Newspaper Page Text
12
INTO MARVELOUS LIQHT
SYNOPSIS.
Julian Deveaux, a New York actor of bad per
sonal character goes South for rest and recreation
and meets an attractive Southern family. He be
comes friends with the father, John Douglas, and
falls in love with the young daughter, Christiania.
The girl has only a feeling of cordial friendship for
Deveaux, but on the sudden death of the father she
consents to marry him. John Marsden, a young
preacher for whom Deveaux had entertained a
friendship, and an attraction before his marriage,
comes South to perform the ceremony. The young
couple go abroad for a wedding trip and in Paris
Mrs. Deveaux has the first glimpse of the real na
ture of her husband. This glimpse is widened at
Constantinople, when a woman connected with De
veaux’s past appears on the scene. She follows the
young couple on their journeyings and returns to
New York with them. On shipboard she sends De
veaux a note warning him that his wife does not
love him, but the man tries to ignore the intima
tion and happily anticipates the surprise he has
prepared for his wife in presenting her with a
handsome Fifth Avenue home, where he desires her
to become a social leader. The girl herself looks
forward only to another meeting with the preacher,
John Marsden, who had impressed her deeply at
her wedding.
(Continued from last week.)
Her heart was filled with conflicting emotion
as she stood again on American soil, her dear na
tive land. After the calmness of the ocean voyage,
the noise around the pier was bewildering. She was
lifted into their own carriage, and her husband
seated himself beside her. Just as the footman clos
ed the door, a face, haggard and hard, appeared
before them. Christiana gave a little scream, and
caught her husband’s arm. He said something un
der his breath, unintelligible to her. The carriage
rolled away.
“That woman, Julian! Is that face to haunt me
forever ? ”
“No, dearest, I shah report her to police head
quarters to-morrow. Rest assured she shall not con
tinue to trouble us.”
It was an ideal October morning as they drove
through the city. Fifth Avenue was not what she
had imagined it. She had the Southern idea of a
street of beautiful homes surrounded by spacious
lawns.
Instead of what she had pictured, she saw hun
dreds of brown stone fronts, massive, towering, all
joined together, giving her a sense of suffocation.
Their carriage stopped before an imposing struc
ture of stone and marble. The footman opened the
carriage door. Mr. Deveaux alighted and assisted
his wife out and up tbe marble steps. She was
ushered into what seemed to her a palace. The
thought flashed through her mind, “What a beau
tiful hotel. I saw nothing like this abroad.”
“Dearest, suppose we have one of the atten
dants show us over, that we may have our choice
of a suite of rooms.” He wished her to see it all
before he told her it was hers. She made no com
ments except to go into raptures over the whole
of it. Fortunately she chose the suite of rooms
that had been prepared for her. When she had seen
it all, he took her in his arms, and told her that it
was hers—his bridal gift.
•She looked into his face some moments without
speaking, as if trying to comprehend it all, then
rested her head against his heart. She was more
overwhelmed with the added proof of his love
for her than she was at the surprise of such a home
being hers, for she had become accustomed to such
magnificence and splendor and show and ceremony
while in her temporary Paris home. She did not
realize how much that year abroad had advanced
her in the path of worldliness. For one so young,
her I 'isband had succeeded in training her well for
the position he wished his wife to occupy in New
The Golden Age for April 19, 1906.*
By LLEWELYN STEPHENS.
York society. He knew that her unusual beauty
and girlish simplicity would go a great way in
smoothing the path for her. A dainty lunch was
awaiting them. She could not eat, but w T ent through
the form. 'She could not realize so soon that all
this was hers, and to be hers for years and years
to come, perhaps, during a long life of uninterrupt
ed happiness. She could not look into the future
and see that all this pomp and show and ceremony
were but a reflection of her future life, that she
was to become as a part of it. That this great mass
of stone, clothed in all the world’s adornment, was
a human being with a form clothed in all that the
world gives, yet possessing no soul—a dead thing.
CHAPTER XV.
“And with wonder his form did I closely scan;
He is not ugly, and is not lame,
But really a handsome and charming man.
A man in the prime of life is the devil,
Obliging, a man of the world, and civil;
A diplomatist, too, well skilled in debate,
He talks right glibly of church and state.”
—Heine.
The day after their arrival, Mr. Deveaux dis
patched a note to John Marsden, asking him to call
at his earliest convenience. Christiana had desired
him to do so. John seemed a part of the sweet old
home life at Monteagle. In her dreams she had
again heard his voice in song, and had remembered
the touch of his hand and pitying expression of his
eyes. She was glad he was her husband’s friend,
for she was not afraid of coming in contact with
such a man as she believed him to be.
