Show 1 w rr Pot and His Ia lae Sisetch J jJ Haroyd l Ohlson Concerning a ti and His Careert JI I I r V1 J1o1j J < > I < 4 + I N f f Godfrey Dene leancd against the Iron fence that fringed the cliff and gazed over the sea He would have preferred to sit on the top rail but the house was not suJficlenlly tar away Ordinary men might sit on fences he must always lean gracefully He was a poet He had published a book fullns Cull as the margin would permit oC poetry It was expensively bound and the paper of the best quality It had a book marker oC pink silk ribbon It was published at his own expense On this sunny afternoon he had wished to sleep in a hammock that a farseeing hostess had caused 10 be hung in a shady part of the grounds But there bad come into Ms mind the horrible thought that Grace ITcathcote might discover him And he slept with his moutt open He knew it He had even written a poem about it how the poets heart forever aches A random word eo often wakes his secret sorrow sor-row Some people thought he had loved and lost He was really thinking of sleeping with his mouth open So he had resisted the temptation and now he was confident that Miss Heath cote was watching him from the window win-dow of her room and wondering what beautiful thoughts were coursing through his brain as he looked over the sea If he could have seen that young lady as of course under the circumstances circum-stances he could notlic would have been less satisfied for she was reclining on a couch in the solitude of her chamber cham-ber in a costume distinctly negligee sound asleep Her mouth was not open It was at this period of his existence that Go frey Done realized that at last the grand passion had come to him He had of course been In love before Ills heart Mad been brokenIn several verses many times Such experiences are the breath of life to a poet But nownow He straightened himself and hurled the word over the murmuring sea His eyes flashed He had practiced this accomplishment ac-complishment It was a thousand pities Miss Heath cote slept Only the sea observed that 1 superb tresture the attitude of a man who turns to meet advancing fate And the sea was so busy filling the rock pools and hurrying up the beach so that It might not be late for high water that It did not notice IL Presently the sun dropped lower and streamed into his face He trembled at the thought that it might turn his nose red So he began to walk slowly back to the house his eyes bent on the ground This was his favorite attitude The poetry that nature writes he did not read All his ideas welled from his own heart He had said so several times Before he reached the house he met Mr Heathcotc Hullo Dene said he youre the first person Ive seen since luncheon Everybodys asleep Phew Its hot The poet > raised his eyes large lustrous lus-trous and full oC fire I have been watching the sea he I said smiling sadly He knew how Impossible Im-possible it i was for this man to understand under-stand him Youll overwork yourself If youre not careful remarked Mr Heatheote They proceeded to the house together IMr Healhcote walked fast Dene haled walking fast Besides perspiration should have no place on that while I lofty forehead It was characteristic of Godfrey Dene that he declared his passion while under he I Influence of a good dinner and the I moonlight on the rea Physical discomfort discom-fort would have made him postpone It Wet feet would have driven him from the side of his beloved to change his boots He was nervous of a cold Ol i the love that rolgns supreme on a wet seat in a public park under one umbrella I um-brella he had no understanding He i wanted moonlight I I It was also characteristic of Grace r I Heatheote that she said Ko when she i wits not sure that she did not mean l I Yes Done was not Impossible when l t I he did not pose In himself he was good only he could not forget he was a post t Afterward when he flung himself Into i t a chair in the smoking room the thought came into his mind that he I would be glad to lllng his body into the sea and make Grace Heathcote weep I I I he felt that life was ended for him He il p had decided that before But there was now a difference lie did not at once begin to compose verses descriptive of II his sorrow The difference was enormous Now it Is not to be believed that God 1 I frey Dene was the fool some people d thought him or the wonderful person I he thought himself As a man seeks strong drink to make him merry he I hrfd sought loVe to make himself poet feat He had loved love now he loved a woman And with the genuine passion came the beginning of manhood In him 1 He resolved to have his hair cut Not at first but after he had had some conversation with Mrs Heatheote lie had poured his trouble Into her ear 4 It is only the strong man who suffers In silence Ho begged her to use her in I fluence with her daughter not that he wished an unwilling bride but that he felt there must be some misapprehension misapprehen-sion some hidden reason for her refusal I that might be explained away H > could not understand it But Mrs Heathcole although she had a strong desire to see the young people in harmony declined I to interfere Only she recommended Dene to try again when his hair was shorter She was not laughing at him out her advice on all subjects was emi nently practical He gathered that Grace had fantastic notions about men here Mrs