HOUSE 
 
 LANDELL 
 
 GERTRUDE CAPEN WHITNEY
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 

 
 The House of Landell 
 
 OR 
 
 Follow and Find 
 
 BY 
 
 GERTRUDE CAPEN WHITNEY 
 
 (MRS. GEORGE ERASTUS WHITNEY) 
 
 Author of "Yet Speaketh He," "Roses from my Garden," "Above the 
 Shame of Circumstance" "I Choose" 
 
 R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 
 
 18 East 17th Street, New York
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917, 
 
 By R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
 
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Life is a constant readjustment. 
 
 THE sound of two sharp whistles pursued Agnes 
 Landell down the quiet country road ; then came quick 
 footsteps, and Tom Landell swung naturally into the 
 rhythm of his sister's pace. 
 
 " Here is a lark," he exclaimed, " with a song of 
 far-reaching mystery warbling between its wings," 
 and he fluttered the covers of a book he held. 
 CM " You enthusiastic goose ! " Curiously, Agnes eyed 
 the little volume, while, with the ease of an accom 
 plished pedestrian, she walked beside him. 
 
 " Goose me not ! Enthusiasm is a law of nature, 
 
 g kin to that of self-preservation. Besides, ' thereby 
 
 x hangs a tale.' This flew to my hand to-day, by mis- 
 
 3 take, on the wings of an order to a New York anti- 
 
 quary." 
 
 Agnes scanned the title. 
 
 " Lark ! Call it, rather, a little brown sparrow, to 
 < be found by the score. There are at least three in the 
 garret." 
 
 " Its feathers, rather, its board backs, do not be 
 tray its secret, neither does its name, Genung's Rhet 
 oric. Oh, let me fly down from my perch of hyperbole 
 and descend to facts." 
 
 With exaggerated care he turned the pages, dis 
 closing a spray of pressed flowers. 
 
 9 
 
 443353
 
 IO The House of Landell 
 
 " Not that it's so wonderful," touching it delicately, 
 " but don't you suppose this is the name of the girl 
 who did it?" 
 
 He read aloud, " Mattee Sue Romaine, Colonial 
 Street, Gustaga, Georgia. Jupiter, Agnes, I'll write 
 her!" 
 
 " It's the yellow jessamine," exclaimed Agnes. " Of 
 course, I should write ! " 
 
 " Think she'll answer the letter? " 
 
 " Possibly, or laugh, -and put it on the altar of her 
 dreams, mayhap the fire ! " 
 
 " You believe no such thing ! Anyway, I shall ven 
 ture!" 
 
 " It is an old book. By this time, Mattee Sue Ro 
 maine may be a crochetty 
 
 " I refuse to believe it. Its owner never could lose 
 her fascination, but would attain to more as years drop 
 treasures into her dainty palm. We do not receive our 
 names haphazard. We accrete them, so to speak. I 
 know she is a lovely girl with bronze hair and sea- 
 green eyes, clever, too, these margins testify. I 
 love people who dog-ear and pencil their books. They 
 dare to be Daniels ! " and he read aloud aphorisms, skip 
 ping from page to page. 
 
 " They sound as if begun by one person and con 
 tinued by another. Is the writing the same? " 
 
 " I can't quite tell. There is a peculiar dash once in 
 a while, as if some one else had caught up the thought, 
 or it may be a composite of individual progression, not 
 fully mulsified to speak as if life were mayon 
 naise." 
 
 " Beware of adoring a composite mentality as you 
 did a composite photograph a while ago, when you de 
 clared no one woman could be so beautiful as the me 
 chanical adjustment, by the photographer, of the se 
 lected charms of many women."
 
 The House of Landell n 
 
 " I've grown since then ! Jupiter, won't you give 
 me credit for a legitimate change of mind? " 
 
 " Indeed yes. She is practical as well as piquant. 
 Read this parody." The brother and sister, heads to 
 gether, scanned the pages. 
 
 " After I have written I shall read every one. Now, 
 having planned, prepare to execute! " and Tom strode 
 off. 
 
 " Tom is always having such interesting, worth 
 while experiences," Agnes mused, as she strolled on. 
 " Oh, if I live a thousand years and see a thousand 
 climes, I shall never cease to love this wonderful spot 
 with its ever varying panorama and woodland in 
 cense ! " 
 
 With sudden swerve to the trend of her thought, she 
 paused to watch the scene, her radiant face reflecting 
 the life and beauty about her. She seemed a forest 
 spirit, as, with head uplifted, listening to histories of 
 the past, the present and the future, with rapt intent- 
 ness seeing visions separating her from human kind, 
 her soul seemed to reach out to and become a part of 
 every tree and cloud and cap of wave throbbing with 
 life about her. Between the foliage, along the road 
 side, flashing like a mass of silver, the water lay, 
 alternately lifted and let fall in showers of many 
 pointed stars. These twinkled and scintillated on the 
 crescent waves, and golden sunbeams sparkled down 
 to touch the diamond tips, only to be caught and held. 
 The aerial pathway from the water to the horizon in 
 the west seemed one radiant loom. Threads of sun 
 light rayed and sprayed from their spinning-wheel of 
 gold, to meet in warp and woof of the garment they 
 were weaving for the watcher, as nature draped it 
 softly over her. Tossing its shuttle to and fro, the 
 luminous atmosphere wove delicate veils of mist, trail 
 ing these lightly over the sombre, rugged hills beyond.
 
 12 The House of Landell 
 
 " Heigh-o, Heigh-o ! " came in excited screams from 
 the hill behind her, on the top of which stood the 
 Beneby House. " Get out of the way! Get out of the 
 way!" 
 
 Agnes turned hastily, to see a big touring car speed 
 ing zigzag down the hill, its wavering course laying 
 claim to the whole roadway. With a leap she landed 
 in the water, and stood, somewhat startled, at the 
 danger she had escaped, of being knocked down by 
 the reckless driver, who unconcernedly brought the 
 car to a standstill. 
 
 " Grace Herrick! What are you doing! " Merrily 
 she clambered up the bank, shaking the water from 
 her skirts. 
 
 " It won't hurt you a bit. You are all in tub clothes 
 and need variety. Blame Ross Mevin ! I asked him to 
 steer this new car of mine down hill, but he was too 
 busy hurrying to catch up with you. Here he comes 
 now with Mrs. Lavelle. Heigh-o, Mr. Mevin, I'll go 
 into the town, next, to show the natives what summer 
 tourists are good for. They are far better educators 
 than universities. A crazy tourist at the wheel of a 
 motor car can make a countryman run faster than a 
 college football coach and a horse dance far better 
 than a fancy trainer. Good-bye. I'm glad I wet you 
 all up, Agnes, it'll give you a change of clothes and 
 of, oh, everything in general." 
 
 Grace moved off down the street, laughing, while 
 Agnes waited for Mrs. Lavelle and Mr. Mevin. 
 
 " We are on the way to your house," said Mrs. 
 Lavelle, as the three greeted and walked on down the 
 pleasant lake road, leaving behind them Pine Hill, 
 where, embowered in evergreens, stood the hotel from 
 which Grace Herrick had motored and Mrs. Lavelle 
 and Mr. Mevin started on their walk to the Landells'.
 
 The House of Landell 13 
 
 The house was not far from the lake and, from an 
 eminence, overlooked it in all its scenic charm. 
 
 " Grace always leaves a whirlwind behind her, men 
 tally and physically," laughed Mrs. Lavelle. " This 
 escapade started in her determination to prove the 
 civilizing effects of the summer tourist upon the 
 country native." 
 
 " I declared they had none, Miss Landell," said Ross 
 Mevin. " Tell me, what possible civilizing effects can 
 there be in flocks of entities and nonentities so hybrid 
 as tourists? Do they contribute anything more valu 
 able than strange fashions of coiffmg to the tree tops ! " 
 
 " Yes, crazy demonstrations of recklessness such as 
 she exhibits. After all," wringing her heavy skirts 
 again, " summer and winter tourists are a Mahomet 
 coming to the mountain. I think, all in all, it is 
 usually to the advantage of the stationary mountain. 
 The giant, sleeping in the brain and brawn of isolated 
 sections, does not realize his strength until his first dull, 
 perhaps supercilious, inspection of the intruder's 
 methods, together with a growing pique at differences 
 to the advantage of the newcomer, rouse him to the 
 knowledge that the simple addition of a coat brush, 
 a clean collar and a clear-cut expression, may assist a 
 man of lesser calibre to outrun him in the race." 
 
 " In short, he learns that clean windows better dis 
 play his wares ! " Mevin paused under a white-heart 
 cherry tree at the entrance of the Landells' orchard, to 
 regale his companions and himself with fruit. 
 
 " That is true," said Agnes. " Then comes the 
 nobler unfoldment, the uncoiling of the thinking 
 faculties through the interchange of ideas; the soften 
 ing of sectional prejudices and a stronger grasp on 
 life's larger issues." 
 
 " You put us on exalted pedestals, us Romanys 
 who wander from India to Baffin Bay, thermometer
 
 14 The House of Landell 
 
 and weather statistics in hand that we may be kept at 
 proper temperature for forcing. It is a pity the aver 
 age country and city clergyman does not imbibe 
 this liquid brain food, as he seems to mold public opin 
 ion." 
 
 Mevin spoke lazily, less from interest than from de 
 sire to watch the quickening thought announce itself 
 through Agnes' sparkling eyes, her flushing cheeks, her 
 alertness of movement, flashing through her and rous 
 ing her to tense activity. 
 
 " An appropriate comment, her brother's, that 
 she accompanies her thinking with a pyrotechnic dis 
 play," and Mevin watched her analytically. " What a 
 beauty it makes of her. How would it feel to be keyed 
 to that pitch all the time ! Could a fellow stand it or 
 would he snap with the strain ! Is anything on earth 
 worth so much enthusiasm, I wonder! " 
 
 With effort he focussed his attention on her reply, so 
 distracted was it by the inherent charm of the woman. 
 
 "Does it begin with them?" she was saying, in 
 tensely. " On the contrary, my observation leads me 
 to believe that, with notable exceptions, the clergy are 
 crystallized expressions of the public calibre." 
 
 "Heaven help the public!" Mevin groaned, iron 
 ically. 
 
 " It needs help. Until the public rises superior to 
 statements of ignorant pulpit incumbents, such will 
 present error. We laymen must burst the bonds of 
 ignorance and struggle toward the liberty of God." 
 
 As she spoke, she seemed another being from the 
 merry sister so interested in her brother's incipient ro 
 mance. She was enfolded in an atmosphere of finer 
 forces. 
 
 Mevin watched the change, perplexed and disturbed. 
 He saw that her gaze did not include him, and realized, 
 suddenly, that neither time nor space so effectually
 
 The House of Landell 15 
 
 could part them, as this impenetrable vestment which 
 enveloped her. 
 
 " What did it mean," he thought wrathfully, " that 
 she should receive him on the pleasant cherry-bibbing 
 plane and shut him completely from this other phase ! " 
 
 To compel her attention, he spoke irrelevantly. She 
 did not reply. Determined to unravel the mystery 
 he was still. Barred from realms of reality he felt 
 she was entering, an unutterable longing to see with 
 her, possessed him. As he waited for response, the 
 stillness deepened within him, reaching depths he never 
 before had sounded. Calm stole through him from a 
 centre he never had apprehended. He realized the shal- 
 lowness of his mental sophistry and felt himself grop 
 ing toward some stable platform for his statements, 
 he could no longer say his philosophy of life. 
 
 " I wish there were a few simple beliefs worth while 
 for a man to cling to with the tenacity of life and 
 death, instead of swimming about, catching at the flot 
 sam and jetsam of many theologies," he said, at length, 
 moodily. 
 
 " There are," Agnes replied. " When we recognize 
 this truth, the flotsam and jetsam will find their place 
 and value. No matter how many terms we use, imply 
 ing divisions as physical, material, mental, it is worth 
 while to realize that these are all phases of one con 
 sciousness, and to hold in our consciousness, the Prin 
 ciple, Unity. It is worth while to believe that Spirit 
 manifests in law from centre to periphery and back to 
 centre of the great creation. It is worth while to real 
 ize that we are divine essence and possess constructive 
 power to shape environment, and that, though happi 
 ness and achievement are rightful possessions of life, 
 growth is its purpose. It is heart-breaking to listen 
 to exhortation when our souls seek vital truths." 
 
 " The usual theological pratings are so much cant to
 
 1 6 The House of Landell 
 
 me. The whole nomenclature seems confined to terms 
 that imply asking and taking help. What is prayer, 
 anyhow, but a grand howl of terror at something we 
 are too cowardly to face ! To pray for oneself is to act 
 the beggar and induces a beggarly attitude. To pray 
 for others is impertinence. How do we know whether 
 they need peppermints or shoestrings ! Only one's own 
 determination avails. If no one can kill us, as Epic- 
 tetus affirms, because no one can take from us the life 
 principle, then no one can affect us either for good or 
 evil, excepting our own very tiresome selves. I do not 
 want any one praying for me. It is an intrusion on 
 my individuality. ' I hope to meet my pilot face to 
 face.' As far as I see, church training and example 
 cover sin, evade honest obligations and attempt to get 
 something for nothing." 
 
 Momentous silence. With spiritual reinforcement, 
 Agnes quoted tenderly, " ' Prayer is the contemplation 
 of the facts from the highest aspects of the case.' " 
 Another pause. " My ideals of prayer are very dif 
 ferent from yours, as your words indicate," she com 
 pleted. 
 
 "Ideals! I wonder if I have any! I used to, 
 beautiful ones. I have almost forgotten what they 
 were. Tell me yours ! " earnestly, almost beseechingly, 
 seeming to forget they were not alone. 
 
 " I wish I could. They are so wonderful my soul is 
 filled with them; but I live far below them and am 
 ashamed." 
 
 " Ashamed ! You ? No, never. Won't you tell 
 me ? " he repeated. 
 
 ' They are almost unspeakable, except in the living 
 of the life, and there, too, I fail. Sometime I will try 
 to tell you." The hush in her voice made her listeners 
 feel they were at the portal of her holy of holies. 
 
 The soft light of the afternoon sun fell upon the
 
 The House of Landell 17 
 
 three as they approached the beautiful home. Again, 
 silence enfolded them. Then a slight breeze shook the 
 leaves as six feet of enthusiastic humanity strode down 
 the path. 
 
 " How do you do, Mrs. Lavelle. So-long, Mevin,'' 
 said Tom, cordially. " What has happened to you, 
 Agnes? You look like a dinky mermaid! Let down 
 your hair and in all respects you will be able to sport 
 with the gold fish! Mrs. Lavelle, you are the one to 
 confide in ! Didn't you spend last winter in Gustaga? " 
 
 Waving the rhetoric he still held, he continued, with 
 a boyishness that sat refreshingly upon his maturity: 
 
 " Listen ! I will read to you from the spirit of this 
 book ! I assure you, ' thereby hangs a tale ! '
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " The tone of seeking is one. The tone of hav 
 ing is another." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 " AGNES, I have written my letter." 
 
 Mischief and a sweet intensity of purpose permeated 
 the words. Agnes, her heart bounding with an affec 
 tion almost more maternal than sisterly, looked across 
 to the window-seat where Tom was wound in a tangle 
 of legs and arms. As she approached he adjusted his 
 anatomy, handing her the letter. 
 
 " Read it aloud. I want to feel it titillate the 
 tympanum." 
 
 Smiling at Tom's big words, and with considerable 
 curiosity, Agnes began: 
 
 To the Honorable Miss Mattee Sue Romaine, 
 Gustaga, Georgia. 
 
 My dear Madame, I know you will pardon my addressing 
 you, one whom I have never seen ; but listen while I plead 
 my cause. 
 
 Before me lies a " Work on Composition and Rhetoric " by 
 the renowned godfather of thousands of girls and boys, Dr. 
 Genung, who labored with me as with you, to crystalize our 
 thought, in English, characterized by purity, precision and pro 
 priety, I hope I do not overstep the bounds of this last named 
 quality of rhetoric and of custom, by saluting you, a fellow 
 student, and congratulating myself upon the possession of this 
 book once belonging to you. To the point, Madame. I have 
 received this volume from a New York dealer, and find within, 
 the name and address of a former owner, as I surmise, with 
 annotations betraying astuteness of perception, quickness of ap 
 preciation and wit, keen and vigorous. Are you learned, 
 
 18
 
 The House of Landell 19 
 
 Madame, that quotations leap so freely from your pen to the 
 Margins of this volume, or have you, alack, abstracted them from 
 tie dictionary? Do you change, mercurially, from grave to gay, 
 as your quatrains and aphorisms would suggest? In such event, 
 foitune help the luckless wight, who, fancying himself basking 
 in the luminosity of your smile, discovers, instead, that he is 
 deluged with the April downpour of your changing humor. 
 
 I should like to corispond with you, for having thus, fortui- 
 tous'y chanced (?) upon your name, sentient with charm, I have 
 called upon my imaging faculties for further details of an en 
 trancing picture. It will gratify me if you will verify or correct 
 my mental portrait, and, by complying with my request, amplify 
 the exalted position my imagination accords you. 
 
 Pray respond to my letter. Young or old, married or single, 
 I know you are most interesting. Tell me about yourself and 
 some of the events in the life of this book, now in my pos 
 session, culminating in its journey forth like a carrier dove, 
 direct :o my waiting hand. 
 
 As for me, 
 
 I am, Inquisitively yours, 
 
 TOM LANDELL, 
 
 of Beneby, Massachusetts. 
 
 Agnes laughed until the tears brimmed over, Tom's 
 well-simulated indignation increasing her. mirth. 
 
 " What are you scoffing at? " with pretended dignity. 
 
 " Boy, boy ! Such a letter ! You would like to coru- 
 pond! At least, spell the word correctly. I wonder 
 why men are generally so much worse spellers than 
 women." 
 
 " I hadn't heard of it," Torn flushed slightly, but 
 refused to be humiliated as he made the correction. 
 " What a wide acquaintance you must have, to be able 
 to make so sweeping an assertion. I suppose," iron 
 ically, " you can prove it by statistics? " 
 
 " I wonder if she will ahswer this extraordinary 
 document." 
 
 " Why extraordinary? " his eyes twinkled.
 
 2O The House of Landell 
 
 " I never read such a string of words in all my life. 
 What a boy you are ! " 
 
 " Why a boy? " There was question in the bante'. 
 
 " That you may grow into the fulness of the con 
 ing years. To be a real boy at your age is an element 
 of greatness you will possess, likewise, at sixty. Thm, 
 as now, you will be alternately a match for Socrates 
 and George Ade." 
 
 " Don't liken me to Socrates ! A man, who, is a 
 husband, develops a woman into a scolding Xantippe, 
 must be radically out of gear. Do you suppose my 
 rhetoric-queen put this jessamine here?" He turned 
 the pages and with a lingering tenderness touched the 
 significant little spray. " I don't believe girls do much 
 of that sort of thing nowadays. It touches my heart 
 strings and sets her apart from the new woman, I'll 
 add to my letter and ask her. Answer to that one 
 question will do more to place her than anything else." 
 
 " Success to your adventure and your corispon- 
 dence," teased Agnes, as she left the room and seated 
 herself at the large organ in the hall. 
 
 She meditated while its breath came sounding 
 through the pipes, caressing the instrument as if it 
 were a mighty and human creature. When it had 
 given its long awakening sigh, it answered her call. 
 Notes in rapid succession flung forth tone pictures, re 
 sponding to her imagination, and as these pulsed into 
 surging harmonies, the air was flooded with fragrance 
 as potent and as evident as the moonlight outside. The 
 hall seemed redolent of yellow jessamine, so strong 
 was the projection, by her thought, of the picture in 
 her mind, fields full of yellow wild-flowers, a girl 
 with bronze hair and sea-green eyes, a southern sky, 
 and Tom. 
 
 At length she ceased playing, lovingly pressed the 
 mute keys, drew down the cover, and bowed her head.
 
 The House of Landell 21 
 
 " Home is a dear place," she said, a few minutes 
 later, standing at the library door, viewing, with a 
 happy content, touched with an indefinable wistfulness, 
 the many-alcoved room, then resting her eyes upon 
 the centre, where soft lights fell upon Mr. and Mrs. 
 Landell. " A dear place, dear in every corner, but 
 aglow with inspiration where the father and mother 
 are enshrined." A perceptible halo enhanced the mys 
 terious charm of her lovely face. 
 
 Daniel Landell's seeing gaze met his daughter's, with 
 its little thorn of wistfulness standing, militant, close 
 to the rose of content blooming in the garden of her 
 eyes. 
 
 " Yes, it is an available spot for nearly every one at 
 some time in life, and remember, dear, the only avail 
 able spot for any of us is the spot on which we stand. 
 What we make of it determines the futures of its 
 occupants and, therefore, of citizens and of nations. 
 The only question to answer, is, How have we utilized 
 that spot, be it home or Waterloo? " 
 
 " Do you mean, father, that each one is in his or 
 her right niche? " 
 
 " For the time being, yes. Not until he has proved 
 himself on that spot, is he ready for another test. For 
 this reason, many never forge beyond a fixed place." 
 
 " Is that why some meet with constant repetition in 
 life?" 
 
 " I think so, and to me it betokens moral ineptitude. 
 The province of experience is to point to its governing 
 principle, which, grasped, leads to new revealments, 
 God never repeats unnecessarily. By the way, Mr. 
 Kerrick asked my advice this morning, about seeking 
 a new pastorate." 
 
 " How do you learn everything, father ? You never 
 ask questions, the sort that can be heard. Every 
 one, of every cult and creed, comes to you for solace
 
 22 The House of Landell 
 
 and advice," she mused tenderly. " I suppose it is 
 because you present an unbiased mind and are ' a 
 friend of truth.' What is his reason for changing? " 
 
 " It was that which put me in mind of him, in con 
 nection with what we were saying. His complaint is, 
 that his audiences are unappreciative. I can see that 
 the miasma rising from his discontent is sufficient to 
 drive from him the very appreciation he craves. Con 
 stantly, he is sending his soul out of his body by run 
 ning ahead with his mind, not in contemplation, but 
 in emotional excitement about what he's done or is 
 going to do next. Were I to tell him that such pro 
 cesses are part of the horrors of black magic, he would 
 not understand. He carries his discontent and his 
 soul-bereft endeavors through all his situations, pre 
 senting, instead of the results of definite purpose, in 
 congruous effects of inability and doubt. To find his 
 vision, he, every one, must determine the value of 
 the spot on which he stands. This leads to discrimina 
 tion of new values and of new relations and the gradual 
 falling away of what is undesirable." 
 
 Agnes waited a full minute before she spoke. The 
 atmosphere of prophecy, which, to the mystification of 
 Ross Mevin, had enwrapped her that afternoon in 
 the garden, rested upon her now. Like one who speaks, 
 not of her own volition, " Some one will come, father, 
 who more clearly interprets the liberty of God," she 
 said, and left the room. 
 
 Daniel LandelFs eyes followed her comprehendingly. 
 
 " Helen," he said slowly to his wife, " Agnes pos 
 sesses wonderful enfolded spiritual powers," and he 
 watched his daughter as she passed out of sight. " Un 
 consciously, she is attaining a life ideal, that refuses 
 to be bound by visible limitations." 
 
 " I do not consider such unconsciousness any virtue." 
 With a concerned expression, Mrs. Landell laid aside
 
 The House of Landell 23 
 
 her book. " I used to, in those days when you and I 
 were asleep and thought it well to be so. I suppose I 
 am partially responsible for the fact that she goes 
 about like a semi-somnambulist, doing some divinely 
 beautiful deeds and some very unwise ones, and, in 
 frantic questionings of wisdom, or, in recovering from 
 blunders, rushing into worse errors. Sometimes, she is 
 wonderful, as you say, then again, she uses neither 
 reason nor intuition, only ungoverned impulse. When 
 she finds this is at fault, she does not train it with 
 sweet reasonableness, but represses it. When, in con 
 sequence, it bursts its bonds in hysteria, the result is 
 disastrous. Her attempts at self-effacement are pitiful. 
 Do you suppose that may be traced to childhood train 
 ing, when, at my side, the book upon my knee, she 
 imbibed the principles of The Great Stone Face pick 
 ing out the small words, while I read the others to 
 her, and supplied interpretations. I wish I had kept 
 still, as I did with Tom, who, thus, had opportunity to 
 grow, naturally, into his own conceptions. I made 
 Agnes study the calculus of life when she was ready 
 only for the truths that two and two make four and 
 that one cannot have one's cake and eat it too." 
 
 " You can't prove even that, as we now understand 
 processes," laughed Mr. Landell, " for we have the 
 cake even more incorporately than ever after we have 
 eaten it." 
 
 Mrs. Landell laughed, too, and her tension was re 
 laxed. She resumed. 
 
 " I think her naturally enlightened mind was puzzled, 
 over what, a few years later, would have been crystal 
 clear. As I see life now, I do not know of a more dis 
 astrous training than the repression of the discrim 
 inative faculty, by inhibiting self, especially in one as 
 sensitive as Agnes. She has no idea where she serves 
 in the great plan. None of us have for that matter;
 
 24 The House of Landell 
 
 but, though it is dangerous to be an egotist, it is 
 pathetic to be possessed, as she is, with a vital and 
 powerful individuality, and an intense belief that she 
 has a definite place in the world's work, and yet be as 
 blind as a bat in a wild hunt for it. I wish she would 
 realize that our mission comes to us, not we to our 
 mission." 
 
 " This very training you deplore has taught her 
 devoutly to cultivate soul instead of mind. Because 
 she is in doubt, as you suggest, that very doubt leads 
 her to seek. She has entered this present phase of em 
 bodiment with some memory of the law governing in 
 tuition, 
 
 " But far from a complete revealment. She discrim 
 inates about everything except herself. In that regard, 
 she is never sure, however right she may be. Do you 
 suppose, Daniel, that might have resulted from read 
 ing Watts on the Mind at the same ripe age of six? 
 You know she was always taught to say hesitatingly, 
 ' I think ! ' 
 
 " I recall," smiled Mr. Landell, reminiscently, " that 
 dear little blue book. Timon went into a church and 
 killed a dog," he dreamed, aloud. " That was wrong! 
 Why judge without proof! Timon was not wrong. 
 The dog was mad ! Isn't that Agnes all over ? Surely 
 it is a splendid attitude for investigation." 
 
 " I fear I crushed her spontaneity. I never told her a 
 fairy tale or showed her a stone or a sunset without 
 suggesting that she search for their symbolism. She 
 never sang a song without approaching every tone and 
 word as if they were sacraments to be revealed." 
 
 " Which they are, Helen." 
 
 " Then came that season of spiritual upheaval for 
 you and tragedy for us both the death of three babies 
 at the same time." 
 
 " Your long illness "
 
 The House of Landell 25 
 
 " When I could give the child no attention and she 
 fell into the hands of dear Luella with her horrible be 
 liefs. Do you know, I found, years afterwards, that 
 their favorite twilight conversations consisted of 
 graphic descriptions of the horrors of the damned, 
 the reading of Dante to confirm their imaginings, and 
 the assurance that Agnes' beloved baby darlings had a 
 ' special little room in hell ! ' 
 
 Mr. Landell's eyes were fixed, unseeing, upon the 
 mellowed lights in the sconces near-by. 
 
 " The first evening home, after that long stay with 
 Luella, when you and I were grappling with death in 
 order to find life for you, she crept timidly near, mak 
 ing no movement to caress me. Attributing this to a 
 sense of strangeness, I took her in my arms. She re 
 sisted. ' It isn't right/ she said, struggling, ' I must 
 love only God ' I was appalled." 
 
 " I remember how I seized upon her as soon as I 
 learned the state of her mind, as much as I have ever 
 learned it, and having had it emphasized by her going 
 into convulsions when I took up the Bible in her pres 
 ence, and having been several times roused by her 
 screaming in the night in terror lest she hear the ' mid 
 night cry.' I disciplined her forcefully in views into 
 which I had grown naturally and gradually. I had no 
 patience with Luella's teachings, and as for her 
 preacher husband's " 
 
 " I have patience with them for they are a process 
 of growth; but the inner divine meaning of those be 
 liefs had come to me and for the time I was forgetful 
 of their horrors. These had faded from -my mind or 
 been merged in wider understanding. The glories of 
 the real intent were too bright for me to see past them 
 to terrors such as were presented to Agnes' imaginative 
 mind. My spiritual unfoldment was then too imma 
 ture to see the import, yet too advanced to accept the
 
 26 The House of Landell 
 
 symbol for the real. I was in the maze of light that 
 comes often from release of tension; in the stunning, 
 rather than the ministering effects of illumination. 
 Like Martha, and seemingly, of necessity, we were too 
 cumbered with serving to recognize and welcome the 
 unfolding Christ within her as we did in Tom. Still, 
 the isolation she has endured has brought her, as noth 
 ing else could, to spiritual illumination." 
 
 " She is rampant in renunciation and covers her 
 heart-breaking sense of aloneness by a frigid exterior. 
 The religious frenzies to which she was exposed at 
 Luella's have made self-abnegation a perfect fetish 
 with her. Her whole thought is to do for others, with 
 scant judgment as to her capacity for, or the wisdom 
 of, doing it. I quiver to think what must have been 
 her state of mind when she asked Dr. Tumbril at one of 
 Luella's state dinners, she always was crucifying the 
 flesh and pandering to it at the same time, " 
 
 " What was it ? I can see her now, the darling, 
 perched on the dictionary, with her little curls bobbing 
 so prettily, " 
 
 " Trembling with horror and excitement, she burst 
 out passionately, ' Dear Dr. Tumbril, if the devil goes 
 about continually, as you say, trying to catch little girls 
 with his pitchfork so as to burn them, please, when 
 does he get time to attend to his fires ! ' 
 
 " Intuitionally, she is now far beyond the state of 
 consciousness which dwells in such conditions; but 
 with her Why-did-Timon-kill-the-dog education, she 
 cannot keep her mentality at rest. Her spirit is con 
 stantly drawing her out of that habit of acceptance." 
 
 " If only I were sure of her being in the spiritual 
 planes instead of in this psychic mash with which the 
 world that thinks it thinks, is teeming! I fear it. 
 Either she represses her emotions as if they were her
 
 The House of Landell 27 
 
 slaves or unleashes them, and, like the dogs of Ac- 
 taeon, they overwhelm her." 
 
 " I do not fear. She will not stop at this law of 
 opposites, this negative expression of an idea to 
 wards the unfoldment of which she is moving. She 
 will have less part in sorrowful experiences and blun 
 dering mistakes as she unifies her intelligence with the 
 divine Storehouse. ' The Christ-consciousness,' Helen, 
 ' is the perception and realization of Universal Pur 
 pose, Universal Unity and the Universal Presence.' 
 ' If we are stayed on God at the centre, we need have 
 no fear.' "
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " The Christ-consciousness is the perception and 
 the realization of the Universal Purpose, the Uni 
 versal Unity and the Universal Presence." 
 
 Ben]. Fay Mills. 
 
 AGNES left the library in the state of exaltation al 
 ways accompanying her prophetic moods; but, even 
 as she passed from the brilliantly lighted hall to the 
 darkness of her room, the inevitable overwhelmed her. 
 Why was it her bitter fate that, after a period of vision, 
 her physical strength should vanish? Why the reac 
 tion so overwhelming? 
 
 As in a frenzy, she undressed, and slipped into a 
 gown, holding her breath and clenching her teeth to 
 suppress the screams that struggled for utterance. 
 Sinking by the bedside, she clutched the coverlid, bury 
 ing her face in its friendly snowy folds. A wild hurly- 
 burly of failures, of blatant nothings, assailed her; the 
 pressure of ten thousand demands weighed agoniz 
 ingly upon her. She felt as if Pandemonium were un 
 loosed and intelligences, vampire-like, were sucking 
 from her the strength they ghoulishly desired, attempt 
 ing to force themselves into manifestation through the 
 medium, not only of her organism, but of her integrity. 
 In the intensity of her repression and terror, a sense of 
 strangling overcame her and, with a wild gasp and a 
 fierce mental clutch at the thing, which, poor and in 
 efficient though it might be, she called herself, she gave 
 a hoarse, almost inarticulate, cry. 
 
 28
 
 The House of Landell 29 
 
 "Agnesia!" 
 
 A voice at the door sent a soothing sense of protec 
 tion into the density of her horror. 
 
 " Agnesia ! " and Tom entered the room. 
 
 " Tomsey," lifting heavy, frightened eyes, " I tried 
 so hard to control myself, I did indeed. I have been 
 struggling here for an hour." 
 
 " This is no time for control." Tom crossed to 
 where his sister sobbed in agony. " Scream all you 
 want to. This house is altogether too quiet." 
 
 Disappearing into the bathroom, he returned with a 
 footbath full of steaming water. 
 
 " Get into this. Where is your rug? Now, dearie," 
 he cuddled the soft silken wrap about her as he spoke, 
 " put your head on my coat breast and your footsies 
 in the water." 
 
 Blindly, Agnes obeyed. She held his hand and, in 
 her attempts at repression, set her teeth into his sleeve, 
 that she might smother her cries. Gradually the nerve 
 strain relaxed and she gave a sad, sobby little laugh. 
 
 " They call me a woman of poise, Tomsey, of poise 
 and of self-control! " 
 
 " You tell a big fairy tale when you say you have no 
 strength. Phew ! You pinched me black and blue ! " 
 
 " Horrible ! " The tears burned behind her eyeballs. 
 
 " Why no ! When you suffer so, it would be a pity 
 if I could not help you out a pinch! " he returned, for 
 he was at the punning stage, which is as incident to 
 certain mental attitudes as mumble-pegs and marbles 
 are to youth. Hastily, he added hot water to that cool 
 ing in the tub, and the paroxysm died away. " Cheer 
 up, Agnesia, you have not had an attack like this for a 
 long time." 
 
 " Tom, father says the only available spot is the one 
 we stand on. Mine is so full of pain, physical and 
 mental, I dare not use the spot on which I stand. I
 
 3O The House of Landell 
 
 have tried, but again and again have been thrown back 
 by the fact that I cannot utilize this wealth of power 
 within me, because, in some way I cannot see, I have 
 confronted the law and been broken on its wheel. Why 
 can't I find out what is the matter? Why couldn't I 
 years ago, when I tried and tried, " sobs choked her 
 utterance, " I tried and God wouldn't let me, and people 
 are always telling me I would be better if I went about 
 and did more. God won't let me. Things that are 
 nothing to others inundate me, and, after a long time, 
 I find that they meant a great deal. It isn't that I keep 
 myself apart. What is it? I have thought sometimes 
 I was being prepared for a great work, but that can't 
 be, for what I attempt doesn't do, somehow." 
 
 " Perhaps, unconsciously to yourself, you are being 
 prepared. You seek marvels." 
 
 " I do not, and, as for consciousness, I am in the 
 cosmic consciousness so constantly that I stand apart 
 and observe everything I do. I never have been al 
 lowed to be unconscious in work or in play. Do you 
 remember the man who longed for truth and saw it 
 and went mad? You don't suppose, " 
 
 " No, no, dearie ! " He caught the hand she threw 
 out with a despairing gesture. " Never ! Your feet 
 are set on the Rock! You are different from others 
 and always will be, for your consciousness is alive and 
 you see vitality in countless things in which others see 
 nothing. You live a million pulsations to their one. 
 Why grieve that you fly like the eagle instead of crawl 
 ing like the worm? " 
 
 " I dare not use the spot on which I stand. I am 
 making nothing of it." 
 
 " You are making a great howl of self-condemna 
 tion of it, to my mind, and that is the cause of most 
 of your cataclysms. What do you mean by using? " 
 
 " Doing something! Being something! "
 
 The House of Landell 31 
 
 " Being something, yes. That's the one thing you 
 we can't avoid. The quicker we get that into our 
 minds, the better. It is the quality we invest it with 
 that comes within our jurisdiction." 
 
 " I have never thought of it so," and calm rose 
 hopefully out of her despair. " I long to be of service 
 to all and am balked at every turn." 
 
 Tom's eyes twinkled, then, with his inimitable 
 humor, 
 
 " That is an ambition. Greed to possess is trace 
 able in everything. Hog is known by his attitude of 
 mind, throughout his changing shapes and careers, 
 from protomorphic to man." 
 
 " You would make fun of your coffin." 
 
 " I certainly would, for expecting to keep me con 
 fined." 
 
 " I want to do. Why am I cut off from everything 
 useful?" 
 
 " You have whip-lashed yourself, physically, almost 
 to death and you know it." 
 
 " I do, and it is to get away from this, oh, I don't 
 know what, there it is again, I do wish Cousin 
 Matilda would let me alone." 
 
 " What has Cousin Matilda to do with what we are 
 talking about? " 
 
 " She wants me." 
 
 " Agnes ! " Tom looked at his sister intently. 
 " This must be stopped. Your nerves, " 
 
 "I can prove it is something besides nerves; but 
 what, I don't know." 
 
 " Chirky," he continued to add humor to per 
 suasiveness in his attempt to help his beloved sister, 
 " you seem to have no more idea of what a day's work 
 means, than that mask you were buying for Jimmy 
 Parsons when you reeled over in a dead faint after 
 you had trained and conducted a pageant, run a church
 
 32 The House of Landell 
 
 bazaar, looked after the house for Josef Hal's wife 
 while the baby was on the way, continued your studies 
 in oratory and music, and attended to literary and 
 other work at intervals." 
 
 " I never, well, if I did, they wanted me to ! " 
 
 " You are too noble to mind the they who are scan 
 dal-mongers; why then, listen to the they who try to 
 own you when God has given you a Thinker! If you 
 question the accuracy of what I say, look back to your 
 diary, you were writing an exhaustive one at the 
 time, while acting as treasurer of some benevolent 
 building fund, and, rather than come to father or me, 
 sitting up night after night puzzling over accounts until 
 so weary you couldn't see straight." 
 
 " I am glad you give me credit for something. It 
 is true, I never call on others to help me out of what 
 my ill-advised activities get me into, I want to do the 
 Lord's work. I am His for Him to use." 
 
 " No one pours water into a filled or cracked bowl, 
 at least, not if they have good sense. Give your Maker 
 credit for as much intelligence as you know you your 
 self should have." 
 
 " He has it all; I have none." 
 
 Tom looked puzzled. Presently, he continued, 
 
 " I am not criticizing, but I do want to help you. 
 Think how little, in the world's way, father does; but 
 he is felt everywhere. If he does speak it is worth 
 one's while to listen." 
 
 " People simply adore you and father. You don't 
 seem to make any attempt to attract them even by 
 wishing, " 
 
 " Wishing and longing, you know, are the poorest 
 methods of attracting. They generally succeed in re 
 pelling. The only reason I know for people's liking 
 me is that I am so everlastingly delighted because I
 
 The House of Landell 33 
 
 find life worth while, they like to come round to find 
 out what's the joke." 
 
 " That isn't all of it. You know it. I am radiantly 
 happy and enthusiastic in all I do, yet people stand off 
 and watch me as the lions eyed Daniel in the den." 
 
 " Perhaps they realize that you move in a larger orbit 
 than they, which sweeps you into clearer recognition of 
 verities than they possess,- and fail to comprehend that 
 still you hold fast to much they know and love and 
 understand. That is all, dearie, I feel sure. Realize 
 that, and one barrier will come down at once." 
 
 " If I talk to those who don't understand, they are 
 afraid of me, and if I talk to those who do know they 
 are afraid I won't understand them. I am in a dread 
 ful position and I don't know what to do! The only 
 ones who come to me are those who don't help me. 
 Don't I need help, too, Tomsey, don't I ? " 
 
 Tom sat silent till the rising storm abated. After 
 awhile he said, thoughtfully, "If you don't want an 
 attack of neuralgia, send after that heart-breaking ad 
 mission of lack of perception as to the universal pur 
 pose, your strong faith in the working out of law. 
 Make it strong enough to counteract the poison you 
 have given yourself." 
 
 " It is excruciating to be forced to follow directions 
 blindly, instead of being aided in establishing condi 
 tions I know exist. Matilda, stop ! " She threw out 
 her arms as if freeing herself from some suffocating 
 pressure, " I know that too often my mind's pictures 
 are mud-houses, instead of cathedrals, but how to 
 supplant one with the other ! " 
 
 " In your sincere search for truth, far beyond 
 mine," Tom dropped his bantering manner, " you have 
 neglected to act upon one statement of principle, and 
 law has brought you to a standstill." 
 
 Again the light of kindly humor crept into his eyes
 
 34 The House of Landell 
 
 and softened his words, while it brought an answering 
 smile to Agnes' wistful ones and a line of strength 
 to her quivering lips. 
 
 " This is the statement : ' It is waste to take up and 
 use an experience received through any organism, un 
 less that organism is strong enough and refined enough 
 for use.' When it is strong enough, the owner of the 
 organism will find that many trying experiences are 
 neither sought nor presented. Strengthen your organ 
 ism, Agnes, the physical body, and refuse to subject 
 it to any experience beyond its strength." 
 
 " There is some sense and a lot of nonsense in what 
 you say. How would a baby grow symmetrically if he 
 did not use his mechanism ! " 
 
 " Use, yes. Abuse, no." 
 
 " I know I do not make the connection clear between 
 my ideas and their expression. Why not? " 
 
 " Habit of thought, perhaps. There are physicians 
 who might dismiss your attacks of alternate exaltation 
 and gloom, unusual strength and complete exhaustion, 
 with the diagnosis, neurasthenia, and, according to 
 their school, urge immediate and absolute rest, which 
 is as sensible as to release the tension of a violin string 
 too suddenly. We psychurgists, who assist the forma 
 tion of physical structure and function by the introduc 
 tion of noble mind pictures, as patterns to be worked 
 into the material expression, would see, in these attacks 
 of yours, the conditions which induce their expression, 
 and observe phases of character unfoldment out of 
 sequence, by reason of which, the nerves lack the trans 
 mitted knowledge to cooperate with the finer forces 
 of mind as the soul presents them." 
 
 Agnes veered from one view of the question to an 
 other with her usual desire to compass the horizon, not 
 caring whether she appeared to be man's wise man or 
 God's fool.
 
 The House of Landell 35 
 
 " Spirit makes our organs and endows them with 
 latent power equal to their tasks." 
 
 " Through that very statement, you explain why so 
 many come to you for help. Despite all your fears, 
 inherently, you know Truth." 
 
 " I can't trace it. I get a blurred message. Matilda, 
 let me alone! " 
 
 " You seem to be getting some -sort of message from 
 Cousin Matilda, or think you do," said Tom, curiously. 
 " I believe it is the latter. Why do you talk with her, 
 a mile away, at the other end of town, while you are 
 here in your room with me ? " 
 
 " She will not let me alone. Night after night, when 
 I try to sleep, she impresses me with the idea that I 
 should be doing something for her, or something dif 
 ferent from what I am doing. But I do not get the 
 message clearly enough to act upon it intelligently." 
 
 " It is a mental state. You are everlastingly try 
 ing to help people who don't need it, as well as those 
 who do. Your mind gets tired out, following your im 
 mense self -accreted family of incapables, until it con 
 structs images which you believe come from some 
 where." 
 
 " I thought so for a long time ; but these feelings, 
 if you wish to call them that, rather than messages, 
 are always followed by a message or letter indicating 
 the very hour I am disturbed. I do all I can for 
 her, 
 
 " Shades of Caesar's ghost ! " Again Tom adopted 
 humor for his instrument, thinking he could thus re 
 lieve the tension and because the whole affair seemed 
 to him unutterably ridiculous. " It is just as disreput 
 able to believe living persons are using your organism 
 as it is to dress in greasy wrappers and live over the 
 green-grocer's to the tune of a quarter for introduc-
 
 36 The House of Landell 
 
 ing you to your dead grandmother's mother-in-law. 
 Put it down as nerves at once." 
 
 " Do such things ever happen to you ? " 
 
 " I hope not ! " Tom straightened his shoulders as 
 suredly. " Every morning I see what I see with my 
 eyes, " 
 
 "What eyes?" 
 
 " These eyes. I hear what I hear with these ears. 
 I touch what I touch with these fingers, and I believe 
 what are you doing ? You will suffocate me ! " 
 
 He drew aside her hand which had seized his nostrils 
 and covered his mouth. 
 
 " Could you see what gave you life, what I cut off 
 just then?" 
 
