The Washington herald., 1920-12-02
tCe.ti,ued ire. Yestersay)


Once he drank Of It. and again.
and then again until he felt a
strange, exalted sense OF non-par-
ticipation in worldly AFFAIRS pervade
him. Tansey was no drinker; his
consumption Of three absinthe ami
settles within almost as few minutes
proclaimed his unproficiency in the
art; Tansey was merely hoooing
with unproven liquor his sorrows,
which record and tradition alleged
to be drownableA
Coming out upon the sidewalk, ne
snapped his fingers defiantly In the
direction of the Peak homestead,
turned the other way, and yoyaged.
Columbus-like, into the wilds OF an
enchanted street Nor Is the figure
Iexorbitant, for beyond his store the
foot of Tansey had scarcely been
set for years-store and boarding
house; between these ports he was
chartered to run and contrary cur
rents had rarely DETECTED his Prov.
Tansey aimlessly protracted his
walk, and, whether It, was his un-
familiarity with the district, his re-
cent accession of audacious errantry
or the sophistical whisper Of GER
tain green-eyed fairy, he came at
last to tread a shuttered. blank and
echoing thoroughfare, dark and un-
peopled And. suddenly, this way
came to an end (as many streets
do in the Spanish-built. archaic
town of San Antone). butting its
head against an imminent high
brick wall. No-the street still
lived. To the right and tn the
left 1T breathed through slender
tubes of exit-narrow, somnolent
ravines, cobble paved and unlighted.
Upon one of these steps Tansey
seated himself and bethought him Of
his love and how she might never
know she was his love. And Of
Mother Peek, fat. vigilant and kind; /;
not unpleased. Tansey thought, that
he and Katie should play cribbage
in the parlor together For the
Cut-rate had not cut his salary,
which sordidly speaking. ranked
him star boarder at the Peeks. And
he thought of Capt. Peek, Katie's
father, a man he dreaded and
abhorred. genteel loafer and
spendthrift. battening upon the
labor of his women-folk, q very
queer fish, and, according to repute,
not of the freshest.
The night had turned chill and
foggy. The heart OF the town, with
its noises, was left behind, Reduced
from the high Mpors, its distant
lights were manifest In quivering,
cone-shaped streamers, in question
able blashes of unnamed colors, in
unstable, shostly waves Of far, cleo
trio flashes. Now that the darkness
was become more friendly. the wall
against which the street splintered
developed a stone coping topped
with an armature of spikes. Beyond
1t loomed what appeared to be the
acute angles of mountain peaks,
pierced here and there by little
lambent parallelograms. Consider
ing the vista. Tansey at length per-
suaded himself that the seeming
mountains were, in fact, the con-
vent of Santa Mercedes, with which
ancient and bulky pile he was bet
ter familiar from different coigns
of view. A pleasant noise of sing
ing in his ears REINFORCED his opin-
ion. High, sweet, holy caroling, far
and harmonious and uprising, as IL
sanctified nuns at their responses.
At what hour did the Sisters sing?
He tried to think-was 1t 6, s. IL?
Tansey leaned his back against the
limestone wall and wondered.
Strange things followed. The air
was full of white, f1uttering pigeons
that cireled about, and settled upon
the convent wall. The wall bios
somed with a quantity of shining
green eyes that plinked and peeved
at him from the solid masonry. A
pink, classic nymph came from an
excavation in the cavernous road
and da iced, barefoot and airy, upon
the ragged flints. The sky was ira
versed by a company of beribboned
cats, marching in stupendous, aerial
procession. The noise of singing
grew louder; an illumination Of uni
seasonable firefiies danced past, and
strange whispers came out of the
dark without meaning or excuse.
Without amazement Tansey took
note of these phenomena. He was
on some new plane of understanding,
though his mind seemed to him clear
and, indeed, happily tranquil.
A desire for movement ana ex-