It was a sort of fetish with him,
then, wasn't itf" asked the woman as
Rodney stopped again.
"You have hit it exactly. His love
for the man, his admiration for the
engineer, which sometimes blinded
him, and his pride in his fathers career
as typifying his family, was un-
bounded"
"You have established a motive for
any sacrifice; love, respect, pride!" e
That's the way 1t presents itself to
me, Miss Illingworth. I know thor
oughly the quixOtic, impulsive, self
sacrificing nature of the man. know
that he would have done anything on
earth to save his father, even at the
sacrifice of his own career, and since /
have seen you can realize how pow
erful these motives must have been."
Rodney said this quite simply, as if
it were a matter of course, rather than
a compliment, and bluntly as he might
have said it to a friend and comrade,
and Helen IllingwOrth understood and
was grateful.
''It has been a grief to me that I
weighed so little in comparison" she
said simply.
II shouldn't put it that way exact
ly," observed Rodney carefully. "You
see even if it could be shown that it
was the old mans fault entirely the
young one would still have to share
some of the blame"
"You mean he should have foreseen
it and pointed it out?'
II think he did, but if he did fore
see it and point it out, he should not
have allowed the older man to overawe
him or force him to accept what he be-
lieved to be structurally unsound.
don't know whether he reasoned it out.
don't think he had time to argue the
case, the shock was so swift and sud-
den, but as soon as he did see the situ-
alton he discovered that you were lost
anyway, except of the charity Of your
affection, which he could not accept,
and that he could save his father. This
may all be the widest speculation, but
this is the way it presents itself to
me-"
"And to me-" said Helen, "but before
we go any further, let me say should
rather be his wife than enjoy any other
| fortune"
"That is the kind of affection his
qualities merit and would evoke in
the mind of discerning woman"
"Thank you. viii you go on, nowT'
"Of course you know that what we
have said is not evidence. It is all as
sumption, perhaps presumption"
"It's as true as gospel" said the girl
earnestly.
"To you and to me, yes. WE'LL" he
continued, II remember that Meade
and were talking just before he went
to Burma three years ago about new
book by a German named Schmidt
Chemnitz, in which certain methods of
calculations were proposed for the de-
sign of ]acings. You know it was the
lacings of one of the compression
members of the cantilever that gave
way"
'Well Meade and got into hot dis
cussion over some Of Schmidt Chem
nitz's formulas. maintained that they
were wrong. He took the opposite
view. He was right. He was so in
terested in the matter that after we
separated he wrote me letter about
it, adding some new arguments to re-
enforce his contention. The other day
I made careful search among my pa
pers and by happy chance l found the
letter. I was half-convinced by his
reasoning then, although the matter
was dropped. I am altogether con-
vinced now. His argument is very
clear. I have examined since then the
plan and sketches for that bridge. The
calculations did not agree with those
of Schmidt-Chemnitz. His methods
were not used. Meade could rot have
forgotten the matter. I am morally