Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-10-25
J GERTRUDE NTHER1ONS

@+s.sA
TALLY polygamous and woman es
sentially the vehicle OF the race
When the individual soul had been
decreed by the embittered gods
eternally to dwell alone and never
yet had been tricked beyond the
moment Of nervous exaltation into
the belief that it had fused' into
its mate Life itself was futile
enough, but that dream Of the per
feet love between two beings i'm
memorially paired was the most fu.
tile and rayaging OF all the dreams
civilization had imposed upon man.
kind. The curse of Imagination
Only the savages and the ignorant
masses understood 'love" for the
transitory functional thing it was
and were undisturbed by spiritual
unrest by dreams e.
mad longings. -.
No one had ever surrendered to
the illusion more completely than
she. No one had ever hunted with
more passionate determination
for that correlative soul that
would submerge. exalt, and com
plete her own aspiring soul And
what had she found? Men. Mere
ly men. Safety or disaster. Wear.
ness and disgusta She had not an
Illusion left, She had put all THAI
behind her long since.
It seemed to her as she sat there
staring into the last chickering's OK
the charred log that it had been
countless years since any man had
had 'he power to send thrill
along her nerves. to stir even the
ghost OF those old fierce desires.
No woman had ever had more
cause to feel immune. Too con.
temptuous OF life and the spurious
illusions man had created for him
self, white destroying the ever
balance between matter and mind
even TO be rebellious, she had felt
profound gratitude for her com
plete freedom from the thral OF
sex when she had realized tina.
with her gifts Of mind and fortune
she still had a work to do in the
world that would resign her 10 H.
supreme boredom Of living. Dor
in the war man had been but
broken thing to he mendcd or
eased ont Of life; and she knew
that there was no better nurse in
Eutor' e,t had always beer her
pride t. 10 nothing by halves and
before that she had come TO look
apon men with certain passive
liberation when heir miada We're
responsive TO Der owe . Whatever
sex charm they possessed might
better have been wasted on The
Venus in The Louvre.
And topieh, she had rto'irra
that this Young m3h. So euibr avs
she had ever Known il be- t,H'"
pean experience. had heeu Hn'
or less In her thn7o''a sinc" th4
night he had followed her oui a:
the theatre and stood cove~''v ob
serving her as she waited fo' a""
car. , She had been conscioue tr1
ing subsequent nights a jh" pay
OF his powerful gaze as liz -;
watching for a turn Of the head
that would give him glimpse %
something more than the back a.
her neck, or as she had passed
him on her way to her seat she
had been even more acutely con.
scious of him as he LETT his o~'a
seat while the lights were sin
down and followed her up the
aisle. Pit she had felt merely
amusement at the time, possibly a
thrill of gratihed vanity, accus-
toned as she was to admiration
and homage.
But on the night when he had
FASTENED up to her in the deserted
street and offered his assistance.
standing with his hat in his hand
and looking at her with boyish
and dif1dent gallantry in amusing
contrast with his stern and cynical
countenance, and she had realized
that he had impulsively followed
her, something had stirred within
her that she had attributed to q
superficial recrudescence of her
old love OF adventure, of her keen
desire for novelty at any cost.
Amused at both herself and him,
she had suddenly decided, while he
was effecting an entrance to her
house, to invite him into the II
brary and take advantage of this
break in the monotonous life she
had decreed should be her portion
while she remained in New York.
She had found him more person
ally attractive than she had ex-
pected. Judge Trent, whom she
had deity drawn out, had told her
that he was a young man OF whom,
according to Dinwiddie, great
things were expected in the lit
erary world; his newspaper career.
brilliant as it was, being regarded
merely as phase in his progress;
he had not yet found himself"
After that she had read his col
umn attentively.
But she had not been prepared
for a powerful and sympathetic
personality. that curious mixture
of naivete and hard sophisticahon,