 " I want you to stop your notions, Agnes dear," ig 
 noring her virile illustration. " This about Matilda is 
 coincidence. It is dangerous to indulge in such 
 fancies." 
 
 " I can prove it in the morning, for I am sure to 
 get a letter from her ; but you still could call it coinci 
 dence. It isn't very late," and, having recovered from 
 her hysteria, she sprang to her feet. " We will prove 
 or disprove this, here and now. I shall be as glad as 
 you if I am mistaken." 
 
 In a few minutes they were in the cool, sweet sum 
 mer night, on the way to Cousin Matilda's. They 
 found her sitting on the piazza. 
 
 " I had made up my mind it was quite time for my 
 relatives to inquire if I were alive or dead," was her 
 pleasant greeting. " I despatched a letter to you this 
 evening, Agnes, and one to you, Tom. They should 
 reach you in the morning." 
 
 " I do try to see you every day, Cousin Matilda," 
 said Agnes, pitifully, while Tom stood dumb before 
 the demonstration of a truth at which he had scoffed 
 but of which he had experienced nothing. " My time 
 is filled with calls I cannot seem to control."
 
 The House of Landell 37 
 
 " Control them, as I do," was the sombre rejoinder. 
 " Very early in life I was taught to control my will 
 and to control conditions." 
 
 " Did you ever take up the study of intelligence, 
 Cousin Matilda ? " said Tom, wickedly. " It is inter 
 esting and of very broad scope. Is there anything we 
 may do for you ? " 
 
 " I thank you, no," was the austere response. " My 
 maids are allsufficient." 
 
 " They serve the same purpose as the armor in the 
 hall, add to family prestige ? " 
 
 " They do more ; they add to my comfort, which 
 some of the younger members of my family seem to 
 care little about." 
 
 " We cared enough to come down here after we'd 
 gone to bed," burst forth Tom. He was furious with 
 the old woman for Agnes' sake, but his words were 
 as rose leaves on a green sward. She replied, 
 
 " That is quite as it should be. Agnes, I very much 
 wish to see you to-morrow morning, early. Shall we 
 say seven o'clock ? " 
 
 " I wouldn't," advised Tom, for Agnes was too over 
 whelmed to assert herself, " it does not agree with my 
 sister to get up early." 
 
 " So I recall. It occurred to me it would be a very 
 good plan to correct that habit. I 
 
 " Perhaps she will drop in later in the forenoon," and 
 Tom drowned Agnes' acquiescence and rather tersely 
 bade Miss Bolden good night, as he drew his sister, 
 quivering, away.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Rich minds sleep. Why talk of action! " 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 THE brother and sister retraced their steps in the 
 soothing stillness of the summer night. They looked 
 to the heavens, which vouchsafed no solution to this 
 experience. Instead, little forks of atmosphere, flang 
 ing up from the horizon, seemed to hold upon their 
 tips, tidbits of knowledge that the luminous, unfathom 
 able blue gathered into its mysterious depths before 
 their minds or imaginations could feed upon them. 
 
 " Dear little girl ! " There was a different quality 
 in Tom's voice. " What a tragedy you are facing ! 
 Is the sweep of your orbit, then, so much larger than 
 mine? When I shut my door and refuse my mail, I 
 am alone. You never are ! " 
 
 " Never ! My room is full of mentalities making 
 demands on me. I tell you, it is not the work I do, 
 it is this obsession I do not know how to deal with, 
 that incapacitates me. Can you tell, weeks ahead, when 
 some one is going to ask, impel or try to compel you 
 to do something? Can you trace every move they 
 make, so that when it is disclosed you are too exhausted 
 to meet or repel it ? " 
 
 " No; but if I did, I'd take it as a game and, instead 
 of worrying, be assured I was getting the campaign 
 into my hands in advance. How is it I never knew 
 this about you? Why, yes, I have. As far back as 
 I can remember I have known your crying attacks to 
 be forerunners of something or other. But I don't 
 
 38
 
 The House of Landell 39 
 
 think I'm an analyst. Now I've waked up to study 
 human nature, it's nerves, though." 
 
 " Please don't say that again. It may be, in part, 
 it may be wholly that. I feel sure it has nothing to 
 do with spirituality. I am dreadfully afraid it is emo 
 tionalism and I abhor emotions ! " 
 
 " You need medicine, " 
 
 " Yes but I need something else. I need training 
 as well as treating." 
 
 " We treat mental states, " 
 
 " Don't confound abnormal mental states with an 
 unusually large sweep of mental vision." 
 
 " Nor should you condemn emotions wholesale be 
 cause you are not pleased with the messages they bring 
 you. In any case, body must be made to coordinate 
 with the duty given it to fulfil." 
 
 " It isn't much use to talk about it," sighed Agnes, 
 wearily. ' The other side always makes me feel as 
 if I were fit for Bloomingdale, when I know I am just 
 a pollywog struggling into the frog stage. It frightens 
 me when any one acts as if I were not normal 
 
 " I know this, anyhow," said Tom, positively, " it 
 can do no harm to place your body under strict train 
 ing. Then, if this is unfoldment, it will be coordinated 
 to its duty, and if nerves, these strange conditions will 
 disappear." 
 
 " What is that? " Agnes seized Tom's arm quickly, 
 then released it. 
 
 " It is Harmon Fraser." 
 
 " What makes him walk so peculiarly? " 
 
 " Dear little child, who lives in dreams, he is, what is 
 vulgarly called, drunk." 
 
 " I thought he was most exemplary." 
 
 " So many think. He lives under the delightful 
 cognomen of night-drinker." 
 
 "What a terrible tragedy for his wife! I should
 
 4O The House of Landell 
 
 think she would be frightened to death. Perhaps that 
 is why she seemed so disagreeable yesterday. I thought 
 it was because she didn't like me. There it is again. 
 I get impressions; but cannot trace them. It makes a 
 dreadful mix-up." 
 
 She retired for a moment into what Tom did not 
 recognize as an ominous silence. Meanwhile, Harmon 
 Fraser reeled toward them. To Tom's horror, Agnes 
 held out her hand in friendly manner. 
 
 "Good evening, Mr. Fraser, are you ill? Please 
 go directly home," she said, softly and persuasively. 
 " One can tell by your gait that it is quite necessary." 
 
 The man looked at her uncomprehendingly, then 
 lifted his hat. " Miss Landell, good evening. I am 
 glad to speak with you; but permit me to say that if 
 I choose to circle about in the moonlight instead of 
 walking on the square, I feel privileged to do so, 
 though I thank you for your interest in me." He 
 wavered on, disregarding Tom, who stood aside, dumb 
 founded. 
 
 Agnes paused till Fraser had passed ; then, her eyes 
 filled with tears, " What is it, Tom ? I try to obey 
 the teaching, ' It is more blessed to give than to receive/ 
 and, ' love thy neighbor as thyself,' and with what re 
 sult ! I have given unstintedly all my life ; now I have 
 no vitality left, like thousands who have followed 
 the same path, come to the same turning, and lain down 
 to die. Yet the books and preachers give as the uni 
 versal panacea, do, do, do, when you haven't strength 
 left from your former doing to wash your own face, 
 and have to ask some one else to do it for you. If un 
 happy, do for some one; it will make you happy. If 
 bitter, do for some one you dislike. It will sweeten 
 your frame of mind. For what? To get! The whole 
 system of self-sacrifice seems built on colossal selfish 
 ness. What is it ? Where do I fail ? "
 
 The House of Landell 41 
 
 " I think you read other people's orders instead of 
 your own. If you are working yourself to death, why 
 hang on your dressing-table some spur to the lazy! 
 The saving of self to the self is destructive; wise con 
 servation of self is constructive. It is more blessed to 
 give than to receive, but some of you saintly givers 
 must learn to receive more freely in order to give more 
 intelligently." 
 
 " But for the comprehension of all you dear ones, I 
 might have been in the mad house. You understand 
 that I represent a phase, not a disease. To know I am 
 giving you anxiety adds to my torture. I don't mind 
 being crucified ; but I cannot bear to have any one suffer 
 for me, Jesus or any one ! It makes me almost in 
 sane to think of His sufferings. I shall go mad if I 
 add to His sorrow. I must bear my own burdens; 
 grow so strong in unity with the Great Purpose, that 
 no weight seems heavy. God never meant that we 
 should shunt everything on to Jesus, who came to teach 
 us how to become equal to service, not to evade it. I 
 am not unbalanced nor blasphemous. I am struggling 
 for truth." 
 
 " Truth is balance and faith is one of the steps by 
 which we realize it." 
 
 " I wish I had had your start in life. I was taught 
 the old conception of self-sacrifice until I thought the 
 only way to be Christ-like was to go about mangled 
 and half dead. Now, because it discloses dishonesty 
 and incapacity, it is positively vulgar not to be well 
 and poised." 
 
 "If you feel that way, why cling to dogmas that 
 attribute to your Leader, the very qualities you deplore, 
 and which I believe He never had. This very minute 
 you seem semi-paralyzed because an ill-advised attempt 
 to teach a man, not in possession of his faculties, is ill- 
 received. You are so wise you appal me, and so
 
 42 The House of Landell 
 
 "Stupid?" 
 
 " Call it that that you astound me. It must come 
 from mixed ideals." 
 
 " I have one Ideal ; but I am mixed in my ideas of 
 reaching it. I sit Sunday after Sunday striving to hold 
 to my Ideal of universal purpose, unity and the Uni 
 versal Presence through the presentation of such ideas 
 as Mr. Kerrick's. Sunday after Sunday, from the pul 
 pit, Christianity is used as the lion's skin covering the 
 donkey of dogma, with ears of deceit and of conceit, 
 and a voice braying ignorance." 
 
 " Why do it ! The constant struggle to reconcile 
 such ideas with your Ideal is largely responsible for 
 your nervous condition " 
 
 " It is more than a nervous condition. I am seeking 
 and growing through many phases." Her mind re 
 verted to her previous statement and she shuddered. 
 
 " Think of Christ being likened to a cow-catcher ! " 
 Her lips almost refused the words. " Mr. Kerrick 
 used that figure, and went on to say that as the faucet 
 at the end of the car makes clean the hands and soil 
 of garments, so Jesus, ! Think of proclaiming The 
 Great One, scavenger of the world. Mr. Kerrick is 
 not the only one who makes such comparisons. Do 
 you suppose our ideas seem as crude and immature to 
 others more unfolded, do you suppose they do to 
 Jesus?" 
 
 " I suspect He loves to observe unfoldment, and, 
 pending larger understandings, rejoices even in that 
 conception of Himself. I cannot but feel, however, 
 that it is useless suffering for you to force yourself to 
 listen to what I, in my stage of growth, call blas 
 phemous stuff. Why stay there?" 
 
 " I am told to." 
 
 "Aren't you a free moral agent? I should think
 
 The House of Landell 43 
 
 you would have delirium tremens thinking ahead to 
 Sunday." 
 
 " It is no outward compulsion. If we have a truth 
 we should remain where we can impart it to those who 
 have it not." 
 
 "If their conceptions lead them no higher than to 
 a cow-catcher," he shuddered, " wh^ confine your flight 
 to their limitations? They need one nearer the earth 
 to teach them." 
 
 " Or farther from it. I remain to assist their 
 growth." 
 
 " No, no, little sister," Tom lifted a strand of hair 
 that had fallen over her eyes, tenderly drawing it back 
 from the noble forehead and the straining brows raised 
 in fierce endeavor to open spiritual eyes to the relation 
 of truth with All-Truth, " you help me because you 
 see far more deeply than I do. We walk side by side 
 through this existence, but you fly above me and, from 
 above, cry gladly, ' Come up, soul, into the sunlight, 
 where caterpillars are butterflies and visions have be 
 come realizations.' ' 
 
 " How can we help others if we are not willing to 
 suffer?" 
 
 " Not by dwelling on the suffering. Until we 
 rise through it spiritually we will be stamped with it 
 physically. We must be careful what we brood over, 
 for brooding brings the latent into expression, be it 
 a viper or a Christ." 
 
 " Don't I do anything right? " Agnes searched her 
 brother's face wistfully. 
 
 " Indeed, yes; but you are so afraid you won't be 
 ready for crucifixion, you contemplate it constantly 
 and are always getting the nails ready for yourself. 
 You may be wiser than I but I am sure this self-con 
 demnation is not constructive. Don't try to do for 
 awhile. Let the divine life of your being float into
 
 44 The House of Landell 
 
 every separate minute from a centre of trustful rest. 
 Don't be swung by impression, suggestion or open re 
 quest, into reading to some old Mrs. Kazook, if justice 
 to yourself as an instrument advises you to withhold 
 your hand. However true it is that you do not ask 
 help when ill or exhausted, it is also true that you make 
 a very telling demand on the sympathies and concern 
 of those who love you. Be strong enough not to pile 
 up or dream obligations you have no physical strength 
 to fulfil. Stop boiling an egg with forty horse power, 
 or paring apples with a Damascus blade." 
 
 " You are incorrigible ! " Agnes laughed despite 
 herself. 
 
 " I haven't finished ! Aren't you trying to follow a 
 rule of a certain psychologist to act out your emotions 
 and express your impressions ? " 
 
 " Yes. I have repressed so much, " 
 
 " The cure must go back of that. The expression 
 theory will do for those who have one impression or 
 so a year. You have a thousand a second. Your 
 imaging and constructive faculties are unfolded far 
 beyond your strength. Eliminate all in your vision- 
 ings you do not desire to see manifest. Each instant 
 has its quota of possibilities ; do not overload it. Stop 
 breaking your heart over what you see, or respond 
 ing to all demands made upon you. The more I study 
 life, the more I realize why each person is where he is; 
 little Kerrick with his wails; you, with your cata 
 clysms ; and the Great Christ, waiting to shine His light 
 into our funny, fussy ways." 
 
 He waited a moment, then with child-like sweet 
 ness, added drolly, " Like the well-known advertise 
 ment, ' There's a reason. Look inside ! ' 
 
 " I read about annihilation of self until I feel that 
 not to bear the world on my shoulders is proof of 
 bestial selfishness, and to be ill, a public announcement
 
 The House of Landell 45 
 
 of failure. Self cannot be such an awful thing since 
 we have been given consciousness of it; and the sug- 
 gestionists are brutal," Agnes continued to rage as the 
 agony of self-condemnation grew in her eyes. 
 
 " Don't let the suggestionists worry you," Tom as 
 sured her. " We undertake investigation on the basis 
 of what we are, not of what it is,\i you can under 
 stand my English, for we can comprehend no more 
 than we are on the path to becoming. Many of us 
 would have blood-clots caused by congestion were we 
 to follow the advice of some writers and practitioners 
 who have only a material conception of what they at 
 tempt to teach, or are on the horrible outskirts of the 
 psychic. The average clergyman is obliged to verify 
 his philosophy with his tradition, and the average 
 physician starts his premises in disease. There is much 
 more to it all than telling a patient he is well when 
 he doesn't understand the entirety of that statement, 
 and which runs very close to an untruth on the lips of 
 many who use the phrase. Neither is it enough to 
 * hold the thought.' Far worse is it to be told to re 
 press, the favorite word of certain nerve specialists." 
 
 " Oh dear ' 
 
 " Don't say, ' Oh dear/ that way. Life is so teem 
 ing with wonders, I love it and its problems. All these 
 stages of growth from cell through worm to man are 
 demonstrated in sequence, through the nine months' 
 gestation of the human embryo, and think what is done 
 for us and what we must do for ourselves after we 
 get here! Does that indicate that the purpose of life 
 is self-annihilation? " 
 
 " Dr. Brentford's theory of treating nerves is to im 
 press upon the patient that he is constantly inferior to 
 his surroundings." 
 
 " Select your own visions and stand on your own 
 platform. I don't wonder you are confused. At one
 
 46 The House of Landell 
 
 and the same time you are mounting a rostrum of 
 terror at your incomprehensible mental states; sitting 
 with the infant class lest you should think you have 
 grown before you have; clinging to tradition with one 
 part of your brain and repudiating it with another; 
 giving when you have no strength or moral right to 
 do so ; trying to make your feet fit footprints your head 
 refuses to let you follow." 
 
 "What must I do?" 
 
 "If messages from Infinite are jumbled in trans 
 mission, the history of the world is changed; yet, 
 many of you philanthropists have not even settled on 
 your receiving station or assured yourself of the re 
 cipient's address." 
 
 " If I seem uncertain, it is not so much that I am 
 unassured of the fundamentals, as that I am seeking my 
 best. I am not dissatisfied with what I find so much 
 as determined to do better next time, excepting when 
 I make some of my dreadful mistakes." 
 
 " Then you are so remorseful that you incapacitate 
 yourself. I never have seen one so self- forgetful and 
 self-immolating one minute and so self-dissecting the 
 next. If it is not self-condemnation, it is mental puz 
 zling that clouds the pictures that are to bring you 
 joy." 
 
 'Tell me what to do?" 
 
 " You are a constant blessing. You stimulate other 
 minds ; you give generously of your own thought and 
 open their minds to think it too ; you are a missionary 
 of souls as well as of bodies, constantly in the sweet 
 attitude of pupil before a teacher; no one I know gives 
 more generously of all she possesses and is more un 
 thinking of herself; no one is more full of joy until 
 exhaustion breeds discouragement. Then you go to 
 extremes, either of action or inaction, and take all the 
 blame."
 
 The House of Landell 47 
 
 " What a distress I must be to you all." 
 
 " I will tell you the effect your methods during your 
 last long illness had upon the family. You had read so 
 much about the good an invalid can do from the sick 
 room that your nerves were agog to prove the state 
 ment. The more you tested it the more intoxicated 
 with the possibilities you became. You sent flowers 
 to every old woman you could think of, but never by 
 any chance, were two in juxta-proximity. You could 
 not pen a word yourself, but called on every one in 
 the house to write to any one you could think of, whose 
 name sounded lonesome." 
 
 " What a travesty on well-doing. Preach more from 
 the text." 
 
 "Then here goes! Am I giving to please myself; 
 to relieve my congestion or that of some one else ? If 
 I give in sheer nervousness or irritability at watching 
 the clumsiness of others, am I not deluding myself into 
 the belief that I am generous, while really cheating 
 others out of their legitimate right to do for them 
 selves ! " 
 
 " It seems to me true giving should help the giver 
 as well as the recipient." 
 
 " So I think. If it cause disappointment or deple 
 tion there is something wrong. Often it takes more 
 strength to keep hands off others' lives than to lay them 
 on for what we suppose is blessing. It is a divine privi 
 lege to enter the sanctuary of other lives. Jesus took 
 years in preparation for what we plunge into as a pas 
 time or a diversion." 
 
 " Why do we believe it a greater mission to help 
 others than ourselves ? Indeed, how can we serve other 
 lives, until, like Jesus, we have learned through service 
 to our own ! " 
 
 " It is not fierce physical activity that induces 
 growth, or concentration on noses or crystals, thereby
 
 48 The House of Landell 
 
 inhibiting intelligence through exhaustion of the 
 faculty of attentiveness. Growth comes through train 
 ing the faculties to select from our desires only what is 
 worth perpetuating. Worth and preparation cooperate 
 for attainment. Here we are at home. Don't allow 
 Matilda to tweak you about as she chooses. Good 
 bye, and, if you need me, call." 
 
 Agnes was a long time preparing for the night. At 
 length she put out the light and raised the shades. She 
 was by no means satisfied with Tom's deductions, 
 though realizing their value. 
 
 " They go such a very little way," she sighed. " Still, 
 I will follow his advice." Then, with the strange 
 swerving of decision so often succeeding her intro 
 spection, " At all events, I shall go to Cousin Matilda's 
 in the morning." 
 
 As she puzzled, her eyes were fixed dreamily upon a 
 light beaming across field and road, from a window 
 in the hotel where Ross Mevin was summering. The 
 light flashed higher for an instant, then disappeared; 
 but, her eyes still resting where the light had cast its 
 rays, she continued to seek her vision in the silence 
 of the night.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 To-day is a message. Find it and express it. 
 
 > 
 
 AGNES woke with the oppressed feeling of a duty 
 not done. It took but an instant to trace the reason. 
 She was to go to Cousin Matilda's. Her head ached 
 and she needed the morning's rest; but she arose, and, 
 as it was nearly seven, rushed through her dressing and 
 hurried down the quiet streets to Matilda Bolden's 
 house. A drowsy maid informed her that her cousin 
 was still asleep. Uncertain what to do, she sat on the 
 piazza, trying to train her irritation at least into 
 indifference. 
 
 About nine o'clock, one of the family servitors, 
 whom Tom had likened to the armor on the wall, an 
 nounced that Miss Bolden would receive her. Mount 
 ing the stairs, she found her hostess enjoying>a cup of 
 coffee. 
 
 " Good morning ! " She looked up from the sugar- 
 bowl she was contemplating, and greeted Agnes with 
 the satisfied air of a faithful servant, who, having 
 chased to service all recalcitrant workers of the vine 
 yard, was now come to her reward. 
 
 " How do you do, Cousin Matilda," Agnes re 
 sponded, with a forced quality of tone born of the 
 headache, the waiting, and the realization that she had 
 been, weakly, true to Tom's diagnosis. " What can I 
 do for you ? " 
 
 " Nothing at all," was the frigid response, " I only 
 wished to see if you held your affection for me su 
 perior to the claims of slumber. I have to dress for 
 
 49
 
 50 The House of Landell 
 
 town, so will ask you to breakfast alone down-stairs. 
 Good-bye. Have a pleasant day," and Agnes found 
 herself as summarily dismissed as she had been sum 
 moned. 
 
 Vexed as she was, she could but be amused at Ma 
 tilda's generalship, and, all appetite gone, she turned 
 toward home. As she approached the hotel, she de 
 cided to call on Louise Lavelle. She found the piazza 
 buzzing with mild excitement over a prospective picnic, 
 and was besieged by her special coterie to join them. 
 
 " We don't start till eleven. Do come," pleaded 
 Grace Herrick. 
 
 "Yes, Miss Landell," Dr. Brentford added his 
 voice to the petition, " you know it is said of summer 
 hotels that they provide for their guests nearly every 
 thing save rest." 
 
 " That, too, will be included, when the demand for 
 it is as great as now exists for a merry-go-round of 
 aimless excitement," returned Agnes. " Now, we all 
 seem to want to seat care on the backs of winged 
 horses, hoping to lose it in their reckless flight." 
 
 " But with unerring precision, the load is delivered 
 to us, unlightened, after the price has been paid and 
 the circuit completed," concluded Brentford pessimis 
 tically. " However we strive to evade the burden, at 
 the exit it is returned to us, the same old weight of 
 existence nothing can lessen " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Agnes intensely, " it disappears, in 
 response to exalted purpose ! " 
 
 Dr. Brentford stared. 
 
 "Of course ! I see you are an idealist ! That is 
 ' caviare to the general,' but it will be one course for 
 the picnic, and moralizing is a splendid ' piece de 
 resistance.' ' 
 
 Suddenly, Agnes felt a sense of desolation sweep 
 over her. She realized that she had evaded the ex-
 
 The House of Landell 51 
 
 pected repartee. With her usual haste to condemn 
 herself she was overwhelmed with her own reproach. 
 As the nearest escape, she agreed to join the party. 
 
 In tally-hos they passed down the woodland roads 
 to Mount Nodel. Here they alighted, some to go on 
 to the hilltop, some to gather mountain blueberries. 
 While the sun was still high they packed away the 
 fruit and mounted the coaches for the homeward drive. 
 
 Sitting by Agnes' side, Ross Mevin saw her, this 
 afternoon, apparently the happiest of them all. She 
 was thoroughly exhausted by the events of the day and 
 this forced her into a false vivacity. To the observing, 
 the undercurrent of her thought penetrated her bril 
 liance and gave an aloofness which alternately attracted 
 and repelled. She it was who had constantly suggested 
 to these amusement seekers occupation for unappro 
 priated hours, yet she seemed but an onlooker, vision- 
 ing new dispensations. " My Lady of Moods," once 
 Mevin would have called her ; but this wonderful sum 
 mer was bringing him revelations. He was perceiving 
 that these changes in her were of nobler growth. 
 
 He sat in delicious peace, with a happy sense of 
 walking with her in the galleries of her mind, whose 
 treasures, though not, as yet, revealed, were no longer 
 completely closed against him, as they had been but the 
 day previous. He was only at the entrance, he knew. In 
 spirit, he moved with her swift transitions, at the same 
 time puzzled and blinded before her slow readjustment 
 to the conditions the changes heralded. In threading 
 his way through unknown labyrinths, his study of what 
 he saw and his conjecture as to what he might dis 
 cover, led his mind to an afternoon at the Symphony, 
 when Schumann Heinck sang. He had sat in the rear 
 of the hall, where the mellow light and the distance 
 etherialized the setting of the singer, and, together with 
 his own desire, served likewise to etherialize the mes-
 
 52 The House of Landell 
 
 sage the wonderful voice was to convey. He loved 
 music for the vast impersonality it unfolded, and, the 
 more independently to grasp tone-relationships that 
 should convey to him only the innermost essence of the 
 ultimate idea, he tried always to shun acquaintance with 
 composer, opus or artist. 
 
 That afternoon the singer presented a soil as virgin 
 to the ideal of the message as was possible in an atmos 
 phere always imbued more with musical culture than 
 musical comprehension. The pleasant face, the velvet 
 gown, the hat with its many plumes he saw not. The 
 spaces these had occupied grew luminous before him, 
 irradiating white light moving in spirals, finally be 
 coming still. Stealing from out the vortex, evolved 
 slowly the floating draperies, the white cowl, the sad 
 face of a holy sister. 
 
 Amazed at the transformation, he had been surprised 
 into asking one near by the name of the selection, for, 
 true to his custom, he had refused a programme. 
 
 Schubert's Young Nun had been forming before his 
 vision, through the medium of the singer's thought, 
 expressed through voice. As the directing force was 
 withdrawn, the vision faded slowly. Again she sang. 
 Again he had seen only radiance; then a form, sym 
 bolic of Death and the Maiden, had become manifest, 
 held before his eyes through the power of her thought 
 concentrated in song. Was it a trick of the optic 
 nerve, he wondered, an obsession, or a veritable por 
 trayal of thought- forms through the motive power of 
 the singer! He felt sure it could be attributed to 
 neither. 
 
 Again, his mind centred in Agnes, whom, after all, 
 it had never left, since it was in attempting to analyze 
 her that this experience was recalled. As his heart 
 rested lovingly upon her, he saw that the very tex 
 ture of her skin changed under the influence of some
 
 The House of Landell 53 
 
 readjustment. This was verified, when, a moment 
 later, she turned and said, 
 
 " Will you assist me to alight, Mr. Mevin ? Some 
 one in that house we are passing needs me." 
 
 " How did you catch the message ? " Dr. Brentford, 
 who had overheard, eyed her quizzically. " Those 
 creosote shingles do not advertise necessity. Your 
 quality of mercy must be strained into Eve's curiosity 
 for a glimpse of the interior! " 
 
 " Eve's curiosity will ultimately prove the world's 
 salvation," was Agnes' quick response, as she sprang 
 from the coach. 
 
 "If it is as far-reaching as that, by all means run 
 along and satisfy it. Be sure to bring back a woman's 
 shopping bag of gossip," shivered Brentford, in mock 
 nervousness. 
 
 " Dicky Brentford, stop teasing Agnes," inserted 
 Grace Herrick. " Don't you know she isn't like the 
 rest of us? If she received a message from the moon, 
 I'd know it came in a perfectly legitimate manner. 
 What makes you worry her ? " 
 
 " Because I am interested in phenomena," retorted 
 Brentford, cynically. " How did you get the word, 
 Miss Landell?" 
 
 A troubled look crept into her face. 
 
 " I cannot tell." 
 
 Turning, she followed the path to the vine-arched 
 door of the cottage. The afternoon sun glinted 
 through the trumpet vines. As she stepped onto the 
 piazza, their blossoms framed her in orange, green and 
 gold. They stirred and swayed and, on the gentle 
 whisper of their welcome, came through the open case 
 ment the sound of a human cry, 
 
 " Help me, God ! I am alone, and desolate ! " 
 
 Every fibre of Agnes' being responded. Withal, 
 supernal joy thrilled her that she had not passed the
 
 54 The House of Landell 
 
 summons by. Following the sound, her attention was 
 attracted through the window, unconsciously noting 
 the veriest details of the interior. Even a few dying 
 flowers in a vase upon a table arrested her eyes, as 
 adding to the desolation of the scene. Occupying a 
 large part of the cottage, of quaint architectural de 
 sign, was a room of splendid proportions, beautifully 
 ceiled, wainscotted and floored with old oak. Through 
 the chimney of the large fireplace the sunlight lay in 
 flickering gold upon the floor. A man, whose stillness 
 resembled that of death, lay on a bed of rare work 
 manship. Kneeling beside him was a woman. 
 
 Absorbing into his very soul the flood of gorgeous 
 color glorifying the portico, Mevin was wakened to 
 tragedy by seeing Agnes hasten past him to the tally-ho. 
 
 " Dr. Brentford, come quickly," she sped the words 
 in advance of her flying feet, " some one is dying in 
 that house." 
 
 "I?" drawled Brentford, with a long-drawn, up 
 ward inflection. " It is true I have learned to mix 
 pills; but that, by no means, makes a traveling emer 
 gency hospital of me, you know." 
 
 Agnes gasped; but, as before, Grace came swiftly to 
 her rescue. 
 
 " Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Dicky Brent 
 ford!" 
 
 " Not at all ! A doctor must protect himself from 
 you ministering angels who load us poor human don 
 keys with packs belonging on the backs of others. You 
 would keep us busy crossing off the charity lists you 
 make for us, and so fill our time caring for your pro 
 teges that we must neglect our legitimate patients." 
 
 " Your reproof is justified; but this is something I 
 cannot do," Agnes returned, sadly. " We must call 
 on others and do for others, sometimes, whether con 
 trary to our theories or not."
 
 The House of Landell 55 
 
 "Are facts reproofs?" In Brentford's tones was 
 a mixture of badinage and bitterness. 
 
 " The keenest of all, sometimes. This man may die 
 while we bandy words." 
 
 " Decency, if not charity, demands your attention 
 here," Horace Vernon interrupted hotly. 
 
 " That for charity ! " Brentford snapped his fingers 
 contemptuously. " No fee, no prescription, I say ! 
 Isn't it time to be on the move? The soup will be 
 cold." 
 
 " Leave the fee to me," conciliatingly, Mevin entered 
 the lists. " Come on, old fellow, I know you'll help if 
 we'll let you get at it after your own fashion." 
 
 " There you are right. It is the principle I look at 
 that of mortgaging the vitality of others on papers 
 of your own making." 
 
 Nonchalantly, he swung from the coach and moved 
 toward the house. 
 
 Out-distancing her companions, Agnes reached the 
 house and, in response to her gentle rap, the woman 
 she had seen at the bedside stood before her. 
 
 " ' My son is sick ! There is no breath left in him/ ' 
 came from her lips in quotation, unconscious and so 
 natural, that Agnes felt transported from the rural 
 New England village to the sorrowing household of 
 the widow of Zarepath. 
 
 Dr. Brentford insisted that other medical services be 
 obtained, and, to that end, Mevin went on to town, 
 leaving Agnes and Mrs. Lavelle at the cottage. He 
 soon returned with Dr. Bascombe, with whom Dr. 
 Brentford remained in consultation before resigning 
 the case into his hands. A nurse was not to be ob 
 tained till later in the evening, so Mrs. Lavelle re 
 mained with the exhausted mother, and Agnes, in the 
 rosy light of the sunset, drove home with Mevin. 
 
 He gathered the reins in his hands and put the horse
 
 56 The House of Landell 
 
 to a gentle trot on the level road that preceded the 
 steep descent some quarter of a mile beyond, while 
 the stillness about them beat into his heart, in reiterant 
 strain, the part she must forever bear in his life. 
 
 " I am wondering at, and glorying in, your percep 
 tion," he said at length, as in apology for the silence 
 he did not wish to break, so much more closely than 
 words did it bring them together. 
 
 " My perception ! Then have I gained ever so little 
 in the Christ-consciousness ! " There was a new light 
 in her face as she turned to her companion. 
 
 " Tell me about those people ! " Not at all under 
 standing her remark, he looked deep into her eyes, 
 longing, rather, to hear her voice, than to learn of the 
 occupants of the house on the hillside. " The mother 
 looks like a princess and the son like a vanquished 
 Greek god." 
 
 " Their name is Herman." 
 
 At once, Agnes plunged intensely and emotionally 
 into the history of the man and woman whose disaster 
 had evoked her explanation. " The son is a minister 
 and the illness a relapse of typhoid." 
 
 As she spoke, the conditions in the cottage gripped 
 her, causing her to turn pale and tremble. 
 
 Mevin was in full and human sympathy with the 
 suffering, but it was eclipsed in his heart by the su 
 preme delight of having Agnes by his side. 
 
 They were high up on the hillside and seemed to 
 float among the clouds. Entranced by the beauty about 
 her, her sympathies were merged for the time in her 
 joy, as the glories of nature rose supreme. Her eyes 
 rested upon the changing phases of sun and cloud and 
 rosy light, while Mevin's rested only upon her, whose 
 face reflected the late afternoon's glow. 
 
 " Are you a castle-builder? " he said softly, " I am." 
 
 Dreamily he watched the curve of her ear and the
 
 The House of Landell 57 
 
 line where the lustrous hair met the white skin of her 
 neck, reminding him of, what? 
 
 " There is nothing to compare it with for beauty." 
 Thus meditating, he contended with his desire to touch 
 the rose-leaf lobe of the dainty ear with a lover's sign 
 and seal. 
 
 " Indeed I am," Agnes was responding. " I love to 
 study structure and intend to build castles all my life." 
 
 Her deep true eyes met his, unconscious of his adora 
 tion. 
 
 " All successes are the results of well-constructed 
 castle building," she continued, " whether of the little 
 fruiterer arranging his many-colored fruits, or Phidias, 
 dreaming into life the cold marble." 
 
 Mevin scrutinized her. Surely his manner indicated 
 interest in matters far more vital to him than these! 
 Could it be possible she did not feel his adoration ? To 
 him it seemed " impanelled in fire." Was she pur 
 posely ignoring it? Again, she was entrenched behind 
 the impenetrable reserve he had encountered before. 
 He closed his lips. 
 
 " I am stupid enough in expressing my heart's de 
 sire, heaven knows ; but the gayest Lothario would find 
 it difficult to tell this spirit of air and fire and ice that 
 he loves her ! She is the most impossible and the most 
 entrancing woman I have ever met. I will speak! " he 
 soliloquized indignantly. " She shall not always make 
 me dumb." 
 
 " I want you to live in the castle of my life," he 
 was saying, but mischief was playing with his wooing, 
 for as he spoke the horse shied. His entire attention 
 was engaged in guiding her excited pace; nor could 
 he quiet her, even as he drew her to a nervous stand 
 still under the porte cochere. 
 
 " I am a cad! " he denounced himself, savagely, as 
 he assisted his companion to alight. " I am forcing
 
 58 The House of Landell 
 
 upon her what she is doing her best to evade. She has 
 even made this horse emissary against me." 
 
 This was strangely true though not intentional with 
 Agnes. Conditions of fermentation overwhelmed her 
 when on the verge of physical exhaustion or mental 
 inharmony, and frequently made her suddenly as re 
 pellent and disturbing to persons and creatures, as, at 
 other times, her poise attracted and made her helpful. 
 As she watched Mevin out of sight, a drop fell on her 
 hand though the sky was clear and bright. 
 
 Incredible though it seems, she had not sensed the 
 purport of his words, nor realized that she had re 
 ceived a proposal of marriage and turned it aside so 
 cavalierly that the ignoring was more final than a 
 denial. Suddenly, she became aware of the change 
 within herself that had reached Mevin some time be 
 fore and which he had considered as a personal rebuff. 
 
 Through the porte cochere, the hills could be seen 
 as in a frame, looking down upon the water, beyond the 
 intervale, and below her, as she stood. The wind had 
 risen, and was sending little moaning cries through the 
 larches not far away. The late shadows of the long 
 twilight were stealing onto the waters. She heard the 
 caressing murmur of the breeze as it floated over the 
 hills. The black cloud of depression was settling heav 
 ily upon her the aftermath of a day of ecstasy 
 of joy as well as of pain. Only souls who have 
 struggled as Agnes had done for years know the 
 anguish and impotence of such moments when all 
 previous efforts seem futile and all attempts at con 
 struction to result only in tearing down. 
 
 " What holds me in its grip ! " she almost screamed, 
 as, like one crazed, she sped away from the house, her 
 one thought and desire to be alone. A terrible dread 
 of people overwhelmed her; a loathing of the after 
 noon's merriment; a ghastly acknowledgment of the
 
 The House of Landell 59 
 
 pitiful uselessness of companionship of which one ex 
 pects so much but receives so little. Her head bowed, 
 her chest sunken, her spine almost refusing her sup 
 port, she went, now swiftly, as if driven by the lash 
 of an inexorable taskmaster, now lagging, as from 
 exhaustion. 
 
 " Why is all I do so futile! " she groaned. " Why 
 are my enthusiasms succeeded by the depressions and 
 tortures of the damned! Is this wracking agony pri 
 marily physical and nerve disturbance, or is my soul 
 struggling for expression! When, crazed by loneli 
 ness, I long for human companionship, yet avoid it 
 as I would a pestilence ; yearn for friends' good morn 
 ing, yet dread their greeting, is it inflammation of 
 nerve fibre or the growth of the soul's manifestation! 
 Is it that my soul wills to get at me by myself and 
 will not be denied ! I do not know ! The sense of my 
 inadequacy terrifies; my lack of potentiality appals." 
 
 She stopped a moment, then asserted positively, 
 
 " It is my soul striving to manifest and I will be 
 equal to the demonstration. How superciliously Dr. 
 Brentford looked at me this morning when I tried to 
 lift his cynicism into the sunshine. It was as if I were 
 a curio or a creature in the Zoo! And what he said 
 this afternoon ! Every word is truth. We, who ac 
 count ourselves charitable, do make lists for others to 
 minister to ; promises for others to fulfil. We call on 
 physicians to heal ; on musicians to amuse or to in 
 struct; on landlords to raise the load of rent; and 
 consider that because we have discovered the cases 
 we have performed the charity. Often we insult those 
 who do not put their shoulder to our wheel, because 
 they are lifting their own out of the sloughs." 
 
 Sjhe slipped on the hemlock needles but, quickly re 
 covering, 
 
 " And I, tossed about by a power I can neither com-
 
 60 The House of Landell 
 
 prehend nor control erratic, unbalanced, clutching at 
 others to lay my bricks and to fulfil the contracts I 
 make My God, dear God, help me or I perish ! " 
 
 When she spoke again, there was a new quality in 
 her voice. 
 
 " Teach me the balance of life, here and now ! Here 
 and now, or I shall never find it! " She clinched her 
 hands and held her breath. 
 
 She had increased her pace almost to a run during 
 this heart-breaking outcry; but by degrees, it slack 
 ened. The sunset still glowed in the west; the soft 
 grays of the summer evening and gentle breeze that 
 twilight brings to the New England woods and hills 
 played tenderly about her. 
 
 " Agnes Landell, stand still ! " 
 
 Instinctively, she obeyed her own command. 
 
 "Standstill!" 
 
 The sweet evening air floated about her. Involun 
 tarily, she inbreathed its aroma and its tender compre 
 hension. With it, came benediction. 
 
 " Stand still ! " she repeated, not peremptorily, this 
 time. "Close to the heart of li-fe; not only believe; 
 know you are divine and possessed of constructive 
 power to make your environment. Be willing not 
 to understand these upheavals within you. Leave it 
 to the law of Growth to unfold it in its own good 
 time. Breathe God's breath in the universe. Move 
 in harmony with Him who holds the spheres." 
 
 For a moment, she was very still. Release, peace, 
 pervaded her. She sat down on a bank becushioned 
 with hemlock needles, drew from her bag a note-book 
 and pencil and flashed these words to paper : 
 
 "Transmute, transmute, past pain to present joy! 
 Refute, refute, what doubt and strain alloy ! 
 Be strong, be strong, life's meaning to translate ! 
 Be swift, be swift, to act in God's estate ! "
 
 The House of Landell 61 
 
 She rose, and with these thoughts singing through 
 her, walked slowly to their rhythm, until her whole 
 being manifested, in every movement, this attainment 
 of her soul's expression. 
 
 In her frenzy, she had walked fully a mile and a 
 half, and now found herself in one of the most beau 
 tiful of the drives within her father's parks. Great 
 hemlocks, shadowed by oncoming t'wilight, swept the 
 ground, and the conscious inhaling of the balsamic 
 odors quieted her physical senses. As she grew calm, 
 she realized the approach of darkness and, moving 
 swiftly out of the shadows of the park road, she 
 crossed the stretch of upland, and soon was traversing 
 the graveled driveway, spirit, soul, mind and body in 
 harmony with the thought to which she moved. 
 
 " Bless that little backbone, so full of achievement! 
 You show, in its every articulation, . actual possession 
 of the art of living!" A voice from the verandah 
 she was approaching, made her peer into the gloom. 
 Mrs. Lavelle was awaiting her, while the sound of 
 wheels on the driveway was growing momentarily 
 more faint. 
 
 " Louise Lavelle ! Is that you ? You do not know 
 what your words mean to me! I left home an hour 
 ago, a hunted thing, feeling that my soul was required 
 of me and that I had deprived it of life through my 
 physical inadequacies." 
 
 She paused before her friend. 
 
 " There in the stillness, alone in the woodlands, I 
 lived in God ; now, you tell me that the cooperation is 
 discernible to outer sense." 
 
 " Agnes ! " Tom, who had been watching for his 
 sister, approached them from the house, his manner in 
 dicating his ever-bubbling humor. 
 
 "Come to dinner, this minute! If you are going 
 to the hotel to-night, to tell those people how to amuse
 
 62 The House of Landell 
 
 themselves, on the uncomplimentary presumption that 
 they haven't brains enough to know how for them 
 selves, at least reinforce yourself. Jupiter, you would 
 make a first-class manager of a Punch-and-Judy show. 
 Already you arrange the figures; you will dance for 
 them next. You do not obey my instructions worth a 
 cent. Who is that with you?" peering through the 
 gloom, " Mrs. Lavelle, how you startled me ! If there 
 are any more mysterious happenings, I shall be afraid 
 to trust the dark. First, Agnes discovers a strange 
 house and a tragedy. Now, you, who were left on the 
 bleak hillside of Mount Nodel, appear, without visible 
 means of transportation, at Daniel Landell's mounting 
 block!" 
 
 Mrs. Lavelle laughed. 
 
 " You need not institute psychical research on that 
 account. I drove to town with the driver who took 
 the nurse to the Hermans', and stopped here to retail 
 the latest happenings." 
 
 " Come in to dinner, oh, you look like the rose of 
 Sharon even if you have been picnicing," invited 
 Agnes. " Then, we'll go to the hotel together." 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Lavelle," Tom continued his persiflage, 
 as the family entered the dining-room a few moments 
 later, " some of those people would die of ' innocuous 
 desuetude ' were it not for Agnes. There is that little 
 Grace Herrick. They say she never puts on a stock 
 ing for herself, and, if her maid should disappear, nary 
 a one would find place on milady's foot until Mirandy 
 reappeared. She expects others to put on her mental 
 stockings, too, " 
 
 " I didn't have to put on any mental stockings for 
 her the day she drove me into the lake," laughed Agnes. 
 " She has brains enough ! " 
 
 " Then her grandmother and mother made her put 
 them up in camphor along with her baby clothes.
 
 The House of Landell 63 
 
 Maybe, if brain ever comes into style, she may pull 
 some of hers out, along with gold beads and coral 
 necklaces. I return to my diagnosis of my sister's 
 methods, Mrs. Lavelle. I claim it is immoral for her 
 to use her vitality in doing for others what it is their 
 business to do for themselves. She., is a promoter of 
 arrested development, and performs the same office for 
 her lazy friends that the police in Central Park do for 
 the squirrels. If the bluecoats don't appear with 
 provender, Miss Squirrel starves because her house 
 keeping faculties have atrophied. Come, Miss Nut 
 cracker, assume the responsibilities of these people; 
 break down with the burden if you will; when you do, 
 none will pity you. They will only say, ' Where are 
 my nuts! That woman who always provides them is 
 too much occupied with her own affairs, to think of 
 me! Selfish creature! I should think she would be 
 ashamed.' ' 
 
 " You are quite right," laughed Mrs. Lavelle, " but 
 as I seem to be one of the squirrels, do allow her to 
 crack some nuts for us to-night."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Soon, however, the social order takes its turn 
 in self-assertion." 
 