Heathcotc smiled and that the ability to shoot an elephant or ride a horse that had conscientious objec tions to the process would appeal I to her more strongly than the most beau tiful verses The rfucL is > mv rear Godfrey she fin Grace < has nn ideal man She has dug him out of books eager Whlch books Works of fiction said Mrs Heath cote dealing with ideal men He went to bed very sorrowful but with determination to note the contents of Miss Heathcotcs library He de plored the lack ot elephants In it the neighhor hood Next morning he avoided the object of h18 passion until he House saw her leave the and proceed toward the beach carrying a book Then he followed quickly and overtook her resolved to make don for n last effort Hc begged hr Par his presence saying he could I not leave hsr yritbout fcefiglw Lon a I 1 r7 T little hope on which he might live It was a very painful subject to Miss Heathcote she said so but privately she did not deny Its fascination She decided to give him the opportunity of I speaking She was looking charming In I her cool white dress Done observed It It Is even possible she was aware of It herself What can I do to make you love me cried Dene She could make no suggestion lOr would do anything brave any danger dan-ger endure the greatest hardshipsto win your love She looked up quickly Would you 7 she asked Done thought of Mrs ITealhcoles words on the preceding night Anything he cried 11 like you very much Mr Dene butforgive me if I speak too plainly I cant admire you At another time such a statement would have boon appalling to Dene but now he scarcely noticed the ruin of the temple he had built round himself What can I do he implored again She shook her head helplessly Then Itsno good he asked I hope you will always think of me as a friend said Miss Heathcotc So they parted Dene walking back alone over the sands He was determined determ-ined to do something that would make him a man In her eyes Of the temple not a stick nor stone remained standIng stand-Ing As he entered the garden through the door that gave access to the cliffs he heard voices In the summer house The speakers he recognized as Mr Heath cole and an old sea captain a great friend of his who lived close by Dene was moving away when his own name caught his ear and he paused Involuntarily Involun-tarily Dene Mr Ileathcole was saying Oh hes a real good fellow at bottom but the Infernal poetry has spoiled him He ought to knock about the world a bit Six months before the mast would make a man of him growled the old captain Then Dene walked away but before he reached the house his mind was made up He would make Grace Ileathcole love him lIe would be made Into a t man alas poor temple The old sailors advice was good He would go to sea before the mast for six months It must be remembered that he was very much in love that he thought only of the romantic side of the venture and had no knowledge of the life he must lead and that six months Is not n 5 CIT long time To which must be added the fact that when he mentioned his determination to Miss Ilealhcotc she begged him not to go saying that she felt sure he could not endure the hardships and privations of such a life The next morning he was pone In the neighborhood of the islands of Bermuda nature knows how to manage a hurricane The gray sea appeared lo boil as the wind whipped the water and made the spindrift fly over it like steam On the bridge of the little steamer two men clung to the wheel straining their eyes to see through the thick white mist that camo with the rain squalls In the engine en-gine room the aching fingers of an anxious anx-ious engineer never left the Iron rim of the throttle valve A leap of the screw a mad race a jam a break and he would never see the little home In the North Country again The ships head fell away and a great gray mass of water came thundering thun-dering over the bulwarks The light flying bridge that spanned the forward welldeck cracked and formed itself into two sides of a triangle The captain cap-tain growled an oath The two men pulled lustily at the kicking wheel One was a rough Shetland Islander profane In his conversation but In whose hands lay the peace of wives and mothers Tho other war Godfrey Dene He was learning to write poetry A hot sun was streaming down on the white houses of a little port In the Island of Cuba In the shade of a wall a group of soldiers were eating bacon and germs and drlnklnc wine i I A gang of convicts was lolling along the dusty road their chains jangling Where the wall of the hospital bounded a narrow street and cast it Into shadow sick men were lying their helpless limbs stretched out on the hoi earth Among the crowd lhat hung about the door were other feverstricken wretches distinguished only by the blanket that hung from their shoulders waiting until the doctor came lo minister min-ister to their needs Sickness and death wore striking their last blow at the Spanish rule In the seas over which once it had been supreme From the side door of the hospital a man staggered out Into the blinding sunshine For several weeks he had I lain with death at his bedsidedeath among an alien race who could speak no word he could understand surrounded sur-rounded by horrible sights cut off from all that was sweet pleasant and beautiful beau-tiful a mean sordid horrible death On the sea he had at least been among his own countrymen