Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-07-14
CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XVIII.
"And I YOU" breathed M'suneo
He slipped to his knees, took both her
hands in his n looked into her eyes
as though he could never take his fill
OF the sanity that had come back To
them. :.
Andrea Pellor," he went on, 'bc.
fore you have time to think about i,
want to tell you that you and l can
never feel shame again. 1 want you
10 know that no man, however mean
or furnished by life, could do the in
innate things that l have done for
you and will still have to do, without
1eel1ng the pangs Of a love that is
rooted outside the limits of passion"
He dropped his eyes as though be.
lore a confessional. Until 1 saw you
quite helpless, until I saw you pas
to the other side of pain, didn't
Know that l had a heart. 1 had a
strange conception of love as a thing
that you give generously to dogs
sparingly to men IN never to WON
en- except as a last surrender to the
unknown"
He paused; Andrea smiled family
And now?" she prompted.
he answered. Now ]
know that a man must travel far be-
the limits of everyday emo
tons to come up with love itself. He
may find content and browsy hap
plness IN some oma possessed OF
all the qualities that command at
fection but love itself dwells far be.
yond at the crossroads of weakness
and strength. In the book of grea.
truths 1t Is written that anything ulti.
mate is strong-immutable. And sc
your helplessness. carried to that las
degree. has wound itself around my
heart with a grip that will never
loosen"
Poor White Mani" said Andrea.
whether you want me-" he con.
tinued gravely, o mock me, wheth-
er you are tru or untrue, pure or i'm
pure-all those things no longer mat
ter, for love is an integral possession.
may leave me, put the width OF
the world between us, and the breath
OF your body will still be the breath
OF mine the surge of your blood will
be the surge of mine, your sins will
be my sins, because your helpless self,
stripped of all the clogs Of flesh, has
tWined itself Tor always with the
hbers Of my heart"
SO you. would give three pounds
Tor me-" murmured Andrea.
He let go her hands and rose
quickly to his feet. You are strong
or than 1 thought" he said. "No,
I'll never give a cent for you. I'll
a till you're well and then I'll take
you in free fight and in my own way"
But Andrea did not hear him; she
had sunk back lax into her pillows.
Two tears crept from under her
closed eyelids and down her hollow
cheeks. I'm Sc weak" she whisper
ed, 80 weak L can't cry"
The white man cursed himself
aloud. No one knew better than he
that all is not Won when the tide of
battle turns and that he who sleeps
on the verge of victory awakes to de-
feat. He settled down to the long
vigilance that was his price of peace.
ine day and a night came and went
before he could draw the long. quiv-
ering breath of relief that marked the
passing Of danger.
During the stage of c~onvalescence
he read n talked to her by the
hour, but the time came when she
would have no more of the printed
page. He had spoken a passage here
and there from the book of his W
ume o Y to cover. He told
her of his boyhood in a New England
country town, of scrapes in school
and of the disaster in college that had
turned him from the narrow road of
Specialization in the diseases of the
nose and a to hat broad highway
which is r lightly and aimlessly
which is trod lightly and aimlessly by
stray dogs and citizens of the world.
You would have made a great
physician" said Andrea, almost re-
gretfully.
Perhaps" he replied. "But I
wouldn't have saved myself. I Would
never have found myself. I would
have been one of those Unconscious
mortals who spend their lives in a
group picture. I would v have
found out that there is something
within me that utterly rebels against
all those isms which aim at the COL
lective classification of animal man
and whose goal is the herd instead of
the individual"
"shsh!" said Andrea playfully.
:aren't you afraid to speak SO loud"
No. said the white man, his
brows drawn in concentration. 1.-THE
fight is on; why bother? There's a
on these struggles Of munitions and
commerce, a war. of the awakened
minds Of men. On one side you will
have organized humanity as the
fungus on work; on the other will
stand the contemplate little army
of those who still believe that all la
Dor is nothing but an expression-thc
expression Of the individual. We
don't have to really fight to win: we
only need learn to live and learning,
teach. That's the keynote of all legi-
Itinate individualism; knowledge of
life in control Of materiaiism."
But isn't that old stuff" asked
Andrea. yawning for the first time in
many days.
mo, it isn't" said the white mar
thoughtfully, land I'll tell you why.
Never for centuries has intrinsic life