 F. G. Peabody. 
 
 DINNER over, the three strolled through the summer 
 night to the hotel, just as the dining-room was empty 
 ing on to its piazzas its bevies of well-gowned women 
 and heterogeneously dressed men. Grace Herrick 
 spied the newcomers through the vista of pine and 
 hemlock. 
 
 " Here comes the Witch of Endor," she cried ex 
 citedly. " Tell us, Agnes, what else do you know 
 that the rest of us cannot see! I declare, you've 
 quite spoiled my appetite for dinner and we had pick 
 erel, too, fresh from the lake." 
 
 " What next is to be disposed of in your list of 
 charities, Miss Landell?" Brentford settled himself 
 effectively on a step at Agnes' feet. 
 
 " Shuck it, Brenty." Good-naturedly, Horace Ver- 
 non pushed the young physician along and sat beside 
 him. 
 
 " My friend," indolently, Brentford turned and 
 contemplated the speaker " you are the individual, 
 as I recall, who repudiated my attitude of self-preser 
 vation, this afternoon, nearly went into kaleidoscopic 
 fragments because I challenged the methods of certain 
 good Samaritans. You sat in the seat of the scorn 
 ful and squabbled; but I notice that not one finger of 
 your magnificent hulk have you stirred toward doing 
 anything. You did not clamber laboriously down from 
 
 64
 
 The House of Landell 65 
 
 the dizzy heights of yonder tally-ho at the risk of dis 
 locating legs and arms; you did not, after accom 
 plishing a perilous descent, drag your weary anatomy 
 up the path, 
 
 " Cut it, Brentford, one would think you a brute, 
 instead of a very fine fellow," said Mevin, who had 
 taken his stand behind Agnes. 
 
 " Dr. Brentford is right." Vehemently, Agnes ex 
 pressed her opinion. " I wish publicly to apologize 
 for dragging him into an unwilling service. We are 
 told to bear one another's burdens; but that may not 
 mean that we transfer our own, as I did, to other shoul 
 ders." 
 
 " You cannot be a member in good and regular 
 standing, Miss Landell, or you never would be so gen 
 erous. The methods of the usual charity-monger are 
 drastic. She exacts the pound of flesh and doesn't no 
 tice if the victim squeals while losing it." 
 
 " Don't mind what Brentford says." Mevin twisted 
 a bit of paper and threw it at the handsome physician, 
 perceiving that Agnes was unaccustomed to the fashion 
 of thrusting truth into the tube of jest and eject 
 ing it on to the palette of repartee. " The pound of 
 flesh he gave in ministering to that Greek god on the 
 hill, had none of his blood in it, rest assured." 
 
 " Is he handsome? " Attracted by Mevin's words, 
 Grace Herrick bobbed up and down excitedly, in a 
 manner peculiarly her own. ' Tell us, Mr. Mevin ! 
 That horrid Dicky Brentford will do nothing but jeer. 
 If he means what he says, he shows very bad taste; 
 if he does not, he shows worse." 
 
 " I do mean it," said Brentford, testily. " I despise 
 charity and all its concomitants. Bah ! I know what 
 I'm talking about! The best parlors of my various 
 aunts and uncles were decorated with certificates of 
 membership to philanthropic societies ; but I know very
 
 66 The House of Landell 
 
 well they indulged in the sweating process toward their 
 washerwomen." 
 
 " Have a memory for pleasanter things, pessimist." 
 
 " That's all very well, Mevin ; but a doughnut has a 
 hole as well as that which is edible." 
 
 " Not the ' sort my mother makes,' " laughed Ver- 
 non, " she has crullers and cuts out the hole." 
 
 " In that case, you are not obliged to think as I do. 
 To return to my theme, which I consider most illu 
 minating, The most charitable person I know with 
 others' time and money borrows my carefully anno 
 tated books ( or takes them from my office without per 
 mission) and refuses to return them, because she likes 
 the notes, no matter how I plead their importance to 
 myself. She will send me new copies, she tells me, 
 but not mine! She borrows every book she reads, 
 though amply able to buy, and baptizes it with sand 
 wiches or toffee as is most convenient. She declares 
 that morality will not save, so I suppose she considers 
 the practice of it in daily matters unnecessary. Yes, 
 Miss Herrick, Herman is a stunning looking fellow. 
 Lucky for you, Vernon, that he is out of the running 
 at present. I wouldn't answer for Miss Herrick's keep 
 ing her engagement with you if she had seen him " 
 
 " Is he poor? Is he going to get well?" Grace's 
 excitement grew more keen. 
 
 " Poor ! They look like silver kings trying the simple 
 life. Is he going to get well? Ask Miss Landell. 
 She is the one who looks into the future." 
 
 " Yes, they are poor," sighed Agnes. " I want to 
 suggest some means of helping them, but hesitate be 
 fore the truth, Dr. Brentford 
 
 " Me ? Oh, my remarks are not personal. They are 
 general diatribes directed toward the Hydra, Charity, 
 with its millions of leeching arms! Tell us your
 
 The House of Landell 67 
 
 scheme. It is sure to bring us pleasure and that is the 
 sole aim of life." 
 
 " What do you think of holding a festival in the 
 dining-hall. We picked a good deal of fruit this af 
 ternoon. Perhaps the preserve-makers in ,the village 
 may as willingly buy of us as of the berry-pickers, 
 
 " And the small boys of the town, who, for weeks, 
 depend on berry-picking to help the pot boil, will find 
 themselves robbed of custom and decide they might 
 as well become hoboes as workmen, if to charity is to 
 belong the spoils." 
 
 " You make my heart ache, all you say is so true ! " 
 sighed Agnes. 
 
 " Dicky Brentford, stop making Agnes unhappy, 
 and thank your stars for something to do in this sleepy 
 place." Grace was all interest. " She can't help it 
 because Peter and Paul are always robbing each other. 
 I don't know why we need worry. If Peter isn't the 
 thief, Paul is sure to be, and Paul is only waiting his 
 chance to go Peter one better. Let's have the festival." 
 
 " I second the motion, because I shall get some fun 
 out of it, which statement is honest if not charitable. 
 Truly, it is a strange situation, that of those two splen 
 did looking specimens of humanity destitute on a 
 lonely hillside, in a house which looks more like a mil 
 lionaire's shooting box than a poor farm." 
 
 " There must be something more juicy than huckle 
 berries to insure success," said Grace Herrick's fiance. 
 
 "Of course, Horace. We must have something 
 stunning." Again Grace bobbed up and down with 
 her funny little excitable movement. " I know, 
 Agnes give us that wonderful evening of yours, 
 you know that you were reciting to me the other day, 
 Judith ! You are positively great in that dance you 
 make her give before Holofernes. Do! " 
 
 In an instant, there was a hubbub of entreaty.
 
 68 The House of Landell 
 
 At first, impressed in her own mind, that, under ex 
 isting circumstances she should not give the strength 
 she knew she did not possess, and shrinking from the 
 incongruity of presenting the interpretation in connec 
 tion with a dance and festival, the babel of voices over 
 whelmed her intelligence and inhibited it with the con 
 fusion that ensued. Her mentality began to toss its 
 shuttle to and fro in the warp and woof of others' opin 
 ions and the threads became hopelessly entangled. 
 Though she seemed outwardly composed, this mental 
 condition was quickly sensed by the importuners. They 
 brought more threads of entreaty to the factory of her 
 mind and the whirring of the vari-sized spindles of in 
 decision grew more confounding. Only Mevin stood 
 apart, silent. 
 
 "Of course you will! You never refuse to do any 
 thing for the good of others ! " insisted Grace. 
 
 " I would give Judith, Her eyes filled with 
 tears which she smiled bravely away. " You know 
 Alicia always did the singing, the oratorio part, 
 while I did the dramatic part." 
 
 " Do it, Agnes ! Just because some one has died, 
 you can't shut yourself up behind that for the rest of 
 your life." 
 
 The very lack of sentiment made Grace's thrust en 
 durable. It cut Agnes to the heart but left upon her 
 mind only the thought of Grace's crudity, which ap 
 pealed to her keen sense of humor and deflected the 
 attack. 
 
 " It will make you feel so happy to know you are 
 doing for others," said Bernice Holbrook, who, 
 throughout the conversation had sat rocking languor 
 ously. 
 
 " You are quite right," responded Agnes. " I have 
 kept in practice and I should do it. It will need the 
 music. I can arrange for the instrumental part. Mv
 
 The House of Landell 69 
 
 pianist is a busy man; but I will pay him well, but, 
 the singing, " 
 
 " Do it yourself, Agnes. There are only three se 
 lections, as I recall the presentation, that magnificent, 
 'Upon the Ramparts of Bethulia', and the lullaby, and 
 the oratorio aria with recitative, f Ho Ye Upon the 
 Walls.' ' 
 
 " It isn't the quantity, it's the quality," said Agnes, 
 wanly. " If I do it, it won't be like Alicia. I have no 
 such singing voice. She was wonderful. I can sing it 
 after a fashion; but it won't be divine. She was di 
 vine." 
 
 " You are superb in the oratory, Miss Landell, and, 
 be assured, far better in song than you yourself be 
 lieve," said Mevin, breaking his silence. 
 
 " I can't imagine you other than divine in anything 
 you undertake. Certainly, if you can pierce creosote 
 shingles to see things, you can troll out notes to hypno 
 tize angels, to say nothing of a Beneby audience," said 
 Dr. Brentford. 
 
 " Then I will undertake it. I have sung the selec 
 tions often, at home, since Alicia died, couldn't," 
 she changed the word hastily. " There will be so little 
 time to advertise, I will see what I can do, now, by 
 telephone." 
 
 " A personal appeal, by all means," Brentford con 
 tinued his ironical repartee. 
 
 " Oh, oh," groaned Tom. " If that is your plan, 
 get at it at once, and then come on home to rest up 
 for the ordeal." 
 
 "Obeying your brother!" Brentford's voice fol 
 lowed Agnes to the telephone. " Yet, liberty is ele 
 vated aloft in the guise of a woman." 
 
 " A correct one in this case," and Agnes, sparkling 
 with the elation wakened at the thought of personal 
 endeavor, together with a sort of sacrificial ecstasy,
 
 7o The House of Landell 
 
 because she was to be of service, gave her Roland for 
 Brentford's Oliver in a manner positively entrancing : 
 " Liberty never oppresses individuals and I see that 
 Tom really wants to go." 
 
 " It is only fair to admit that woman is a goddess, 
 since the House of Lords has decreed she is not a 
 person," was Brentford's parting shot. 
 
 After some effective telephoning, Mevin conducted 
 Agnes to the foot of the steps, feeling his way toward 
 walking home with her. At first, he had feared lest the 
 events of the afternoon should affect the ease of their 
 relations; but so oblivious had she been to his love- 
 making that he found not an eddy in the smoothness 
 of their intercourse; and he vowed, inwardly, that, as 
 far as he was concerned, so should it remain, until he 
 could see broad plains of assurance whence, in loving 
 measure, might flow the waters of their friendship, 
 rising above the banks of simple comradeship, and 
 moving steadily on to the all-including ocean of love. 
 
 Meanwhile, Tom had walked ahead, and together 
 Agnes and Mevin went down the long, silent avenue, 
 redolent with pines and the soft dews of evening. 
 
 " How bitter Brentford is! " 
 
 Mevin broke the silence as they entered the main 
 road leading to the Landells'. " I wonder what tragedy 
 lurks behind it! Were there not an inherent fineness 
 in the man, he would be insufferable." 
 
 " Every word he says is true from one aspect," said 
 Agnes, vehemently. " Practised without regard to the 
 inevitable law of compensation, charity is a big leech, 
 and I am one of its jaws. Suddenly, I decide I should 
 act for the good of others. When I get into more than 
 I can manage, some one, with hands already full, has 
 to come to my rescue. My mother taught me better 
 than that; but I fail to act on her teachings, and fall 
 back on my own emotionalism and Aunt Luella's train-
 
 The House of Landell 71 
 
 ing, that we are very much like food thrown to beasts, 
 to be torn asunder for others' needs or pleasure." 
 
 " What did your mother teach you? " As he looked 
 into her deep, true, earnest eyes Mevin could ngt, try 
 as he would, keep the tenderness from stealing into his 
 tones. 
 
 " Some one asked me if she would give a cake to a 
 charitable festival. All enthusiasm, I replied in the 
 affirmative. What was my distress when, instead of 
 giving me the cake, she made me report that I had 
 no right to make obligations for others and for that 
 reason the cake was not to be forthcoming." 
 
 " A severe lesson for a little girl." 
 
 " A good one. If only, I would apply it constantly, 
 instead of intermittently. My childhood's teachings 
 were a strange medley and my attempts to relate them 
 have been the puzzle of my life. Through my aunt, I 
 read in the law that we are worms of the dust, our sal 
 vation depending on our utter helplessness and an atti 
 tude of holding our mouths open like young sparrows 
 for the Most Generous God to throw down food ac 
 cording to His gracious pleasure; the next moment, 
 my mother taught me that a man reaps exactly what 
 he sows, and is morally accountable to himself and 
 those about him for every move he makes. Only 
 recently has come to me the revelation that life con 
 stantly manifests in growth and that the spark of deity 
 within us is the life that grows to its own prototype." 
 
 Mevin meditated. He wanted to discuss the ques 
 tion ; but more, did he wish to hear her talk, so instead 
 he questioned her. 
 
 " Why has the struggle been so great ? You seem 
 to have so much to make you happy." 
 
 " In order to help, I have trained myself to suffer 
 with those who suffer." 
 
 " Is not that morbid ? "
 
 72 The House of Landell 
 
 A quality of tender protectiveness softened the 
 words and reduced within her the sense of torture she 
 was beginning to feel as she entered into the spirit of 
 her recital. 
 
 " I do not know. I believe it is necessary to the un 
 derstanding of humanity. I feel that until I quiver 
 with every heart I shall be made to suffer. I had two 
 little brothers and a baby sister whom I dearly loved. 
 They died, so my Aunt Luella told me. Oh, if they 
 had only taken me out in the little canoe, on the still 
 waters, under the blue of the heavens ; moving, almost 
 without motion, through green pastures, and let me 
 lie there, looking into the life of the waters, the life of 
 the sky, the life of the trees, then, little by little, the 
 heart of life would have beat, steadily and sturdily, 
 into my numbed and frightened heart, and won it into 
 a larger life than I had ever known before. I should 
 have gone home, and gone on in life, awake to the 
 truth that the babies were not dead, but more alive and 
 closer to the aspirations and the heart of me, than 
 they were before." 
 
 " Did not your father and mother teach you this ? 
 They seem like ones who would." 
 
 " My mother was dangerously ill at this crucial time 
 in my life. I was placed with my Aunt Luella at first 
 I seemed in no one's care at all. While my father was 
 hovering over the seeming death-bed of my mother, 
 and Tom and Alicia were removed from the scene by 
 neighbors, I was wandering about the house seeking 
 for an opportunity to help in what I knew to be a tragic 
 situation. I was seeking for the little ones. They had 
 taken them away and I could not find them. 
 
 " Puzzled at the strange, hushed bustle, so unlike 
 the usual atmosphere of the home, I came to the east 
 guest chamber. Its door was not quite closed and I 
 pushed it open and entered, oh, " she staggered;
 
 The House of Landell 73 
 
 but was upheld by Mevin's supporting arm. " There 
 were the babies, stark and unclothed, surrounded 
 by men at the embalmer's trade. It was instilled into 
 me in horror, and distilled into my life in consterna 
 tion." 
 
 Mevin clasped her hand. His strength upheld her. 
 She went on. 
 
 " I did not cry. I knew my mother's life depended 
 upon quiet. I spoke to no one. I never have spoken, 
 and never intended to speak; but you, in your sym 
 pathy and thinking of Alicia, oh, how can I go on 
 to-morrow night without Alicia, you know, the sis 
 ter, who died two years ago?" 
 
 " I know," he replied, tenderly. " When you think 
 of her, and the babies, can you not remember just what 
 you have told me you longed to have said to you? 
 Know you would not think about them unless the souls 
 of them were thinking of the soul of you. Instead of 
 sinking under the weight of loss and separation, think, 
 at once, ' Here are my loved ones speaking to the soul 
 of me. What matter if I do not see them with these 
 eyes that see, after all, so crudely. I can know they 
 are with me in thought and in aspiration. I can be 
 sure that their beautiful embodiments are .fitting gar 
 ments for the qualities they possess and express.' ' 
 
 " So uniting the unseen with the seen in every ten 
 derness I can bestow on those about me?" She 
 stopped and looked at him with beseeching questioning. 
 
 " Yes. Daily, there will come to you more clearly 
 the knowledge that their souls are responding to and 
 encouraging yours. Establish the habit of realizing 
 this unity of life, even as you believe it. Let all speak 
 to you of a greater life. Never think of them as dead." 
 
 Agnes turned and looked at him earnestly and rever 
 ently. 
 
 " You ! " She paused upon the word with tender
 
 74 The House of Landell 
 
 sweetness. " You ! A man who does not believe in 
 prayer? Oh, no! Your words, you, yourself, disprove 
 the statement." 
 
 " I ? Oh, I've followed pretty much my own plan 
 since I was ten years old, when with clenched fists and 
 choking throat, I listened to the description of a God 
 of vengeance, who, in infinite justice and mercy, re 
 pented the wholesale condemnation of which He had 
 been guilty, which is nothing less than the anger we 
 are blamed for exhibiting, when things do not go our 
 way. Then, He sent His Only Begotten Son, for, by 
 this time, He had even disavowed having any other 
 children excepting by adoption to be scourged and 
 crucified as a penalty for something He had not done. 
 This enabled some of the outcasts to return, relieved 
 of the consequences not of what they had elected to 
 do, but what they had been forced into. I had con 
 vulsions that night. The doctor said it was from eat 
 ing green apples. Faugh ! It was from terror and in 
 dignation." 
 
 " I have had convulsions, too," said Agnes gently. 
 " But such statements seem so palpably the results of 
 sleeping consciousness, that I have not repudiated, I 
 have prayed, nightly ceaselessly for light, more 
 light." 
 
 " I have been shy of avowed love and mercy ever 
 since, and have cut loose from things religious, pretty 
 much. It is an easy thing He did," he continued bit 
 terly. " He followed one injustice with a worse one. 
 He loved! so hard He sacrificed a loved one. Why? 
 According to the pulpits, it was a sop to the Cerberus 
 of his own remorse. He was sorry! As if that ever 
 corrected anything! It is the same idea of love as 
 the cellular attraction, rampant among those men and 
 women who, under its name, tumble children into the
 
 The House of Landell 75 
 
 world to suffer. Love ! Four letters ! I beg your par 
 don ! Can you ever forgive me ? " 
 
 " We are of a God-race, seeking our heritage, Truth, 
 Mr. Mevin." She looked at him with angelic woman 
 liness. " Where shall we find nobler help than reverent 
 searching, women with men. Yes, until this awaken 
 ing age, lust is the conception the world has had of 
 love ; but search the Bible ; watch the evolution of his 
 tory, see therein how the essence of love nourishes our 
 understanding. As we move out of ancient forms of 
 religion, may we grow in appreciation of its reality. 
 Such men as you are needed to reveal it to the world." 
 
 " I must manifest what I am, whether I intend to 
 or not. As for charity," after a moment's pondering, 
 reverting to the original topic, " ' Charity should mean 
 justice instead of generosity; work, instead of alms.* 
 It always puzzles me, though, when I see a case like 
 these proteges of yours. How it must cut them to 
 the heart to be thus publicly advertised." 
 
 The comradeship with which Agnes had entered with 
 him upon the mighty matters of life was suddenly ob 
 scured. An impenetrable reserve encased her. 
 Though she continued to talk, no longer was there 
 communion. 
 
 Wounded by the seeming fickleness of this woman 
 whom he believed to be superior to coquetry, Mevin's 
 replies became platitudes. He was not sorry to leave 
 her, and by himself to puzzle over the mystery of her 
 powerful attraction and repulsion. 
 
 When Agnes entered the library, she found Tom 
 poring over a heavy volume. He looked up with a 
 comical expression. 
 
 " Have you heard from your rhetoric queen? You 
 look as if you had." 
 
 " No, and, as next best, I'm studying her habitat in 
 the Gazetteer. What is the matter? You look as if
 
 76 The House of Landell 
 
 you had committed murder! When I left you, you 
 were as happy as a bird." 
 
 " What have I done ! " Agnes sank into a chair 
 and covered her face with her hands. " What have I 
 done!" 
 
 " Just what I want to know." 
 
 " I have dragged those gentlepeople into the lime 
 light. As I now see it, the whole story could have 
 been kept within the knowledge of the few." 
 
 " You are working yourself into one of your attacks. 
 If you wish to do as badly or worse next time, poison 
 your blood, muddle your brain and wrack your nerves 
 with that fiendish pill, self-condemnation. Truth is 
 never recognized by a puzzled brain." 
 
 " Why do I make such a mix-up when I trv to be 
 kind!" 
 
 " You try too confounded hard to include everybody. 
 You remind me of a woman who, to support another 
 one, bought home-made wines of her and sent them 
 to a family of topers the town was trying to reclaim." 
 
 "What can I do!" 
 
 " The one who works the threads of helpfulness 
 through other lives, needs the strong bodkin of com 
 mon sense to pull them through, successfully. You 
 have lots of supersense; but I sometimes think it would 
 pay you to lay it aside and just be ordinary. See what 
 you can with your eyes and no more, " 
 
 "What eyes?" 
 
 " You have asked me that before. These eyes ! 
 Not one in the middle of the skull or back in the brain. 
 I tell you, you are treading on dangerous ground, try 
 ing to grasp so much truth. You don't know how 
 comfortable it is to be commonplace. It relieves one 
 of an awful pressure. What earthly reason had you 
 to draw the thread of your helpfulness to the Her 
 mans, through the plan of entertaining those hotel
 
 The House of Landell 77 
 
 people, especially by undertaking that tremendous 
 Judith ? It seems to me that the crux of the matter is 
 that you allow others to make your decisions for 
 you- 
 
 " It looks so obstinate 
 
 " Obstinate or not, I should refuse to do what is 
 not traceable to your own intelligence. Even if good 
 ones, the ideas of others should not be entertained until 
 the suggestion is subjected to your own decision. 
 Good nature or indecision are easy paths to the horrors 
 of possession by others of our integrity, and even to 
 the terrors of hypnotism. Don't dear, put on that 
 look of ' Thy will be done,' as if it were to be the 
 worst possible! Are you going to have an attack, 
 Cherum, Cheree ? " 
 
 " I think not. I am improving, do say you think 
 I am ! I have so long supposed I ought to do for 
 everybody, and condemned myself, even if I find noth 
 ing to condemn myself for, that ' I have the habit.' I 
 hope Mattee Sue will answer your letter, and that you 
 will always win your heart's desire, not because you 
 are more fortunate than some; but because of your 
 well-directed conscious choice."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 With my heart's blood I write my life's song; 
 
 And because it is my heart's blood, there is life in 
 
 my song; 
 
 And because there is life in my song 
 Behold, there is new blood in my heart; 
 For I live anew in the giving forth of life. 
 
 THE next morning found Agnes practising her part 
 for the evening. Hearing his sister's clear and beauti 
 ful voice, Tom came to the door of the music-room. 
 
 " I know I should not practise the day I am to ap 
 pear; but I must, just a little," she said, apologetically. 
 " I am going to rest afterwards. I shall run down to 
 the village and urge the people to swell the fund. I 
 must put the case strongly to get anything, you know. 
 Then I shall take a look only a look at Cousin Ma 
 tilda. She disturbed me again last night. My physical 
 presence seems to worry her; but she keeps my room 
 fairly buzzing with her mental activity. If only my 
 going to her did some good ! But no, she seems to 
 cling to me with her mind and to care practically noth 
 ing about me after she gets me within physical reach. 
 I don't understand." 
 
 Tom looked thoughtful and went to his train. 
 
 In a short time, Agnes left the house. After she 
 had spread her news to her satisfaction she was thor 
 oughly exhausted; but, true to her promise, she went 
 to Miss Bolden's. 
 
 " I am so glad to see you," Cousin Matilda greeted 
 her visitor benignly, " I have been looking for you all 
 
 78
 
 The House of Landell 79 
 
 the morning. To us who rise with the dawn, this hour 
 of the forenoon seems nearly nightfall, when no man 
 works. Still, I felt sure that if I waited long enough, 
 you would drop in. I wish you to remain to luncheon 
 with me, then we will 
 
 " I am so sorry ; but I cannot, this afternoon. You 
 see, we are to have this big entertainment in aid of 
 the " and she poured forth the tale of the Hermans' 
 disasters to which Miss Bolden listened with keen in 
 terest. " Now I will run on. I have several matters 
 to attend to, and I must give at least an hour to my 
 toilette 
 
 " I notice," was the curt response, " that you are 
 growing altogether too fond of dress. Were I you, 
 I would curb that vanity." 
 
 " Why, Cousin Matilda, last winter you fairly 
 scolded me for paying so little attention to my personal 
 appearance," was Agnes' response, in hurt surprise. 
 " Since then, I have tried to reform." 
 
 " That is quite right I hope I shall have the pleas 
 ure of hearing you, to-night. Of course, if you will 
 make so many engagements that you can spare me no 
 time, I must, I suppose, submit." 
 
 " Father will send the car for you early." Bidding 
 Matilda good-bye, Agnes, her vitality oozing from her 
 as a result of this acrid conversation, made a hurried 
 trip to the hotel to see about platform arrangements, 
 and by noon she was at home. After a light lunch she 
 went to her room to rest. No sooner had her head 
 touched the pillow, however, than she recalled that 
 she had not written to her Aunt Luella for a week. 
 As she was sealing the envelope, the receipt of a bill 
 through the mail recalled that the first of the month 
 was at hand and she had not made up her accounts, 
 so she plunged into the maze. There was her usual 
 difficulty in making two and two spell four, as she
 
 8o The House of Landell 
 
 expressed it, and dusk halted her mathematical ac 
 tivities and curtailed the hour for dressing. She was 
 obliged to hurry her toilette that she might be ready 
 for the entertainment which was to begin at country 
 hours. The pines and hemlocks were already aglow 
 with sparkling lights, twinkling in and about the green. 
 
 By half after seven, the townspeople came thronging 
 to the hotel, for Agnes Landell was wonderful in her 
 interpretation and not since the sudden translation of 
 the lamented Alicia, had she favored the public with 
 her expression. By eight, the hall was filled. As on 
 the shores of the Euphrates, the clangor of brass and 
 the iron of arms, together with the clashing of steel, 
 the neighing of horses, and the roar of demonism 
 as the hosts of Holofernes prepared for battle made 
 itself felt through the instrumentation of the pianist, 
 heralding the theme of the evening. 
 
 Then Agnes entered. 
 
 Respecting her wish that no applause interfere with 
 the mental picture presented through the music, her 
 audience greeted her in a silence vibrant with concen 
 trated power. 
 
 Rather with her mind than with her eyes, she swept 
 the audience, reaching out and drawing them to her 
 self in support and cooperation, shrinking from those 
 whose armor of criticism repelled. There was Tom, 
 always her helper ; her father, always an inspiration ; 
 her mother, before whom she trembled a little, she 
 knew not why ; Grace, who amused her, even in antici 
 pation of her bizarre remarks which appealed to her 
 humor more than to her emotions, they were generally 
 so apt, even if uncomplimentary. There was Mevin, 
 what peace, what protection enfolded her as she 
 looked at him. There was Dr. Brentford, she felt 
 rather sure of his support, and there, almost in the 
 front seat, was Alicia's singing teacher, a remarkable
 
 The House of Landell 81 
 
 woman. Alicia! Alicia! The battle-songs of the 
 infamous hosts of Holofernes! The hills of Arabia! 
 The waters of the Euphrates! Judith, the Jewish 
 Mary, saviour of her race! The New England faces 
 faded quite away and Agnes, as Judith, trod the plains 
 of Esdraelon, with salvation for her people. Step by 
 step, in the flowing rhythm of Aldrich's poesy, she lived 
 that tragedy ; threading her way through mystic dance 
 into the presence of the drunken Holofernes in his tent. 
 Like the ebb and flow of moonlight, she swayed to 
 the weird Assyrian chant that drank in the grape- 
 laden elixir of the Assyrian night. 
 
 In poetry and song, she had borne the burden of 
 the narrative; the intense description of the invading 
 hosts; the characterizations of the besotted Holofernes, 
 and the Judith of the ages. She had lulled the mon 
 ster to his death-sleep when her throat was clutched 
 with a demoniacal violence and into her open mouth 
 a palpable something began to force its way. 
 
 " I am Alicia! " it said, " I am Alicia." 
 
 " Alicia would never do such a thing," returned 
 Agnes' soul, with firm insistence, her whole being 
 gripped in the claws of the unseen horror. 
 
 " I am Alicia ! " The invisible hands clutched her 
 tighter, till her every physical, mental and emotional 
 nerve and muscle were engaged in the warfare of her 
 soul against this effort to rape the integrity of her in 
 dividuality and there was the audience, uncompre 
 hending the great drama behind, waiting, watching, 
 listening to the tale she was bearing to completion. 
 Grappling, life to life, with this creature of obsession, 
 still there was no halt in the lines, no blur in the pic 
 ture. While every part of her was engaged in con 
 quering in this dreadful fight, her artistic sense utilized 
 even the strangling that was now almost suffocation. 
 Pantingly, and with physical agony, she forced her
 
 82 The House of Landell 
 
 breath to speech, while, keenly alert, she watched the 
 effect upon her audience of this unrecognized battle 
 being waged before them. With physical as well as 
 spiritual strength, she was combatting an enemy dead 
 lier to her than was Holofernes to Judith. Struggling, 
 panting, denying entrance to this discarnate horror 
 that was fighting to the death to overwhelm and con 
 trol her, she battled physically, with breath and arms, 
 mentally searching a way out, and with all the strength 
 of her spirit, calling, God! But she was nearly ex 
 hausted, her breath almost gone. She felt her limbs 
 giving way. 
 
 " God ! God ! " she cried, while the text flowed 
 smoothly on. 
 
 Of this soul struggle raging before them, the au 
 dience saw nothing. They were enthralled with the 
 majesty of the portrayal. 
 
 Steadily, as to outward appearance ; more and more 
 haltingly as to her failing forces, she approached the 
 words by which Judith having slain the king Bagoas 
 summons the watchers on the ramparts. As she reached 
 this climax, with one more desperate struggle, she 
 threw out both her arms repellingly, putting from her 
 all but space and air and freedom and God. With an 
 internal shout of supremacy, a great loud cry to the 
 Intelligence protecting her against this dreadful thing 
 she knew not what to call it she attained the next 
 stage in the double drama she was enacting. 
 
 Her voice sent forth a message ! It rang, as through 
 a trumpet, thrilling the dullest listener there, 
 
 " ' He is dead ! 
 
 The Prince is dead ! The Hebrew witch hath slain 
 Prince Holofernes ! Fly, Assyrians, Fly ! ' " 
 
 This was what the people heard; but cringing back
 
 The House of Landell 83 
 
 unto its own place, the vampire of her soul heard her 
 proclaim, " Begone! " To God and herself she stood 
 there, triumphant in her conquest for the integrity 'of 
 her soul's expression. To the audience, she was Agnes, 
 with histrionic skill, portraying the redemption of 
 Judea. 
 
 Then, there came a great peace. The fingers on her 
 throat relaxed. Pure air replaced the sulphurous 
 fumes she had been inhaling; but she was bereft of 
 strength, breathless! Soon, however, the rhythm of 
 her pulse began to be established. Skillfully, and 
 prayerfully, she gathered her faculties entirely within 
 the jurisdiction of her own intelligence and emotions, 
 and brought the poem to its end. 
 
 A tempest of applause succeeded the finale, and 
 Agnes went down among her friends, collected, even 
 seeming cold. She was still on the platform steps 
 when two human arms clutched her with fierce tense 
 ness, and Alicia's singing-teacher whispered hoarsely, 
 
 "Agnes, I saw your sister in you, every minute!" 
 
 Agnes staggered at the import of this confession 
 even as the speaker was swept aside by oncoming 
 friends and the evening passed to a triumphant close.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "I cannot hear what you say for listening to 
 what you are" 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 IN the gray dawn, Agnes struggled from a lethargic 
 slumber back to the life of day. A wild contention 
 of demands surged through her. She tossed and 
 turned, then rose and wrote letter after letter until 
 eight o'clock. By that time she was in agony with 
 the intense pain of a headache. Forcing her nerves 
 past nature's call for rest, she dressed and went the 
 length of the long avenue to the post box. The sun 
 light shot into her burning eyeballs, but she was even 
 more determined than she would have been if well to 
 call no one away from duties to mail her letters. She 
 had reached the box and was about to insert the en 
 velopes, when all turned black before her. She sank in 
 a little heap by the big stone gate-posts, where glory of 
 vine and bloom partially concealed her. Semi-con 
 scious, but unequal to moving, and determined not to 
 call for assistance, she sat there for some time. Then 
 her eyes opened dreamily and she scanned the long 
 length of sunshine which, to her, seemed as terrible as 
 a furnace. 
 
 While striving to summon courage to move from 
 out the shadow, constantly stealing more and more of 
 its protection from her as the sun found its way into 
 the interstices of the shrubbery, she heard Tom's 
 whistle, as he came up fresh from a swim. 
 
 "What are you doing?" he said cheerily, then 
 84
 
 The House of Landell 85 
 
 stopped in astonishment. " You look like a burglar 
 lying in wait for the family to go picnicing." 
 
 Agnes burst into tears. 
 
 " You always do joke so ! Can't you see I am in 
 agony ! " 
 
 "You do look awfully used up; but if you feel as 
 bad as you look, why aren't you in bed, instead of an 
 eighth of a mile from home hatless in this blazing sun 
 shine?" 
 
 " I had to mail these letters." She held them toward 
 him. " I've written these this morning." 
 
 "Twelve!" Taking the letters, he counted them 
 as he posted them. " You had to write these, I sup 
 pose! No matter how much last night's junketting 
 took out of you! You are as intemperate as Tiger 
 Thompson in Pride's Alley. You have been on an 
 emotional spree for a week, and now come delirium 
 tremens, and like most tremenites you don't know 
 enough to stay home. You couldn't possibly have 
 waited, or called some one to mail them ? " 
 
 " I didn't want to trouble any one." 
 
 " You would never feel that way about it if you 
 were not wound up to the top notch of nerves. You 
 can't borrow vitality, dear." 
 
 " I will not be selfish. I will not notice my feel- 
 ings!" 
 
 " And then, you won't have any ? Feelings are sig 
 nals of processes. If you inhibit them, you don't in 
 hibit the processes and you will soon find that out.'' 
 
 " Perhaps I can reach the house, now. I want to 
 get up a basket of fruit for Mrs. Tula and some pro 
 visions for Mrs. Meezer 
 
 ' ' One of them lives by the sea in the east, 
 One of them lives in the west, by the sea,' " 
 
 sang Tom. " Do any of your proteges, by any chance,
 
 86 The House of Landell 
 
 live near each other? Did you happen to recall, when 
 you got up to write all these letters, that you had given 
 your moral note to mother, to receive with her this af 
 ternoon and make her tea a booming success ? Is that 
 promise to pay going to protest, because you have ap 
 plied your strength in directions other than agreed 
 upon? " 
 
 He caught his sister as she was about to fall, and 
 stopped contritely, sure he was right, but grieved at 
 her condition. 
 
 " Go to bed, Cherum, Cheree, and I will see you 
 through, and, from the selfishness of unselfish people, 
 ' Good Lord, deliver me,' " he finished, under his 
 breath. 
 
 He had assisted her to her room and was about to 
 leave her when she handed him a newspaper she had 
 picked up by the gateway; but had not opened. 
 
 " This belongs to the chauffeur. Will you see that 
 he gets it? I wish such sensationalism need not come 
 to our doors, oh, I've dropped it." 
 
 Tom caught the paper as it fell, and it opened, dis 
 playing to his astounded gaze a picture of Agnes on 
 the front page. 
 
 " Is this you! " he exclaimed. 
 
 Agnes quickly snatched the sheet and looked at the 
 page intensely. 
 
 " What is it ! " she gasped. " Tom ! Tom ! " 
 
 With trembling finger, she pointed to the headlines 
 above the photograph. Tom read aloud, 
 
 <: ' A snapshot of a New England seer, possessed of 
 marvelous powers. * * * Discovers in a beautiful 
 deserted house, Mrs. David Herman and her son, 
 Philip. These are the millionaires who mystified so 
 ciety some time ago, by their strange disappearance.' ' 
 
 " Another headline," she groaned. " Stop, Tom, 
 stop!"
 
 The House of Landell 87 
 
 " ' When found,' ' pursued Tom, relentlessly, 
 " ' they were in a destitute and starving condition 
 
 "Another!" she quivered, looking over his shoul 
 der, fearing to hear the succeeding lines. At the same 
 time an intense desire to know the worst, impelled her 
 to listen. 
 
 " ' Proceeds of the great huckleberry festival to be 
 nucleus of a fund for their support 
 
 " What shall I do ! " 
 
 " It goes on, ' At last, the world's curiosity is satis 
 fied by news of their safety. The establishing of a 
 fund, by this brilliant society belle, to help this worthy 
 couple ' 
 
 "Will it never end?" 
 
 " Another headline. ' A call is made to all the 
 charitably inclined, far and near, to join this worthy 
 cause. Send pennies, dimes, quarters ' so it goes on, 
 ad infinitum." 
 
 " What have I done ! " 
 
 Tom concealed his feelings and soothed his sister as 
 best he could; but when at last he left her, she still 
 clutched the paper, which, at intervals, she reverted to, 
 and mourned over. 
 
 In a few moments he was in the breakfast room. 
 
 " I wonder if Agnes is coming soon," Mrs. Landell 
 looked past her son questioningly. 
 
 " No, mother, she is paying the penalty of philan 
 thropic dissipation," he returned, bitterly. " It was 
 all very beautiful for her to find that family; but what 
 an expose she has made for them. She has used them 
 to turn out entertainment for others. Don't tell me 
 a pure motive is all that is needed in the climb of at 
 tainment! Intelligence, discernment, and discrimina 
 tion well mulsified and made up into a dressing called 
 common sense is the sauce to serve with the salad of
 
 88 The House of Landell 
 
 life." He retailed the circumstance over which Agnes 
 was grieving up-stairs. 
 
 " I lecture her about indiscriminate use of self until 
 I am ashamed. ' We can't detach the individual from 
 the world ; but we must learn to realize personality in 
 terms of the common good.' ' 
 
 Mr. Landell looked meditatively at his son. 
 
 " A while ago," he said, " for the very purpose of 
 observing differences in the processes of their growth, 
 a religious publication desired to come into relations 
 with young persons, some trained in the dogma of the 
 theologians and some in the moral and spiritual idea 
 that the acquisition of Truth is an unfolding process. 
 In a way, you and Ague,' would meet the requirements 
 well." 
 
 " Wherein do you consider that we have not been 
 brought up alike? Do you refer to the processes of 
 reincarnation ? " 
 
 " I do not accept that theory as do many. I believe, 
 not so much in repeated earth reincarnations as in soul 
 growth. They who accept that explanation, seem to 
 me to lack imagination. There are other ways of 
 learning than through repetition and other bounds of 
 advancement than this little earth. I start with the 
 premise that you and she appeared at this earth stage, 
 having attained different stages of soul growth. Your 
 unfoldment is less than hers, but more sequential. 
 Since you were put into harness here you have had 
 uninterrupted training, which promotes a certain habit 
 of mind and principle of conduct. Approaching life 
 reverently, independently and personally, you have 
 been related with real sources of power, rather than 
 with the machinery of dogma." 
 
 " I feel the truth of that most gratefully." 
 
 '' You have never, in order to be true to a cause, 
 been placed in the position of maintaining an attitude
 
 The House of Landell 89 
 
 of mind which your soul repudiates as unwholesome, 
 unhelpful and unintelligent, thus poisoning your mani 
 festation with secretions that insincerity, whether in 
 tentional or not, causes to accumulate. 
 
 " Agnes' training has been less sequential. Now, 
 transcendently happy at what her spiritual illumina 
 tion has granted her, again, she is torn by agonies of 
 doubt as to the wisdom of the tenets she believes she 
 should accept. She stands in the midst of crudities 
 which are loathsome to her, but do not distress you, 
 because, what she sees as retrogression you see as pro 
 gression. She constantly depreciates herself as less 
 than she has been in some previous state; you con 
 stantly appreciate yourself as more to-day than you 
 were yesterday." 
 
 " You diagnose her well. I hope I am as fine as 
 you make me sound. How fortunate that in all the 
 cataclysms of earlier days I was allowed to remain 
 with you two splendid ones." Tom looked lovingly at 
 his mother sitting stately and beautiful behind the urn. 
 " So the difference in our beginnings here may be 
 summed up in this I recognize the ascent of man; 
 she long has mourned his fall ! 
 
 " I am glad I took up psychurgy, together with 
 medicine. It is thoroughly constructive," he continued. 
 " I am glad, too, that I had that splendid course in 
 mathematics. It holds so clearly before me the prin 
 ciple of One. Do you think it possible for me to help 
 Agnes, without interfering with her business of prov 
 ing her own propositions? As I read you, she and 
 I are rather near each other, at times, as we move on 
 different arcs of the circle of life." 
 
 " I think it a good idea. While you, with your prac 
 tical common sense, may assist her to discriminate, she, 
 with her spiritual idealism, may help you to your vi-
 
 QO The House of Landell 
 
 sion. Remember, through it all, that time is not an 
 element necessary to growth of soul. Recognition is." 
 
 For some days after this experience, Agnes lay in 
 almost a comatose state, taking little nourishment, 
 rousing herself, at intervals, to bemoan her horrible 
 error, then sinking, again, into the condition, not of 
 lethargy, but of peace. 
 
 " She is wholly exhausted," she heard her mother 
 whisper, the first day. " Don't you think, Daniel, she 
 should have stimulant? " 
 
 " I am over-stimulated, now, dear mother," she had 
 roused herself to say. " I am not ill. I am being 
 infilled with the Spirit of Truth. If only Peter and 
 John will watch over me, and not weary nor grow 
 faint." 
 
 At another time, she called for pencil and paper, 
 and requested to be left alone. After hours of peace, 
 would come the transcribing of a poem, or aphorism, 
 then rest, again. 
 
 " Watch over me," she said. " Keep from me, 
 what is not trained toward the highest and best. 
 I must remain in this well of divine restfulness until 
 I have discerned my message. Each time I have 
 what some call nervous prostration, I return to the 
 life of the to-day like a mother after travail with 
 child. It may be I express creation through a poem, 
 a tale, a new correlation and perception of former un 
 derstandings ; but it is a child myself, maybe being 
 born again." 
 
 One day, on the edge of the evening, she returned 
 to her old sense of compulsion and hurtling demand. 
 The whole world seemed holding out its hands for 
 help that she alone could give. 
 
 " I am afraid ! " she gasped. " Afraid ! " 
 
 Rising, she went to the window. Cool night was
 
 The House of Landell 91 
 
 settling down. The restfulness of twilight brooded 
 over her, and soothed, though it could not dispel. Her 
 brain cried out for release from its dreadful pressure' 
 and the old dominance impelled her. 
 
 " I must attain," she said intensely. " We are put 
 here to work." 
 
 Going to her desk, she took out a manuscript. With 
 a tension that jarred her entire physique, she began 
 crossing out and adding, until the sheets were masses 
 of hieroglyphics. She failed to note that the door was 
 opening, until Tom's voice startled her. 
 
 " Boozing again, Agnesia, and pounding away as 
 if that pen were a mallet and the paper, stone. So 
 dark, too, that you have to feel your .way. Why don't 
 you think, before you use your physical strength tran 
 scribing! " 
 
 Whimsically, Agnes looked up at her brother, her 
 face alight. 
 