rough though they were But a sick sailor Is of no use on a ship the hospital at the nearest port is the place for him Godfrey = Dene had never been a coward cow-ard To save a life he would have risked his own especially If any one were watching him To win a ladys smile he would have chanced a broken limb and celebraled It In a ballad But In that Cuban hospital he had been face to face with a dealh that has no place In ballads He would have thanked I Fortune or whatever it may be that orders this strange whirligig of a world for the death of a hero but now he cursed her for striking him down In that plaguestricken Island He did not recognize the pains that same jade Fortune was taking with his education She had long before seen In him a pupil who might do her credit but only with much whipping 4 f > r I t cOn c-On a gray February morning Grace Heathcote was struggling against a furious fu-rious wind that tore along the cliffs beating down the long rank grass and causing the sea to break Itself in clouds of spray against the white walls that faced it stanehly For a time she reveled rev-eled In the fight being a vigorous healthy heal-thy young woman who had dwelt by the sea allher life and loved it in all Its moods At last however slip sought the shelter of a deep ravine that cut into the cliff and afforded a steep descent de-scent to the beach Walking a few paces down Into the quieter air the wind tearing over her I head she seated herself on a rocky projectionand 1 began to think It was seven months since he had gone away and no word had come to tell of his WMiderlnjfs She did not know even the numo of the ship on which he had sailed Sometimes lh thought came into her mind that he had noz fulfilled his purpose but sllll pursued pur-sued his former lazy life and was ashamed to confess his weakness She could not trust him so she did not love him But at least she had not forgotten for-gotten Miss ITcathcote She started and looked up For a moment mo-ment he was strange to her J I A lean brownfaced man closely shaven with cheeks so sunken that the bones stood out in two knobs over which the brown skin was tightly stretched Then she knew him You have come home she cried She was nol addressing him but assuring assur-ing herself Thats a good guess he laughed and scrambled down the side of the ravine The old Godfrey Done had never scrambled It would have impaired I im-paired his dignity Where have you been Youre youre very much altered Oh knocking about In the world he answered carelessly But tell me about yourself It seemed a different man who had come back to her on that wild gray morning from the dreamyeyed lover who had bidden her goodbye in the warm July weather Ho would not tall of himself formerly few olher subjects had any charm for him Presently however how-ever she drew from him an account of his wanderings but there was no word spoken of any reward for his selfsac rifice Godfrey Done had been Mr Heath cotes guest for several days and still the question once asked was not repealed repeal-ed lie would not ho toll himself seek I her answer until he was more sure t ha tIt t-It would be favorable The Impulsive eager poet had cooled and hardened Grace Ileuthcole began to think of the beautiful women with the great passionate pas-sionate eyes thai he had described I lo her Ire thought It could at least do no harm lo his cause She began lo avoid him That is to say If she had not loved him when he went away and no one not even herself could have decided dt de-cided that she had come to love him now nowBut But Deno was looking Inlo his heart and finding there a state of things that surprlFpd him He was not sure he wanted to marry Grace Heathcotc He had thought that the old passion still Hood 1 only requiring her presence lo burn as fiercely as ever But this it had t not done and he recognized the pdssi blllly of another woman reviving it in him The risk was great yet ho felt himself uound in honor not to go without with-out speaking Rut It was so easy to keep silentso easy to so and Den loved to do that which was easy He bevMii to A rile vcrsts again ami he Ailey tilts wars bQlttr 1 verses than lit used to write He would be great and alt on societys hip and be kissed He liked being kissed The llealhcolos were not in society With the old comfortable lazy life came back the old ways and thoughts co that when at last he asked Grace llcathcolo 1 to be his wife she refused him for the second time not because shedld not love him but because he did not love hr Honor he told himself was satisfied But how wan it that he allowed her to find out that he did not love her Well i Tic published 1 his verses but not at his own expense Society petted him for n time Then ho experienced the grand passion for a lardy and ran away with her But hr husband ran the faster and severely diced the dis turbcr ot hs domestic peace when he caught him That made society laugh Then lit changed his name and lied into the country where he married a widow lady who experienced the grand passion for him Import says his wife Is kind to him She udmlrps his poetry Immensely Immense-ly J but has been heard to ulflrm that It fortunate LT him he hrs a woman with some cense In her head to look after him I Grace ITeathcote married n worthy gentleman deeply interested in commercial commer-cial matters but who at no period of his oxlst nrf had any taste for po > try r |