Therefore, she was disappointed and her husband
was annoyed when John Marsden replied that he
appreciated the invitation, but that his duties and
engagements were so pressing he feared he might
not be able to call for some time.
Day after day passed, and still he did not come.
“Confound that boy,” said Deveaux, “some strange
freak has seized him. I shall go to see him and dis
cover what is the matter.”
John Marsden was in his study when Mr. Dev
eaux was ushered in. They greeted each other cor
dially.
“Haven’t you given a fellow and his bride a
warm welcome? I would not have accused you of
such fickleness. What is the matter with you,
John?”
“I gladly welcome you and your bride, and I am
delighted to see you. But, Julian, you know what
my work, my life is. I must not step aside from it.
There are surroundings in your home with which
a minister should not allow himself to be tempted.
My life work is with the lowly.”
Deveaux grew angry. “Do you think the atmos
phere surrounding my wife would contaminate you?
She has repeatedly expressed the desire to know
you well, to have you for a real friend in our home.
Do you propose to allow some Roman Catholic
priest to come in and persuade her into his church?
All religious women must have their church, their
charities, and their benevolent institutions, you
know. She shall have all the money she desires to
carry our her religious whims, and I shall not in
terfere. You are the only man I am willing should
be her spiritual advisor. If you refuse to be, I shall
have to leave her to the mercy of the one who may
have the greatest persuasive powers.”
John Marsden’s face crimsoned. “If you mean
that your wife has expressed a desire to consult
me in regard to Christian work in which she wishes
to interest herself, of course I shall be most glad
to call to see her.”
“That is just what I mean, so no more of your
monkeyish pranks. I need you, myself, too, you her
mit. Isn’t it almost incredible, John, that I should
have lost my very soul to any woman, much less
to a little country eirl? She’s made a new man of
me. Several times I’ve been on the verge of my old
time moods of madness, but the sight of her drives
them away. Now that I am back among my old set
of devils, I shall have some hard battles to fight,
I dare say. So, laying all joking aside, John, it is
your duty, at least, to make an effort to keep me in.
the straight and narrow path, for my wife’s sake,
if not for my own. I have kept on such a mask
before her, she has not the slightest idea of what
my past life has been, and I hope to the gods she
may never know.”
“Change the inside, Julian, then there will be
no need for a mask.”
“Don’t begin your preaching to me, John. By
the way, Annie has written for her aunt, Mrs. Way
land, to come for an indefinite stay with us. Do
you remember her?”
“Yes, quite well.”
“She does not like me, but she was a devoted
mother to Annie, so, of course, I must be courteous
to her for Annie’s sake, just as long as I can bear
the restraint which her presence will bring into our
home. She will want to see you, too, so hurry up,
my dear fellow, and redeem yourself for your un
pardonable delay in coming over.”
CHAPTER XVI.
Love contending with friendship, and self
with each generous impulse.
To and fro in his breast his thoughts were heav
ing and dashing,
As a foundering ship.
—Longfellow.
When alone, John Marsden sank into a chair by
a table and rested his face upon his arms. “My
God,” he groaned, “Thou art placing me in the
fiery furnace. Help me, 0 God, to bravely face all
danger to save her. I must become a part of that
home where she stands as upon the brink of hell
itself. Thou, alone, 0 God, canst support me. Give
me strength to suffer and be strong.”
The next afternoon he called at the Deveaux
home. Mr. Deveaux was not in, so he saw Christiana
alone. They were both almost overcome at this first
meeting since the parting at the grave of her
father. Tbe time of her father’s illness, the mar
riage by the death-bed, the open grave, the mound
of flowers, then that voice which had so moved her,
all came before her. Her eyes filled with tears, and
the drops rolled down her cheeks. John felt as if
he would choke from the emotions aroused within
himself. He longed to say something to comfort her,
but there was no language through which he could
express what was overwhelming his whole being.
(Continued next week.)
[The Measure of all -i/rs I
l\ 1 u w
|\U 1
I |\ 5| \ <[
I Commercial Brains n o \ 71
■ Vi u—i vJ ■
■ measure every typewriter v LJ-—M ■
■ —quality for quality—attri- VTtS 1 \ IHH
■ bute lor attribute—by the tl S 1
I Underwood |\l\ |
■ How approach it in respon- V J— —1
■ siveness—in mechanical per- 1
■ lection. How resemble it in t I W V
■ ?RP car ? nce » desi Bn and f in-H I
I ish. Its increasing fame p I S | ■
■ makes permanent the Stand- M flfl I ■
■ ar<i — c \ 1 m
I THE ORIGINAL OF ITS KIND fcA I ■
I Imitations are Never so
UNDERWOOD TYPEWRITER CO
241 Broadway, New York.
—Longfellow.