 " You know I must see Truth grow. I love to see 
 it shape out of debris new forms of beauty." 
 
 " I don't, after that fashion! " 
 
 Decisively, he took the manuscript from her hands. 
 
 "I want a conceived idea; a clear sheet; a sharp 
 pencil; then, forge ahead." 
 
 " I see too much at once to do that ! " 
 
 " I know it. Realms open up their treasures to you ; 
 but, if you don't select, you will end by utilizing none 
 of them." 
 
 " I realize that, and, in this resting time, I have felt 
 as if I were a Christ in embryo, out on the hillside with 
 the Infinite Father, protected, by those about me, from 
 conflict. I have made up my mind to follow more at 
 tentively some of the beautiful aphorisms I am so 
 capable of expressing in word and fall so far short of 
 demonstrating in action." 
 
 " So you think the negative has been in the dark
 
 92 The House of Landell 
 
 room long enough to be ready for the developing pro 
 cess?" 
 
 " Yes, I do. Matilda, stop! " 
 
 Tom looked intently at his sister and laughed. 
 
 " You might work on that notion " 
 
 " It is not a notion. I proved that to you the other 
 night." 
 
 " A coincidence. Nothing more. I thought so, 
 then; but did not wish to excite you by discussion. 
 Look out ! " 
 
 " I could prove it as I did the other time ; but I sup 
 pose it would not be proof to you. I agree, though, 
 that it is a very wise way to treat it, as a notion. 
 Matilda ! " she spoke into the air, " I love you ; but it 
 is my right that you send me messages in such manner 
 as shall give us both pleasure and unify your purpose 
 of receiving with mine of giving." 
 
 " Good ! I am glad to hear you say that ! " 
 
 Agnes looked happy. 
 
 " Besides, I have selected something from all the 
 whirl that is in my brain. I want to put you and Mat- 
 tee Sue into my story. I wish I had more material." 
 
 " I can give you some. She did answer my letter, 
 after all!" 
 
 With an amusing air of satisfaction, he drew an 
 envelope from his pocket. Ostentatiously opening the 
 missive, he read it with mock impressiveness. 
 
 " I call that perfectly dear," she commented, as he 
 folded the paper. 
 
 " I call it immensely jolly ! " and he tossed it to her, 
 humming, 
 
 " My Mattee Sue, my Mattee Sue, 
 How I shall aye adore thee ! 
 My heart did beat 
 Like tripping feet, 
 For fear that thou would'st scorn me!
 
 The House of Landell 93 
 
 " I'll tell cook to send you a fine dinner, and mind you 
 marry me to Mattee Sue ! " , 
 
 He swung out of the room, leaving a feeling of 
 lightheartedness and splendid virility behind him, con 
 tinuing his impromptu serenade to his distant goddess, 
 
 " But now I read 
 Thy kindly screed, 
 I feel a trifle safer, 
 So take my pen 
 To write again, 
 With speed of auto-racer ! " 
 
 " Is the difference between us in our temperaments 
 or in our training, and how much has one to do with 
 the other?" 
 
 Then, her mind played happily and restfully upon 
 Tom with his winsome boyishness and his splendid 
 manliness. 
 
 " I should like to know this Mattee Sue who has so 
 caught his fancy." 
 
 She lingered with vivid intensity upon the incipient 
 romance that gave promise of extending, at least into 
 friendship. At length she rose in the fast darkening 
 night, and gathered together the loose sheets of manu 
 script. As she turned to the desk she saw a young girl 
 standing by the entrance of an adjoining room. She 
 spoke to her. The only response was a faint odor of 
 jessamine. Then the sky seemed shot with flame; a 
 figure swirled into shape from out vortexes of smoke, 
 and drawn slowly but surely into the circle of danger, 
 she saw Tom. 
 
 " I am afraid ! " she gasped. " Afraid ! " 
 
 Within the confines of herself, a voice spoke, 
 
 " ' The Name of the Lord is a strong tower; the 
 righteous runneth into it and is safe.' ' 
 
 With mind and heart, steadily she maintained this
 
 94 The House of Landell 
 
 thought, until slowly, the flame, the terrifying figure, 
 vanished, leaving Tom unscathed. A moment more, 
 and he, too, disappeared. The young girl remained 
 motionless and sweet. She held a spray of yellow jes 
 samine toward Agnes, then seemed to blend into the 
 shadows. 
 
 " Agnes ! " It was Tom's voice at the door. " I 
 left Mattee Sue's letter with you. May I get it? Ah, 
 you have it in your hand." 
 
 He took it quickly from her and left the room. 
 Agnes looked at her ringers, still in the attitude of 
 holding. 
 
 " Her letter in my hand ! " she gasped. 
 
 Her moment of assertiveness was over. She stag 
 gered to a couch and burst into tempestuous weeping.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " We often do more good by our sympathy than 
 by our labors, and render to the world a more 
 lasting service by absence of jealousy and recog 
 nition of merit than we ever could render by the 
 straining efforts of personal ambition." 
 
 Farrar. 
 
 " AGNES, come and see what father has given me," 
 said Tom, a few days after his sister reappeared in 
 the family circle. 
 
 The two crossed the wide sweep of lawn. Tom un 
 locked the door of the summer house, which he had 
 fitted up as a laboratory, and they entered. At once 
 Agnes' eyes lighted upon two manikins, unduly full of 
 color, in contrast, as they were, with several skeletons. 
 
 "What beauties!" she exclaimed, admiringly. 
 " They are so handsome, they do not even look grue 
 some." 
 
 " They are healthy, aren't they ! These other fel 
 lows are positively mortified. Cheer up, old chap, you 
 have your uses, too." 
 
 He gave one of the skeletons a friendly punch. 
 
 " Isn't father magnificent ! These manikins repre 
 sent at least three zeroes in money. They are male and 
 female; ideal height and proportions. Here is the old 
 fellow's liver, and here are his stomach and lungs." 
 
 He drew out the perfectly fitting pieces and displayed 
 them with the joyousness of a child. 
 
 Agnes became a sickly yellow as she turned away 
 her head. 
 
 " I abhor the physical ! Besides, it is all illusion ! " 
 
 95
 
 96 The House of Landell 
 
 " We do not abhor what has no dominion over us," 
 said Tom gravely, " nor what we honestly believe il 
 lusion. That would be to abhor nothing! You will be 
 in bondage to the physical every moment of your exis 
 tence, till you learn its rightful place in the plan of 
 manifesting energy. See from these figures how won 
 derfully you are made. No marvel of engineering but 
 is patterned after the working principle of the body; 
 no mystery of science but we are finding inherent in 
 it. Look at this network of nerves and these hemi 
 spheres of brains. See how carefully they are equipped 
 for service. To-day, we know that our every emotion 
 makes tissues, healthy or unhealthy. A man is build 
 ing sound kidneys every time he produces the tissue- 
 making quality of a healthy emotion. Every time we 
 permit doubt or fear to pass this sentinel, where the 
 nerve plexus joins the brain, we are incorporating de 
 structive material into our bodies as actually as if we 
 were taking chloral. As a man thinketh in his heart, 
 so is he! " 
 
 " I am tired of hearing that. It should be as a man 
 has thought, for what is one to do with the vast accre 
 tion of his indiscriminate selections, chosen during the 
 eons since he began ! " 
 
 " Transmute it, even as the disintegrating of the 
 rocks beneath our fields results in different chemical 
 combinations that give food to different crops." 
 
 " I love to believe that the Fountain Head of Crea 
 tion is pure and all abundant; that souls are emanated 
 therefrom as expressions of the processes whereby 
 completion is attained; and that each soul has, in to 
 tality, all that the Great Original possesses, but not 
 grown, so to speak. Can you trace the processes from 
 the beginnings of the individual soul expression to our 
 present stage ? " 
 
 " As I understand, your mentality is the result of
 
 The House of Landell 97 
 
 all discriminative acts performed by your soul, even 
 in its first forms of life. As a soul, you, at each stage 
 needed an embodiment indicative of the choices you 
 had made, and in the climb you came to the stage of 
 physical embodiment." 
 
 " And you think the result of this physical embodi 
 ment is accreted mentality? " 
 
 " That is my idea. This, in turn, was, and always 
 is, nurtured by the brooding Holy Mother Spirit." 
 
 " So when this structure is entrusted to our own 
 discretion ? " 
 
 " It is sustained, renewed, and constantly reformed 
 and illumined through our discriminative actions, the 
 same now, when we are conscious of our powers as 
 was the case when the choice was unconscious." 
 
 " Then it is at this stage that our moral accountabil 
 ity begins, because we are coadjutors with God." 
 
 " So I understand it. Oh, don't you see the value of 
 gaining conscious supremacy over all our states of 
 readjustment or flux, by intelligent direction of tissue- 
 making emotions, and testing their value through the 
 medium of this wonderful register, the human body! 
 Do let me use these manikins to help put you on your 
 feet." 
 
 " I know you want to be helpful ; but, dear, I do not 
 truly feel that I am off my feet. Of course, there is 
 much I do not understand, and I have much to learn; 
 but I feel that my feet are firmly based in Principle. 
 I wish that Principle unfolded; but my feet shall not 
 be moved. I want to rise above the teachings of Aunt 
 Luella, which were supposed to be spiritual but were 
 really material. I realize what an influence this train 
 ing has had in producing immature states of mind and 
 body, expressing in agony and confusion. That part, 
 Tom, is illusion. Spirit is all, and expresses only in 
 grace and in truth."
 
 98 The House of Landell 
 
 Tom looked at his sister despairingly. 
 
 " I should not like to worship a God who presents to 
 my mind magical proclivities ! To me, it would be as 
 undesirable as worshipping the conceptions of John 
 Calvin's brain. If you have it in your mind to discard 
 a God, who, you believe, has made you a worm, for 
 one who has made you an illusion, I don't think much 
 of the change! I'd far rather be a worm, for there 
 is opportunity for transmutation. I, too, believe Spirit 
 is all; or call it all Material! What difference, the 
 name you give it ! It is all One, expressing the same 
 ideal through its different stages of unfoldment. No 
 part of it is illusion or reflection or shadow ; it is ema 
 nation or reflexion of the One Great Spirit, expressing 
 through all grades of understanding, as the child in 
 the nursery begins his study of relations with one; the 
 astronomer towers into the constellations, and the 
 Christ, to heights beyond, on the Principle of that 
 same Almighty One! Does this tire you?" 
 
 " No. I am interested, but " 
 
 " Think you should not be ? Listen a minute longer 
 and see if I do not take you, in sequence, to your own 
 point of vantage, but with better understanding of 
 your foundation. I do not set myself up as a mentor; 
 but I am thankful, every day, for my liberal upbring 
 ing, that never inoculated me with the virus of fear 
 or introduced the doubts you so constantly contend 
 with. From that platform, no one can oust me and, 
 in standing on it, I trespass on no one's preserves." 
 
 " I am so simple ! " sighed Agnes. " Often, I think 
 I should be well and happy were it not for all these 
 philosophical discussions, no dogmatic, I mean. 
 Philosophy is not confusing and brain-wracking. To 
 me, it is like a broad stream of water, down which one 
 may float, looking into the light that is mellowed to 
 suit our vision. As we float, light illumines all the ob-
 
 The House of Landell 99 
 
 jects along the shores. It draws the little wood-birds 
 to the brink, to partake freely of this water of life: 
 serpents and reptiles are won from dark hiding-places 
 to bask upon its banks in the sunshine. It colors the 
 clouds, that, even as they vanish, reveal the processes 
 of phenomena ; it gives us flashes and flecks of its violet 
 and ultra-violet rays and shows us that the broad river 
 flows on, bearing us with it, not on the stream of 
 time, but on the stream of wisdom. Truth is the bark 
 by which we are borne to the ocean of understanding. 
 Understanding! God, guide the bark! " 
 
 She paused a moment, then began again, 
 "If the time-honored definition of truth be a good 
 one that it is ' the correspondence between the idea 
 and its objectifying,' however low in the scale is the 
 idea, if it is correspondingly objectified, still it is a 
 truth. The horrible voodoo practices, objectifying an 
 idea, are truth. Tom ! " Exasperatedly, she threw out 
 her hands toward the manikins, that, unmoved and 
 smiling, stood ready to objectify his arguments. 
 " What is the use of my studying physical structure, 
 when I can pray? When I can light the seven altars 
 of my soul, symbolized in this body (which, in itself, 
 is but a symbol ) ? When I can say : run, feet, and 
 worship the Supreme Ideal by service; bow, knee, in 
 homage to your Maker; express, thighs, the splendor 
 of the Wisdom that dominates the idea of you! Hav 
 ing gained wisdom through sacrifice upon these altars 
 of obedience, I may learn the Law. Then, I may walk 
 therein. Upon the altar of creation I may lay my con 
 ceived truth, brood over it and bear it into light, a 
 larger truth. Upon the altar of the sun of my physical 
 being I may place love and it shall illumine me. On 
 the altar of my mentality I may place what I do not 
 understand and it shall be revealed ; on the altar of 
 spiritual insight I may lay myself and I shall express
 
 loo The House of Landell 
 
 its message to the world. Your smiling, inane mani 
 kins are expressive of an idea in which there is truth, 
 and this embodiment of mine is true, actually real ; but 
 each expresses a correspondence between ideas of lim 
 ited range and their equally limited objectifying. My 
 idea does not balance with my living the life, other than 
 by pitiful fits and starts, because I do not keep aligned 
 with Wisdom, while my mental camera is sweeping 
 from the Gethsemanes to the hilltops." 
 
 " Which, expressed in symbolism, is exactly what 
 I am attempting to demonstrate. We are very close to 
 each other after all; but except for the abominable 
 veil of words you are far beyond me in vision, beck 
 oning me toward light." 
 
 They were leaving the laboratory. Tom had turned 
 to close the shutters, when Agnes leaped across the 
 room and pushed him against the wall. Before he 
 could recover sufficiently to inquire into her action, 
 a great mastiff bounded in at the entrance, sprang 
 across the spot where he had been standing and, in lieu 
 of him, flew at one of the manikins, brought it to the 
 floor and began to mouth it ferociously. 
 
 " Down, Basco ! Good fellow ! " he called ; but the 
 usually obedient animal paid no attention. 
 
 " Don't call him away ! Therein is our safety ! " 
 cautioned Agnes. " We cannot get to the door." 
 
 As she spoke, they heard hasty footsteps and Mr. 
 Landell came swiftly down the path. 
 
 " Don't move. I am going to shoot." 
 
 There came a flash, an explosion, and the handsome 
 creature lay stretched over the prized manikin. 
 
 " Was that necessary ! " 
 
 Tom's voice was full of the hurt of his heart. The 
 Landells loved their animals, and the dog was one of 
 their most cherished. 
 
 " It had to be," said Mr. Landell. " I fear I must
 
 The House of Landell 101 
 
 
 
 do the same for Prince. Basco bit him and I found 
 him thrashing the ground in agony. I have sent for 
 the veterinary. He must be here by now." 
 
 They left the summer house and went to the corral, 
 where lay Mr. Landell's special driving horse. The 
 veterinary stood beside him, looking thoughtful. 
 
 " Put up your pistol, Mr. Landell," he said. " Na 
 ture has been good to him, and put him to sleep her 
 own way. How did it happen ? " 
 
 " Basco the dog bit him." 
 
 They retraced their steps to the laboratory. The 
 dog lay where the unerring shot had felled him. A 
 strange change was taking place in his appearance. 
 
 " This isn't rabies, I feel sure." 
 
 The surgeon looked more closely, then straightened 
 suddenly. 
 
 " Any rattlesnakes about here ? " 
 
 " Yes. Basco was out foraging down by the swamp, 
 this morning." 
 
 " That is it ! He was bitten and his bite inoculated 
 the horse. Well for all that it has ended as it has." 
 
 " But for Agnes," said Tom, awestruck, " and I 
 should have been lying there."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Be still and know that I AM God. 
 
 Psalm xlvi-io. 
 
 AGAIN the afternoon sun glinted through the leaves 
 of the trumpet vines and the heavy wistaria, streamed 
 in at the open casement of the little mountain shoot 
 ing-box, and shimmered in broad mosaic upon the 
 floor. A woman of noble bearing was moving about 
 the room. She would have seemed strangely out of 
 place, had not her personality imbued the apartment 
 with herself. It seemed as if she had called upon the 
 sunbeams to garnish the bareness and had made servi 
 tors of the breezes and the vine leaves, to lay for 
 her a tessellated pavement. An invalid sat in an arm 
 chair by the open casement, looking blankly toward the 
 hills. Silence, fraught with terrible tension, loomed 
 chasm-like between the two. Moments passed. At 
 length, the son moved restlessly and turned heavy eyes 
 toward his mother. 
 
 " It is useless longer to evade the question ! I will 
 know ! The days of the friendly people in the wilder 
 ness have passed, and, even so, I am no Elijah to be 
 fed by them. There is an almoner at the gate. Who 
 is it?" 
 
 Mrs. Herman did not reply. The man's hitherto 
 expressionless face flashed command upon her as he 
 eyed her piercingly. 
 
 " How have we existed? " 
 
 The mother looked long and intently into the soul 
 of her son as he faced her. A slender man, he was, 
 
 1 02
 
 The House of Landell 193 
 
 with fair hair and features like chiselled marble. Only 
 his large deep eyes betrayed the crater of emotion that 
 seethed within. 
 
 " I am well aware of the condition of our bank ac 
 count. It will be useless to attempt to deceive me." 
 
 " Have you ever known me to do that, from the 
 moment you looked into my eyes and knew me as your 
 mother ? " 
 
 " Moments like this bring out all sorts of devilish 
 traits," he retorted_, insolently. 
 
 " Moments like this bring out the God in man ! " 
 
 He moved fretfully. 
 
 " It is useless to quibble. I will know." 
 
 " I am not going to tell you, now. You must con 
 serve your strength for other matters. There is time 
 enough ! " 
 
 " Yes, all my lifetime in which to realize that I am 
 a failure and a burden " 
 
 " Some one is coming toward the house." 
 
 Mrs. Herman turned to the window, as she spoke. 
 
 " It is a boy in a wagon, with a basket and some 
 flowers." 
 
 Grateful for the interruption, she went to the door. 
 
 " Mr. Mevin says he's been afishin' an' as how he 
 thought you mought like these fresh pickerel." 
 
 The little fellow looked confidingly into Mrs. Her 
 man's face as he delivered the message and continued, 
 
 " He says, cook 'em quick, an' if the sick man can't 
 eat 'em, you can, an' as how he hopes you'll enjoy 'em, 
 an' how's the gentleman? An' I brought you some 
 flowers I picked," he concluded shyly, " I ain't never 
 had to stay in the house in all my life. It must be 
 awful!" 
 
 Mrs. Herman's smile repaid the lad, and made him 
 happy " way down deep inside," as he described the 
 sensation to his mother.
 
 104 The House of Landell 
 
 Giving the flowers to Philip, she took the fresh, firm 
 fish from the basket. 
 
 "What is your name?" she asked the child. "I 
 love to think of my friends by name, and I shall think 
 of you often, now." 
 
 " Jeff Parmelee, an' I'll bring you some more, some 
 time. Say, what's the matter with the gentleman ! " 
 for such time as he could spare from looking into the 
 eyes of the beautiful lady were occupied in scanning 
 the room and its other occupant. 
 
 " Good-bye, I must go ! " he exclaimed suddenly, as, 
 frightened, he ran back to his horse and drove away. 
 
 Mrs. Herman turned toward her son. He sat where 
 she had left him; but he had become an ashen gray. 
 The flowers lay at his feet and he was staring at the 
 newspaper which had protected them. His eyes were 
 as those without vision fastened upon some horror. 
 She ran to him. One glance at the staring headlines 
 and she knew she had no need to tell him who their 
 almoner was. She did not speak. She prayed. The 
 old newspaper slipped to the floor, where the flowers 
 nestled at his feet. He covered his face with his thin 
 hands, shivering as with ague, while veins swelled to 
 cords in his forehead. A moment, and his bowed form 
 straightened tensely and he struggled to his feet. The 
 nerve force lasted but an instant and his mother moved 
 swiftly forward to support him as he staggered against 
 the wall. 
 
 " I could kill her for the affront," he groaned. " I 
 am a Lazarus, made dependent by God's very scheme 
 of salvation, pagan, brutal, bestial, and diabolic. 
 When men tear their fellows asunder, and suck their 
 blood, they obey the dictates of a master that forces 
 them, as He forced Abel, to kill helpless lambs for His 
 altars, to propitiate Him. If, like Cain, we offer fruits 
 of endeavor, we are cast into outer darkness ! "
 
 The House of Landell 105 
 
 He sank into his chair and gripped the arms until 
 his hands grew white and the blood purple underneath 
 the nails. 
 
 " Man makes such a master as you portray," said 
 his mother, firmly. " It is an idea conceived by an 
 undeveloped child-race of people, who believed in sav 
 ing themselves and adding to their possessions by shed 
 ding the blood of any one who interfered with their 
 self-appointed ambitions. They idealized the phan 
 tasies of an untrained imagination and voiced them in 
 terms fitting their child-minds, as children express their 
 understanding of principles by impersonating them as 
 giants, fairies, bogeys. To-day, when man has grown 
 beyond child's understanding, such conceptions insult 
 God and degrade man. Be thankful, Philip! We 
 were in desperate condition when these helpers came, 
 I know not whence nor how. You were dying, alone 
 with me." 
 
 "Dragged back to live a mortgaged life! Why 
 didn't you let me go ! " 
 
 " You can repay." 
 
 " You know I cannot ! I am owned by every man, 
 woman, and child who has put a penny into this fund ! 
 They have eaten me as they have eaten their berries, 
 and have made a festival out of me ! They have danced 
 on the battle-field of my lost independence, and offer 
 me the coppers paid for the privilege. The very thing 
 we blame degenerates for, we praise God for doing- 
 producing incapables. God has no right to create a 
 man without giving him inherent capacity for taking 
 care of himself ! " 
 
 " So He does create him ! " 
 
 " Tossed into a worjd to which I never wanted to 
 come, and left here, a pauper! " 
 
 " No soul ever came without its own will and choice, 
 on a quest of its own seeking."
 
 106 The House of Landell 
 
 Mrs. Herman spoke without antagonism; but with 
 childlike directness. 
 
 " I \ A minister ! I am a travesty on the word ! " 
 
 " To that I must agree, if you portray to others no 
 nobler conception than you are showing me. So long 
 as you believe in a Being who dispenses food and drink 
 like a slaveholder in the shambles, so long will your 
 idea of the heavenly state be on a plane of material 
 comfort. If you think of Him as an external personal 
 ruler, spiritual gain will mean to you only material 
 preferment." 
 
 " I have tried to believe He is other than that ; but 
 facts bear out " 
 
 " In every new relation of life and you know this 
 our concept of God is readjusted. Not the already 
 manifest; but the Spirit Potency is true measure of 
 yourself." 
 
 " That is balderdash ! Nero and Claudius were 
 worthy creations of such a Maker." 
 
 " ' Be still, and know that I Am God! ' " 
 
 He moved restively. 
 
 She repeated softly, 
 
 " ' Be still, and know that I Am God! ' " 
 
 A hush stole over the room, and deepened into si 
 lence. After a long while, Mrs. Herman spoke. 
 
 " God is the potential of all things. He seems to 
 you a changeable person, because that is all you are 
 now capable of understanding. The real God awaits 
 your recognition. Do you choose to make friends in 
 stead with the imperfect concept of your own con 
 ceiving? Past the outer courts of consciousness, deep 
 in your Holy of Holies, you will find the Presence! 
 ' Be still and know that I Am God ! ' " 
 
 There was a long, long silence ; then Philip rose and 
 groped like a blind man to the bed, where he lay mo 
 tionless. The sun crept higher in the heavens, then
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 107 
 
 down into the forest. Great shadows thrust out fin 
 gers, clutching at the darkling spaces of the room. 
 Long arms stretched into the apartment as the spectres 
 of the darkness gathered and filled the silent house. 
 There was no moon; there were no stars; there was 
 no sound upon the lonely hillside save the low bugle 
 call of the wind, as, stealthily, it scouted among the 
 gathering clouds, summoning its cohorts in the sky. 
 
 Two weeks later, Agnes and her father were on their 
 way, in a little road cart, to the Hermans'. 
 
 " I am ashamed to meet them ! " Agnes' face 
 was tense with remorse. " I tried to help them, and 
 see what terrible conditions I have precipitated upon 
 them. I do not seem to have the slightest idea how 
 to be helpful." 
 
 " That is no easy thing to know," said her father 
 tenderly. 
 
 " I might have had more discernment than to put 
 two gentlepeople on a par with the bread line. Apart 
 from the resulting sensationalism, in which I, as well 
 as they, have suffered, it was unforgivable in me. I 
 shall never get over it, and I do not see how they can." 
 
 " Need is a great leveler. The wisest minds rarely 
 have been able to rise superior to its specific gravity." 
 
 " You never make a spectacle of any case." 
 
 " I may have done so at your age." 
 
 " How beautifully you have recognized their self- 
 respect, even after I nearly demolished it. In the quiet 
 est manner possible I don't believe you asked a ques 
 tion I don't see how you do it you found the son 
 to be an ordained preacher, a brilliant speaker and of 
 irreproachable character, as well as of my communion. 
 You recalled the departure of Mr. Kerrick and the 
 thing was done. You have succeeded in placing him 
 in the very town where my indiscretion humiliated him,
 
 io8 The House of Landell 
 
 and he is given opportunity to redeem himself. You 
 are wonderful ! " 
 
 Mr. Landell smiled. 
 
 " Tell me, how can you be on such loving terms with 
 members of the church that so nearly wrecked your 
 life?" 
 
 " Because I realize that they saved me to myself. 
 Look at the clouds ! We must hasten or be drenched." 
 
 " I cannot meet them ! Yet, I must ! I am glad to 
 be under your wing 
 
 " Under the wing of the Almighty, Agnes, which 
 broods over your own heart ! And, dear, by no means 
 bear with you an atmosphere of self-condemnation. 
 That checks comradeship at once." 
 
 He put the horse to a quick trot, and, as the first 
 drops fell, they drew up to the cottage door. 
 
 " Just in time, Mrs. Herman! " He threw the reins 
 about the whip, preparatory to leading the horse to the 
 little shed in the rear. " The clouds have been chasing 
 us for the last half hour, and here comes the deluge." 
 
 As he spoke, lightning, in a series of blinding flashes, 
 rent the masses of inky clouds, and long and repeated 
 reverberations of thunder heralded the downpour. 
 
 Within, the incisive sound of the falling rain was 
 softened, and the odor of the refreshed forest mould 
 was wafted in energizing pungence through the house. 
 
 "If you like storms, you will find a splendid view 
 from this window," suggested Philip. 
 
 The latent strength of the man was asserting it 
 self; but his face reflected an almost impenetrable 
 gloom. 
 
 Agnes approached the window and, because he was 
 her host, he stood beside her. 
 
 The sun seemed to rest upon the hilltops, above 
 which radiated arch after arch of light. Through the 
 rain, the sun's rays sprayed out in pennons, refracting
 
 The House of Landell 109 
 
 prismatic colors, and the clouds were tinged with 
 roseate-copper hues. Forked and chain lightning 
 darted in every direction, while ribboned scrolls of fire 
 unfurled golden lengths in great and sweeping swirls 
 across the sky. Ploughing through the sunbeams they 
 shot into the heart of a double rainbow, then plunged 
 into the near-by stream. 
 
 " Sunshine and shadow," she meditated, forcing 
 herself to act on her father's advice but realizing that 
 she was far from succeeding. 
 
 " To a marked degree," he responded coldly, while 
 deep lines between his eyebrows evidenced his enforced 
 submission to conditions. 
 
 "A bit bromidic, I acknowledge," sensing his an 
 tagonism and stung by it, feeling, as she could not fail 
 to do, the heaviness of her remark. 
 
 In nervous endeavor to recoup, she continued to talk 
 irrelevantly, for her sake trying to save what she felt 
 was a horrible situation, and for his relief endeavor 
 ing to bestow comfort through parable. 
 
 " Everything I see turns my thoughts toward solving 
 life's problems. The law of association impels me to 
 acknowledge the ' doctrine of concords and discords ' 
 and to study the 'just adaptation of parts with each 
 other.' " 
 
 A tree near the house crashed to the earth, and, fol 
 lowing the surge of wind that felled it, peal after peal 
 of thunder echoed among the hills, to be caught and 
 tossed from cloud to cloud. Electricity flashed mo 
 mentarily, and the rain fell in oblique and blinding 
 sheets. 
 
 " Like life, this storm brings sunshine and tempest 
 into harmony," Agnes continued. " Now, it is de 
 veloping the motif, Suffering. The first movement 
 was an adagio, through the sunshine singing to the 
 heart that suffering is unnecessary. Then, through the
 
 no The House of Landell 
 
 advancing and the receding clouds, there stole a fugue 
 movement, sounding, in the reiterant dripping of the 
 rain, that suffering is ever present. The scherzo of the 
 lightning and the wind stir wilder harmonies, singing 
 that through sorrow we come into illumination. Now, 
 the tempest sings the motif far above the emotional 
 and the sentimental, far above feeling, balancing the 
 relationship of parts with parts, in constant readjust 
 ment with the whole of universal life." 
 
 Taking a deep breath of the invigorating air, she 
 moved reluctantly, that Philip might close the win 
 dow to the raging storm. The sound of the downpour 
 came to them muffled now, but still terrifying, and the 
 wind shook the cottage to its foundations. 
 
 " * The elements rage together to attain the liberty 
 of God ! ' " he repeated meditatively. 
 
 Agnes started. A burning sting preceded the suf 
 fusion of her eyes with tears, as her favorite text came 
 through the sounding tempest from his heart to hers. 
 She throbbed with joy, at once oblivious to all else, 
 as the phrase limned on her mind a picture of the time, 
 when, all humanity, having passed through ignorance 
 and dogma, should attain to the liberty of God, of 
 which, so often and so long, she had dreamed. In 
 these moments of her seraphic vision, she was almost 
 brutally unconscious of another's thought, as well as 
 of tragedies enacted before her, as, at other moments, 
 when, the seer merged in the woman, she was acute 
 to every pain that swept through others' hearts. 
 Often, too, she was inundated with invisible approach- 
 ments, and, ignorant of the cause of her distemper, 
 was equally ignorant of means for her protection. 
 
 While the tree was quivering with the impetus of 
 its fall, lightning filled the air, followed, instantly, by 
 a crash of thunder. The little shed was rent, and the 
 cart within shattered by the bolt. With a snort of
 
 The House of Landell in 
 
 t 
 
 fright, the horse fell, and the occupants of the room 
 were shocked back from the windows, for the moment, 
 stunned. Then their blood bounded, as they ' inhaled 
 the spirit of the shaft.' Sparks flew from the irons at 
 the fireplace and shot from the metal fastenings on the 
 window frames. 
 
 " That bolt struck near by ! " Mr. Landell, who 
 was the first to recover, assured himself of the safety 
 of his companions, then swept the view without. 
 There, struggling from the ground where she had been 
 thrown, was the horse. Even as his eyes took in the 
 situation, he saw her, with staring eyes and arching 
 neck, bounding toward home, each crash adding to 
 her terror and speed. 
 
 At the same instant, Agnes called excitedly, 
 
 " Father, Jetty is leaping down the road. She will 
 be killed." 
 
 " I think not. Doubtless, she is making for her 
 stall. Now, how about our getting home ? The storm 
 is spending itself and we should be not too far behind 
 the horse, lest your mother be alarmed." 
 
 Even as the frightened but uninjured creature dis 
 appeared round a bend in the road, the rain lessened, 
 dropping with a gentle tinkle betokening its cessation. 
 As Mr. Landell spoke, the sun shone upon the still fall 
 ing rain-drops. Ruby, green, and gold shot from the 
 rain prisms in the air and flashed upon the grass and 
 leaves. 
 
 " A fairy land of beauty! " 
 
 In rapture, she opened the casement. 
 
 " Mr. Herman, I must tell you, this minute, what I 
 came purposely to express to you, our joy that you 
 are coming to speak to us of the liberty of God." 
 
 " We are fortunate, for here is a carriage." Mr. 
 Landell turned from the window from which he had
 
 U2 The House of Landell 
 
 been watching the road. "If the occupants can take 
 us in we shall reach home nearly as soon as Jetty." 
 
 " It is Grace Herrick ! Grace, let us go home with 
 you?" Agnes signaled the passing carriage. 
 
 "How came you here, you beneficent fairy?" she 
 continued, as, after adieux, the father and daughter 
 entered their friend's vehicle and started down the 
 mountain side. " Did you see anything of Jetty on the 
 way?" 
 
 " I saw a horse trotting comfortably along just be 
 low here. If I had known it was yours, I should have 
 been frightened to death. What has happened ? " 
 
 Graphically, Agnes described the occurrence, but it 
 was plain that after the first burst of inquiry Grace lost 
 interest, seeing which, she changed to personalities, 
 whereupon Grace brightened perceptibly. 
 
 " How is it that you are way out in the country, yet 
 show no signs of having been in a storm? " 
 
 " We stopped at a farm-house through the worst of 
 it, then when it cleared I could not bear to go back 
 to that stuffy little hotel so I told James to drive on up 
 here. There is always something languorously excit 
 ing about passing that shooting box with the chance of 
 seeing Adonis at the window doing nothing, and ' I 
 a princess, king descended ' sweeping the doorstep. 
 About time, I say, for Adonis to be handling the broom 
 and ' I a princess,' to be doing nothing. Smell the 
 sweet briar, as the wheels brush against it." 
 
 " It seems to take bruising to express sweetness from 
 plants as well as persons." 
 
 " Don't you grow tired following your metaphors 
 and similes about ? You remind me of an aunt. When 
 she had anything special to do, she'd take a siesta to 
 prepare for it. I've seen her lie down to compose her 
 self before starting for a train she was afraid she 
 would miss."
 
 The House of Landell 113 
 
 " Most of us have some eccentric relation." Smil 
 ingly, Agnes thought of her Cousin Matilda. " But I 
 am not like your aunt, I rush into things." 
 
 " You see I am not capable of going off on side- 
 journeys to make points that can be followed. You 
 aren't, either, if you do think you are. I mean, that, 
 whatever any one says, at once you go off on a tortuous 
 journey of your own, instead of keeping to the straight 
 line. One can't say you don't stick to the subject, for 
 you do; but you try to find some great lesson that 
 never was there to find, and that nobody meant. If 
 you were not so self-centred, you'd see I am heart 
 broken. Now, what are you thinking about ? Do you 
 suppose you are keeping still, because you are not talk 
 ing? Your thoughts talk louder than words! They 
 fairly scream ! " 
 
 " I haven't seen Mr. Vernon with you for some 
 time," said Agnes, suddenly, not noticing the unjust 
 thrust. " What has become of him ? " 
 
 " I I " Grace's control, over which she had very 
 indifferent hold, left her completely, " I sent him 
 away." 
 
 " Away ! Aren't you engaged to be married to 
 him?" 
 
 " Come up-stairs and I'll tell you about it! " 
 
 As the horse drew up before the hotel entrance, 
 Grace alighted quickly and ran to her room. 
 
 " Father," Agnes waited a moment before follow 
 ing her friend, " Grace wants to speak to me about 
 something of special importance to her. Won't you 
 drive on to relieve mother's concern by the sight of 
 your blessed face? I'll be home soon," and, alight 
 ing, she sought Grace. 
 
 " What a difference there is in women," mused Dr. 
 Brentford, who from under the hemlocks had seen 
 the two alight. " April's child, as the Herrick nymph
 
 H4 The House of Landell 
 
 names herself, is all the time on the trail for the hearts 
 and pocket-books of a possible husband in every one 
 she sees; and Agnes Landell, the goddess, who sees 
 no heart, no purse, no husband in any of them, passes 
 by a long train of admirers, and knows them, if at 
 all, only as motes moving between her and the sun." 
 
 Discontentedly, he watched Agnes out of sight then 
 morosely turned to his book, though his fancy lin 
 gered with her rather than with the printed page. 
 
 Agnes found Grace on the bed, sobbing bitterly. 
 
 " What is it? " she asked, sympathetically. 
 
 " I mean this ! " Grace struggled to a sitting pos 
 ture, hunting, nervously, for her pins, for she had 
 thrown herself into her recumbent position, hat and 
 all. 
 
 " Horace Vernon thinks he is too good to marry me 
 and I told him he could go find an angel, for that was 
 the only sort of creature that could live with him. Give 
 me a man of the world! They know women! I told 
 him so one day, and he retorted that I was a child, and 
 didn't know what I was talking about that he thanked 
 God he was clean as if I would look at him if he 
 wore dusty clothes and the same necktie two days in 
 succession. He was dreadfully angry and dared criti 
 cize my views of life he called them as if I were 
 a moving-picture film. 
 
 " After I sent him away, he tried and tried to see 
 me and wrote and wrote. He loved me, he said, 
 just didn't care for all I cared for as if husbands 
 were expected to like everything wives like and al 
 ways were to be pleased with them. I sent his last 
 letter back unopened that is, I steamed it open, and 
 read it and sealed it again I love him so I can't bear 
 not to read every word he writes; but I wouldn't for 
 the world let him know it. At last he went away and 
 I can't bear it I can't bear it ! "
 
 The House of Landell 115 
 
 "What was the final break about? " 
 
 " Bridge and clothes and everything ! He said he 
 didn't mind the things I did, so much as my way of 
 looking at them and that my whole view of life was 
 low ! "' 
 
 " Did he say just that ? Horace Vernon is a gentle 
 man, even if he is not a very diplomatic lover." 
 
 " He did not put it exactly that way; but it is what 
 he meant! He wants a constantly exalted state of 
 mind in me, and I couldn't stand tiptoe to that sort 
 of thing. We never did at home! Why, I have 
 heard my mother tell the funniest jokes! Think of 
 always having to hush when Horace appeared ! " 
 
 " Wouldn't they amuse him too? " 
 
 " What a child you are! When a group of women 
 tell jokes, no men are allowed. I couldn't even have 
 the fun of repeating them, he'd be so scandalized. 
 Alice Reynolds had to put her head down on the table 
 while she was telling one at Angie Hay bridge's lun 
 cheon. Horace would think that was awful ! " 
 
 " So would any decent person ! " 
 
 " I like that ! I was one of the women and I con 
 sider myself very decent! " Grace was on fire in an 
 instant. " I have the best blood of France and Amer 
 ica in my veins ! " 
 
 " You won't have it long if you pollute it with such 
 poisonous food and vile atmosphere." 
 
 " I don't understand you ! I eat very good food 
 except when I am in this hole of a hotel, and as for 
 atmosphere ! that is one of the things Horace fussed 
 with me about. Dr. Bland prayed for atmosphere one 
 Sunday when we went to church together and I sput 
 tered. What a thing to pray for; but when I said 
 so, Horace looked as if I had stuck a pin in him, and 
 said in a tone, for all the world like the Merry Widow's 
 beau, ' You don't understand ! ' He is right ! I don't !
 
 n6 The House of Landell 
 
 It isn't that I want to quarrel with his ideas, I truly 
 don't know what he means! I can't imagine what he 
 found in me to start with, excepting that I am pretty 
 and, until I got him to propose, pretended I under 
 stood him. I can look very soulful as long as I open 
 my eyes wide and keep my mouth shut; but after I 
 got him and began to open my mouth, it was different. 
 Can't you say something, Agnes ! You are so cold ! " 
 
 " Cold ! My heart is fairly boiling with love for 
 everybody ! " 
 
 'That is just it! You love by the wholesale! 
 Never even have job lots on which to expend a little 
 attention ! " 
 
 " It is all one love the love of the Father. We 
 have more affection and expression toward some ; but 
 it is all one love ! " 
 
 ' You must have a lot of affection for me, with my 
 gambling devil's auction and low jokes ! " cried Grace 
 in a frenzy. " Don't stand there, looking at me ! Can't 
 you do something? " 
 
 Alas for Agnes ! From the exaltation roused in her 
 by the wonderful display of nature's powers; by the 
 preservation of her loved ones and herself from phys 
 ical danger, and by the foretaste of spiritual release, 
 she was hurled into an agonizing mystification. She 
 cold! She, who longed to take all humanity to her 
 sister heart and minister to it! However, in the out 
 wardly passive fashion which often admits of greater 
 impression on the mind, she put aside Grace's accusa 
 tion to contend with in the night watches, and applied 
 herself, as best she knew, to soothing the excited girl, 
 who clung convulsively to her. 
 
 " I can't bear it ! I love Horace Vernon dearly ; but 
 why does he want me to give up the world ! " 
 
 " He doesn't ! Horace Vernon is a healthy-minded 
 fellow. I don't believe he ever uttered that canting
 
 The House of Landell 117 
 
 phrase ! I am sure his idea is, rather, to find the world, 
 in all its purity and happiness and power." 
 
 " I don't in the least know what you are talking 
 about. I wish you would comfort me! " 
 
 " Let me go to him and tell him how you feel. He 
 is not the prig you believe him to be, I am sure. Don't 
 let pride interfere with the happiness of a lifetime." 
 
 " Something worse than that is in my way." 
 
 Paroxysms of grief shook Grace's slender frame, 
 
 " I have promised to marry Jack Jenkins." 
 
 " You know absolutely nothing about the man ! " ex 
 claimed Agnes in horror. " He is more than old 
 enough to be your father! What possessed you, 
 Grace? You haven't seen him lately, for he never 
 comes here summers. How did it happen ? " 
 
 " I went home for a few days while you were 
 sick " 
 
 " Not sick resting " 
 
 " Whatever you call it then ! It looks powerful like 
 sick to us uninitiated ones when you can't see any one 
 and everybody acts as if you were dying " 
 
 " About Jenkins tell me ? " 
 
 " You know he is a fascinating man and, when I 
 went home, I went over to see your Aunt Luella. He 
 was there attending to her business. It was raining, 
 I had no umbrella and he saw me home and seemed 
 to understand how lonely I was. That night I got 
 an awfully prissy letter from Horace, and, just after 
 I had read it Jack came with a message from your aunt 
 and I went over there with him and oh he understood 
 so well that's the whole secret, I suspect, Agnes. 
 He understands me lots better than you do, and 
 then- 
 
 ' The old story ! I see. Break with him, at once. 
 You gave your word to Horace, first." 
 
 " I can't ! " in agonized whisper.
 
 ii8 The House of Landell 
 
 Agnes' face grew white. She looked intently into 
 her friend's frightened face. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because," the girl was too convulsed to speak 
 aloud, " I was so afraid I wouldn't keep my word, 
 I have married him already ! " 
 
 " Married Jack Jenkins ! " 
 
 An anguish, almost equal to Grace's own, dawned 
 on her face. 
 
 " Grace, Grace, my little child, what have you 
 done!"
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Let the sunlight of your heart shine upon the 
 roses of your endeavor and nurture them into 
 perfection in the gardens of the world. 
 
 " ' TRANSMUTE the mind's rebellion into outer pur 
 poses, for no having of any worth can come of mean 
 or inconsequential being/ " mused Agnes, as, writing 
 pad in hand, she walked into the park, and, coming to 
 an upland near the vineyard, emerged from the shadow 
 of the trees, and settled herself upon the hillside. " I 
 believe that, yet what a pother I make proving it." 
 
 For half an hour she wrote. Then, reaching the 
 climax of a sketch she was penning, she read aloud 
 the closing lines. 
 
 " From her seat in the empyrean, Truth, Alicia looked down 
 into the great world, where people moved to and fro like clouds, 
 tossing, hurrying, skurrying, changing with every wind of opin 
 ion ; disintegrating and piling themselves together in new affilia 
 tions, with every passing wave of influence. Again and again, 
 as one and another struggled within her reach, she held out her 
 hand to help them. Great was her perplexity and grief when 
 they refused her aid, which would bear them beyond their pres 
 ent turmoil, and accepted that of another far less able than she 
 to help. As she watched, the Christ-consciousness unfolded 
 within her, and through it, she perceived the law of growth. 
 She realized the spiritual intent within the physical hand that 
 would extend in aid. She saw that no one was helping another 
 indiscriminately; that one who seemed near to her often was 
 afar and beyond her power of assistance, and that one who 
 seemed afar was at her very soul ; that while her hand was held 
 
 119
 
 120 The House of Landell 
 
 out in obedience to her slogan, helpfulness, it was given and 
 clasped, only through the understanding of need, not through 
 propinquity or time or space. 
 
