The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1936-11-26

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For q few moments aftee -
secretary had left Emery vaneo
sat staring at the desk before hinA
his fingers drumming On the arm
Of his revolving chair. his foot ~
ping the foor. This n itself No
unusual for he had no patience
with any Of the little physical n.
actions by which the human body
safeguards its nerve machinery. h
protested neither to understand
nerve excitement nor its opposite.
prostration, in man or woman. yet
the family doctor could attest that
he was a network of vibrating wires
drilled into the most dangerous Of
all disorders, nervous rigidity.
Will, and what he called strict
attention to duty. ere the forces
that dominated him, and by which
he dominated others. The partner.
ship was successful in a way, else
at forty odd he had not achieved
what he had, with the beginning Of
a plain country boy.
Emery Vance had worked HIM
self in and upward, by first gaining
the technical knowledge of his par
ticular craft, and then by keeping
that knowledge so within the hollow
of his own hand that no one in the
great concern could rival him, be-
cause no one else knew aught but
ge~neralities, or was allowed to think
beyond this limit.
His wife, ten years his junior,
the adopted daughter Of his first
employer, was a charming, culti-
waited and originally a vivacious
wcman who was now much sought,
and he considered it a part Of his
sense Of good business to have her
appear wen and fulfill the many
social duties for which he had
neither the time, training nor in
clination. AS for the two children,
Tom and Bess, w. it not for them
that he was workihN For them
and their future, to pun |vSsh on
the hill of safety and powe. I'D
glcry. Was it notsto lift them aboN
the blessedly sane lot of the ordi-
nary, whose thought is for tomor-
rows bread, that he was DELHI
erately binding his body and un-
consciously s~hriveling his soul?
So far he had only succeeded in
making himself realized as an OBJ
ject Of awesome fealty to his eight.
year-old son. Little Bess still chung
and babbled about him when he
CHANGED to come home before she
was put away in her sanitary white
bed, in her correct cold storage
nursery, and she, with blissful con-
fdence, still searched hopefully in
his pockets for small gifts and
sweeties. with the unabashed greed
Of ave years. This being the only
way by which her father had time
to win her. so far is the ability for
business achievement separated
from reading the heart Of child
hood.
After sitting thus for a while. Mr..
Vance rose. He felt c bit chilly.
1t was not the cold, but the sud-
den check that the realization Of
the time Of year, with the added
stress that it implied. brought to
the grave man, who now paced up
and down the rich oriental rug be-
fore the hearth. AS he strobe the
long capable fingers of his left hand
first parted, then pushed from his
lips the dark musta che that he had
worn since early manhood. Then
the hand with a jerk fell
to stroke his chin, meditatively
pressing the groove into a hard
line.
As he paced, his deep set gray
eyes kept turning toward the pair
Of envelopes on his desk. letters
which for some underlined reason
he was delaying to read, as If the
knowledge that they were "strictly
personal" put them apart from his
working mood.
Presently he picked up the larger
Of the two envelopes, and slowly
drew out and unfolded the square
sheet, its four sides severed by
close lined hand writing, IN it:cH
a surprise since the general in.za-
sion Of tipping even INTO the intimate
social letters of friends.
Before the signature Philip Knox
caught his eye, Vance knew from
whom II cane. although ne had
! no. seen the writing Ia four yeas.
NC % u ~