Show rw t 1906 by dally story pub co the man had genius the woman had hope he lived in a cheap boarding and kept soul and body together by dring the work of a literary bach sometimes he did little desultory tasks tor newspapers but never sue ceedee in connecting himself with a pay roll once he had been given a commission to write a little skit tor a vaudeville stunt and this was his un doing it so sorry a failure could be undone in working it up he had found it necessary to familiarize himself with the technique of and it fascinated him then the stunt was a decided success and the man who wrote it not only realized more money from it than he had from any other literary effort in his life but also saw the possibilities of dramatic espres slon both in an artistic and a financial sense and so he came to be a slave of the playwrights itch and he ciote and wrote and wrote and starved and pinched and still wrote but his skits were not accepted and his plays were returned by the mana gers and their readers he became more seedy and more gaunt and more impossible finally he became unconsciously hopeless but h worked on because he was the alave of genius and was compelled to goow the law of his being she was the child of love and hope her mother was the wife of hinckley the shoemaker around the corner the most patient industrious and hopeless of the relics of a bygone time before machinery had deprived good acs ics of their kingdom perhaps hinck ley was her father most people be bleed not there were rumors of a gallant stranger who had sojourned tor a short time in the neighborhood and looked with glowing eyes upon the shoemaker s wife and she who never had had her romance had it then so the gossips whispered and the handsome stranger faded away into the realm of dreams and after a time a daughter was born to the shoemaker s wife the daughter was so different from the shoemaker and his pretty wife that more than one doubt was whispered as to her pater anity bu the shoemaker never dodot ed and she grew up as nora hinckley the apple of hta eye in the very prime of her splendid beauty a beauty enhanced and chas bened by the very essence of optimism she crossed the path of the gling playwright some deep chord in her nature drew her to him as the needle to the north she was an occa helper tor mrs simpson who kept the cheap boarding house where he ched she entered his life as a ray of sunshine at the lowest ebb of his fortune bhe brought warmth and hope and cheer she laughed at the hopeless clouds which overhung and she believed in him and his arpir athons recognizing a sympathetic spirit his starved nature unfolded un der the warmth of her appreciation and he discovered to her depths and shoals and angles which other persons ever had seen or suspected As she beheld these revelations a great awe and a great love entered her heart and soul she saw his great and heroic soul naked and free from the sordid limitations of his life and she bowed down and worshiped with the devotion given only to women of her type and under the spell of her appreciation and understanding the shackles dropped away a him and his genius held full sway all this involved many weary months and when he realized fully the great the man had genius love he bore the blithesome lass the great joy of the discovery turned at once into sharpest pain as he real iced the hopelessness of his passion how nas he who could scarcely keep his own body and soul together hope to care for another and to assume the responsibilities of a familet but she never despaired for her always was the golden day in sight when his genius would DC and their dreams be realized one day the world was startled with a new and great play it was a drama which touched all the chords of human nature and inspired laughter md tears alike it lifted every auditor to the heights of ideality and car ried him to the depths of human woe there was no fa se note and all the world paused to pay tribute to the per of the piece and up and down the land the critics asked who is it that has done this and there was no answer for the play a as produced under a nom de plume and the clever est work of the newspapers failed to disclose the real identity of the au thor after the play had been a success for many months and had brought a great harvest of shekels to manager the woman had hope and playwright a alre occurred in a great office building wherein the man ager who produced the play had his offices A reporter hurrying to the fire was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and cinders and after catching his breath found a charred piece of paper blown across his face glancing at it he saw that it was a contract and upon further investigation it proved to be the veritable contract between the author of love s last surrender and the manager who purchased it the controversy as to the authorship of the play had been waging so fierce ly that the reporter recognized in scantly the value of the information he had he went on with ats alre story and on the following day sought out the man whose name was on the priceless contract the gods had sent into his hands he found him a thin hollow cheeked man with eyes in which burned a alre almost uncanny in its intensity he was illy dressed and bore none of the marks of the success ful author was the inspiration of this great asked the reporter come with me replied the man following him silently the reporter went with the man by trolley car and walk until they reached the great cemetery by the flowing river the great author paused beside a grave surmounted by a simple shaft but heaped high with priceless roses the inspiration lies here said he solemnly the play is the very es sence of the life and love and devotion of the marvelous woman who lies be neath this mound it is the warp and woof of her heart throbs and mine that is why I 1 have never let my au thor ship be known I 1 would not profane her love and mine you sir have discovered the secret you have it in your power to do this act of desecration do it sir if your con science will allow I 1 cannot prevent it but I 1 forbid it in the name of every ho and generous instinct he turned abruptly and went away well did you get the story de banded the city editor eagerly as holmes entered the office no replied holmes soberly tear ing a piece of paper into bits and throwing the bits on the floor aoth ing in it tilse alarm well of all tools remarked the city editor in disgust and auve wasted a whole afternoon get busy on that hill graft case keep it in two columns holmes occasionally meets on the street a grave and solemn gentleman who modestly picks his way among the jostling crowd and holmes al ways lifts his hat when he meets him and the grave and solemn gentleman always lifts his hat to holmes |