 " Two drunken men lurched upon a curbstone, near each 
 other and equally near to her. One, willing and ready to ascend 
 out of the whirling cloud life of shapes took the hand she ex 
 tended; the other, just as close, was far away. His hand could 
 not touch hers, nor hers touch his, because, in him was no desire 
 to see the visions of the soul. She saw there was no struggle, 
 neither any strife in all this seeming conflict and confusion. 
 She became conscious that the sea and sky, yes, even the cloud- 
 land of shapes and forms were full of an exceeding glory and 
 that the universe sang praises as it had always done, though, 
 until now, she had not been conscious of the harmony playing 
 through seeming dissonance. She was hand in hand with Divine 
 Love and all the worlds and all the firmaments joined in the 
 grand paean of praise, ' Where the Lord is, is Rest. ..." 
 
 " How true it is," she let her pen drop idly to her 
 lap, " that no one can help one not ready to receive. 
 How clearly this defines the word, secrecy. There is 
 no such thing as premeditated secrecy. No one can 
 keep from another that to which his consciousness has 
 attained." 
 
 Long she sat in the midst of the sylvan beauty, trav 
 eling beyond physical boundaries, as her mind followed 
 her train of thought logically through many windings. 
 Suddenly, an expression of purpose flashed into her 
 face. Rising, she ran swiftly down the hill to the park 
 road, and stood at the dividing line of grass and fir 
 needles and cones. 
 
 Her head was lifted as if focussing her activities. 
 Then she moved swiftly into a little footpath. After 
 rapid walking, quickened, often, to a run, she reached 
 the crown of a hillock overlooking a hollow filled with a 
 noble growth of hemlocks. The amphitheatre on one 
 side opened on a morass, the overflow of the lake. 
 At this point, by means of a turf-covered bridge, the
 
 The House of Landell 121 
 
 roadway made a continuous circuit close to the water's 
 edge. On the inner side, toward the morass, was a 
 wall covered with clematis. Standing on the stone 
 work, reaching, on tiptoe, for long sprays of the snowy 
 bloom, was Ross Mevin. 
 
 "Jump back into the driveway, for your life! " she 
 called. 
 
 Recognizing authority in the order, Mevin obeyed. 
 Then he looked for the speaker and the cause for 
 the command. The latter was imminent. A rattle 
 snake was striking its fangs into the spot where he had 
 stood, while the echo of the rattle, which he had not 
 heard above the rustle of the foliage, came to him 
 now with appalling distinctness. 
 
 " That was Agnes Landell," he thought, as he seized 
 a weapon. " Does she send the message from her soul 
 or is she close to me in very flesh ! " 
 
 The snake was in its death throes when Agnes ap 
 peared. 
 
 "Are you safe?" she gasped. "Oh, if you had 
 not jumped, I cannot bear to think of it." 
 
 " Willingly would I be within reach of a serpent's 
 fangs to win such light from your eyes, dear heart," 
 he said passionately, quickly compassing the space be 
 tween them. 
 
 A second time she was deaf to his heart's expres 
 sion in her gratitude that he was safe. 
 
 " How did you happen here? " 
 
 He looked deep into her eyes, which she had lifted 
 to his, unconscious that he held her hands. 
 
 " It was not a ' happen.' I knew I must run to 
 the morass and lose no time: A second and I should 
 have been too late ! " 
 
 Mevin gave another searching gaze into her face. 
 Lingeringly, he released her hands, for her radiance 
 was the illumination of the thought that she had saved
 
 122 The House of Landell 
 
 a human being, not her soul's love. He continued, a 
 trifle heavily, 
 
 " That back leap was the result of six weeks' train 
 ing when a boy. I was trying for a prize. To the 
 delight of the boys, who said it was given to match 
 my hair, it proved to be an enormous pumpkin. They 
 called me Pumpkin-Head Mevin, until I punched two 
 or three of them." 
 
 Agnes laughed a laugh that rang clear and low, 
 stirring the depths of him. 
 
 " I am sure it must have been a very poor match," 
 she looked admiringly at the soft brown hair with 
 sunny gleams of bronze gold lurking in its waves. 
 
 " What do you do with yourself ? " jealously. " You 
 are like a fairy princess behind insurmountable walls. 
 May no prince invade the sacred precincts ? " 
 
 " The right prince will." 
 
 Mevin was silent. What else was there for him 
 to be, he sighed. These thrusts were certainly diffi 
 cult to encounter. He did not mind that, if only he 
 might meet them successfully. He tried again. 
 
 " I have not seen you since Saturday and here it 
 is Monday ! " 
 
 Again she laughed and again his being responded 
 to the melody. 
 
 " Are these reptiles seen here often? " 
 
 Turning, he looked at the driveway where the snake 
 lay. 
 
 ' There are a good many on the other side of the 
 hills. Occasionally some stray over here. Our beauti 
 ful mastiff, Basco, was bitten here not long ago. Oh, 
 now I know how I was told to come to you." 
 
 Mevin ground his teeth. " How soulfully she says 
 it! You! A mere human being." 
 
 Again he searched her face, only to find her stalk 
 ing a thought to cover.
 
 The House of Landell 123 
 
 " Perception unto realization, of course. 
 
 " Do you believe you are one of the elect ? " A touch 
 of pessimism clouded his bright face, followed by sin 
 cere inquiry. " I believe you are." 
 
 " Do you mean, am I chosen above others who shall 
 be damned? Indeed, no. One of our attributes, as 
 emanations of God, is the will and choice of our 
 every part. If only I could guide my choice instead 
 of being led," she mused. " Too often I am swayed 
 to and fro in strange and terrifying paths." 
 
 " What do you know of terrors, you! " tenderly. 
 
 Her face became livid. 
 
 " In the midst of an outwardly care-free life, I see 
 tragedy in every leaf not merely to observe but to 
 perceive unto realization. I have trained myself to tell, 
 by the cry of a bird, the nature of the call, or weal or 
 woe; every human heart throbs its message to me." 
 
 He looked at her meditatively. 
 
 " And yet she does not hear my cry ! Is that course 
 wise ? " he added aloud. " Why not perceive the sweet 
 ness only and let the sorrow pass ? " 
 
 " I would not, then, beat to the heartbeat of human- 
 ity." 
 
 " Sweet soul, as many need to be laughed with 
 and played with as prayed with ; more need to be loved 
 than pitied, and it is a great deal more invigorating 
 to all." 
 
 " You are quite right," Agnes continued with tan 
 talizing impersonality. " It is not so much what hap 
 pens to us as what we see in it that matters. If, in 
 stead of dwelling on pain and sadness, I could always 
 guide my mind from the highest aspects of the case to 
 the noblest outcome, I could do wonderful things, as 
 when I found the Hermans on Mt. Nodel " 
 
 " And saved my life tell me about that?" Mevin 
 was too anxious to stay her thoughts on himself to
 
 124 The House of Landell 
 
 assist them to stray to Philip Herman. " Did the run 
 to the morass start with thoughts of me? " 
 
 " No, I was thinking of the dog. Did you speak? " 
 
 " Not out loud," meekly. " I am interested. How 
 do the dog and I meet in fate's corridors? " 
 
 " Recalling that Basco was bitten here, reminded 
 me of the danger of the place to others, such a pity 
 when it is the finest trouting spot in the region. That 
 led me to think it should be posted at the hotel. 
 I recalled that I heard you inquiring of an hostler for 
 a good trouting brook. That led me to notice that 
 this is a perfect day for fishing. I perceived this as 
 sociation perfectly, but then came as a flash, * Run to 
 the waterway.' I did not know I was running to you." 
 " It took some time to get your mind round to me," 
 he returned despondently. 
 
 " No, it lighted upon you instantly after the sum 
 mons. Once I called these leaps of mine into the un 
 known, intuition, as if intuition were a knowledge 
 without a basis for being. I am following sequences 
 intently, nowadays, and trying to test when these calls 
 are reliable and definite. It is very interesting when 
 I can be brave and keep away terrors and the more 
 assured I am the more clearly I perceive." 
 
 Mevin sighed exasperatedly. 
 
 " Does your attempt to see beyond sight ever lead 
 to obtuseness of the very apparent? " His gentle sar 
 casm wholly escaped Agnes in her hunt for the ab 
 stract. Could he ever pierce, with the ordinary idea of 
 human love, this celestial cranium of his adored one! 
 Was it made of bone fibre or of luminous ether? 
 
 He mused, half laughing in the midst of his vexa 
 tion. Involuntarily, he extended his hand to trace the 
 contour beneath the beautiful but dishevelled hair that, 
 as the result of her flight through the woods, was fall 
 ing now in shimmering clouds about her face. The
 
 The House of Landell 125 
 
 movement ended in the gathering of the pins poor 
 exchange, for the taking of that loved head to his 
 heart. Her soul, it seemed, he could never approach. 
 
 " I think the gap in your sequence the place where 
 you made a leap instead of a reasoning analysis is 
 most unfortunate," he continued, amused, despite his 
 disappointment. " How can you prove that it was law 
 instead of chance that led you to me instead of to an 
 other dog?" 
 
 " I followed the line in which I had been thinking 
 and choosing." 
 
 She stumbled a little and her color deepened as she 
 realized that she was contradicting herself. 
 
 " Conscious choice in the visible, trains the intelli 
 gence to choice in what we call, beyond sight." 
 
 As Mevin's heart bounded to meet this concession, 
 she felled it again by saying, 
 
 " I wish I understood ! I am doing my best to build 
 my life as Tom is begging me to, by selecting my mo 
 tives, my visions, my activities, in short to live with 
 conscious virility instead of unconscious inhibiting 
 through dissatisfaction or regret, and after the manner 
 of ' automatic instinct/ that brings action without com 
 mensurate results, and seems little more than aware 
 ness." 
 
 " Doesn't so much criticism of yourself I never 
 hear you criticize others 
 
 " No, I would not treat my friends as I do my- 
 self , " 
 
 " Why should it be less divine to help oneself than 
 others ? and, to go back to what I was saying, doesn't 
 such critical analysis of yourself crush spontaneity and 
 lead to painful self-consciousness? " and the two went 
 on toward the Landells'. 
 
 " No more than the athlete by directed activity on 
 the training ground inhibits his lightning-like deci-
 
 126 The House of Landell 
 
 sions on the field of action. It does so far less than my 
 conscious self-condemnation, after some ill-advised 
 activities have developed misadventures. I agree, criti 
 cism does all you suggest; but Tom is trying to help 
 me grow out of the critical, which warps, into the in 
 terpretative. I want the ability to extend interpreta 
 tion, intelligently, instead of haphazard, into the realms 
 of intuition and true spiritual insight." 
 
 " The pure in heart shall see God, and if they see 
 God they see all. You will see, eventually, dear heart ; 
 not with the symbolism which is given to the child 
 mind of man; but evidentially, through wisdom; but 
 has love for me no part in this vision which is 
 yours ? " 
 
 " It is symbolism that I dread, I do. not know how 
 to cope with it. Like most physicians and scientists 
 Tom thinks these are the outgrowth of physical con 
 ditions. He thinks I should develop my negative, 
 and then these what I call extensions of percep 
 tion, and he calls abnormal sensitiveness, would dis 
 appear." 
 
 " Develop your negative ? " questioningly and not 
 approvingly. 
 
 " Yes ; but not as the term is often used." 
 
 " Certainly he does not wish you to become a de 
 pendent or a subjective! " 
 
 " Exactly the opposite. I know he thinks I'm tend 
 ing toward the dependent, and wishes me to push 
 intelligently beyond it ; but I think he does not wholly 
 understand how very close I often am to God, because 
 he sees me sometimes when I have lost my vision. I 
 know I am right often, for when I see true, and know 
 true, as I look back I find I was in the peace that 
 passeth understanding and in the kingdom of right 
 eousness, no puzzling or complexity; for the visions 
 of God come not out of waving clouds."
 
 The House of Landell 127 
 
 He looked at her tenderly; comprehendingly. 
 
 She went on. 
 
 " There are things in my experience I do not at all 
 understand, but cannot deny, nor lay wholly to physical 
 exhaustion or nerves, as Tom might. I am not sure 
 but that we both are right, " 
 
 " Certainly, it is wise to prepare the physique for 
 any demands that may be put upon it." 
 
 " One of Dr. Wehr's prescriptions is that I do what 
 I choose instead of what I think I should." 
 
 " Are they not the same ? " 
 
 " Rarely. I seem to have an idea Tom thinks it 
 is from overstrain and I think it is through unfold- 
 ment of soul forces that I have not become acquainted 
 with and which frighten me, that what I wish to do, 
 often is wrong. To balance this mind action with 
 present physical possibilities, I am to be more spon 
 taneous and less dutiful, so attaining the very results 
 you suggest such tutoring may check." 
 
 "If your physician gives that prescription to every 
 one, his office must fail to hold his patients. Tell me 
 more." 
 
 " Dr. Wehr says I have forced my will past the dic 
 tates of intelligence and reason until I have lost the 
 use of choice, weakened my ability to direct desire, 
 lessened my vitality, and rendered myself liable to con 
 fuse intuition with nerve disturbance." 
 
 " Isn't that dangerous training for most of us? You 
 have not a wish in the world that would harm any one ; 
 but many of us have. What a doctrine for men who 
 desire things, and all sorts, at that ! It is licensing the 
 hosts of unbridled wickedness. Is the doctor an advo 
 cate of the theory, that desire, not will, is the motive- 
 power to be expressed, because repression increases the 
 strength of desire, and later, will act more insistently, 
 upon self and posterity? "
 
 128 The House of Landell 
 
 "If you mean, does he advocate projecting experi 
 ences into one's life for experiences' sake, he does not. 
 He teaches intelligence of desire, whose motor is Spirit, 
 not emotionalism, and whose impelling power to at 
 tract its own quality works in harmony with the active 
 will to express it." 
 
 " It seems a serious matter to attempt to define 
 Omniscience by the dictionary of our limited under 
 standings. Does the doctor ever tell you to be angry if 
 you choose ? " he pursued, wondering whether she 
 would be more charming if less theoretical. 
 
 "If I choose; but my instruction leads me, rather 
 to ' transmute the mind's rebellion into outer purposes 
 of nobler stuff.' I was contemplating that when the 
 call came to run to you." 
 
 " Would you had been running to me but I am 
 never to forget that I am simply a human being in your 
 world-orbed eyes. Do you ever want to be angry? " 
 
 " Often, especially when the electrostatic potentials 
 of the atmosphere 
 
 "The what?" 
 
 " The electrostatic potentials " 
 
 " I heard you the first time ; I want to see you form 
 those words with that exquisite Cupid's bow of a 
 mouth," he returned, daringly. 
 
 A sudden gloom swept to her eyes and seemed to 
 encircle him with her displeasure. 
 
 " I wish you would want to be angry," continued 
 the wily Mevin, delighted with his success. " At least 
 she heard that," he comforted himself. " Could you 
 be angry on provocation? Let go of yourself for a 
 minute, and fire about bricks. You are so awfully 
 good, you induce electrostatic potentials in others' 
 atmospheres. Tell me, were you ever angry or un 
 wise?" 
 
 Agnes stood still. A transformation took place
 
 The House of Landell 129 
 
 within her as if a garden rose had become a deadly 
 nightshade. Her personality was infused with the 
 poison of a remorse-bearing thought. Mevin was ap 
 palled. 
 
 " Why ask me that? " she said slowly. " ' An evil 
 memory promptly antagonizes the functioning of the 
 good memories, slowly poisoning, not only the body 
 in which memory is incorporate, but memory itself.' 
 Yes, once, in a rage, I tried to stab my nurse with a 
 penknife, then was barely prevented from setting fire 
 to the barn." 
 
 " You do go to extremes," Mevin was startled. 
 " Surely, I should agree with your brother that that 
 was nerves and no part of you. Anything else ? " 
 
 " I punched my doll's eyes out with a pair of scis 
 sors." 
 
 An agony of self-condemnation changed the despair- 
 permeated goddess of a moment before. 
 
 Mevin burst into irrepressible laughter. The anti 
 climax, from a truly diabolical outburst to a fit of baby 
 petulance, and the equality of her remorse over both 
 incidents, appealed to him as overwhelmingly funny. 
 
 " You need not laugh," she said, mournfully. 
 " There was murder in my heart when I did it." 
 
 Suddenly, she surprised Mevin by sinking to the 
 ground and dropping her head into her hands. 
 
 " Do you really suppose it was you? " 
 
 He asked this, looking down at her in an attitude of 
 almost fierce protection. 
 
 Agnes sat upright. Her eyes blazed with terror. 
 
 " I have always supposed so," she gasped. " Do you 
 mean ? " 
 
 " Was there no one near you behind you who 
 disliked some one also near you ? " he insisted, his at 
 titude of mental protection over her becoming more 
 apparent as he spoke.
 
 130 The House of Landell 
 
 She sat very still. Memory was collecting forces 
 for her emancipation. 
 
 " I recall this, for a long time I never thought of 
 the incident without there being pictured intensely upon 
 my mind, in connection with it, the figure of the gar 
 dener, who on both occasions stood behind me. When 
 I was older, I heard that he was my nurse's lover and 
 that they had fierce quarrels. I believe he tried to kill 
 her, and once he set her house on fire. He was con 
 victed of arson. Do you mean ? " 
 
 Horror swept over her. She trembled so that Mevin 
 put out his hand. 
 
 " You are safe, safer, now that you know such 
 things may be. Do not blame yourself too much." 
 
 " I blame myself the more." 
 
 She gripped her hands convulsively. 
 
 " Do you call it any excuse to hide behind the claim 
 of influence or hypnotism! It is a double weakness! 
 The weakness of me, and the weakness that I have let 
 other than God possess me ! Is that what Cousin Ma 
 tilda is doing! Possessing me! I thank you, thank 
 you, thank you." 
 
 He looked at her questioningly. She did not ex 
 plain but continued, 
 
 " I fail in so much. Tell me, Mr. Mevin, I do not 
 go about, often, seeking advice ; but think what I have 
 done to those two fine people on the hill by this pub 
 licity ! I die daily, in remorse. How can I atone ! " 
 
 Mevin placed his hand above the bowed head with 
 out touching it ; but the stray and glistening hairs rose 
 to meet the tenderness of his touch and soft peace en 
 folded her. 
 
 "Dear Miss Landell !" 
 
 She sat silent. She knew, no better, how to cope 
 with her problems, but she felt at rest. When she
 
 The House of Landell 131 
 
 looked up, there was something in her eyes that was 
 not there before. 
 
 " What would happen should I give myself the 
 privilege of doing what I choose ! " Mevin said grimly 
 to himself, as, having left Agnes at the house, he 
 walked thoughtfully away. " Have I sufficient purity 
 of heart and clarity of vision to dare the test! What 
 are my heart's desires, considering matters specific! 
 To marry Agnes Landell, is first and foremost. I seem 
 far enough from that realization. I cannot even make 
 her hear when I tell her that I love her. I wonder 
 if she ever will hear ! 
 
 " Now, to voice a second wish of my heart, 
 whether she hears me or not, may I prove worthy of 
 her." 
 
 He sat under a tree and pulled out some letters which 
 he read carefully, then thrust back despairingly. " De 
 sires! Should I fulfil them all, I might not be a vic 
 tim of repression but would diffuse into invisibility. 
 She said select! I will crack the shell and find the 
 kernel of her idea. She does set me to thinking, and 
 though I could wish her more human at times, the 
 powerful uplift of her wings raises me to planes of 
 living where, I, too, some time may fly."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 There is no way under or over or around ex 
 perience other than through understanding. 
 
 AGAIN Philip Herman stood gazing blankly from 
 the window of the hunting lodge, his back toward his 
 mother and his face toward despair. It was the day 
 before the removal of the two to the parsonage of the 
 church at Beneby. 
 
 After a long silence, he turned and spoke bitterly. 
 
 " Since you and that woman have given me the 
 role of pauper to play instead of letting me fulfil my 
 heart's desire to die, as I was well on the way to doing, 
 I hope you will not bruit abroad your belief, to-night, 
 to every inquisitive brother and sister whose curiosity 
 leads them to inspect your creed, but will help me hold 
 this paltry defense against starvation." 
 
 " Had it been the desire of your heart it would have 
 been fulfilled." Mrs. Herman looked up from the 
 preparation of their simple repast. " It was the desire 
 of despair." 
 
 " How can I tell those people that the physical blood 
 of a spirit God will atone for all they have done and 
 that their vows of repentance will make whole years 
 of wreckage! It is hard enough in the face of my 
 own unbelief; but to see those eyes of yours give me 
 the lie " 
 
 Dull flames of rage swept from his eyes to hers as 
 he spoke. 
 
 " Never have I interfered with your expression, 
 132
 
 The House of Landell 133 
 
 Philip. If your own heart and experience challenge 
 your doctrine, don't blame me ! Say what you believe. 
 That alone eventually carries power." 
 
 There were wonderful sweetness and strength in the 
 words and her poise halted him; but he began again: 
 
 " To speak openly is to antagonize ; to speak cov 
 ertly, is to use the temple for purposes no less loathly 
 than did the sons of Eli when they prostituted the 
 sacredness of life to their own uses in their own day 
 and manner. Mother, I am afraid! Afraid to lie 
 and afraid to tell the truth. Yet I am unfitted for any 
 other profession." 
 
 Mrs. Herman looked at him with sympathy un 
 touched by pity. 
 
 " Take a walk into the sunset," she said, after sev 
 eral minutes, during which she watched him with com 
 posure born of faith. 
 
 Without further speech, Philip left the room. Mrs. 
 Herman sat still for a long, long time, " listening to 
 hear what God would say." 
 
 " Who will go with me to welcome the new min 
 ister?" asked Agnes, that evening, before the as 
 sembled family. 
 
 "Agnes!" groaned Tom, "I will if you want me 
 to, but how can you suggest father's stepping inside 
 that church ! I couldn't go were I he ; but doing good 
 to them that despite fully use you is no book religion 
 with him." 
 
 " No one can injure us without the mind's consent, 
 you know that," returned Mr. Landell. 
 
 " Their prayer meeting is a regular farce, anyway," 
 continued Tom. " Sister Benkoni will kneel down and 
 pray, only heaven knows what, quite the proper thing 
 in prayer but not exactly what the old soul intends. 
 She begins way down low and goes faster and faster
 
 134 The House of Landell 
 
 and higher and higher, till, out of breath and at the end 
 of her gamut, she has to stop. The inadequacy of her 
 method is proven by the fact that though, according 
 to historical evidence, she has called on her God in 
 the same fashion for forty years, she is as uncertain 
 as ever of results. Then will follow those ridiculous 
 sentence prayers and split-minute testimonies without 
 a particle of spirituality for no one can induce spir 
 itual fervor by turning a mental crank. Bullock will 
 lay hold on the horns of the altar, and Discock will 
 roll on the car of salvation. Lapham will tell for the 
 'steenth time how he was converted and, after he sits 
 down, think up a scheme to beat Olny out of that lot 
 he wants so badly. Percy will urge a revival, which is 
 an orgy of emotionalism and hypnotism combined. 
 Father, did you know there was a revivalist here last 
 week who said, ' Some people call religion principle. 
 Friends, if I were to take my bride to the altar and 
 give her the kiss of principle she would leave me where 
 I stand'?" 
 
 "If he feels that way, he doesn't quite understand 
 what is meant by principle. If he did, he would know 
 that the foundations of society rest on the acceptance 
 of the marriage relation as based on principle instead 
 of on unrestrained passion. Principle is a unit or 
 basis of action. Law is the statement of standards and 
 standards demonstrate growth. The purpose of law is 
 unity of action in the expression of a given principle ! 
 A noble, but by no means a universal definition of law 
 is unity of action with its basis, or, the search for 
 truth." 
 
 Tom reflected his father's calm as he responded, 
 " They think we mean something bloodless and 
 impersonal. We do get dreadfully mixed in termi 
 nology. Still, your tender attitude toward ignorance 
 does not prevent the fact that emotional and religious
 
 The House of Landell 135 
 
 excesses run hand in hand and the physicians know it. 
 I cannot understand why they have not risen as one 
 man and explained to the public that both are anes 
 thesia to intelligence. They represent illegitimate uses 
 of vital potency, which sacred possession proves our 
 sonship. When we realize that religion is not a Bac 
 chanalian orgy, but the loving application of principle 
 to the daily task, that is, the fulfilling of the law, 
 these excesses will be considered as serious abuses and 
 supplanted by intelligent worship. Agnes, how can 
 you remain in a church communion that countenances 
 such methods! " 
 
 " They are in a phase of growth and I want to help 
 them. More than Mr. Herman's encouragement de 
 pends on this meeting to-night." 
 
 " Let us go," said Mr. Landell, " to hear the speech 
 of others, free from cavil or assent." 
 
 As the Landells were nearing the meeting house, Dr. 
 Brentford and Ross Mevin met them. After they 
 had passed, Mevin turned to his companion. 
 
 " Your protege is to make his debut to-night, I hear. 
 Aren't you interested in seeing what he is making of 
 the life you helped save? " 
 
 "Bah, no! Come on!" 
 
 "I am. So long!" Leaving his comrade, Mevin 
 reached the church almost as soon as the Landells, tak 
 ing a rear seat where he could feast his eyes on the 
 profile of Agnes, and watch the lobe of her dainty 
 ear, which, for him, possessed irresistible attraction. 
 
 The service was as Tom had predicted the usual 
 wheezy singing; the breathy, inarticulate prayers; the 
 inane pauses, filled, not with the dignity of silence, but 
 with sleepy indifference on the part of some who were 
 half-drugged with the lack of ventilation and wanted 
 to go home, and with terror on the part of others who 
 thought they should ' testify,' but did not dare.
 
 136 The House of Landell 
 
 "Who will speak a word for the Lord? Brothers 
 and sisters, do not hide your one talent! Rise and 
 testify! " said the leader of the meeting, for, on the 
 plea that he could become better acquainted with the 
 members, by mingling with them, this first evening, 
 Philip had not opened the services, but sat beside the 
 speaker's desk, his eyes burning with the intensity of 
 his agony. 
 
 " Will some one tell me how many cups are in the 
 pantry of the church?" Agnes' clear voice rang 
 through the audience room. 
 
 " I am sure you will not consider the question inap 
 propriate when I explain." This she added in re 
 sponse to the leader's astounded expression " It ap 
 pears to me that these teacups and the whole church 
 property are like the one talent, and the church body 
 very like the servant who buried it. They should be 
 called upon to testify, as you have asked us to do. 
 There is a factory over the hill, where seventy-five 
 fine girls work. They have been spending their noon 
 hours in the dust-filled rooms. Recently, to their great 
 delight and benefit, the owner of the factory provided 
 lunches and a rest-room for them, procuring, at some 
 expense, what we have locked in these pantries. Just 
 outside this building, half a hundred men, the brawn 
 of our country, at work on our highways, are eating 
 from pails on the curbstone or on gravel piles, because 
 this ' garden of the Lord ' so close at hand is enclosed 
 in iron palings and the gates locked. 
 
 " Let us do at least as much as business men are do 
 ing, unearth this talent, utilize this property, open 
 the kitchen and Sunday School rooms, this beau 
 tiful grove and these pleasant parlors, for all time. As 
 a church body, let us present the Christ Principle in 
 the church better than ever before." 
 
 " Mr. Standing Committee, " said little Miss Ben-
 
 The House of Landell 137 
 
 koni, and be it remembered that she was the one, 
 who, though praying for years in her ever-ascending 
 scale of terror, never before had made intelligible a 
 single word she said ; but who spoke fearlessly now, in 
 her awakenment to an idea : " I thought religion meant 
 that, when I joined the church. I am so tired helping 
 to get up rummage sales and handing round subscrip 
 tion papers. Aprons and pillow slips seem more like 
 the Lord's work, somehow, seeing they are needful; 
 but they don't fill my soul. There isn't any life behind 
 it. We get money in ways that don't seem right. We 
 are always asking entertainers to give something for 
 nothing. Little enough does it occur to us to find 
 out if they've made any money that week for some 
 thing to eat, let alone something to wear, at our free 
 get-ups, and we make fun of them if they don't dress 
 in style. I can't help feeling it's putting a premium on 
 wickedness, for they must get the clothes, somehow, 
 to entertain us in. We do the same thing to ministers, 
 too! Then there is something worse and I can't 
 sleep nights for thinking of it if we get up for 
 churches and charity things we campaign against as 
 moral pests, and are willing to stand in the vestry 
 of the church, as we did last week, covered with sheets, 
 all but our feet, and let those be exposed for the min 
 ister to auction off to any man that likes their shape 
 enough to pay the biggest price for them I can't 
 help feeling that whether it's for the church or not, 
 it's only making the line a little longer to the point of 
 Stirling our consciences and selling our souls for 
 gauds ! " 
 
 Breathless, as she realized what she had done, the 
 little woman sank terrified in her seat. 
 
 " Who will answer Miss Landell's question about 
 the cups?" In his haste to cover, what he consid 
 ered these most reprehensible remarks of Miss Ben-
 
 138 The House of Landell 
 
 koni, Mr. Olny thus lost for the meeting any possi 
 bility of its return to usual procedure. 
 
 " What Miss Benkoni says is so very true ! " 
 
 At once, Agnes was increasingly intense. 
 
 " We are about to enter upon a new chapter in the 
 work of the church. Will it be in order to make this 
 meeting a council for ways and means not to obtain 
 money, that will surely come if we enter the king 
 dom of righteousness, first, not for emotionalism; 
 but for spiritual understanding?" 
 
 Mr. Olny was about to demur; but one of the 
 younger men who had been asleep in a corner was 
 wakened by this new quality in the proceedings, and 
 moved that the suggestion be followed. This was 
 seconded and Agnes went on. 
 
 " I agree with Miss Benkoni. Nowhere in life do 
 we expect something for nothing so much as in the 
 church. Some of you will say, we give a great deal. 
 So some of us do. All are supposed to acquire spir 
 itual peace and power, exhibited in better civics, purer 
 ethics, honesty in daily dealings, and deep rich spiritual 
 morality in our homes and daily lives. How much are 
 we gaining these results through the church? How 
 much through the business leagues, while we remain 
 supine ? Not as individuals, but as a church, how well 
 are we protecting our neighbors' reputations; respect 
 ing our neighbors' opinions and problems, and helping 
 unfold character when the task seems more than indi 
 viduals can accomplish? How much does the church 
 direct, not only in preaching, but in practice, the guid 
 ing of our tongues, that we think and speak no guile, 
 as we meet together ? Primarily, through the influence 
 of the church, how many refuse to listen to scandal or 
 to read or converse wantonly ? " 
 
 " We wouldn't have any sewing circles in short 
 order," tittered old Mrs. Tice. " There's folks here
 
 The House of Landell 139 
 
 wouldn't like to have to hold up their hands as to who 
 always greets the newcomer with * What's the news ? ' 
 meaning the last scandal." 
 
 " Religion hasn't been what I expected when I was 
 converted twenty years ago, under the grape arbor," 
 quavered Brother Lapham. " We have not been sleep 
 less in watching lest the devil steal our souls ! " 
 
 " Brother Lapham, does that arbor still have 
 grapes ? " asked Mrs. Burton. 
 
 Mr. Lapham shrank back into his seat with an 
 ominous frown and was silent. 
 
 Philip Herman looked down at his mother. The 
 calm that rarely deserted her was with her now. Her 
 face was illumined. As Agnes' clear tones continued 
 to electrify the meeting, turning it from the irrespon 
 sibility he had so dreaded, a change came over his 
 mobile face. 
 
 " Let us thoughtfully confront our methods," she 
 was saying. " Already, Miss Benkoni has noted two. 
 Next to the constant suggestion of something for noth 
 ing, is the suggestion rather than the teaching of 
 giving for personal gain. Children are teased into 
 Sunday School for Christmas gifts; to sociables, for a 
 free feed, they call it that! Under promise of 
 earthly and heavenly gifts and freedom from respon 
 sibilities every normal man and woman should rejoice 
 in, many are urged to confess to what they know 
 they have not experienced. Too seldom, is taught the 
 moral accountability of the individual to himself; his 
 home; the church as promoter of spiritual welfare; 
 the world ; the universe. The teaching of many church 
 bodies is a hysterical demand to give up all, which 
 one cannot do, for we move and have being in God. 
 
 " We are taught to cast our sins upon a defenceless 
 brother, which, besides teaching brutal selfishness, is 
 impossible, for our actions make our lives.
 
 140 The House of Landell 
 
 " What can we church members expect of servants 
 and employees, when we accept the doctrine of evasion 
 of our deeds and obligations. When we shout thought 
 lessly ' Jesus Paid it All,' and ' Jesus Died for Me/ 
 is it any wonder that the habit of grab and keep be 
 comes ingrained into instead of trained out of us? 
 Willingly we accept vicarious atonement from our 
 fathers and mothers and friends and believe we have 
 a right to do so, thus lessening both capacity and 
 desire to be the saviour instead of the saved! Jesus 
 came to show us how to do what He did, rather than 
 to accept what He did ! ' He did not come to teach 
 us to save our souls from a lost world ; but to set our 
 souls to save the world.' Our attempts to cast aside 
 our obligations are futile. They rise and grip us till 
 a righteous sowing gives us the reaping of holiness." 
 
 " She will take away my Saviour who died for me," 
 wailed an old woman. " I love to think of Jesus, dy 
 ing on the cross and saving me from the consequences 
 of my sins." 
 
 " Love to think of Jesus dying on the cross for you ! 
 That is self love, the desire for self-preservation. 
 Bitterest hate could devise nothing more vicious ! " 
 
 Mrs. Peebles looked frightened. Then a ray of 
 comprehension softened the hard contour of her face. 
 
 " It does sound so, now you put it that way ! Where 
 did the idea come from?" 
 
 " From our child-understanding. Truth is too great 
 for us to comprehend in full. Most converts to a 
 new idea bring to bear upon it their preconceived 
 notions. The early Christians apprehended the truth 
 but comprehended only according to their spiritual 
 growth. That is why intellectual and physical effi 
 ciency have unfolded wars and brutality. The in 
 tellect conceives ideas of its own. There is One. We 
 are God's ideas, and, understood, they never conflict.
 
 The House of Landell 141 
 
 Mind, Intelligence, are but part unfoldments toward 
 the universal unity and the Universal Presence. Every 
 text in the Bible is a personal message, 
 
 " ' For other foundation, no man can lay, than that 
 which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' 
 
 " ' Even though we have known Christ after the 
 flesh, now, know we Him so, no more.' ' 
 
 There was silence. The Presence seemed to move 
 among them. The light played over Agnes' face and 
 she seemed a very aroma of truth in a garden of ma 
 terialism. At the head of a new page in his note-book 
 Mevin made a register in a bold decisive hand, never 
 turning his eyes from the slender figure who stood fear 
 lessly before him, or removing his mind from the soul 
 of her. 
 
 " Father," said Tom in horrified undertones, as 
 the company dispersed and, naturally, Mevin and 
 Agnes fell behind, " what possessed her ! She wishes 
 Herman to succeed, yet, if I am any guesser, her words 
 will induce a cataclysm." 
 
 " She is thinking of the liberty of God," and Tom, 
 finding that his father did not intend to criticize his 
 daughter, decided to follow his example; so wisely, 
 fell to thinking of Mattee Sue. 
 
 The next day, Mr. Landell sought his wife. He 
 found her in the morning room arranging flowers. 
 
 " Helen, Agnes suggests that we remain here this 
 winter instead of going to town. What do you say? " 
 
 " Daniel ! " Mrs. Landell dropped the roses to throw 
 her hands out with a gesture of disapprobation. " She 
 is interested in that preacher! For a woman of her 
 temperament to become a minister's wife, we might 
 as well lay her away from the very church, that, to my 
 mind, is responsible for her nervous condition. Were 
 I to listen, regularly, to that theology and believe it
 
 142 The House of Landell 
 
 (and I do not speak with intent to cavil or to jeer) my 
 ' bowels of compassion ' would be so disturbed, and my 
 emotional expression so unbalanced, I should have 
 silent or outloud hysteria and a wholly distorted sense 
 of relations and values ; not through any dispensation 
 of Providence, but as the result of inharmonious think 
 ing. Such temptation is dangerous for her." 
 
 ' You were born into a communion with a liberal 
 interpretation of life, Helen. I wonder if you have 
 any conception of the suffering borne by tempera 
 ments like those of Agnes, Herman and myself, as, one 
 by one, theological landmarks, hitherto considered 
 static, resolve into the flux and flow of progress. The 
 seasons of blindness as to processes are heart-breaking. 
 I feel like agreeing with Agnes and remaining here 
 to help Herman. The horrors of Erebus were in his 
 eyes, last night, and Agnes turned the scale for him. 
 The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man 
 were acknowledged in that church, as never before, and 
 the people were glad of it." 
 
 " You don't mean to say that, after what has hap 
 pened, you would go back into that church, do you ? I 
 don't mean you are not great enough to do it, but you 
 could not gain ingress there. You might present your 
 body; but your mind and opinions would be ostracised." 
 
 " Mine might, yes; but God's, no. If the time has 
 come, which it had not in the times to which you refer, 
 for bud to succeed stem, the growth will appear, and 
 I may in some way serve as sunshine or rain. At all 
 events, I can give Agnes the support she needs. 
 
 " With your knowledge of that membership, you do 
 not think they will accept what she said last night ! " 
 
 " James Freeman Clarke's statement of faith has, 
 for years, been losing its identity as a Unitarian 
 tenet, " 
 
 " Yes, because, stealthily, by some, blatantly, by
 
 The House of Landell 143 
 
 others, it has been abstracted and reformed into the 
 statements of other beliefs." 
 
 " It is leavening the whole and all but a few are glad 
 to see themselves emerging from limitations of sect. 
 Its truth belongs to us all, whoever formulated it." 
 
 " We cannot deny a sense of injustice when told 
 that our congregations do not grow, and we know it 
 is because other sects have claimed the spirit of our in 
 stitutions in interpretation and phraseology. They re 
 main in the havens of conservatism the churches in 
 which they were born and hoist the petards, we, with 
 stress and strain, have borne to their fortresses. 
 Though the attacks upon us are less fierce, since there 
 are more blasphemous cults to contend against in their 
 imaginings, we still have a share to sustain. We find 
 it inconceivable that the average congregation is ig 
 norant that they accept from their Dr. A. on B. Street, 
 interpretations of principle they would reject if they 
 knew that Dr. D. on J. Street had been teaching them 
 for many years." 
 
 " Unitarianism is not a finality, it is a manner of 
 looking at life; a movement, bearing those in its cur 
 rents steadily through the spirals of growth, from dis 
 crimination of values, where Agnes is struggling, 
 through hatred and disgust where Herman evidently is, 
 through control, tolerance, endurance, faith and bal 
 ance, to spiritual recognition of Conscious Reality." 
 
 " Those people are not sufficiently advanced on the 
 spiral, to give up their man-given heritage of worm- 
 hood an easy idea to express ! They will contend 
 that appreciation of man and of other Christs in his 
 tory is depreciation of Jesus. They will not recog 
 nize that it was unity that enabled Jesus, enables all 
 of us, to act joyfully for those we love, and to be 
 sure that we are not doing it because of some emotional 
 idea of martyrizing ourselves. It makes Jesus far
 
 144 The House of Landell 
 
 more wonderful than the other conception, for He 
 was willing, through a perfect correspondence between 
 a perfect idea and a perfect expression, to objectify 
 that the Only Begotten Son, is Truth." 
 
 " The consciousness of thousands is being awak 
 ened to the meanings of life, as reaching beyond 
 the confines of the physical," responded Mr. Landell. 
 " Even persecutions and diseases are assuming mental 
 phases, and the torch-bearers are realizing that devils of 
 mental quality are no more superior and far more 
 subtly dangerous and soul-attacking than those that 
 dogma has cloaked with physical embodiments. Much 
 misunderstanding is due to the quibbling of words, 
 anyway." 
 
 " The end will be, Agnes will fall in love with that 
 man. She is in the torments of self-condemnation, 
 for which I cannot blame her, such a stupid and 
 uncalled-for proceeding, to drag him before the public 
 as a pauper! To me, the worst of it is, that at the 
 same time, she flung herself before the limelight, and 
 in the horribly cheap attitude of medium or seer " 
 
 " The one belongs to the dependent, the other to the 
 interdependent stage of consciousness; one, to the stage 
 of control, or subjection, the other, to that of coopera 
 tion or coordination with the forces of the Infinite." 
 
 " Her desire to atone for her error," Mrs. Landell 
 skillfully drew her husband from the consideration of 
 abstract principle, to that of their ewe lamb, " will 
 impel her toward him. Oh, I can see the whole hor 
 rible tragedy ! She loves to be crucified ! " 
 
 " You need not fear. It was plain, that day at the 
 lodge, that he resents her assistance and will in no sense 
 attract " 
 
 " Oh, you men Daniel ! The more his manner re 
 pels the more her self-abnegation will form a halo 
 about his head. His position of saviour of souls will
 
 The House of Landell 145 
 
 add to this gloria, and she will not know until too late 
 that true marriage is not established on any such false 
 basis ! Those whose minds are set on sacrifice lose all 
 perspective. I told you so," gathering the broken stems 
 of flowers in her hands, " there he is, coming up the 
 driveway, now ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " We want no star, my Queen, 
 
 To show the way we're going, 
 We need no fairy harp to play 
 
 We need no flowers, our pathway strowing, 
 For love, himself, will guide our feet, 
 For love is all our going." 
 
 AGNES and Ross Mevin were sitting, this Sep 
 tember afternoon, under the larches in the Landells' 
 rare old garden. So full of sweet communion was the 
 place they had fallen upon silence, which is no least 
 part of conversation. He was watching her with 
 quickening heart beats, as the sunbeams stole under 
 the branches and played upon her hair. Fir needles 
 dropped upon them as they sat, overlooking the hills 
 and forests. The clouds were reflected in the still lake. 
 The woods were flecked with sunshine and shadow. 
 
 " I wonder what meaning those waters hold within 
 their depths," with idle delight, Mevin rested his eyes 
 upon the panorama. 
 
 " As well try to pierce the Sybilline prophecies. I 
 seek and seek, but no answer comes." 
 
 " Do not seek ! " A world of tenderness was in his 
 tones. " Don't you recall the little verse you wrote and 
 repeated to me one night in the moonlight ? " 
 
 "Tell it to me?" There was a winsome wistful- 
 ness in her speech. 
 
 Mevin repeated flowingly, 
 
 " ' The seed I've sought so long to find, 
 
 I seek no longer. I have found. 
 It's in my heart. Now, with my mind, 
 I have but need to till the ground.' " 
 146
 
 The House of Landell 147 
 
 His beautiful voice, having rested appreciatively and 
 encouragingly upon the words, ceased. 
 
 " How worth while you make it sound ! " She was 
 silent, turning her head and looking toward the lake, 
 where, across the fields, by the side of a silvery thread 
 of water, the reflections of gray birches and waving 
 poplars cast soft shadows on the backs of browsing 
 cattle. 
 
 " Listen to the air spirit! " she breathed. 
 
 Above, below, and all about them, was the music 
 of life's voice. Now at their feet, amid the roots 
 and in the chambers of the ground ; now amid waving 
 grasses; now in the branches, and, higher still, among 
 the clouds; sinking into silence, yet pulsing with vital 
 power. It whispered into her ear, then fluttered over to 
 Mevin, and murmured unutterable joyousness, filling 
 the heart of one with a passionate love for life uni 
 versal ; of the other with an agony of adoration for the 
 special life he held so dear. 
 
 He loved to watch the little tendril of hair curl about 
 the dainty ear; to touch her hand, if chance permitted 
 so rare a delight; to hear her voice, though, some 
 times, while watching her, her words mingled indis- 
 tinguishably with its sweet melody reaching the re 
 cesses of his heart, as, not with ears, he listened to 
 what she said. He loved to watch her forehead, be 
 hind which sat enthroned noble ideals. He loved 
 her! He loved her! How illusive she was like the 
 mimosa withdrawing from him, even while the fra 
 grance of her personality intoxicated him. What 
 should he do to draw her to him ! 
 
