The Penn's Grove record., 1921-07-15

hard UP that Miss Vertrees started
after Bibbs before they knew whether
lie was insane or not "She had to
yet him" IF he'd stop to think, bed
know he wasn't the kind of a man any
girl would be apt to fall in love with
Bibbs quickly burned papers and
notebooks, descended and told his IA
Their: "Ill take the job you offered
me-" and went straight to Mary Yer
trees and said: "Will you marry
me?"
Mary drew it all out of Bibbs; then
sank down kneeling, tears overwEelm-
ing her. 81 can't make 1t plain" said
Bibbs, 81 never dreamed l could do
anything for you! I knew you never
thought of me except generously-to
give.'
"We were poor, and 1 think l did
mean to marry your brother. But
something stopped me from such q
sacrilege. l posted the letter, but he
never got it,"
"You kept me alive and I've hurt
you like this" said Bibbs. could you
forgive me, Mary?"
"Oh, a thousand times, But there's
nothing to forgive and you mustn't
come to see me any more" she cried
in a passion of tears. "Never, never,
never!'
He returned in time to tell his sis
t%er-in-law in the presence of the fam
lily: 81 proved what you said to me.
and disproved what you said of Miss
Vertrees. l asked her to marry me
and she refused"
Bibbs wen with his father and sat
in the porch Of the temple with the
money-changers; worked and talked
of nothing but work.
He delved into the ways of the city
and its political influence, and began
to buy Intertraction shares where the
Vertrees' fortune had vanished.
Soon the Vertrees we're able to pay
the butcher, hire a cook, and follow
the brokers' advice to keep the bal
ance of their stock. Sheridan boosted
that his plan for Bibbs was working
out all right. Still there was some
thing wrong and the doctor and Sheri-
dan agreed that it might be a good
thing if Miss Vertrees would permit
Bibbs to see her-sOmetimes.
Il had to make Bibbs go my way"
Sheridan explained to Miss Vertrees,
but there isn't anything in 1t to him.
He gave up everything he wanted and
took the job he lever would just for
you. There's only one girl he could
feel that sorry for. Can't you let him
come back?"
When Mary responded: 81 can't
He was only sorry for me-: the truth
was out. "DOn't-don't-" she cried.
you mustn't"
81 won't tell him. I won't tell any
body anything" said Sheridan.
On a crowded downtown thorough
fare Mary saw Sheridan, at the risk
of his life, spring before a moving
trolley car and with the whole force
of his big body shUnt Bibbs from im-
pending danger. The crowd had Shrek
| ed warnings, but Bibbs had looked the
wrong way.
High up in the Sheridan building,
Bibbs sat down, shaking and sore. He
realized that his father held his own
life of no account compared to that of
his son. Bibbs perceived what he had
never perceived before-the shadowing
of something enormous, indomitable,
lawless, irresistible and blindly noble.
He looked out into the vast foggy
heart of the smoke.
The roar of the city beat upon Bibbs'
ear until he began to distinguish a pull
%sation; the voice of the god, Bigness.
"Come and work for me, all men! By
your youth and your hope, l summon
you! By your age and your despair!
By your love of home and woman and
children! You shall be blind slaves.
For reward you shall gaze only upon
my u~gliness."
Then. the voice came as some mr-
sic struggling to be born of the Tur-
moil. SIT is man who makes me ugly
by his worship of me. If man would
let me serve him I should be beauti-
full"
From the vague %contortions Of smoke
and fog, Bibbs s%culptured a gigantic
figure with feet pedestalled upon the
great buildings and shoulders disap-
pearing in the clouds, a colossus of
steel, wholly blackened with SCOT. He
thought up over the clouds unseen
from below the giant labored with his
hands in the clean sunshine; and Bibbs
imaged what he made there-perhap<
for a fellowship of the children of the
children that were children nova no.
BILE and joyous city, unbellevably white.
The telephone fiercely summoned
him. A startlingly beautiful voice
caused him to tremble violently. "Yes,
Bibbs, I was near the accident. They
said you hadn't been hurt, but I want
ed to know"
"Mary-would you-would you have
minded?" There was a long pause and
a soft, Eyes"