 The delicious suggestions of the trixy spirit availed 
 little, at least to outward appearances, though both 
 felt the insistent fluttering of its ecstasy and finally 
 Mevin voiced itf.
 
 148 The House of Landell 
 
 " How strangely like a spirit is the summer wind. 
 It incites one to the fulfilment of waking dreams." 
 
 Another pause ! A red-breast flitted near, the clouds 
 sent prismatic colorings into the atmosphere, the air- 
 spirit whispered yet again into their ears and lingered 
 lovingly in Agnes' glistening hair. 
 
 " Speaking of fulfilment " when he spoke, it was 
 as in continuation of some thought he felt she would 
 follow without explanation " makes me think, by con 
 trast, I lost my case yesterday." 
 
 " Not the bank case that is to make you famous ? " 
 At once, Agnes was all sympathy. 
 
 " That comes later. This is fraught with signifi 
 cance only as it presents the war of ignorance with 
 wisdom." 
 
 " Tell me about it." 
 
 " To strengthen the credit of a friend, a little woman 
 deeded her farm to him for a period of time. The 
 paper was issued ' with consideration/ and, the crisis 
 past, the property was returned, without consideration, 
 a lapse the little woman did not recognize. The old 
 man died, and the heirs took advantage of the omis 
 sion to claim the property. I had the case. The proof 
 on her side was so convincing, I had no thought of 
 defeat. It was tried in a little town in the hills. Mak 
 ing a cursory review of the matter, the judge turned to 
 my client brusquely, 
 
 " ' They say you are a spiritualist. Are you? ' 
 
 " ' I place no limit on God,' was her response. * We 
 are souls and one with the Infinite Eternal. The phase 
 called death has no power to disintegrate spirit. I be 
 lieve in the communion of saints.' 
 
 " * That is no reply,' returned the judge. * Such a 
 person cannot expect the protection of the court/ 
 With this recommendation, of course, the jury entered 
 verdict against her."
 
 The House of Landell 149 
 
 " It is pathetic," sighed the listener. 
 
 " Agnes ! " Mevin leaned forward, unconscious of 
 the use of her given name, in this moment of mutual 
 understanding, " the experience comes to me, each 
 time with the same crushing bitterness, that so-called 
 good men and women array themselves, less according 
 to their lights than their darkness." 
 
 "Do you believe with your client?" Agnes, too, 
 leaned forward, intensely. 
 
 " My thought is," he meditated, " that steps in this 
 life, now visible to you are dark to me. The lifting of 
 the veil is arbitrary." 
 
 " The only veil is immaturity. Do you not think 
 so?" 
 
 " I do. Laboratories for proving continuity of life 
 and possibilities of communion in different phases and 
 states seem as funny to me as to attempt to raise the 
 Matterhorn with a child's trowel." 
 
 " Except, as the attempt to visualize the belief one 
 cannot see, is a step toward the maturity when no 
 longer one sees through a glass, darkly." 
 
 " It is the search for the soul germ, I acknowledge ; 
 but that does not thrive when layer after layer is torn 
 from it. These must be moved aside from within ? " 
 
 " Still, a child learns of mountains while playing 
 with sand and clay in the kindergarten. When he sees 
 the Matterhorn, he realizes that, after all, what he 
 built, though not a mountain, was teaching him essen 
 tials concerning it." 
 
 " So shall it be, that the scientist, who must put the 
 finger into the nail-hole manifestation, grows through 
 active methods of research? " 
 
 " Laboratories for psychical discoveries prove to 
 the materialist, so-called, what the poet, prophet and 
 seer know through inner vision ; but the scientist, whose 
 real is so often the temporal, still deals in phenomena,
 
 150 The House of Landell 
 
 when he approaches the psychic, which is more nearly 
 on the material than the spiritual plane of the One 
 Energy." 
 
 " The scientist ' brings the angel down ' to para 
 phrase Dryden, while the prophet, poet and seer ' raise 
 the mortal to the skies.' Talk about different states/' 
 he continued, " we do not see each other here, because 
 embodied in flesh. Walking up and down the garden 
 path arm in arm does not signify similar states of be 
 ing. What does ! " 
 
 " The growth of consciousness. That brings us into 
 the white light of understanding, where we are 
 revealed to those who are in that light, and who, 
 through that pure medium, respond to our thought and 
 mood and need." 
 
 " Then light is the revealer of the continuity of life 
 and the medium of communion? What leads us into 
 Light?" 
 
 ' The moment aspiration lives in us, the soul rises, 
 its Light has come. The quality of the aspiration is 
 the standard for the soul's expression through various 
 phases of understanding, even as sin is a matter of 
 standards and standards are a matter of growth." She 
 changed the subject abruptly. " How did Judith go? 
 Tell me honestly? I do not want flattery." 
 
 " I could not flatter you if I would. You bring your 
 own band of messengers, demanding truth. It was 
 wonderful ; but ' he hesitated, " when you called, 
 ' Fly, Assyrians, fly,' it was not you! " 
 
 Agnes' face flamed crimson, then grew deadly pale. 
 
 " Tell me what it was ! I am afraid ! Afraid ! May 
 I confide in you? I would not wish Alicia's teacher 
 ever to know. I cannot even tell Tom. He would call 
 it nerves. It is strange, that, with all his research, he 
 still claims that to be the cause of my phenomena." 
 
 " Many who think much, do not realize that ' the
 
 The House of Landell 151 
 
 development of the power of spirit is one thing and 
 spiritual unf oldment another ! ' 
 
 " I believe Tom thinks ignorance safer for me. It 
 is not. It is better to know, if one may. I never 
 can thank you enough for telling me what you did 
 one day. It has made me awake to what I was grop 
 ing for. Even now, I can feel the power that came 
 to my rescue as a child, when almost in the clutches 
 of that gardener's influence as you convinced me was 
 the cause of that outbreak I threw off the influence 
 and reinstated the only power the power of God! " 
 
 "The only Power!" he repeated, as if impressing 
 the words upon his heart, " the only Power ! " 
 
 " I am beginning to feel safe, instead of so afraid all 
 the time. I believe I am coming into the light." 
 
 "Of course you are, white soul! " He waited ten 
 derly till she came to her story, her own way. 
 
 " I feel safer, because I understand that what I have 
 called my moods " 
 
 " I have long known them to be more than that " 
 
 " Are the times I am being seized upon by dark 
 ness and the light comes not. But it always comes 
 it always has come. I see, now, that I have never 
 lost it. Could I have done any better, had I under 
 stood? She told him of that terrible fight, on the 
 night of her Judith recital. 
 
 " Probably, not so well. You were following the 
 God of your fathers, not the rules of a metaphysi 
 cian," he said, himself growing as he held out his 
 hand to comfort her. 
 
 " There are many who think I have nothing to make 
 me sad or ill at least, far less than many who make 
 life merry; but, in these ways, I am in battle contin 
 ually for the supremacy of my soul. I will surrender 
 it to no influence, carnate or discarnate other than 
 God but how to tell what is God? "
 
 152 Jhe House of Landell 
 
 " Have you ever failed? " 
 
 " Shall I ever know ? I do not see that P have ; yet 
 I may be blind. But what guides me? Why did I 
 resent this inundation and the unconscious mental in 
 ter ferencq of my Cousin Matilda and the insurging 
 demands again I believe, unintentional on his part 
 of the gardener? I could understand were it hyp 
 notic in the sense of its being intentional." 
 
 " It is intentional, I have no doubt, though maybe 
 not directed. It is a subtle determination to shift re 
 sponsibilities on to others, it matters not who, or to 
 gain, no matter from whom." 
 
 " I gladly greeted the presence of Mattee Sue, and 
 was frightened only when I realized that the phenom 
 enon was unusual." 
 
 " Because of the power of selection inherent and 
 constantly trained in you. You know it was not 
 your sister who endeavored to possess you during the 
 presentation of Judith. I feel it was the projection 
 of the intense thought of another mind, probably that 
 of the teacher who loved Alicia, and whose thought 
 was bent on her. She would have much preferred see 
 ing her than you; even if she saw her through you. 
 Doubtless you, too, had the sweet sister in mind more 
 than you realized. I feel sure that is so. Dear heart, 
 fear not." 
 
 " You don't believe it was a demoniacal spirit, 
 one of the Assyrians? " She turned and trembled. 
 
 " Never admit such a thought in the holy temple of 
 your being," warned Mevin. " Dear friend, fear not! 
 Your psychic forces mean your own forces acting 
 within you, constantly changing your manifestation. 
 Universal forces play in you ; but not to act, until you 
 acknowledge their leadership. Some you are cog 
 nizant of, as, through the senses not with the senses 
 you know the face of a friend, the color of her hair,
 
 The House of Landell 153 
 
 the odor of the rose she wears. Some forces you arc 
 cognizant of through senses of which you are just now 
 learning. When psychic forces like concentration, 
 meditation, realization begin to make themselves con 
 sciously and discriminately known to you, your fear 
 of them makes their call come in pain. When you 
 trust them, they come in enlightenment, because born 
 and bred in love, which, in its perfection, casts out 
 fear." 
 
 " What you say is so true. The first sense of unity 
 with our fellows is often terrifying." 
 
 " Cooperation and harmony correlate forces into 
 final unity." 
 
 " So, we shall find our sensitiveness moving in 
 spirals of life towards the fulfilment of our own." 
 
 " Psychic does not mean relation with the so-called 
 dead, alone. It means our interrelation with all life. 
 Messages come to us as to a central station. It is 
 for us to decide what we shall do with them, but you 
 are far beyond me. Why should I tell you these 
 things!" 
 
 " I am not beyond you. We are climbing to the 
 hilltops by different paths, and stop to exchange salu 
 tations and ask directions 
 
 " And some of us may walk together soul to soul." 
 
 " I am far from being as advanced as you seem to 
 believe. I accept much intellectually that I cannot 
 demonstrate. The real soul vision, born of percep 
 tion and realization, is an advanced growth, but I am 
 not at all sure that this phenomenal, apparitional, and 
 symbolical expression is any more advanced than are 
 the hieroglyphics and pictures by which children are 
 taught. I want my knowledge to be evidential. The 
 other is little better than the mixed, inarticulate ut 
 terances of primitive peoples. I seek the true spiritual 
 foresight, by which ' events cast their shadows before.'
 
 154 The House of Landell 
 
 When these experiences face me, I always say, ' I want 
 to help ; what is it ? ' 
 
 " Would it be as well to say, ' What is it and I will 
 see if I want to help ' ? " 
 
 " I should have thought of that and did not ! 
 Why?" 
 
 " Because we need each other in sweet interrelation 
 ship. Truth is too mighty to discern alone. Even 
 the stone at our feet, some one else may turn, that we 
 may see the gem sparkling in the geode." 
 
 " Sensitiveness should not make us touchy, should 
 it ! It should enable us to hear the music of all strings 
 tuned to the keynote of life. It should coordinate the 
 instrument with the thought and action it is to express ; 
 to find new harmonies in seeming dissonance, not to 
 hold us fast to the combinations we are aware of ! It 
 should be great enough to harmonize all things, not 
 with us as the ultimate, but with the keynote of Uni 
 versal Unity. Attuned to that, we ring out a mes 
 sage of affiliation with all that is good." 
 
 " Good afternoon, Miss Landell," an indolent and 
 interesting voice interrupted. " Are you at home ? 
 Ah, Mevin, sitting at heaven's gate? Make the most 
 of your opportunity. It is as near as you and I will 
 ever get, I fancy." 
 
 "Oh, Dr. Brentford!" 
 
 Cordially, Agnes greeted the young physician, while 
 Mevin straightened unnecessarily. 
 
 " I suppose they had you on the seat of repentance 
 the other night when you went to prayer meeting, 
 Mevin," Brentford turned to his friend. " I never 
 went to one of those moving-picture shows but once. 
 Then, I knelt with a lot of others so I could squeeze 
 the hand of a girl I had taken a fancy to. She had 
 never let me touch it before, but this night she squeezed 
 it back. I suppose she thought it religious fervor.
 
 The House of Landell 155 
 
 How is the young minister, Miss Landell? Is he still 
 living on huckleberries turned into cash? " 
 
 Agnes quivered. 
 
 " Will he ever forgive me for making his necessities 
 the subject of a berry party! " she gasped. 
 
 " He should be so complimented at your forecast 
 ing the future for him that he would overlook the little 
 pleasantry of being published. If I were he, I could 
 sooner forgive that than being dragged back into this 
 hypocritical old world just as I saw a decent chance 
 to slip out. I wouldn't worry about it ! " 
 
 " I can feel that he is not forgiving me for being 
 so crude in my methods." 
 
 "Is it, perhaps, that you do not forgive yourself? 
 You know what you told me about your discipline/' 
 said Mevin. 
 
 " Perhaps so," Agnes responded, drearily. 
 
 " Surely, you shouldn't fret, and for mercy's sake, 
 don't discipline yourself. Life does that sufficiently 
 without our taking time and strength to formulate 
 any curriculum," said Brentford, carelessly. " We are 
 all going to the lake to-night, to see the eclipse, aren't 
 we?" 
 
 Mevin responded in the affirmative, forestalling a 
 possible invitation on the part of Brentford, by adding, 
 
 " Miss Landell, will you go with me? " 
 
 Agnes accepted the invitation, and as the men rose 
 to go, she stepped into the light so beautiful a pic 
 ture, that both their hearts quickened perceptibly. 
 
 " Smashing woman, Miss Landell," remarked Brent 
 ford, as they walked towards the hotel. " It's a pity 
 she should worry herself to death because she has 
 done a man a kindness. Where did she get the idea 
 he doesn't like it? From her imagination, I expect, or 
 some more of that mind-extension business of hers. 
 She reads too much. I never supposed a minister
 
 156 The House of Landell 
 
 would mind a little thing like being nursed and taken 
 care of. Life doesn't afford much sensitiveness to that 
 sort of thing. If she is queer and sees farther than 
 some, she must pay the price. She's a puzzle." 
 
 " Almost as much as Brentford," returned Mevin. 
 
 " Oh, he's not much of a one, given the key. Like 
 Herman, he is only a victim of ill-advised charity, 
 which, in his case, instead of being dispensed in huckle 
 berry saucers, came from an uncle who stole his patri 
 mony, and, incidentally, respect for his class and for 
 charity-mongers in general. 
 
 " Come, old fellow, it isn't even medically scientific 
 to draw conclusions from one case, " 
 
 " Those girls look smart, don't they ! " Abruptly, 
 Brentford changed the subject by nodding toward two 
 young women, who, in picturesque sport clothes, were 
 descending the steep pine-shaded avenue, with oars 
 across their shoulders. 
 
 " Here come the hordes from the city," he continued, 
 as the level lake road became alive with arrivals from 
 the train; motors, victorias and saddle horses with 
 some pedestrians, moving up the hill, where, through 
 the vista of avenue, light and shade gamboled together, 
 and the lake sparkled into view, gleaming like jewels 
 through the velvet of hemlock boughs. 
 
 " I wonder how many they have done to-day," he 
 went on, cynically. " By the way, did you hear about 
 Silox and Presby? Presby is a deacon, you know. 
 It seems he won a cool hundred from Silox, Saturday 
 afternoon, on Presby's back porch, under cover of a 
 friendly game of poker. Silox felt pretty sore about 
 it from the first; but it was nothing to his feelings 
 when he went by Presby's, Sunday afternoon. Presby 
 was holding a prayer meeting on the memorable spot. 
 As Silox hove in sight, Presby spied him, and struck 
 up the hymn, ' The Lord Will Provide.' I thought
 
 The House of Landell 157 
 
 Silox would choke with rage. It was all I could do 
 to keep him from rushing on to the piazza and yelling, 
 ' It isn't the Lord, in this case, it is that idiot of a 
 Hezekiah Silox, to the tune of a hundred a hand.' I 
 don't know what made me stop him. The excitement 
 would have been so exhilarating. Going in to dress? 
 I'll see you later." 
 
 Soon after dinner, the boating party descended the 
 steps leading from the hotel grounds and gathered at 
 the lake side. The mystical silence of nature was 
 sharply stilettoed by the piercing whir of the katydids, 
 and from their ambuscades of tree stumps, trailing 
 vines and fallen leaves the crickets voiced their capitu 
 lation to the forces of the fall. It was too early for 
 the moon; but the west flamed with color, shooting 
 across the heavens in forking tongues of rose and 
 gold. The heavenly beauty of the scene precluded 
 conversation. 
 
 Loosed from their moorings, the boats glided past 
 the birches and the heavier beech and chestnut trees, to 
 a part of the lake where pines towered and hemlocks 
 swept the brown carpet of its border. More and more 
 indistinct grew the petulance of the katydids and the 
 wailing of the crickets for the vanished summer. 
 
 The lake lay like a canvas spread before the painter 
 Night. Little by little, he limned mellowing shadows 
 upon the sun-illumined waters, sombrely intensifying 
 their beauty. An opalescent twilight chastened the 
 barbaric splendor of the scene. 
 
 Lengthening from the forest on the western shore, 
 darkness stole along the surface of the waters. From 
 the northern bank, the borders of the lake became out 
 lined with foliated adumbrant curves, merging into the 
 reflection of the woodlands on the east. Sharper 
 grew the etching of branches and of leaves, of sky
 
 158 The House of Landell 
 
 and of clouds, upon the deep light with silvery sheen; 
 wider, the border of reflected leaf and flower, till 
 forest and sky lay pictured in the water world as in 
 the world of air, encircling the centre of the lake, lying 
 crystal clear. Into this unshadowed centre, the oars 
 men rowed, and, with shipped oars, sat silent, while 
 they who had come to watch the passing of the moon 
 through earth's shadow awaited the phenomenon. 
 
 A wood thrush upon the shore poured forth a flood 
 of liquid melody, then lapsed into silence and no sound 
 was heard but the drip, drip, drip of the suspended 
 oars. 
 
 Awe enfolded even those of trivial mind in the 
 group of watchers, as an ebbing, flowing halo throbbed 
 along the eastern sky, veiled as by smoke; behind 
 which, burned, sombrely, a lurid flame. This grew 
 luminous and undulant as the moon like a straw of gold 
 appeared cushioned on a pillow of turquoise blue. 
 Broadening swiftly to a segment, then into a full- 
 globed, golden orb, she swept into the cerulean. Little 
 by little, the flame-lighted blackness seemed to presage 
 her annihilation, as earth, sweeping on her path, 
 eclipsed her. 
 
 Even as the watchers gazed, they saw, peeping, from 
 the mass of seeming fire mist, a little glint of gold. 
 
 A gentle breeze moved through the forest as earth 
 passed on, and thread by thread, band by band, seg 
 ment by segment, the moon became visible, shining 
 down upon the open space of waters. The waves glis 
 tened; the rising breeze died away; the wood thrush 
 wakened in the lightening darkness and poured forth 
 one glorious echoing cadenza, then fell again to sleep, 
 lulled by the ecstasy of his song. The pines bowed 
 their heads to voices men could not hear, and the hem 
 locks sent incense, from nature's sacred altar, into the 
 sweet fall air.
 
 The House of Landell 159 
 
 " I am glad there has been painted, for my memory, 
 so beautiful a night! " said Mevin to Agnes, after the 
 party, having left the lake, had gone their ways. 
 " From its witchery and beauty, I shall bear into my 
 life and work something ineffaceable." 
 
 He stopped to assist her over a place in the road 
 where the electric light shone with too dazzling direct 
 ness, then continued regretfully, 
 
 " To-day closes for me one of the most restful, help 
 ful and beautiful vacations I have ever known. The 
 October glory lures me more than the summer's love 
 liness ; but my playtime is over. To-morrow, I go 
 back to my old life, that will never be the same. I 
 must seek new moorings, and feel, as never before, like 
 a mariner lost upon a trackless sea." 
 
 Agnes turned pale. She walked some distance in 
 silence. 
 
 " How very lonely I shall be. Tell me, before you 
 go, why the old moorings no longer serve, and what 
 compass you are taking with you on this new voyage, 
 the same as mine? " 
 
 " We mix metaphors we imaginative ones who 
 live in the land of dreams we try to impel into 
 realities. Just now, instead of being a seaman 
 at the prow, looking for land, I am feeling like a 
 patient in the hands of a wise and kindly physician. 
 How beautiful to consult with such a one as you. To 
 talk of oneself to the general is like putting oneself 
 in the hands of the average Heidelberg student, who 
 has been to the morgue to select a cadaver. Yes, oh 
 kindly physician, I suppose my conception of life has 
 been that of the average man; but only recently have 
 I realized how wofully elementary. What is it to 
 be a good man? Already I neither smoke nor swear 
 nor drink; but we are scarcely more than at the 
 beginning of the unfoldment of our powers when we
 
 160 The House of Landell 
 
 have corrected such habits. I try to keep fully 
 alive my sense of moral accountability and have 
 rather prided myself on my well-rounded character; 
 but suddenly I feel like an uninflated toy balloon. 
 What is there for me to do! Certainly at my age I 
 have not compassed all of life; but I can see ahead 
 only a little more grab and a little more get. I do not 
 want to hunt for things to do. I want things de 
 manded of me." 
 
 " Are we not passing beyond the crude stage in 
 which separate traits are affected by deliberate in 
 tent? It is only children in age or unfoldment 
 whom we admonish to control the temper. The ma 
 ture character has entered into the comprehension that 
 every trait is interdependent with every other trait and 
 that the whole of the inner man calls for balance." 
 
 " How can I unfold interdependent traits equally 
 and make myself of value in the working world ? That 
 is what we men face, Agnes," his voice caressed the 
 name. " The one-ideaed, the one-sided man seems to 
 gain in this world. I can find as much to say on one 
 side as another. But if I do it how can I plead a case ? 
 I cannot. I believe so truly in the right of the indi 
 vidual that I hesitate to influence minds as capable as 
 mine of thinking," he continued. " You notice I did 
 not urge you to do Judith, that long-to-be-remem 
 bered night. I would not for the world come between 
 you and your judgment. Perhaps you thought I did 
 not care, to hear you? " 
 
 " I did," said Agnes, contritely. " What lessons you 
 are teaching me." 
 
 " Not I ! I want you to help me ! Do you hear ! " 
 His tones were almost rough in their intensity. " If I 
 refuse to use influence, what becomes of my place! It 
 is a blank ! Your church people, whom you arraigned 
 last night, would tell me to believe on the Lord Jesus
 
 The House of Landell 161 
 
 Christ and be saved ! What is belief ! It presupposes 
 doubt ! What is it to be saved ? From what ! It is all 
 a quibble of words! Belief is indefinite and indefinite- 
 ness does not construct character! To believe that 
 Jesus makes it for us is to acknowledge ourselves ef 
 figies instead of men. I am far more certain of some 
 so-called intangibles than of many facts accepted by 
 the schoolmen who will repudiate them as soon as the 
 next text-books are printed. I have glimmerings of 
 unknown shapes and shadows phases of life, larger 
 and finer. Like you, I have consciousness of much I 
 can neither place nor grasp. I want to be truthful; 
 but what is truth ? Three times this month, in response 
 to business questions, I have been impelled to give an 
 swers which in view of my objective knowledge were 
 false ; but which subsequently proved correct. Are we 
 not, then, captains of our souls, but in the battle-field 
 to be made prisoners of war ! " 
 
 " You helped me this afternoon by telling me the 
 very things you are waiting to have me tell you now. 
 We assure by our own assurance, don't we ! " 
 
 " You do, because yours is of the right sort ! May 
 I go on with this confession ? " 
 
 Her eyes answered him. 
 
 " I want to be a tremendous success in my profes 
 sion; but to bend all energies to that personal issue is 
 to warp the universal in me. I seek wisdom rather 
 than opinion; truth rather than argument. As the 
 ultimate of truth is unreachable until the entire con 
 sciousness is unfolded, this habit of mine looks, to the 
 positives, as if I never decide anything finally which 
 I don't. Yet, I think I am very decided in action. Can 
 you explain the paradox?" 
 
 " I can understand it." 
 
 " What becomes of leadership if every adjustment 
 entails total readjustment? "
 
 1 62 The House of Landell 
 
 " It becomes cooperation 
 
 " How can I ask men to enlist under my banner 
 when, at any moment, in the light of new vision, I 
 may pull it down and hoist another? " 
 
 " * A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little 
 minds. With consistency, a great mind has nothing 
 to do,' " quoted Agnes. " Or, to quote further, ' The 
 future does not belong to the certain people.' Why not 
 pin your faith on principle and know that demonstra 
 tion must follow. After all, is consistency very differ 
 ent from viewing the heavens through a magnifying 
 glass bought for fifteen cents at a department store, 
 instead of through a Lick Observatory telescope?" 
 
 " Already, I am applying a different lens to my 
 heavens. I have not been setting my needle to the 
 north; but have been guiding my course out of the 
 harbor by the electric lights along the shore. Still, I 
 assert, I do not know what goodness is ! " He straight 
 ened his broad shoulders and ran his fingers through 
 his hair with a winning gesture. " I don't mean, alone, 
 with regard to these matters of daily living, though 
 what other sort is there than daily, for every day 
 brings a new day? but in regard to matters you 
 opened my mind to, not so long ago in point of time, 
 but long ago in terms of growth. Tell me, Agnes, if 
 there is no personal God and I do not believe there 
 is what is the Maker of this governing principle of 
 which we speak so glibly and of what consequence 
 is this that we call prayer ? You know I asked you that 
 day you taught me there is a vision for those who see." 
 
 Agnes lifted her face. Her soul shone in her eyes. 
 
 " I have no moorings. Would I had." He stum 
 bled, blindly, on the curbstone. 
 
 " I know so little myself; but I have won my way 
 inch by inch. Sometimes, for months there has been 
 blank despair ; then a line, a phrase, a starbeam falling
 
 The House of Landell 163 
 
 on a greensward, a voice, has led me on ' o'er crag and 
 torrent,' till now, though still blinded at times, I am 
 beginning to interpret its spirit. Prayer is an ener 
 getic desire. It creates a form of which it is the life, 
 and, through its energy, man becomes conscious of his 
 oneness with All." 
 
 " I wonder how many of our desires are sufficiently 
 vitalized to create form. I fear many are abortions." 
 
 " Soulless desires disintegrate are dissipated 
 through lack of concentrative force to hold them to 
 gether." 
 
 " That is answer to the query why, at least, some 
 of our prayers are not evidenced. Go on." 
 
 " Many prayers are on the instinct plane. Rising 
 from this, comes the desire to promote the moral and 
 intellectual being. Ideas formed on the thought plane 
 react directly on the one who forms the prayer and 
 establishes conscious communion with the Source 
 of Life. When man becomes conscious of his need for 
 growth he has found the keynote of Universal Life. 
 There sings through his entire being that his Redeemer 
 liveth and that in his flesh shall he see God. 
 
 " Then rises within him not a petition but pure wor 
 ship of God. No longer does Jehovah seem a merchant 
 of the heavens shoveling shoes and sugar down upon 
 the faithful. The spirit leaps beyond its one-time 
 bounds, revealing to us the Christ incarnate in each 
 soul, born of God, manifesting man, one with the 
 Father." 
 
 " I told you it would come, and it has, even in teach 
 ing me." The light in his face was beautiful, as he 
 realized that she was revealing unto her very self, the 
 Christ. But a shadow crept over her's. 
 
 " Yes, but I mean the dear little Jesus who lived so 
 long ago, in Galilee. How is His blood our life and 
 our salvation? He seems to me a huge composite of
 
 164 The House of Landell 
 
 agonies which it is disintegrating to the emotions to 
 contemplate and to the integrity to give expression to. 
 Even viewed intellectually He is an aggregate of the 
 best that had been made manifest up to the time of 
 His coming not perfection, for perfect strength could 
 not have been translated by any souls then incarnate." 
 
 " You seemed to understand that evening in the 
 prayer-meeting." 
 
 " I realize in a sense, but do not understand each 
 step." 
 
 " It will come," reiterated Mevin, softly, " even as 
 the other. Tell me more about prayer? " 
 
 " Prayer does not raise action above the plane of 
 one's consciousness; but, being an active force, causes 
 the extension of consciousness in the direction of 
 nobler and finer expression. In moments when the 
 mind is fixed on God, His secrets are revealed. His 
 disciples, pure in heart, see God." 
 
 " Then constantly to hold the sense of completeness 
 is prayer ? It recharges our potential energy, through 
 itself revealing the answer," said Mevin, slowly pon 
 dering. " We realize that nothing not already in the 
 purpose of God's will can be longed for or needed 
 by us. It is in Being. It is for us to make manifest." 
 
 " I know, that, for me, the next unfolding step is 
 consciously to harmonize and make interdependent, 
 traits which, combined with manifestation, make the 
 man; unifying present unfoldment with present intelli 
 gence, and harmonizing it with the foreshadowed one 
 of spiritual consciousness." 
 
 Her face became white with a peculiar radiance. 
 
 " Mr. Mevin, we are emanations of God. Our latent 
 power is infinite for it is the unfolding power of God. 
 The more these latent possibilities are made manifest, 
 the more God is revealed, the Father through the Son,
 
 The House of Landell 165 
 
 and the more it is proved that the Father and I are 
 One." 
 
 She ceased speaking and her face became " trans 
 lucent to the flame that burns within." 
 
 They walked the gentle incline to the great gates of 
 steel, the tracery of whose pattern lay in stencilled 
 shadows upon the moonlit driveway. 
 
 " I am wondering how and where to direct my in 
 telligence and desire that my life may become an ex 
 pressed prayer that will be worth while." 
 
 " The world is waiting for men who can build a 
 lasting state with the everlasting qualities of courage 
 and aspiration." 
 
 " I am mentioned for the legislature. Have I the 
 moral right I have the courage to take a special 
 platform when there is so much of truth on every side 
 so much ill to uphold, or good to deny, whichever 
 side one declares for." 
 
 " The state needs men with moral power like your 
 self, to raise official positions to planes of high achieve 
 ment." 
 
 " I wish I could bring myself into the court of high 
 desire desire to be but a politician 
 
 " It is poor being that does not culminate in doing." 
 
 " Yes; but so much of our doing shows lack of be 
 ing," Mevin smiled half sadly, half amused. " It is 
 of little more use than the motions of my Aunt Je- 
 rusha. If she takes a trip to Worcester, for an after 
 noon's shopping, she makes a dozen lists, beginning 
 a week in advance, packs her bag the night before, and 
 reaches the station an hour ahead of time and I 
 greatly resemble my Aunt Jerusha at least in my 
 love-making," he completed the sentence to himself, 
 for the house was within a few yards, the morrow 
 measured distance and time and space for them, and
 
 1 66 The House of Landell 
 
 the desire of his soul was not attained. " Dear heart, 
 will you " 
 
 " Be a politician in the highest sense of the word." 
 Agnes was tantalizingly beautiful as her vision of, 
 and her desire for, his transfiguration from a man of 
 selfish action to one of service made her unconscious to 
 his plea for her love. 
 
 " Not yet ! " he sighed. " Not yet ! Still there must 
 be something personal in her interest, or she would not 
 be so eager to buckle on my sword and shield. Non 
 sense," with sudden jealousy, " she heard a stronger 
 call from that man on the hill." 
 
 " Yes," Agnes was saying, " he who shows moral 
 greatness in a position that misuse has covered with 
 obloquy, and, through it, correlates thousands to the 
 universal purpose he is a good man." 
 
 There was silence. Even the night wind was still ; 
 but as they entered the loggia, a rising breeze caught 
 her lace scarf. It caressed his hand. She swayed to 
 ward him as her foot touched a slight unevenness in 
 the way, and the air and the landscape danced dizzily 
 before his eyes, as the trailing bit of cobweb bore with 
 it a message over which he pondered in passionate 
 adoration in the watches of the night. 
 
 " You have aided me to the solution of a great many 
 problems, thisi summer," he said, half sadly, half joy 
 fully, as they paused to say good-night. 
 
 " Can I help you further ? " Still she was innocent 
 of what his heart would say. 
 
 " Always you will help me." 
 
 Breathing heavily, he turned from her. 
 
 " Near me or afar, you will speak to me from your 
 soul; but seeing myself, as through your purity you 
 have revealed me to myself, I am going away, know 
 ing you have not heard me plead with you, be-
 
 The House of Landell 167 
 
 cause your mind shines high in the empyrean of an 
 ideal I have not reached." 
 
 He looked into her face. Alive as it was with the 
 spiritual power evoked, there was an almost unbeliev 
 able ignorance as to the meaning of his words. Only 
 love for humanity in the abstract shone from her eyes. 
 
 " I am going away to learn the language you speak, 
 that, sometime, I may make you understand." 
 
 As he spoke lovingly, she wondered that her heart 
 lapsed, suddenly, into the depression surely following 
 upon her moments of exaltation. They lingered a 
 little longer, she, conscious of the infinite about them, 
 he, conscious only of her. He released her hand, which 
 he had held in parting, and passed swiftly from her 
 sight.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " On Monday I fall in love, 
 On Tuesday I say so, 
 On Wednesday I declare my suit, 
 On Thursday I win my sweetheart, 
 On Friday I make her jealous, 
 And on Saturday and Sunday 
 / hunt for a new love." 
 
 ' TING, ting," sounded the door-bell of the pleasant 
 Southern home one warm summer morning. " Ting, 
 ting!" 
 
 " Snowball, run to the do'/' said Mattee Sue Ro- 
 maine, who, at the moment of the interruption, was 
 wrestling with her luxuriant hair. " How I do wish I 
 could have an absolutely personal maid, like mauma did 
 befo' the wa'." 
 
 " That marvelous ' before the war,' " sighed her sis 
 ter Etta, looking up with graceful indolence from the 
 window-seat where she was reading, " when our stables 
 were full of thoroughbreds and the fair mistress of 
 the big house rode a palfrey in the dewy morn and an 
 Arabian stallion in the shadowy eve. Damsels floated 
 about ancestral halls in damask satins that stood alone 
 and swept the marble floors. Not one but many maids 
 would hasten to place pearls like pigeons' eggs in 
 ears 
 
 " Z'Etta, do hush your extravagance ! " and, with 
 charming camaraderie, Mattee Sue interrupted her sis 
 ter. " I never can utter one modest little wish, 'thout 
 you launch forth a whole avalanche of superlatives ! " 
 
 " At least, I sound some of my letters and do not 
 168
 
 The House of Landell 169 
 
 leave my ideas wholly to the listener's imagination," 
 retorted Etta. 
 
 " The idea of you with your back trailin' about in 
 gowns heavy enough to stand alone! An' pigeons' 
 eggs hangin' from your ears ! Z'Etta, w'at a spectacle 
 you'd make ! As for marble halls, I reckon there were 
 deal floors befo' the wa' just as there are now." 
 
 "You are so unresponsive," reproached Etta; 
 " Uncle Dudley says that such a reign of regal splen 
 dor and luxury never has been known since the days 
 of the Caesars." 
 
 "If you want to trail round in somethin' heavy, take 
 your adj ectives ! They will be easier for your back 
 and more amusin' to the public." 
 
 Mattee Sue tossed her mane of beautiful hair into 
 its accustomed coils and laughed wickedly. 
 
 " Yes, Miss Wright told me at school that adjec 
 tives were my worst enemy," was Etta's pensive re 
 sponse. " Are you going to take part in the dime 
 museum, Mattee Sue? " 
 
 " Not I ! Miss Mary didn't like it because mauma 
 wouldn't let me be a mermaid. For my part, I think 
 it's a disgrace to be gettin' up dime museums for the 
 Church; but Miss Mary says we mustn't be splittin' 
 straws. She says she was not angry, only deeply 
 wounded, because mauma refused to let me be a mer 
 maid. Think of me, sittin' all the evenin' with my feet 
 pasted into a paper tail ! Were is that Snowball ! Aw, 
 Snowball! How one does have to squall! If you try 
 to be fashionable and ring a bell, you have to squall 
 out that you've rung it. Aren't you 'shamed, Snow 
 ball, to be so slow! Brer Wolf will eat you up one 
 of these days, if you don't lift your feet quicker." 
 
 Snowball so named in happy contrast to her 
 jet-black countenance with tantalizing deliberation, 
 handed her sparkling little mistress a letter.
 
 170 The House of Landell 
 
 " Wat stunnin' stationery." Critically, its owner 
 scrutinized the envelope, then opening it glanced 
 through the contents with excited haste, bubbling with 
 amusement that climaxed, finally, in peals of laughter. 
 Turning to the beginning she reread it, gleams of mis 
 chief dancing in and out from her bewitching face like 
 fairies playing hide and seek. 
 
 " Z'Etta, look at this ! " finally thrusting the paper 
 into her sister's hand, as she sat, her book having 
 fallen from her hands, watching Mattee Sue mysti 
 fied. 
 
 " What is it all about ? That envelope signifies a 
 most fascinating personality. I adore personality ! It 
 means more to me every day I live." Curiosity im 
 pelled her to cross the room to where Mattee Sue stood 
 watching her gleefully, with her to scrutinize every 
 detail of this messenger from a far-off land. 
 
 " There is personality enough to please even you and 
 impudence enough to please even me," she sparkled. 
 " The man must have written that document with a 
 thesaurus on his knee. It's awfully easy to spot a the 
 saurus hunter, Z'Etta, so beware. I've caught up with 
 you ever so many times. A dictionary is safer, be 
 sides, it bears the dignity of its weight with it. Use 
 a dictionary, Z'Etta, not a thesaurus ! " 
 
 Etta took the letter again and read the inscription. 
 Then she turned the envelope and read the address : 
 
 " Tom Landell, Beneby, Massachusetts. It's a 
 homely name. Where did you meet him ? " 
 
 " Dr. Genung introduced us. The letter will tell 
 you, ' 1 
 
 " Who is Dr. Genung, oh, " having, by this time, 
 begun the perusal of the letter, Etta grew more and 
 more absorbed, forgetting to maintain her expression 
 of indignation with which, as an elder sister, she had 
 felt it her duty to adorn her countenance.
 
 The House of Landell 171 
 
 "What consummate impudence! Of course you 
 will not reply," and, reluctantly, Etta returned the let 
 ter to its owner, who at once occupied herself in read 
 ing it again. 
 
 " Certainly I shall. On such unimpeachable spon 
 sorship, I shall hasten to reply. Did you ever hear such 
 a string of big words in all your life ! Oh, yes, of co'se 
 you have for you never use any other kind. Mauma, 
 I may answer this letter, mayn't I, dearee?" and she 
 turned to her mother who had entered the room. 
 " Can't you see that it is honest ! Can't you feel it, 
 mauma ! Just listen ! " 
 
 Mattee Sue read the letter with significant em 
 phasis and dramatic touches of her own. Then 
 Mrs. Romaine took it, examined the handwriting, and 
 read it a second time. 
 
 " I like its ring," she returned, passing the sheet 
 back to Mattee Sue. 
 
 " And I may answer it, mayn't I, dearee ? He must 
 be an aristocrat or he wouldn't follow up the genealogy 
 of his books. That distinctly dubs him as one of the 
 ' Who's Who ' of the country." 
 
 " It hall-marks him as a curiosity box," scoffed 
 Etta. 
 
 Mattee Sue laughed good-naturedly. 
 
 " Z'Etta, do hush your perfectly dreadfully super 
 cilious remarks. Do you run down-stairs and watch 
 for Max to reciproce with while I labor with mauma's 
 sense of propriety, w'ich is simply terrifyin' in its 
 rigidity. I know it will take skill to do it, but if I 
 write just the proper sort of reply, I know you will let 
 me send it, won't you, dearee?" she cooed, mischiev 
 ously, as she opened her writing-desk in search of her 
 finest note-paper. 
 
 " I wish I had some better stationery," when, finally,
 
 172 The House of Landell 
 
 she found the box. ' This looks painfully common in 
 view of his smashin' stuff." 
 
 " Don't you want my paper with my initials on it? " 
 teased Etta. 
 
 "Just the thing! It ought to take both of us to 
 answer that man. Don't you notice w'at he says about 
 the witty annotations on the margin? You know it 
 took both our brains to concoct most of them, and, as 
 I intend to compose the reply, I might let you provide 
 the paper but for the fact that he might suspect it 
 is poverty that leads to the use of community sta 
 tionery. I always did say you and I, together, would 
 make a very good one. Hurry! I see Max comin' 
 round the corner, now." 
 
 " I wish something romantic would happen to me," 
 thought Etta, the youth within her yearning for some 
 unusual experience. " It is a shame I am engaged. 
 Now, I suppose, romance must be banished forever." 
 
 Pensively, she descended the stairs to greet her 
 fiance, and, half an hour later, Mattee Sue, flying down 
 to the piazza to read to her sister the results of her 
 cogitations, found the two enjoying fresh teacakes and 
 lemonade. 
 
 " You don't mean mama has permitted you to an 
 swer that man ! " cried Etta, horrified. 
 
 " Just this once," tantalized Mattee Sue. " Then the 
 lid is to be shut tight on the boilin' pot of friendly 
 intercourse, and unless it mysteriously slips off the 
 correspondence will bubble into vapor and disappear." 
 
 " What did you say ! Come, tell a fellow ! " urged 
 Max. 
 
 " I told him I belonged to one of the first families of 
 Georgia, an' referred him to ' All the People's Maga 
 zine,' for pictures of us an' our houses, in case he never 
 had been South and wanted accurate information. I 
 even told him the date of the periodical that published
 
 The House of Landell 173 
 
 that travesty on truth, Z'Etta, with pictures of hen 
 coops and scrawny dogs and heaps of the great un 
 washed tobacco chewers of the mountains, with the 
 titles, First Families of Georgia, under those mockeries 
 of feudal domain, shanty and cur, and I say it's 
 calumny, depicted, by the writers of things as they 
 see them for the magazine of things as they are or 
 are not accordin' to w'at one knows of his subject. 
 You needn't groan, there's more to follow. I told 
 him we used to be rich befo' the wa' ; but now we were 
 livin' on the four corners of our plantation Yankees 
 always think we have plantations and nothin' else an' 
 don't know w'ether they are farms or gold mines an' 
 that pretty soon we shall be eatin' the middle." 
 
 Etta shuddered, while Max laughed, and Mattee Sue 
 caught her breath preliminary to another volley. 
 
 " Yes, and then, oh Major Verness, how very glad 
 I am to see you," she interrupted herself to greet 
 a man of military bearing, who just then rode up on 
 horseback and, alighting, moved about the group, shak 
 ing hands all round. 
 
 " Oh, Major, let me take your photograph ! You look 
 just as you did that long-to-be-remembered day last 
 year, w'en you brought Mrs. Lavelle the first Cherokee 
 roses she had ever seen. I know she is just dyiri to 
 see you, Major, an' I feel that it is absolutely impera 
 tive for her to have a picture. Look your handsomest. 
 Photographin' is the psychological portrait painter of 
 the future an' I'll represent your state of mind ac 
 curately, if only you will give me a state of mind to 
 photograph." 
 
 A little flush which delighted the irrepressible girl 
 rose to the Major's face. Busily, she arranged the 
 large camera, deftly drawing it from its position 
 against the wall, every movement piquant, direct, and 
 exquisitely fascinating.
 
 174 The House of Landell 
 
 " Ready, Major! Don't brush back your hair! It 
 looks so romantic, that way ! Your adoration is to be 
 captured an' is goin' to the sweetest widow in Massa 
 chusetts, sure as fate! " 
 
 " You are a wicked little tease, Miss Mattee Sue," 
 the Major looked with mock reproach upon the win 
 some little figure flitting to and fro, reminding him, 
 for all the world, of a sunbeam, appearing and dis 
 appearing upon a heavenly morning. 
 
 " She is worse than that, Major," said Max, " she 
 is a wicked little flirt, as well." 
 
 " Major Verness, do, please, take up for me! Not 
 that I am averse to flirtin' not a bit ' again the 
 sunshine of her attention caressed him, causing a sense 
 of light and harmony and virility to supplant any sense 
 he might have felt of the heaviness of life. 
 
 " I like to flirt," she was singing on, in rhythmic flow, 
 " Z'Etta likes to reciproce George Eliot's definition 
 of w'at seems to me to be perilously near the same 
 thing. However, if it makes Z'Etta feel any better to 
 call the rose, oleander, it's all the same to me. She 
 looks fearfully depressed if I accuse her of flirtin'; 
 but if I acknowledge that her droopin' eyes betoken 
 only the passage of a reciprocity bill she chirks up at 
 once. Really, Major, though I would not for the 
 world have you think I object to flirtin' I truly don't 
 think I deserve the reputation, an' I never wish to 
 take w'at doesn't belong to me, especially reputation, 
 for I didn't know that man was goin' to buy my second 
 hand book, 
 
 " What is all this about ? I haven't the least idea," 
 and, as the click of the camera gave the Major release, 
 he went to Mattee Sue's side and watched her slip the 
 plate from the instrument and place it in safety, pend 
 ing development.
 
 The House of Landell 175 
 
 Vivaciously, and ably seconded by Etta, Mattee Sue 
 told the story of the travelling rhetoric. 
 
 " I decided, at once, that he is a most proper person 
 for me to know; but I am sorry, Major," with a de 
 licious melancholy, " I seem to have a very suspicious 
 family. It grieves me to find my own dear mauma 
 so prone to judge upon insufficient evidence. / de 
 mand further evidence before / pass judgment upon a 
 fellow creature. I will not permit myself to think so 
 harshly of a human being who seems so innocent and 
 harmless. It hurts me to see that bein' engaged so 
 warps one's sympathies. Z'Etta is so different from 
 me. My sympathies are broad. I hold out my 
 arms 
 
 " Indeed we are different ! " Etta's embroidery 
 grew beneath her skilful fingers. " When our fairy 
 godmother went through the storehouse of our heredi 
 tary traits to find suitable gifts for Mattee Sue and me, 
 she found grandpa's and great-uncle William's tem 
 peraments well expressed through a verse they had 
 collaborated in childhood. The differences displayed 
 so interested the fairy, that she decided on Great- 
 uncle's part of the quatrain as key-note for Mattee 
 Sue's disposition, and grandpa's part as key-note for 
 mine. Hence, the diversity of our characteristics." 
 
 "What is the verse?" The Major settled himself 
 in a chaise longue, prepared for amusement. 
 
 " Grandpa's two lines are ' Etta repeated slowly 
 and with long-drawn rhythmic swing, 
 
 " ' The sun's mellifluous rays 
 
 Illumine the depths of the sea!' 
 
 " ' The fishes beginning to sweat, 
 
 Cry, "Hang it, how hot it will be!"' 
 
 is great-uncle William's," caught up Mattee Sue's
 
 176 The House of Landell 
 
 cheery voice, with crisp rapidity and the staccato 
 chipper of a bird, " And that is me, all over ! Major, 
 have you heard from Mrs. Lavelle, recently?" 
 
 The Major positively jumped at this sudden thrust, 
 and flushed as he saw how easily he had fallen into the 
 toils of the little madcap, who laughed saucily. 
 
 " I have half a mind to hold your hand until you 
 tell me you're sorry you've pulled the heart-strings of 
 a poor old bachelor so cruelly, little lady," and he 
 settled back into his comfortable position. 
 
 ' Then it would be a long time before I said it," 
 Mattee Sue twinkled in the joy of repartee. 
 
 ' There, there, Miss Mattee Sue, quit your reciproc- 
 ing, and show me how to manage this thing!" and 
 Max moved the camera into position for photograph 
 ing his divine Etta. 
 
 " It is easy enough ! I snapped you and Etta the 
 other mornin' w'en you were standin' over there bid- 
 din' each other good-bye as if you never expected to 
 see each other again. You didn't notice me ; but w'en 
 people don't notice me, it's no sign I don't notice them. 
 Here's the proof ! " 
 
 The indefatigable little mischief drew a photograph 
 from a box on a table near-by, displaying it with 
 wicked glee. " See how perfectly silly you look. You 
 were talkin' about developin' a picture or more love 
 one " 
 
 " Daughter, it is quite time for you to eliminate 
 some of your provincialisms," interpolated Mrs. Ro- 
 maine with exquisite intonation. " Do pronounce your 
 g's once in a while. You sound altogether too much 
 like Maum Henny." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am, I will try, ma'am." 
 
 " Ma'am! " mocked Etta, good-naturedly. " Mama, 
 she will have to drop that delicious reminiscence of 
 past training, pretty soon, won't she! I wish she
 
 The House of Landell 177 
 
 wouldn't call me sister, any more, either. All those 
 phrases are so old-fashioned 
 
 " And beautiful," interpolated the Major. 
 
 " But to be relegated 
 
 " To the times w'en you would ride a palfrey in 
 the dewy morn, eh, Z'Etta? " Mattee Sue drooped her 
 eyes to open them again with a comic look of despair. 
 " But truly, mauma, there are so many things to do and 
 say I don't see how you-all take the time to finish off 
 every word as you do! " Then, with the flash of the 
 bird on the wing " I do hope Tom Landell will like 
 my letter. Oh, Max, I forgot to tell you, Z'Etta said it 
 was a shame she was engaged." 
 
 "Etta, is that true?" said Max, quickly, in an in 
 tense undertone. " You do not deny it ! " and, leav 
 ing the group, they walked hastily to the further end of 
 the piazza, in excited colloquy. 
 
 The rest of the party chatted on until the arrival 
 of the postman. Mattee Sue ran to the top of the steps 
 to receive the mail. Sorting it deftly and quickly, she 
 passed from one to another of the group. 
 
 " Here are three for Z'Etta." She gave a quick 
 glance in the direction of the two, still talking earnestly, 
 " I won't give them to her, now, I reckon I set Max 
 ravin' (raving!} " looking bewitchingly at her 
 mother while giving a vengeful little twitch to the final 
 g " by my last remark. W'en I throw a bomb. I 
 don't follow to investigate results or, at least, not 
 for ten minutes ! Here is a letter for you, mauma, two 
 for granma, an' here," and she flashed a triumphant 
 smile at Major Verness, " is a letter from Mrs. La- 
 velle."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A Jewish prophet writes 
 
 " He hath made the earth by His Power, 
 
 He hath established the world by His Wisdom; 
 
 And hath stretched out the heavens by His Under 
 standing." 
 
 " I try and I try ; but I simply can't ! It means a 
 dark room and a bed for days ! " 
 
 On her way to a church meeting, Agnes paused, her 
 hand on the door knob, and, with a great wave of in 
 capacity surging over her, attempted to will herself into 
 activity. 
 
 " Am I halted by lack of will, or are my emotions 
 pushing the instrument beyond its limits? In either 
 case I have not thought through, sufficiently, to corre 
 late mind and heart, so I will elect not to go." 
 
 She returned to the library, where, a little later, 
 Tom found her. 
 
 " Another cyclone brewing, Agnesia ? " With con 
 cern, he saw her hopeless look. " It is some time since 
 you had one. What is it ? " 
 
 " I see looming before me a lot of church work I 
 have no strength for." 
 
 " Who makes up your mind for you, yourself or the 
 public? " said Tom, a trifle dictatorially. 
 
 " If I carry out yours and Dr. Wehr's advice of 
 dropping the execution of my plans because of pre 
 conceived ideas, I shall soon be the ' automatic instru 
 ment of desire ' and an inconsequential goose. What 
 is his theory, anyway, in advising a grown woman to 
 run about like a headless chicken ! " 
 
 178
 
 The House of Landell 179 
 
 " You know as well as I," laughed Tom. " If I felt 
 competent to teach one who, in herself, possesses so 
 much wisdom, I should say it was to prove to said 
 woman the value of a head." 
 
 " Talk to me, Tom." Wearily she laid her cheek 
 against her brother's shoulder. 
 
 " I puzzle by myself, until, sometimes, I feel as if 
 I should accomplish more were I headless. Why must 
 I puzzle so, over what others take on simple faith? 
 What does it mean to say, God use me? Surely, not 
 that I am to deny my intelligence and do more than I 
 can ! I see so much mischief wreaked by willing, with 
 repression and without judgment, that I wish that, for 
 awhile, I could lose sight of the word will. Spirit 
 should counsel my soul to tell my mind what to do, and 
 reason would not let more be piled upon my body than 
 it is equal to ! " 
 
 " There are your directions, right there ! Don't con 
 trol anything, yourself or any one or anything. It 
 induces repression or abnormal expression. Cooperate 
 and coordinate. Tell me, has control ever cured a 
 headache ? " 
 
 " Never. It always makes me worse. Then comes 
 self-condemnation because I have failed " 
 
 " At something it is probably fortunate you have 
 failed at. In my work, it is a delight to watch the 
 effects of substituting, among abnormal or defective 
 children, cooperation and coordination for will. The 
 latter frightens and discourages. We are all suffi 
 ciently children to find value in applying this child- 
 training to ourselves." 
 
 " Tell me about it ! " Agnes settled into a less tense 
 position, her eyes alert with interest. 
 
 " The you must and you shall inhibits or over-stimu 
 lates instead of equalizing activities, and they are con 
 stantly furling their standards before, / need not unless
 
 i8o The House of Landell 
 
 / want to, but I want to, you bet! We had a lot of 
 kiddoos who took no care of their teeth," he continued, 
 himself learning lessons, as he saw that his sister, who 
 had quivered under the whiplash of his criticism, re 
 bounded when constructive principles were presented 
 which she could apply to her own need. 
 
 " We had tried, you must, and you shall, and you'll 
 be sick if you do and it amounted to, just that! " 
 he snapped his fingers. " Finally, one of the fellows 
 thought of putting on the table of the assembly room 
 a skull with very dirty teeth and another with clean 
 fine ones. The kiddoos shied about them for awhile. 
 At last, one of them jerked his thumb in the direction 
 of the first skull and asked if his teeth looked like that. 
 I replied they did, and worse. He asked what he 
 could do about it. Toothbrushes followed this query. 
 Mastication, the dentist and public opinion did the 
 rest." 
 
 " So, once in a while, you do advocate the study of 
 opposites, not for dissection but for comparison?" 
 Agnes smiled. " Is this method as satisfactory in 
 dealing with those who lack wills, as with the wilful? " 
 
 " Equally." 
 
 " How about those without determination or desire 
 to affiliate mentally the pictures you place before 
 them?" 
 
 " Better than the old method, by far." 
 
 " I have followed this idea in my thought when I 
 have said, ' It is my soul that avails.' I imagine that 
 I am proving my meaning, until suddenly, I find the 
 contrary. We are wiser than we express " 
 
 " Or than we realize. You are developing your 
 negative splendidly." 
 
 " I am growing more selfish every day." 
 
 " More wisely helpful, you mean." 
 
 " See how I am treating Cousin Matilda ! I pay
 
 The House of Landell 181 
 
 no attention to her incisions into the privacy of my 
 mind." 
 
 " With what result ! " Tom's eyes twinkled. 
 
 " She is becoming a perfect angel. She never sends 
 for me now on wild-goose chases. She was very sar 
 castic, at first, when, in a way, she felt that her ar 
 rows were not reaching their mark." 
 
 "In short, she respects you. To her, that means 
 everything." 
 
 " I am studying myself, and believe my struggles 
 are for the maintenance, not the giving up of my will. 
 I have the sense of conquering in the large matters of 
 life. It is in these insidiously small details, when the 
 watchfulness is asleep, that I find myself " 
 
 " Yes, and when your kindliness is appealed to. I 
 recall that when my mother sent me off to school the 
 last thing she said to me was, ' Many men and wo 
 men have parted with their integrity through the de 
 sire to be kind.' You make up your mind, then have 
 the agonies over it.' ' 
 
 "Don't you?" 
 
 " Not I ! I make up my mind, then put the matter 
 out of my mind." 
 
 " I believe some are born the other way round." 
 
 " How do you mean ? " 
 
 "Some grow to an ideal by way of ideas; some 
 have an ideal and express it through ideas." 
 
 " One analyzes, one synthesizes, and one synchro 
 nizes, eh? Yes, you are right." 
 
 " Some grow a plot as they transcribe ideas ; some 
 build a plot before they touch pen to paper. Tom, 
 there is something else that worries me." 
 
 " This habit of worry is due to your physical con 
 dition. Our medicines 
 
 " Yes, dearie, I know, and I believe in them 
 thoroughly under certain conditions, and I am sure that
 
 1 82 The House of Landell 
 
 the stronger and better balanced the instrument of ex 
 pression, the better equipped it is to discriminate ; but 
 how can your medicines act on a bona fide message 
 from outside I want to know, to perceive unto real 
 ization, without the pyrotechnic display of apparitions 
 or spectacular premonitions. I can but feel that phys 
 ical depletion is not the cause of my extension of vision, 
 nor do I wish to inhibit it for it enables me to be pre 
 pared for what otherwise would come as a shock, find 
 me unprepared, and overwhelm me." 
 
 " Does it ever avert the undesirable ? " 
 
 " It would if I knew how to train it, I am sure." 
 
 " Tell me. Perhaps I can help you." 
 
 " I don't mean to be always bringing up myself ' to 
 point a moral and adorn a tale ' she stopped sud 
 denly, then began again 
 
 " When I was a child, I distinctly saw myself (my 
 real self) in the air above this embodiment, which was 
 being dissected. I was conscious and enjoyed the pro 
 ceeding thoroughly. So it is in life. I do not mean 
 to be self-centred, " 
 
 " No, you live, dear, that is it, live. You do not go 
 to the show of life and sit in the parquet, you are 
 one of the performers. You are unique. No other is 
 just like you, therefore, when you take a subject for 
 dissection you take yourself as one having the qualities 
 of the others and more, too. For this reason, you 
 stand out, and to some would seem to step out from the 
 rest." 
 
 " I do not intend to intrude myself or my opin 
 ions 
 
 " No, it is your close analysis of any subject your 
 self included and your desire carefully to express, by 
 word or action, that would by some be taken as in 
 sistence in your own opinion or the putting of your 
 own personality before the limelight."
 
 The House of Landell 183 
 
 " I do not think I am self-centred, Tom." 
 
 " Not sufficiently so. If you were more sure of 
 yourself, and better pleased with your results, you 
 would have serener atmosphere and steadier poise." 
 
 " ' The gods look down, incurious of themselves.' ' 
 
 " It is a deep depreciation of your powers ; an in 
 tolerant scorn of your output a kind of divine dis 
 content that turns your thought back upon your 
 work, and, to a superficial observer, sometimes gives 
 the impression of self-sufficiency. In other words, you 
 are always looking upon yourself as a spoiled copy 
 of some rare edition. Now, having analyzed you as 
 a subject, as my very dear sister, what can I do for 
 you? Tell me what troubles you. I will do my best 
 to decide whether it is * symptoms ' amenable to rem 
 edies, or extension of the sense perception, as you deem 
 it." 
 
 " One must be the outcome of a very negative and 
 the other of a very positive state, shouldn't you think 
 so? I am both, some of the time, and neither all of 
 the time," she sighed, " I don't know what to do." 
 
 " What is it, Agnes ? You are so tantalizing to keep 
 from me what may prove a delicious pathological tid 
 bit." 
 
 " Don't say that! One great joy in my talks with 
 you is that you never give me the feeling that you are 
 a Heidelberg student rushing to the morgue for a 
 cadaver, to use a phrase of Mr. Mevin's." 
 
 " And I never intend to be other than the kindly 
 helper to any one, especially to you. Tell me! " 
 
 " I am receiving a great many letters from Aunt 
 Luella. Their reception is preceded by an attack of 
 nausea. I was awakened last night that way, and this 
 morning there came a letter." 
 
 " It was something you ate 
 
 " I was afraid you would say that! "
 
 184 The House of Landell 
 
 " Then it was nerves. You love her very dearly and 
 at the same time there has been much in your inter 
 course with her that has tugged at your heart and 
 nerves." 
 
 " Withal, there has been true spiritual communion." 
 
 " Emotional ! " muttered Tom. 
 
 " I will find out what it means. There are hands 
 reaching out to me, too, through the walls I don't 
 see them ; but I know they are there." 
 
 She started. 
 
 " Another of those terrors. Tom, look at the clock. 
 I will ferret this out ! What time is it ? " 
 
 " Exactly one," Tom replaced his watch with a 
 troubled look. 
 
 " We will stop calling these happenings, and mak 
 ing me feel as if I were a lunatic or a liar. Watch 
 with me, to see if any demand materializes. Mate 
 rialising! That word and its horror is far from be 
 ing confined to seeing astral shapes or to the con 
 centration of ether, for the moment, embodying souls 
 of those who have passed from our sight through what 
 is called death. To go back to the church matter. 
 After my attitude of Wednesday night, Mr. Herman 
 has every reason to look for my active cooperation. 
 I never should have gotten myself into a position to 
 work with a man who abhors and detests me." 
 
 "If you believe he does that, why not steer clear 
 of him?" 
 
 " I don't want the reputation of starter " 
 
 " Then you will gain the reputation of quitter. If 
 you cannot cooperate, there is bound to be a cataclysm, 
 whatever seems to be the source. See here " with a 
 sudden turn to the conversation " my rhetoric queen's 
 mother won't allow her to write to me any more. She 
 says she can't permit her daughter to correspond with 
 strange men."
 
 Jhe House of Landell 185 
 
 " I never supposed she would." 
 
 " I did, and I am not going to capitulate to any such 
 foolishness. I'll make myself known to her somehow." 
 
 A far-away look came into Agnes' eyes. 
 
 " Will you take a book to Mrs. Lavelle, this after 
 noon ? She leaves to-morrow and it is so disagreeable 
 to have packages piling in after one's trunks are closed. 
 I could send Judd but " 
 
 " No apologies. I go with pleasure, and, on my way, 
 shall meditate on the terms of our discipline, * First 
 the ideal ; then the possible ; then the actual.' He who 
 does not act what he thinks, thinks incompletely and 
 he who takes the heart of his endeavor from what he 
 is doing by sending his mind junketting, or by driving 
 it to excess, soon has nothing to express," he said to 
 himself, and, taking the volume Agnes handed him, he 
 swung up the street with a sense of smug assurance 
 that he had the key to Agnes' situation. 
 
 He found Mrs. Lavelle on the piazza, wrapped in 
 rugs, and basking in the sunshine while looking over 
 a budget of mail. She greeted Tom by handing him 
 a picture. 
 
 " Do you want to see these photographs ? " 
 
 Tom's heart gave a queer little thump as a pair of 
 winsome eyes looked piquantly up into his from the 
 bit of cardboard, and seemed to read his soul. 
 
 " What an alluring face ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " That is one of the most bewitching bird-like South 
 ern girls I " 
 
 " I wish it were Mattee Sue Romaine. It should be 
 if it is not!" 
 
 " It is. What do you know about her ? Have you 
 met her?" 
 
 " In my dreams, and I am glad she looks as I should 
 like to have her," laughed Tom, sincerity tingeing his
 
 1 86 The House of Landell 
 
 jesting tones. " Don't you recall the rhetoric incident 
 of the early summer? " 
 
 " Yes, now you speak of it; but I had not connected 
 it with this dryad of a Southern city, dryads don't 
 live in cities, do they! Well, she is a dryad, anyway, 
 wherever she may take up her abode. You gave me 
 no details that afternoon in the garden. You said 
 you were going to, but you were too anxious to run 
 away by yourself to write to her, I fancy. So it really 
 has amounted to something, has it! Tell me. Did 
 you write and did she reply? " 
 
 " I can answer yes to both." Tom drew his chair 
 a trifle closer. " I need a friend at court, and, as 
 I came up here, I was wondering whom it could pos 
 sibly be. Now I know. It may be you, if you are 
 willing. Won't you let her mother know that I am 
 a fine fellow?" 
 
 " Nothing will please me better," with an amused 
 smile. 
 
 " I do not mean that quite as caddishly as it sounds," 
 Tom colored furiously, despite his maturity. " I am 
 very much interested in this correspondence, and, er-r 
 well, of course, her mother considers it unconven 
 tional, and, there are signs of a lock-out, for me." 
 
 " I see." Mrs. Lavelle was all sympathy, " I will 
 give you such a " 
 
 " Heigh-o," and Grace Jenkins, espying the two, 
 came towards them greatly to Tom's disgust. 
 
 " I had an idea you had left us," he responded to 
 her greeting. 
 
 " We are going to-morrow. Later, we start for the 
 South. You needn't hurry off so fast. I won't do you 
 a bit of harm. Jack has the rheumatism and I am go 
 ing to town on the next train to buy him some neck 
 ties." 
 
 "A new cure for rheumatism! Advertise it at
 
 The House of Landell 187 
 
 once," he laughed, and, realizing that the conversa 
 tion would hold no more charms for him, he made his 
 adieux. 
 
 "Rheumatism, pouf! Drunk is what she means! 
 How she ever threw over Horace Vernon to marry 
 that tank, no one can understand. See here, Tom 
 Landell." He stood still in the middle of the road, 
 as if halted to attention. " Agnes sent you to Mrs. 
 Lavelle, the one visible link between you and that 
 seraphic witch. What a wonder Agnes would be if 
 she could only see a little more clearly. Did I not be 
 lieve it detrimental to her health, I would encourage 
 her more. Truly, what is eccentricity in one stage of 
 experience is natural to another, and many states the 
 average physician calls nerves is really the movement 
 of the individual on a larger orbit of perception, ex 
 pression, and, perhaps, realization."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ff That the human soul should never be without 
 a secret desire for absolute perfection, bears wit 
 ness to the divine light within us." 
 
 Dr. F. W. Foerster. 
 
 AFTER Tom had disappeared up the street toward 
 Mrs. Lavelle's, Agnes turned from the window and 
 went to the desk where lay her manuscript. " Tom is 
 right," she pondered, " I keep those about me upset all 
 the time because I can hear what the stars sing and can 
 not understand what human beings say. I know that 
 Philip Herman abhors me I can feel it through the 
 air yet, here I am, tied up with his work where I face 
 him at every turn. Shall I retire and be considered a 
 turncoat shall I never learn to be helpful, however 
 hard I try?" 
 
 The manuscript did not win her attention and she 
 went, again, to the window. 
 
 " I shall make up my mind that, henceforth, I will 
 do the thing before me with a brain that seeks simplic 
 ity. Is the intellect as great a deterrent as the devil 
 of the old-time faith ? ' The ways of the mentality 
 are intricate ; the ways of the spirit are simple.' Does 
 mentality make us see through a glass, darkly, instead 
 of face to face? Must I ignore appearances? No! 
 But I must differentiate surface appearances, processes 
 and principle. The first I must brush away, the second 
 acknowledge, but not rest in, and, in the third I may 
 abide. I see no other way, and if these experiences 
 
 1 88
 
 The House of Landell 189 
 
 that come to me are of value, perception and discrim 
 ination must teach me. I seek the peace that is above 
 all the peace that passe th understanding." 
 
 The room was very still with a stillness that was 
 unusual. Into the daylight that was softened by flit 
 ting clouds there came a purity and luminence of at 
 mosphere. As one on a hilltop sees a landscape spread 
 out, Agnes felt her vision extending beyond her apart 
 ment. Felt, at first, for there was but a sense of en 
 trance into a new country. All was dark densely 
 dark; but back of the darkness was motion. Out of 
 the motion came a voice. She listened. It was that 
 of Mr. Burke. Following the voice, came a shadowy 
 shape. 
 
 There was no fear in her heart as she spoke to this 
 figure emerging from the gloom, wondering, puzzling, 
 searching. 
 
 " I don't know where I am and I don't know where 
 to go," came the voice, with the entreaty of a child. 
 " Agnes, I have talked to you, as to no one else, about 
 immortality and the future life. To no other pupil 
 have I asserted my doubts or weighed my fears. By 
 no one have I been so assured of life's continuity and 
 satisfactoriness, as by you. Help me now, for I don't 
 know where to go." 
 
 Agnes' heart went out to the searching soul with a 
 great wave of helpfulness. 
 
 " I remember well, Mr. Burke, how you helped me 
 in my search and how you so often assured me that 
 I helped point the way. But why are you here in 
 darkness? Are you not still in the land of the shadow 
 which men call life?" 
 
 " No, I have passed out, all alone. Where am I ? " 
 
 " You are to look on, Mr. Burke," she said softly. 
 " See, yonder is light. I will stand here until you reach 
 it."
 
 190 The House of Landell 
 
 The man faltered and turned beseechingly toward 
 her. 
 
 " You are in a land of great beauty and of love. 
 You will realize this very soon," Agnes encouraged. 
 " Yonder are your friends ; yonder is help ; yonder is 
 growth. Go on. / will stand here until you reach the 
 Light." 
 
 Slowly, the man moved away; he turned, now and 
 anon, and waved her greeting, growing braver as he 
 passed out of the dense darkness where her love had 
 found him ; more reliant, as he went on into the irradia 
 tion of the great Light that sends out help and life to 
 them that walk therein. He turned and waved his 
 hand, Agnes returned the greeting, saying still, with 
 her soul, " Go on! I will stand here until you reach 
 the Light." 
 
 At length, with a glad, strong movement of assur 
 ance, he gave another salute, and she watched him enter 
 into the broader, stronger radiance that illumined him 
 and all the landscape. 
 
 Standing there, giving the spirit of her support, 
 her soul demanding no explanation, seeking no solu 
 tion, happy just in the giving of love and helpfulness, 
 the scene was as clear to her as ever, when the maid 
 announced Philip Herman. 
 
 The vision remained. She was about to excuse her 
 self to the caller that she might dwell longer in its 
 heavenly radiance; but the words sang through her 
 heart, 
 
 "Had'st thou stayed, I must have fled, 
 That is what the vision said," 
 
 and with one more glad God-speed to the soul she had 
 helped upon its quest, she brought herself to the library 
 with Philip Herman standing before her.
 
 The House of Landell 191 
 
 She greeted him cordially. His salutation, though 
 courteous, was frigid. The halo of her experience 
 lent tenderness to her address as she said, 
 
 " I am sure you miss the wonderful ozone of Mount 
 Nodel, now you are in town, Mr. Herman. Are you 
 suffocated after the freedom of the hillside? " 
 
 " Yes, Miss Landell, I am." His voice was almost 
 bereft of human quality, so dead and tenseless was it. 
 
 Laved in the holiness of her experience, her soul 
 was released from the strain of their relations and 
 her manner, more than her actual words, made this 
 evident. 
 
 " I do not know whether to call my visit here one of 
 cowardice or courage," he continued. " I have come 
 to tell you, that, with full appreciation of the attempts 
 of you and your father and others, to relieve the situa 
 tion, I have decided I would prefer to cut wood in your 
 father's lumber camp if he would entrust it to my 
 incompetence or to starve rather than present state 
 ments I believe to be false. I had hoped to steal 
 futilely down the pleasant by-paths of generalities in 
 this church position, but yesterday, your chairman of 
 Wednesday night's meeting called on me, acting as 
 spokesman for many, asking if I intended to stand by 
 the statements you made, and repudiating them as 
 savoring of church and state. He said your remarks 
 were worthy of a scribe of hell and pointed me down 
 the swamp lanes of man-conceived superstitions and 
 beliefs about the tortures exercised by God. The world 
 is saying there are no more such demands upon us in 
 these days of enlightenment. Let those who think so 
 take unto themselves a pastorate." 
 
 " I know," said Agnes sadly. " Can you not find 
 the relationship of seemingly unrelated things, and 
 teach us the common truth to be found in differences? 
 One of the old members of the church received a call
 
 192 The House of Landell 
 
 of comfort ( ?) from Mr. Kerrick, just before he left. 
 She told him that she was lonely. ' Jesus is a very 
 busy person,' he replied, ' He cannot stay with you 
 always, He has to be with me some of the time.' Can't 
 you, won't you explain away this misconception and 
 comfort the seeker with the real relation of the Christ 
 to the human heart?" 
 
 ' To individuals, yes ; but could I teach that in any 
 church you know? They would call me a Buddhist, 
 Pantheist, Theosophist and I despise them all." 
 
 ;< You seek wisdom where it may be found. But, 
 do you know, I doubt if it is ever revealed to us when 
 we rage. I rage, too, sometimes," with a childlike at 
 titude of confession. 
 
 " The creeds are cannibalistic " 
 
 " Undeniably, that quality lies in the expression and 
 interpretation of them, not in the essence of their 
 meaning." 
 
 " Only last week a prominent preacher announced 
 from his pulpit that one of the errors of the present 
 day is the reading of modern interpretation into an 
 cient words." 
 
 " You and I know there is no modern thought and 
 there are no ancient words. It is consciousness. Had 
 I the consciousness of Isaiah, I should read the uni 
 versal meaning which stands yesterday, to-day and 
 forever." 
 
 " Some of the church methods do not tend to train 
 men in honor and integrity of daily living, and are 
 such as no respectable business firm would tolerate. 
 While bidding for the overflow of the Spirit, the town 
 is placarded, 'Morality will not save! Reformation 
 will not save ! A man may reform and yet be lost! ' 
 
 " When I went to school, children were taught iron 
 clad rules by which to work their problems. Now, 
 children are led to seek and discover for themselves
 
 The House of Landell 193 
 
 the working principle governing their studies and to 
 express it individually." 
 
 " Mind action is so different in every soul there can 
 be no ironclad rule of conduct." 
 
 " No, the lawyer seeks point by point, building a 
 case as brick upon brick ; the musician sees in the one 
 page before her eyes the whole theme, to be expressed 
 with its thousands of shades of effect, through the cor 
 rect mental reception of the many signs that must be 
 utilized automatically." 
 
 " I must approach the synthetic mind and the ana 
 lytic mind with the same truth at the same time, by the 
 same path 
 
 " Jesus grew and waxed strong, you know. Place 
 your concept of His life and reason for being before 
 the people and let Him grow before their minds. 
 Don't try, of yourself, to grow Him. Teach them to 
 watch His unfoldment from the man of a generation 
 to the Christ of the ages. Therein, you can aid me 
 very much; for though I pray and seek, I cannot un 
 derstand. God; the divinity of man; the brotherhood 
 of service these are clear to me; but the horrible 
 travesty of love expressed in pain and torture that 
 I can neither understand nor endure! " 
 
 She ceased speaking. Her mobile face shone with 
 the birth of a new thought. The look of prophecy 
 radiated from her, neglectful of his antagonism, in 
 her devotion to the idea the man longed to express. 
 
 " Mr. Herman, I pray you will remain and speak to 
 these people who are suffocating in the vaults of the 
 temple, Truth, because no fit guide has appeared to 
 lead them where they can see the daydawn." 
 
 As Mr. Herman descended the steps, two callers 
 came up the driveway. They stopped to speak to the 
 departing guest while Agnes, who had accompanied 
 him to the door, awaited them. Again peace enfolded
 
 194 The House of Landell 
 
 her, as she stood with the soft air playing about her. 
 Again her perception pierced the panorama of pleas 
 ant faces with the greensward for a background; 
 again, on the wings of the couplet she had sung to 
 herself " Had'st thou stayed, I must have fled," great 
 vistas opened and the form of her friend, silhouetted 
 against the luminous white light, turned a radiant face 
 toward her. 
 
 With his own voice, she recalled as so dear and help 
 ful, teaching her the way, but now, wholly without 
 mental and physical effort, he spoke to her. 
 
 " Courage is the secret, dear friend, who walked with 
 me through the shadow and into the light. The cour 
 age and assurance of peace. Be not afraid! " 
 
 " Good morning, Agnes," said the taller of the two 
 women, as, having left Mr. Herman, they approached 
 the piazza. " My, but wasn't I glad of what you said 
 at the prayer-meeting. It's made a big. stir; but don't 
 you mind it. It always takes stirring " 
 
 " We could hardly wait to talk it over with you," 
 said Mrs. Bryce. 
 
 " I don't believe there is another set of people, be 
 sides Christians, that would dare to go about in the 
 half-dead-and-alive fashion we do, as a body, borne 
 down with physical depression and ailments and for 
 ever talking about them as if they were special privi 
 leges and tokens of God's goodness, instead of our 
 own stupidity. I'm sick of it; and as for the beg- 
 
 " If this new man drags my husband away from his 
 business and family the way the other one did, I'll " 
 
 " You don't see much more of him than I do of mine 
 that's dead, do you," declared Mrs. Burton. 
 
 " No, I don't. It would do John lots more good 
 to have some healthful pleasure with us all, than to be
 
 The House of Landell 195 
 
 mourning over some scheme of salvation he doesn't 
 understand. It's so contrary to law and justice and 
 mercy and all the other qualities we are supposed to 
 have." 
 
 " We ought to have a religion we can put in prac 
 tice." 
 
 " So I say ; but John thinks that's scandalous ! I tried 
 to talk to him the other day about eugenics. He looked 
 blue and said he'd been trying to be a good Christian 
 for twenty years. I turned and looked at those young 
 sters of ours coming up like a pair of steps, and none 
 of them with the vitality due them, and I said, ' John, 
 have you ever spent one second in understanding and 
 practicing what it means to conserve the power of 
 the sons of God?' He just seemed discouraged and 
 had not the least idea I was doing anything other than 
 rinding fault with him. Can't the church teach us any 
 of these things. Oughtn't it! " 
 
 " I wish we could see our way clear," sighed Mrs. 
 Burton. " What good does it do me to hurry through 
 my work, when I'm scared to death half the time for 
 fear I can't pay my bills, to go to church in hopes I'll 
 find a little comfort, and perhaps a way out, and find 
 the air so bad I get a sick headache and am told that 
 I know I've sinned when I don't know any such thing, 
 or that I haven't done all I could, when I know, if I 
 have any fault to blame myself for, it is that I've done 
 too much ! " 
 
 " Yes," retorted Mrs. Bryce sympathizingly, " and 
 with your butcher sitting right behind you watching 
 what you put into the contribution box 
 
 " And grudging it as so much out of the bill I'm 
 going to pay, on account. Then comes the plea to re 
 member our obligations. If it's a poor plea, it's weari 
 some; if a good one, it's terrifying. What does the 
 plea amount to ! "
 
 196 The House of Landell 
 
 " Not our obligations to be honest and kindly and 
 brave, but to accept the Lord Jesus Christ or be lost 
 whatever that may mean nothing more than to make 
 a personal gain of a mobbing that took place three 
 thousand years ago. The little time I get, away from 
 my cares, I want to hear or read something that will 
 help me, or to get into the open." 
 
 " That's where Jesus taught, mostly, in the open. 
 What good does it do me, Agnes, to hear that the sons 
 of God took wives of the daughters of men, then to 
 be told there was only one race and that relatives 
 mustn't marry! What I want to know is how to get 
 my boy an honest job with an honest man in an honest 
 trade and make him an honest citizen." 
 
 " It's comforting, isn't it," said Mrs. Bryce cyn 
 ically, " to work hard all the week and really get a 
 feeling of glory in it and of closeness to the working 
 life of God, and go to church to be told that work is 
 a curse. The smart set isn't in it, Agnes, compared 
 to the pulpit, for making one feel ashamed of work ! " 
 
 " I read of a meeting the other day for finding out 
 why people don't go to church. I could tell them ! 
 The teachings are not common sense. They tell us 
 about a God who disobeys His own laws as a sign of 
 superiority. If they try to be practical they tell us 
 things about our every-day affairs that aren't so. We 
 want to be revitalized and recharged with the principle 
 of life that we may work it in and out of our own 
 experiences." 
 
 " I must go, now," said Mrs. Bryce. 
 
 " So must I," echoed Mrs. Burton. " I've left Amy 
 with the baby too long." 
 
 " Mr. Bryce will be in to dinner and nothing I hear 
 from the pulpits, yet, has advised these cooks of ours 
 to do their work decently and take an honest pride in 
 worshipping God by service to man. I for one will
 
 The House of Landell 197 
 
 stand up, as good an expression of an individual as 
 I am capable of being, to make this revered institution 
 worth while. Agnes, more than a few of us are thank 
 ing you for waking us up, and don't you mind if there 
 comes a row." 
 
 " Only the best can happen if we keep in mind that 
 the seat beside every cradle is a pew in the church uni 
 versal," returned Agnes, and, as the callers left, she 
 stood, following them with her mind, reaching out to 
 the vision of her soul. 
 
 " Is it le Bon who says, ' All that man calls nature, 
 are visions merely; wonderful allegories, significant 
 pictures of the laws of the mind; through this en 
 chanted gallery man is led by unseen guides to read 
 and learn the laws of Heaven ' ? I wonder why Mr. 
 Burke was so alone and in darkness. How glad I am 
 that I live larger than I seem, and that I could stand 
 and wait until he reached the light. The vision came 
 when I was in peace ; it returned because I remained in 
 peace and it gave me strength because it was a useful 
 service. It will be explained to me soon, I feel sure." 
 
 " How do you do, Mrs. Bryce," called a clear voice, 
 as the two women reached the highroad. " I must 
 shake hands with you after all these years away. Is 
 anything going on at the Landells? I have a special 
 message for Agnes, but will wait if anything social 
 is going on, or is it that it is a Mecca for the brain 
 and heart-hungry as it always has been ? " 
 
 " Marian Fosby ! " greeted the two simultaneously. 
 " No, nothing special. We've been up there, partly 
 to get help for ourselves and partly to prepare Agnes 
 for what's going on as the result of what she said at 
 prayer-meeting the other night. Did you hear about 
 it?" 
 
 " No. I've just come home from a four years' so-
 
 198 The House of Landell 
 
 journ, first of travel, and later, of teaching. What 
 is it?" 
 
 " The town is full of it. Some one heard her say 
 to her father, after it was over, that she had stayed 
 where she had to help, but that now she felt authorized 
 to go on, whether the others did or not. If she believes 
 what she stated, I wonder how she has stood with us 
 as tolerantly and as sweetly as she has." 
 
 "Does she look as she used to?" There was a 
 happy light in Marian's face. " I well remember her. 
 She was my salvation, in those old days. I have 
 come, now, to bring her tidings of the death of a dear 
 friend and one-time teacher. It will make her sad to 
 hear of his passing." 
 
 " Is it any one we know ? " inquired Mrs. Burton. 
 
 " I think so, for the whole town loved him. It is 
 Mr. Burke. He Was especially identified with phil 
 osophy and Agnes was his ardent pupil. After a long 
 illness, in a mental aberration he assisted himself to 
 cross to the other side to-day at one o'clock, " and 
 Marian passed on. 
 
 " My dear friend who taught me to love the sky," 
 she said affectionately to Agnes, " I am so proud of 
 you that you have waked this old town up, even if it 
 is to disagree with you. Anything is better than in 
 ertia. You have been a blessing to every one all the 
 days of your life." 
 
 " I wish I could think so," said Agnes, overwhelmed. 
 " And why do you give me that beautiful name? " 
 
 " It is one of your benedictions from schoolhood 
 days. Another happy memory comes to me as I sit 
 talking with you. Do you recall the day you helped 
 John McBarr cut off one of my curls, when we were 
 skating? I never knew who did it until the other day, 
 when he put this ring on my finger and showed me the
 
 The House of Landell 199 
 
 trophy. The wedding is to be in the spring. I am so 
 very happy, Agnes." 
 
 Just then, the clear-toned bells in the Roman Catholic 
 Church steeple rang out, stroke, stroke, stroke, pause ; 
 stroke, stroke, stroke, pause ; stroke, stroke, stroke, 
 pause. 
 
 Agnes' face became raptly intent. 
 
 " That is a beautiful message they ring into the 
 hearts of men, morning, noon and night, when they 
 herald, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy 
 Ghost," said Marian thoughtfully, " if only the idea 
 were not a travesty on common sense." 
 
 " It used to seem that to me ! It does not now, and 
 I learned the meaning through those very bells." 
 
 " Tell me, dear, it all seems so dark when I try to 
 read the riddles of dogma," and Marian sighed. 
 
 " Let dogma alone and seek with the simplicity of 
 the child. Those bells were a tribute of love, given to 
 the church by the Hoyles in memory of their father. 
 At a time when I felt just as you do, I fell to listening, 
 listlessly, without assent or dissent to the sweetness 
 of their tones. Always I found myself refreshed. 
 Then there stole into my heart the recognition of the 
 love that had impelled creative faculty to take crude 
 substance and transmit its essence to the world in 
 sound, to rest and admonish, to send its message 
 through the unseen to live again in expression." 
 
 "You darling! How beautiful! The analogy is 
 complete ! " 
 
 " Yes, Marian, it is to me. God, the Father, ex 
 presses the creative principle ; God, the Holy Spirit, ex 
 presses, in the love which gives propelling power to 
 creation; God, the Son, the manifest expression, with 
 the Trinity inherent therein, sounding, living through 
 the ages. We cannot get away from Unity, Marian, 
 because it is the foundation of the universe "
 
 2OO The House of Landell 
 
 " Nor from the Trinity, because it is the logical se 
 quence of demonstration! How wonderful it all is!" 
 
 " And simple." 
 
 After Marian had left her, Agnes went back to her 
 manuscript. She took up one of the pages and scanned 
 it closely. 
 
 " ' Evolution is the resultant of the development, 
 through man, of God's divine image,' " she quoted 
 slowly to herself. " Perhaps, after all, I am expressing 
 more of God than I have dreamed."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 "See that through thee, the race progresses, not 
 continues, only." 
 
 Ellen Key. 
 
 WEDNESDAY evening's service opened amidst sup 
 pressed excitement. The events of the preceding week 
 had awakened the minds of all to divers issues. At 
 Philip's request the building had been subjected to a 
 thorough cleaning and ventilation. Every day he had 
 spent hours, not in the study writing sermons, but in 
 the body of the house trying to hold steadily in his 
 heart the thought of peace on earth, good will to men. 
 It was no vacuous reverie into which he entered. This 
 was the first time in his life he had done other than 
 cry out to a Lord " of corporeal content " as to a 
 hierarch in a distant land, straining mind and body in 
 supplication. His own growing consciousness; his 
 mother ; Agnes ; all had set his steps forward. Still he 
 felt like a drowsing child, who, stupid with slumber, 
 takes his companion's hand and stumbles on, resenting 
 the kindly insistence that refuses to allow him to rest 
 in his stuporous condition on some snow-clad roadside 
 or serpent-infested bosk. 
 
 As he stood this evening before the hardy world- 
 worn faces, Agnes felt a great rush of pity overwhelm 
 her. With her seeing eyes, she watched him standing, 
 as one helpless, in a sea of electric sparks, while hover 
 ing just beyond the circle of this mentality shone the 
 faint white light of his divinity, prevailing against 
 this force of will expressing him. She held her breath, 
 as he rose, and with the generally impassive faces 
 
 20 1
 
 2O2 The House of Landell 
 
 looking with unaiding critical eyes up to, rather than 
 into his, he faced the bare square room with its glaring 
 lights giving even deeper pallor to his face. 
 
 " Like Niobe, turning to stone," she thought, as 
 the grayness of immobility settled over his hitherto 
 mobile face. 
 
 " Friends," every nerve quivered at his anom 
 alous position, as well as with the force of his mes 
 sage, " before I perform one rite as leader in your 
 communion, I wish to talk with you. There are tre 
 mendous truths in the accepted Orthodox Christianity, 
 but these are to be seen by minds awake to their spirit 
 ual meaning, and not to be accepted as one accepts a 
 phantasy of recognized but distorted knowledge in a 
 dream. 
 
 " The religion of the future is to rise above the ani 
 mal, magical, emotional, and technical tendencies of 
 the past, and be more intelligently and divinely hu 
 man. It will depend less on symbol more on spirit 
 and on truth. No longer can morality be ignored 
 as a landing-place in the climb towards the pure moral 
 spirituality of the Christ. Love interweaves us with 
 externalities but makes us less dependent upon them, 
 for it teaches that the essence of all externals is within. 
 It is the church's mission to bring into our lives moral 
 purity and spiritual vision. The more active the prin 
 ciple of unity, the more knit our society and the more 
 apparent the inherent unity of the universe. New 
 conceptions of truth meet our growing needs. When 
 the mind conceives new conditions and the heart ac 
 cepts them, humanity cannot fail to advance in ever- 
 improving states." 
 
 He turned toward the speaker's chair, then abruptly 
 moved toward the rows of settees, where he took his 
 seat. 
 
 At Agnes' request, Mr. Landell had gone to the
 
 The House of Landell 203 
 
 meeting, and, as he sat beside his daughter, he watched 
 the effect of Herman's words. The countenances of 
 some of the listeners were sullen with antagonism ; of 
 others, alert with appreciation. Fathers, mothers, men 
 of affairs, sat with hope illumining their eyes. " ' These 
 belong to the church whose altar is within, and whose 
 bread of life is more than a church building or a 
 creed,' " he quoted to himself. Then his eyes turned 
 slowly until they rested on the head of the third settee 
 from the front, in the middle aisle. Yes, there he was, 
 Deacon Lambert, just where he had sat thirty years 
 ago, on a Wednesday night, when his dictum had set 
 the real Daniel Landell free by denying his communion 
 in this church institution which had made its head a 
 God of vengeance, whom, to call Father, was a crime. 
 
 The deacon's hair had grown white, his figure bent 
 under the thirty years. Now, as of yore, pulling him 
 self up with the assistance of the pew in front, he came 
 slowly to his feet. 
 
 " I don't need time to consider the heresies you have 
 uttered, Mr. Herman, nor the blasphemies for which 
 you will be accountable to Almighty God; but I will 
 state that the land on which this church is built was 
 given us by my father, that we might hear Christ cruci 
 fied, not torn asunder and scattered in humanity. We 
 must preach condemnation for those set aside by God's 
 gracious choice, like chaff for the burning, and reward 
 to the elect. We want some one to teach us how to die 
 and not be lured by fantastic lessons on the glories of 
 living. If such blasphemy prevails, I shall place a case 
 in the courts to withdraw the land from the church 
 holdings." 
 
 The grayness of Philip's face became as granite. 
 The mobility of his expression was quenched. Life 
 seemed drawn therefrom, as, like a rock, he stood be 
 fore them.
 
 2O4 The House of Landell 
 
 " I do not wish to create a schism. I will with 
 draw " 
 
 " You have created it already by your words, 
 devil's spawn that they be ! Brothers and sisters, look 
 back to the time when, in travail of soul, you bowed 
 before Almighty God, helpless and vile, with no grace 
 in you, and plead for mercy, knowing that, if not of 
 His elect, He would turn you into outer darkness, de 
 spite your pleas. If you have changed one jot or tittle 
 from that despair and faith of those early years, as 
 Jesus says, turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ! " 
 
 " Because it appears, we can't help ourselves ! " said 
 Mrs. Bryce, ever bold. " Deacon Lambert, I don't be 
 lieve Christ ever said that. It was some dyspeptic old 
 somebody. Maybe you've got it mixed with the 
 devil's saying. People do, sometimes, you know. You 
 gave us a long talk here one night on a text that 
 sounded so different from what I could believe God 
 would say, that I looked it up. You had the devil 
 instead of the dear Lord ! " 
 
 " It was the Bible, and every word of the Bible is 
 to be followed." 
 
 " I do not come to breed dissension," came Philip's 
 voice. The iron had entered his tones, by now, and 
 they rang with a metallic clang. 
 
 " Your seed is sown ! " Mr. McBarr rose from his 
 seat " the seed of sedition against your Maker. How 
 dare you claim Him as your Father ! " 
 
 "If God made us, Brother McBarr," said Mrs. 
 Bryce, " it seems to me it gives him clear title to us, and 
 if He made the world and all that is in it, I'd like to 
 ask whom He adopted us from ! " 
 
 " The devil ! " Mr. McBarr's tones precluded fur 
 ther questions even from the brave Mrs. Bryce. 
 
 " I have grieved over many signs of dereliction," 
 monotoned Mr. McBarr, " I have looked long for the
 
 The House of Landell 205 
 
 eruption of heresy to boil out its venom! The un 
 heard-of proceedings of last Wednesday night warned 
 us that the lava of hell was overflowing the fair city 
 of our God. I have prayed all the week that I might 
 be able to smite the cloven hoof before it imprinted 
 its mark upon us as a church, however it might have 
 stamped itself upon some of its members. Christ has 
 wiped the slate clean for me! I leave you in the evil 
 He has prepared for your undoing. I withdraw from 
 this body till the gangrene has been cut away." 
 
 He took his hat and walked heavily from the room. 
 Timidly, his wife followed him. His son moved a 
 little closer to Marian Fosby, who sat beside him, and 
 settled himself more definitely into his seat. 
 
 " I restate that these things cannot be done in this 
 church. It is dangerous to measure out any value to 
 ourselves," said Deacon Lambert. 
 
 " Except as it proves our oneness with the Father," 
 interrupted Philip. 
 
 " Moral power is a snare a theft from God in 
 whom all power lies a blasphemy ! " continued 
 Deacon Lambert. " This house is for worship, not for 
 teaching. We want Christians, not citizens! Moral 
 ity! It is the damnation of the seeker after heaven! 
 Unless, at once, this infernalism is stamped out, I lay 
 claim to this land, to-morrow! " 
 
 " I do more than that." Mr. Frisby, old and quiver 
 ing, struggled to his feet. " Henceforth, this place 
 will be a cesspool of sedition. When my father took 
 those titles, he received them, not as a church official, 
 but as an individual, as the deeds will show, and 
 whereas Deacon Lambert makes proviso, I make none, 
 but claim the land, to-night, as my father's heir." 
 
 Consternation flashed into the faces of the mature 
 members of the congregation. The eyes of the young
 
 206 The House of Landell 
 
 were alert for battle. Then Mr. Landell rose, and 
 the surrounding spaces grew clear and sweet. 
 
 " You all know me," he said simply with tenderness 
 in his mellow voice. " Some of you may wonder why 
 I am here and why I speak to you at this crucial mo 
 ment! It is because I love you! Some of you will 
 recall when I stood before your tribunal thirty years 
 ago and was excommunicated by you because I loved 
 my Father instead of fearing God. It has made me 
 love you the more, for through your strict adherence 
 to what you believed to be your duty, you freed a soul. 
 As with Adam and Cain, your outer darkness proved 
 to be my land of enlightenment. Your action liberated 
 me from boundaries to which, until now, I might have 
 limited myself had you been more lenient in what you 
 considered your God-given privilege. I had considered 
 that worship of God and of the church institution were 
 one and the same. Denied the church, I found God in 
 me. I began to learn, like Philips Brooks, that ' it is 
 not the most active people that we meet, not the busiest, 
 that rush about, meteor-like, after visible chance to 
 work. It is lives like the stars, which simply pour down 
 on us the calm light of their bright being, to which 
 we look up, and out of which we gather the deepest 
 calm and courage.' I learned another truth presented 
 to the disciple, that not to do has its place as well as 
 doing. 
 
 " In after years, I erected a building I offered to 
 share with any who wished to join with me in worship, 
 without restraint of creed. No one came. As time 
 went on, I found a religious body in a near-by city, 
 with whom I affiliated; but always I have held that 
 little temple sacred. There I have had my visions; 
 there my faith kept strong. Before entering, I cleansed 
 my heart of rancor; if I could not I would not go 
 in. Many have wondered. It has been in response
 
 The House of Landell 207 
 
 to a dictate that sometime it would prove a haven 
 for souls in need. Has the time come? Not in 
 rancor, but in obedience to law? For it is law, 
 you know, that when a unit has grown to an inherent 
 realization of growth, or expansion, it divides. So it 
 presents a dual aspect and out of that dual aspect of 
 one, there comes a third an objectified expression 
 
 " The Trinity," whispered Marian joyously to 
 Agnes, who sat near her 
 
 " It is not a divorcement or quarrel, but an expan 
 sion of our idea of unity that shows still other aspects 
 of our work within these walls. I offer to you this 
 building, that, in cooperation with this dear old com 
 munion, new aspirations may induce new activities." 
 
 There was stillness of tremendous import. Slowly 
 the tension of antagonism relaxed. Then there was 
 a little rustle like the stirring of leaves. The rustle 
 became a pronounced movement, and a deep wave of 
 relief lifted the congregation on the shoulders of ac 
 tion. 
 
 " Mr. Landell," said Philip, a tremor of life quiver 
 ing through the stone of his exterior, and warming it 
 into human tenderness, " couldn't we walk up there, 
 now, with you, and see how we can combine an exten 
 sion of work with these interests here? " 
 
 " I shall be glad to take you there," responded Mr. 
 Landell, " though, possibly, not to enter until the 
 Gennesaret of our troubled minds has been quieted by 
 the Christ of the Spirit." 
 
 " It is to be hoped that the members who feel they 
 have liens on this property will decide to retain its 
 activities in the worship of God by service to man," 
 said Philip, and the humanity retired, as he spoke, be 
 hind the stone of his expression. " Being is the most 
 propelling power there is, the only sort lasting and 
 worthy of the name. The man who is, is a centre of
 
 208 The House of Landell 
 
 power. It does not become personal will to enforce its 
 own demands and decisions; its very stillness is the 
 power that gives conduit to divine Energy. Let us 
 go, together, to see what can be done, to advance here 
 and there the expression of that power." 
 
 He moved from his seat. Agnes and her father fol 
 lowed him. Mrs. Herman joined them. There was 
 a moment of hesitation and Mrs. Burton and Mrs. 
 Bryce were added to the little company. Marian Fosby 
 and John McBarr, side by side, moved with them. 
 One after another they arose men and women whose 
 experiences had made them live. They passed out 
 and a great stillness fell upon the place. 
 
 Then rose the sound of weeping. The men who had 
 precipitated the movement sat looking at each other 
 furtively, their faces filled with mingled shame and 
 greed. Noble-hearted men, strong and godly in their 
 faith, according to their lights, sat stunned as with 
 horror at a great calamity; women, with pure and 
 tender hearts, sat with heads bowed, expressive of 
 the sorrow and resignation that constant contempla 
 tion of a suffering Jesus, whether before an image of 
 the mind or of marble, gives the sincere believer who 
 has not learned to contemplate sorrow apart from the 
 personal, or to see in it a pathway to the stars. Their 
 acceptance of tradition and of doctrines, about which 
 they had declared and exhorted, but never truly 
 thought, made them fear change as a form of blas 
 phemy of that they revered, and held them pinioned 
 in their seats.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " * * * a Hand like this hand 
 Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! 
 See the Christ stand! " 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 SILENTLY the little group wended its way through 
 the brilliant night. The hoar frost glistened in the air 
 and everything was very still. At the end of a long 
 and gentle incline, lights twinkled from a small but 
 perfectly proportioned temple on the summit. Philip 
 thought of the Acropolis, the crown of Athens, and 
 the temples of wisdom, set, as was this temple, over 
 looking a city of deeds. He felt as if he were one of 
 the ancient Greeks, making procession for worship, 
 then he looked about him at the stern and sturdy New 
 England faces and the vision vanished. He wondered 
 what were the emotions predominant in the hearts and 
 minds of these pilgrims of centuries later, on the same 
 pilgrimage for truth. As for himself, he knew well 
 that he was in a turmoil. 
 
 "I, to enter there, with heart free from rancor and 
 hate ! Better have remained where I was," he thought 
 in the gloom of his tempestuous mind. ' There, at 
 least, under cover of hurling the denunciations of Je 
 hovah, I could have voiced my own heart's bitterness. 
 I could act as mouthpiece of this God they understand 
 and expect me to interpret after the fashion of their 
 own methods of thinking and not belie my own self. 
 I will not enter! I will not purge my heart of anger 
 toward those who pauperized me or those who saved 
 my life." 
 
 209
 
 2io The House of Landell 
 
 At the doorway of the building, Mr. Landell paused 
 and faced the group. 
 
 " Let us not go in. We will meet after we have 
 found ourselves within ourselves. Amen." 
 
 The little company dispersed. Morosely, Philip ac 
 companied his mother to the parsonage, and left her 
 without a word. Plunging down the road, he walked 
 for hours beneath the stars. 
 
 " What business has that woman to meddle with my 
 life? " he raged aloud. " What right to summon me 
 from that bourne on which I was entering, when 
 dragged back to life and its trumped-up responsibil 
 ities!' 
 
 " Is there no free will at any point of one's career," 
 he cried, " that one comes to earth at beck and call ; 
 is sent forth or held here, to endure the agonies of 
 hell on earth, at beck and call ? " 
 
 He remembered the tale of Lazarus after his resur 
 rection, a thing for loathing to all who had not been 
 dead but were yet alive. He felt as that man must have 
 felt with swollen body, and empty eyeballs unveiled 
 to view. He wanted to die, and could have, but for 
 Agnes Landell with eyes that one moment were like 
 forget-me-nots and the next ablaze with intuition. 
 Why had she not let him alone! He writhed as he 
 imagined a grasp upon his arm. 
 
 " I resent your interference," he shouted into the 
 forest as he walked. "If God wills to move me about 
 as a puppet, so be it ; but a woman shall not ! I thank 
 no one who has had a part in my amusing comedy of 
 errors." 
 
 For hours he tramped across country, but the storm 
 of his heart did not abate. His demand for new con 
 ditions; their sudden acquisition; the humiliating rec 
 ognition that he was not clean enough in heart to 
 receive them when presented ; the realization that, after
 
 The House of Landell 211 
 
 atf, he did not wish to change his heart; that he desired 
 to \iate and trample under foot those who had helped 
 as well as those who had injured; determined to be at 
 war vith the world; this revelation overwhelmed 
 him. The doctrine of love! It was too tame ! From 
 the files of memory he brought forth denunciations of 
 the Hebrew prophets. They came fast, and he shouted 
 them into the silent night. In the early dawn, he re 
 turned. There was a light in the study and his mother 
 was moving about. 
 
 " I hope you have not been sitting up for me. I 
 am no longer a child, you know," he said, as insolently 
 as his inherent fineness of nature permitted. 
 
 " I have been collecting our possessions for a pos 
 sible removal, to-morrow, to the lodge," his mother 
 replied, with a calmness that held him shamed but not 
 repentant, in his childish mood. " You realize, I sup 
 pose, that after the experiences of last evening it may 
 be expected of us," and tranquilly she went on, gather 
 ing the few articles they had brought from Mount 
 Nodel. 
 
 Philip went up-stairs. He did not go to break 
 fast; but in the late forenoon, left the house with 
 out a word. 
 
 Mrs. Herman saw him take the turn towards the 
 Landells. Her mother heart went out to him. It was 
 wonderful how this woman bore herself. Her attitude 
 was not one of resignation nor of passivity. It was 
 of supreme trust and calm. 
 
 As she moved from the window, she said, just above 
 her breath, 
 
 "'How wondrous is God's power, who but knows it? 
 And yet, a single human heart can perfectly enclose it.' " 
 
 Philip met Agnes and her father starting for a walk. 
 They asked him to join them, and the three turned
 
 212 The House of Landell 
 
 toward the park. At his best, Philip was not much of 
 a pedestrian, and this morning found his respiration 
 more disturbed by his internal dissensions than he could 
 have believed possible. He stumbled, and lost step 
 constantly. After one or two attempts to pour out his 
 heart resulting, each time, in the discovery that his 
 powers of expression were beyond control he became 
 silent. As, slowly, he recovered his breath his poise 
 returned. He began to respond to the exhilarating 
 air, and there stole into his senses the knowledge that 
 the fragrant hemlocks, the beeches and the pines were 
 voicing, in their own language, their unity with life. 
 
 The morning had grown to midday. Through the 
 resilient air, there pealed the noontide bells, with their 
 message. 
 
 Agnes and her father stood silent in the grove, 
 heads uplifted, with an intentness of aspiration that 
 radiated from them. Then, as the joyous clangor 
 mounted upon the wings of its triune declaration, the 
 two swung into the rhythm of their step again, and, 
 in a silence teeming with intelligent recognition of life, 
 a three-mile walk was accomplished. 
 
 " Come in," said Mr. Landell, hospitably, as they 
 approached the house. 
 
 Despite the passion in his heart, Philip had felt the 
 Presence. He looked earnestly at the speaker. 
 
 " I thank you, not now. I'll wait and think again 
 before I tell you what I came to say." 
 
 The aroma of a New England autumn was in the air. 
 A copper sheen lay on the waters. The oaks were in 
 carnadined in the sunshine ; and the scarlet and yellow 
 of maple and of ash flashed royally in the light. The 
 incense of balsam and of fir rode upon the winds. 
 Trailing across the sky, a zigzag line of flying geese
 
 The House of Landell 213 
 
 made a thread of dazzling white, vanishing into the 
 mackerel sky to the south. 
 
 About twelve, nearly all who had left the Wednes 
 day evening service with Mr. Landell gathered at the 
 entrance of the chapel on the hill. A few of them, 
 alarmed at their temerity, had already deserted the 
 new movement, and others, through conviction, had 
 joined it. There was about the gathering an atmos 
 phere of assured purpose, whose very intensity pre 
 cluded neighborly interchange. 
 
 On the hour, Mr. Landell inserted a tiny key in the 
 lock of the outer door. 
 
 " In old Salem, there is a little church, with a key 
 of incongruous size, inserted upside down and turn 
 ing, as it might seem to us, the wrong way. Like the 
 theology of the early settlers, its laborious action 
 opened the doors for men who sought truth. Soon 
 we shall learn that there is no lock nor key on truth 
 except the eternal processes of Spirit, which shut no 
 one out; but open to each individual the many man 
 sions of unfolding understanding. May we use this 
 key I hold to include all, as faithfully as our forebears 
 used theirs to include the few." 
 
 As he concluded these simple words, he opened the 
 doors. 
 
 The company found themselves in a vestibule with 
 domed ceiling. Three low broad marble steps, then 
 a landing, and several more steps led to doors of 
 bronze. As these swung back, each individual, feeling 
 the purport of the room, went silently to the com 
 fortable seats. 
 
 In the unusualness of the procedure no one noticed 
 that Philip Herman had not entered with them. A 
 moment of silence, and the company passed into a 
 chapel beyond, to which Philip had found his way 
 through a rear door. After reading from the Bible
 
 214 The House of Landell 
 
 with an interpretation so beautiful that each passage 
 seemed a special message, hitherto unheard, he 
 prayed, 
 
 " Lord of Life, We see of Thee only what we are. 
 We choose to grow, daily, that finally we may see Thee 
 as Thou art. Amen." 
 
 Then he spoke. 
 
 " A great physician gives us the statement, proven 
 true that changing, conscious thoughts change the 
 action of the lungs, the heart, the stomach, the liver, 
 with lightning rapidity. ' A warm, sympathetic 
 thought, from friend or foe, at once begins to trans 
 form the watery acid humors of the blood to red 
 globules rich, not only with albumen and iron, but with 
 the sweetness and strength of a better character.' 
 
 " With this principle in mind, may everything we 
 do this week be enfibred with it, and the next week 
 shall find us more accurate manifestations of Spirit, 
 because our acknowledgment of our oneness in God, 
 unifies our purpose as neighbors and as lovers of men. 
 Without speaking, will you follow me ? " 
 
 He led them into the sunshine of the autumn day, 
 and, pointing to the landscape, 
 
 " Not only toward mankind shall this unity be ex 
 tended; this week, we will lift our eyes unto the hills, 
 whence cometh our help. In this noontide sky with 
 its changing clouds, we shall hear God give His mes 
 sage of His eternal purpose through the varied phases 
 of expression. In this mellow atmosphere, softening 
 the blaring blue of the great dome, we hear His lesson 
 that experience mellows the judgment of a confined 
 perception that broadens with each added realization." 
 
 He bowed his head in dismissal, and silently but 
 happily they dispersed, while the glory of their Lord 
 that had risen upon them accompanied them on their 
 light-illumined way.
 
 The House of Landell 215 
 
 Of all present, perhaps Philip himself was the only 
 one who failed of receiving more than a temporary 
 uplift. By a fierce mental effort, he had braced him 
 self, for the time, to conceal his antagonistic emotions 
 and had forced himself to state what he inherently 
 thought truth. Such an attitude often bears the sem 
 blance of spiritual exaltation whereas it is only nerve 
 afflatus. It may transmit power to others for the 
 moment; but, evaporating, leave the speaker in the 
 deep depression and poison of insincerity. Like a man 
 coming out of a debauch, he faced the conditions which 
 had brought him to his present state, and resentment 
 seethed anew within him. Notwithstanding his detes 
 tation of the situation, he was impelled to seek help. 
 
 " Always the result, of pauperizing," he said scorn 
 fully of himself, " it takes away the man and leaves 
 the thing ! " 
 
 Again, he found himself on the way to the Landells, 
 every click of his heel jarring his brain. He pictured 
 himself expressing his opinions of Agnes in unvar 
 nished terms. This excitement grew upon him as he 
 entered the library. 
 
 " I am here, a weakling," he said bluntly, as he 
 greeted his two hosts. "Of course, you saw I did not 
 enter your chamber of forgiveness," he laughed scorn 
 fully, " I would not lie, and as I could not follow your 
 suggestion that I leave rancor behind, I decided to re 
 main outside with the companion of my waking and 
 sleeping hours." 
 
 " Tell us about it, Herman," Mr. Landell drew 
 chairs together companionably. 
 
 " I can forgive neither those who drove me to penury 
 nor those who came to succor me. Even you, Miss 
 Landell, are the object of my fierce resentment ! Why 
 didn't you let me die ! " 
 
 Springing from his chair, he lunged from one end
 
 216 The House of Landell 
 
 of the long room to the other. Then he resumed his 
 seat, struggling to repress his feelings, over which he 
 had so slight control. 
 
 Agnes shivered violently and was silent. 
 
 " Do not force yourself to anything, by thought or 
 deed, Herman," said Mr. Landell, noting the effect of 
 Philip's words upon his daughter. " Let the pendu 
 lum swing." 
 
 " Do you believe that all those who entered that 
 room left rancor behind ? " Philip's chiselled face 
 seemed to harden into marble. 
 
 " You said this morning, ' We see as much as we 
 are.' I go further. We get, not what we wish, but 
 what we are. You are far more than you realize." 
 
 " What is the use of the church anyway! " Philip 
 forced back his denunciations against Agnes with a 
 mighty effort. His impulse was to hurl them upon her 
 as he had done alone in the forest. Instead, he voiced 
 what were to him equally vital but personal issues .in a 
 larger sense. " What is the church anyway ! A po 
 litical machine with political methods, each sect tena 
 cious of its special, man-made tenets, concessions 
 made only as a seine whereby to catch more human 
 fish ! I am no more at rest in this new position than I 
 was in the old. Even your idea of a church, superior 
 in its quality of unity and incorporateness with daily 
 expression as it may be, seems useless, if we are Christ- 
 consciousness in various stages of unfoldment." 
 
 " You, yourself, have said that Jesus does not deal 
 in externalities." 
 
 " I say many things with one part of my under 
 standing that I utterly repudiate with another part of 
 me " 
 
 " So do I," said Agnes, earnestly. " My philosophy 
 of life is very restful and satisfying to me; but it is 
 like designing. The unit remains clear and convincing,
 
 The House of Landell 217 
 
 but I daub its expression fearfully on the cardboard of 
 daily doing." 
 
 " What good are the puerile glasses ; the educational 
 methods the church attempts to sustain ! The colleges 
 are at hand! The schoolmasters and editorial writers 
 preach far more effectively and vitally than we can, 
 hampered, as we are, with dogma and ecclesiasticism ! 
 There are all sorts of clubs, outside, far better equipped 
 than we can equip them ! There is not a leg left for 
 the church to stand on." 
 
 " The only legs any of these things stand on is the 
 truth that the within is ceaselessly becoming the with 
 out." 
 
 Philip threw up his head as if catching a breath of 
 life-giving ozone. 
 
 " True. I had not perceived that. The fountains 
 are being fed from the Source! Of course! It is a 
 pity that such precious elixir is muddied from the out 
 side." 
 
 " There is no inside or outside. Bear that in mind 
 and the problem clears. The church is one of God's 
 expressions in the world. Universal currents flow 
 through it in worship to God through service to man. 
 This is the way I look at it, see if you agree with me." 
 Mr. Landell settled back in his chair. Instinctively, 
 Philip followed his example. His sense of release 
 was perceptible. 
 
 " As I understand it, the church is an institution, 
 whose use is to discover, protect and conserve the high 
 est revealed wisdom. It is not the whole wisdom of 
 the supreme; it is an aggregate of the wisdom discov 
 ered and protected and conserved by every type of 
 mind a medium for the preservation and distribution 
 of their partial comprehension. A medium must ever 
 be subordinated to the power it transmits. It is not a 
 completed revelation; it is made up of many diverse
 
 218 The House of Landell 
 
 views. Though in a sense a composite of opinion, in 
 no sense can it be considered to hold a complete state 
 ment of principle, for even when well conceived in the 
 soul the expression passes through minds by way of 
 verbal instruction with the limits of physical expres 
 sion and finite understanding. Its standards are con 
 stantly advanced, through accreted wisdom, granted, as 
 always, more intimately to individuals than to masses, 
 but preserved and conserved by the church. Even if 
 these wisdoms of many minds are prone to inculcate 
 half-understood truths, it is better so than that chaos 
 reign. There are many institutions. Herman, for the 
 expression of the idea through the individual, but it 
 seems to me that, in its many phases and grades of un 
 derstanding of ideas, the church is the only institution 
 sacred to the protection of the ultimate ideal, through 
 every phase of the growing consciousness." 
 
 " Look at Galileo ! Science would have found 
 why, the world was on the verge of discovering every 
 thing when the church halted its activities ! " 
 
 " For the protection of the ultimate ideal, I repeat, 
 slow dissemination of truth is indispensable. Through 
 the ages, it is recorded that too great or sudden an 
 influx crazes, or confuses, or blinds. It must be found 
 in peace to be held in peace. Every grade, every ex 
 pression, erratic, erotic or mental, shows the perco- 
 latings of the stream of wisdom through millions of 
 tiny rills. Larger revelation is received through some 
 individuals than through the church, because the 
 masses linger on the plain while single souls mount 
 to drink from the stream near the Source. The church 
 is not our salvation. We are its salvation, and, in 
 preserving its integrity, we save to the world and to 
 ourselves a concerted expression of the ultimate idea. 
 Revere the church, Herman, support it. As an indi 
 vidual, bring the divinity of your love and understand-
 
 The House of Landell 219 
 
 ing to bear, to give the less discerning truer interpre 
 tation of its intent and use." 
 
 "If only I had proof just one proof that the 
 painful mediocrity and partial interpretations of the 
 church had, in one single instance, upheld the ideal, in 
 stead of crude ideas of human, physical fashioning, I 
 would work on, blindly though it be ! One proof ! " 
 The color receded from his face and left it deadly 
 pale. 
 
 " I will give you one of many I could produce ! 
 When thrust out of the church I adored I believed 
 myself shut away from the God I loved, and was 
 stunned. Perhaps I felt much as you do now. Busi 
 ness called me to a country town not far from here. 
 The very intelligent clerk of the hotel drove through 
 the section with me. The landscape was dotted with 
 meeting-houses of typical New England architecture. 
 During one of our drives, I was thinking scornfully 
 of the uselessness of those beseeching steeples, pointing 
 heavenward where no heaven is, when my companion 
 waved his whip in the direction of a hamlet we were 
 approaching. ' This is Beabrooke,' he said. ' A man's 
 life was hardly safe here till that little meeting-house 
 over there was built. Since then it has been a thrifty, 
 law-abiding place.' As an answer to my soliloquy, this 
 so impressed me that during a protracted stay I affil 
 iated myself with the church, in order to discover what 
 it took to construct the morals of such a community. 
 
 " The theology was lurid hot, like their quarrels ; 
 uncontrollably emotional, like themselves; intensely 
 personal; thoroughly material. Gold, a standard with 
 them here, became, likewise, a standard in their heaven. 
 Steady, sequential progress, with moral accountability, 
 meant nothing to them. Winning a fight with fists 
 or pistols was a sign of superiority here; hence, a 
 series of good tough fights with a physical devil that
 
 22O The House of Landell 
 
 meant something. Most of them knew nothing of a 
 loving earthly father; but a taskmaster it were well 
 to please that, they understood. They knew what it 
 meant to be hurt or hungry; hence, physical disaster, 
 hells and blood-flowing were comprehensible. They 
 had to work so hard and buffet need so constantly that 
 a heaven of activities was little to their taste. The 
 half- fed, drink-sodden flesh was poor instrument for 
 accepting or actualizing the gospel of action. Theirs 
 was a crude idea, compared with what life had un 
 folded to me, and its purpose so hidden that it was 
 quite absent from their expression of belief ; but it was 
 there. I learned, that summer, that the church idea 
 meets the demands of every state of consciousness 
 as each becomes cognisant of the idea, and its ap 
 plication to all phases of daily life." 
 
 " What do you make of a statement I heard last 
 week from a noted reverend that David's adultery 
 and murder count for nothing before the fact that 
 he made the line straight to God. What line pray! 
 The church people cry out against morals (as a sign 
 of spiritual health) as against a pestilence. I join 
 the ranks of those who find encouragement in be 
 lief of life beyond the grave and am halted by some 
 church brother who begs me denounce the prevalent 
 light attitude towards death." 
 
 " That signifies the degree of their spiritual awaken- 
 ment. The church stands the test of utility as well as 
 do institutions of learning and of law." 
 
 " Many of these are effete enough," agreed Philip. 
 
 " Truth is always revealed to persons before masses; 
 persons are always in advance of institutions; but the 
 conservatism of institutions saves the world from in 
 undation by unproven beliefs, and nurtures and pro 
 tects what finally it acknowledges and affirms. You
 
 The House of Landell 221 
 
 speak of the paucity of numbers. Jesus chose to teach 
 but twelve, intimately. When these were ready to 
 teach, he did not hold them static, as a body, but bade 
 them go into all the world." 
 
 " That may be why the church, as a body, seems 
 composed of so much protoplasm," said Philip, cyni 
 cally. " They are there to be impressed, and when the 
 impression is ready to be expressed, new forms of 
 beauty new forms of order " the cynicism was lost 
 from his tones as his vision grew " the old from the 
 new the training school from the kindergarten on, 
 on, on ! " The light grew in his face. 
 
 " We cannot be driven from the church by the crudi 
 ties and limitations of its exponents for we are its ex 
 ponents, expressing, in methods to suit the mind, and 
 need, in sociological and moral uplift, vital principles, 
 apprehended through the church idea, founded in sta 
 bility, grown in resistance, and progressing in rhyth 
 mic flux and flow of divine consciousness." 
 
 " So you do not believe its province is to compete 
 with ' merely ' educational institutions ? " 
 
 " Let it stand simple and central, as you yourself 
 suggested this morning, pointing out the ideal, and 
 training the consciousness to perceive its practical ap 
 plication in the daily life. Then you will find the 
 contradictions of creeds and rites and beliefs standard 
 ized, as steps in unfolding wisdom." 
 
 " In our present civilization," said Agnes, " the 
 church is the only place where father, mother, and 
 children, side by side, learn lessons in active, unified 
 devotion ; the only place, where, side by side, they are 
 presented to the primal principle, and taught to work 
 it out in service to each other in home and neighbor 
 hood. Together they see
 
 222 The House of Landell 
 
 " ' Tongues in trees, 
 
 Books in the running brooks, 
 
 Sermons in stones, 
 
 And good in everything.' " 
 
 " I had not thought of that ! You say these little 
 classes often bear whole families into the uplands of 
 thought. How often is it true of the college, that 
 only the one of the family who attends it is benefited. 
 Indeed, frequently, the one is alienated from the fam- 
 ily." 
 
 ' The church is neither exclusive nor seclusive, it 
 is inclusive. As my father says, it is neither outside 
 nor inside any institution or club or personal inter 
 course. When strangers go to church for compan 
 ionship, and come away, charging indifference of the 
 members towards them, they are not really seeking 
 unity of spirit, but social interchange. Instead of 
 realizing it to be a centre, sending out life, steadily, 
 through many radii, they fix attention upon the radii, 
 forgetting the centre whence comes the unifying power. 
 They are looking for nothing more than what uni 
 versities, courts of law and other phases of life can 
 furnish them, therefore, they receive no more. I love 
 the lines from the Cherubic Pilgrim, 
 
 ' We say, in earth, in heaven, 
 O God, be done Thy will, 
 And yet, God has no will, 
 But is forever still.' 
 
 " So should the church represent its idea no per 
 sonal will, antagonizing one radius with another, no 
 state of consciousness rejecting a constantly enlarg 
 ing view, but a centre, holding all together in spirit 
 but when people ask for a church home "
 
 The House of Landell 223 
 
 " The church is not a physical home. The voice of 
 God in the world does not consist of teas, clubs and 
 hand-shakes. It expresses itself in clarity of vision, 
 honesty of purpose, exchange of brotherly service, and 
 the unfolding of attributes which humanity possesses 
 in totality. I do not consider that the clubs are taking 
 the place of the church, Mr. Herman. These are the 
 radii of the church idea. Individuals must express 
 the radii of a sphere for it * takes a whole church to 
 preach a whole gospel.' Rightfully, the expressions 
 are to be found where mankind lives. First and last, 
 the church is not a club house," she concluded emphat 
 ically. 
 
 " No, it is the central fountain where intelligent and 
 ignorant, refined and crude, the illumined and the 
 blind may drink, according to his present capacity," 
 said Mr. Landell. 
 
 " It is not the part of any clergyman to measure 
 that capacity, or to be praised or blamed for it," said 
 Agnes. 
 
 " No," returned Mr. Landell. " With laity and 
 clergy, it reverts to the individual. I have been 
 through it all, Herman. Baptism seemed barbaric to 
 me, after I was shocked out of the emotional belief 
 I had held so long. The immaculate conception ap 
 peared immoral. I have rounded the circle of research, 
 studying heart and circumference, from tradition, fact 
 and symbol. With all these lights upon these ancient 
 beliefs, my spiritual consciousness now confirms them 
 all." 
 
 " We come out of tradition, through questioning, 
 don't we, father ! " said Agnes. 
 
 " We do. Then we question our doubts, testing 
 them in sequence, by the altitude of our standards." 
 
 " How unreliable we find reason, then, since it de 
 duces only what we have involved in our limited
 
 224 The House of Landell 
 
 rather than our universal growth," said Agnes, while 
 Philip drank in their words, thirstily. 
 
 " When Holy Spirit vitalizes consciousness, we 
 realize the absolute naturalness of the immaculate con 
 ception, as against the horrible travesty of birth in 
 travail and shame. Baptism ! Communion ! " Mr. 
 Landell's face became illumined, as he spoke. " Study 
 the spirit of this, dear helper in a noble cause. Don't 
 dig up the filth of seeming failures. Make yourself 
 a dynamic centre of spiritual force. The church needs 
 you, Herman. Preach teach pure idealism the 
 principle that the within ceaselessly becomes the with 
 out, and the Source of Force the Still God still with 
 eternal wisdom, vigilance, power and glory, shall pour 
 His power into expression. Do not villify ! We have 
 had enough of that! Don't claim that the ministers 
 wink at wicked deacons. Present principle. Let it 
 pour out! If it flows with sufficient momentum, the 
 wicked parishioners will receive it. It is not for you 
 or me to take any individual, as a fact, and villify him. 
 Reserve that strength to animate the teaching of prin 
 ciple. The church provides lessons for all phases of 
 mind, individual or congregate, and each, if he choose, 
 may find illumination for his stage of understanding in 
 the church idea, the coming of the Christ-conscious 
 ness to all the universe. My boy," Mr. Landell rose 
 as Philip made a spasmodic motion of withdrawal, and 
 laid his hand on the pastor's arm, in a manner which 
 showed, more than anything he had done, his sense of 
 brotherhood, " you see far more than you realize. 
 Do not doubt yourself, nor your honesty, when, as 
 the result of one phase of unfoldment, you express 
 thoughts such as you have spoken from the pulpit, 
 and follow these with vituperations of wholly different 
 character. These phases are stages of growth. Keep
 
 The House of Landell 225 
 
 at work on the building of your character and you will 
 increase in understanding and raise others with you. 
 It will be made plain to you, sometime, the steps you 
 have been called upon to take the wherefore and the 
 why!"
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " Where there is no vision, the people perish." 
 
 Solomon. 
 
 " LET'S walk over to the dingle and see how the 
 pussy willows are coming on, Agnesia," said Tom one 
 day, when the breaking up of winter was filling earth 
 with the stirring anew of life and the mystery of its 
 burgeoning. 
 
 Agnes hastily slipped into a walking skirt, and, 
 catching up a long coat ran lightly down-stairs, her 
 movements showing far more virility than in the 
 preceding fall. As she passed the billiard room, she 
 took from the rack two alpenstocks; then joined Tom, 
 who was calling the dogs. 
 
 None of them responded, and the two started across 
 the uplands to an intervale beyond. As they went on, 
 Tom gave up alternately calling and whistling for his 
 dogs, and devoted himself to discovering signs of 
 earth's awakening. 
 
 It was a brumous day, and the lights which played 
 about them were toned with silver instead of gold. 
 Clear streams purled along beds of tiny stones, their 
 iridescence heightened in effect by the water moving 
 over them. Tiny springs bubbled in pathways where 
 next month white dust would mist the landscape. The 
 saxifrage, feather-sweet, lay close to the stream, grow 
 ing on the almost naked rocks, waiting for a few more 
 days of mellow warmth before besprinkling the mosses 
 and lichens with petals of glistening white. In her 
 babyhood, Agnes had called these thick masses of 
 
 226
 
 The House of Landell 227 
 
 moss the pine forests of the fairies, so like, in minia 
 ture, did they appear to her. 
 
 Beyond the intervale, the two descended by an abrupt 
 incline to the edge of the swamp, rich in fine old tim 
 ber, with matted growth of vines and young trees and 
 great brakes, together with sweet briar, whose fra 
 grance already was joining the symphonies of odors 
 for such there be, even as of color and of tone. 
 Here, as they anticipated, the pussy willows softened 
 with silvery shadows the golding green of the parent 
 stem, and the cat-tails and sedges near at hand moved, 
 colorous, with the new-found joy of life. 
 
 Agnes recalled the faces of thinkers she had seen 
 unimpassioned and stolid until a thought arrests the 
 attention, when every line becomes alive and life flashes 
 into and through the eyes. So the hillside, the great 
 rocks, the dormant vegetation were relieved of brumal 
 cheerlessness because of the flash of life in the silvery, 
 soft and silky pussy willows, and the certain, yet al 
 most imperceptible stirring of revitalized life in the 
 reeds. 
 
 It was too early for the hepaticas and, turning from 
 the swamp, they went up hill toward the quarry. 
 
 " Why don't you finish your story, Agnesia? " said 
 Tom, when they were well on their way. " I haven't 
 seen you working over it lately." 
 
 " I am at a standstill. I cannot accomplish anything 
 more for Sophia, for she is I, and as I am blind as 
 to what to do with myself, of course I do not know 
 what to do with her." 
 
 " Don't you dare plan anything for the Mattee Sue- 
 and-me part of it but to marry us to each other. Re 
 member, just clear sailing into port of home and love 
 with Mattee Sue. Whew ! What an outlook ! " 
 
 " You may be woefully disappointed when you see 
 her face to face."
 
 228 The House of Landell 
 
 " I'd rather know her mind to mind, first, as I am 
 doing." 
 
 " Weigh the matter carefully." 
 
 " She may make that totally unnecessary ! While I 
 am balancing the steelyards she may be mailing her 
 marriage announcements. She seems to have a whole 
 rookery of admirers. All that keeps my courage up 
 is their number. Look at these ! " 
 
 He drew from his pocket some anatomical plates. 
 
 " I have told her a good deal about my work and 
 she has made these for me. Aren't they admirable! 
 You have no idea," in quite a different tone, " how my 
 love for her is sweetening my relations to all the rest 
 of the world." 
 
 " I feel," a shadow of melancholy moved through 
 the tones, " that it cannot be right to approach love to 
 God through love for the individual. It substitutes 
 the personal for the universal." 
 
 " What on earth ! " Tom halted on the top of a 
 stone wall over which he was about to assist Agnes. 
 " Do you mean that you think personal love is wrong'. " 
 
 " Universal love is the only reservoir from which 
 the personal can flow." 
 
 "Of course! But that doesn't mean that it stays 
 in the reservoir or even flows out of it in exactly the 
 same way. Many of us young things don't know 
 there is such a thing as a reservoir, even of drink 
 ing water, until years after our fathers and mothers 
 and sisters and lovers have given us many cupfuls of 
 the healing draught. What would God-love flow into 
 and through, if not through streams of manifested 
 personality ! Drop that abstract religion and express 
 your real habit of thought. \Vith such barriers to 
 your expression, of course you can't make a story. 
 Sophia means wisdom ; but wisdom is love ! " 
 
 " Love is by no means the end of it all. You say
 
 The House of Landell 229 
 
 you like meeting Mattee Sue mind to mind; but that 
 isn't heart to heart, by any means." 
 
 " How you do pick a fellow up ! You never forget 
 anything any one says, and you bring it up, ages later, 
 against him ! " 
 
 " They who make love their goal are only half way 
 there. I don't know what the next step is 
 
 " Then you do acknowledge that love has a place ? " 
 sarcastically. 
 
 "Of course. It is one expression of something so 
 much more mighty ! " 
 
 " In the abstract it is wisdom, unmanifest or latent. 
 It must be individualized, so to speak, to be of use 
 as God in Jesus. It must come out of formless into 
 form; it must manifest potential power in acting 
 force." 
 
 " Wisdom is the power. Is love the force? " 
 
 " I think so. The boundary of this form I call per 
 son or personality." 
 
 " And it varies with the growth and expression of 
 our potential, which always is God? " 
 
 " Yes. Don't you see the difference between this 
 and personalism ? " 
 
 " Then the combination of both determines the scope 
 of personality? " 
 
 " So it seems to me. The more incisively we mark 
 our place in life, the more of the personal and the 
 more personality we manifest." 
 
 " ' Man is the evidence of God, and the best man 
 is the best evidence,' " Agnes quoted thoughtfully. 
 
 " You don't mean, dear, you think it wrong to love 
 father and mother and me and your interests and 
 Ross Mevin ' he looked far over the hills " each 
 and all, with an intense and separate and special love ! 
 It is your desperate desire to get away from the per 
 sonal God of ' corporeal and material content ' which
 
 230 The House of Landell 
 
 your church has taught you, that makes you believe so 
 preposterous a thing. Jupiter, I know what will 
 straighten you out. Love some man as I love Mattee 
 Sue ! It will even up lots of things ; warm the cockles 
 of your heart; and be the best measure of the tender 
 concern you dole out to the different objects of your 
 regard if you wish to be mathematically correct in 
 your distribution." His eyes twinkled. 
 
 " I do love people." Agnes choked back the tears. 
 " You talk as if I didn't. I am always trying to make 
 them happy, yet I feel so apart I'm heart-broken some 
 times." 
 
 "I wonder if that isn't the trouble, dearie? You 
 ache over what the person you pity is actually enjoy 
 ing. Bother introspection! That is consideration of 
 personal affairs a species of flagellation that adds 
 to the mind's confusion by a repetition that gets no 
 where. Meditation is active consideration " 
 
 " How you contradict yourself ! You are trying to 
 make me personal by urging me to be impersonal ! " 
 
 " I expect so! Life is a paradox, anyway! I think 
 you often mix the other fellow up with your own sense 
 of personal exhaustion and self-condemnation. Wipe 
 out your dreadful theology and think healthily all of 
 the time instead of part of the time. Keep on loving 
 persons, preferably a person, but don't make it so vital 
 that your solar plexus can't give you a supply equal to 
 the demand." 
 
 " Solar plexus ! A prize-ring term ! Love does not 
 come from the solar plexus! You will temper your 
 mentality with a little more emotion when you love 
 Mattee Sue a little more deeply. Your laboratories for 
 measuring, through body, the qualities of soul ! O 
 Tom!" She clung to him a moment as she sprang 
 toward him from the wall where she had been poised. 
 " ' One must seek for truth directly within himself by
 
 The House of Landell 231 
 
 a gradual detachment and a veritable birth of his 
 higher soul.' ' 
 
 " I know what you are quoting. It is a definition 
 of a mystic. I prefer ' to discover study and contem 
 plate the same divine outpouring, giving forth in 
 divers' portions, endowed with force, and multiplied 
 to infinity.' That is the same writer's definition of 
 occultist, and seems to me far more applicable to this 
 working life in which I am just now. I don't know 
 anything about a higher soul, either! I find life pos 
 sible through the personal, which is not a visible, un 
 changing boundary. The personality of God changes 
 to us, as experience reveals new standards. God 
 grows, to me. Maybe He grows to Himself, as we 
 do to ourselves. Nothing can take from me the joy 
 of loving persons. I wouldn't miss having loved 
 Mattee Sue, if she threw me over to-morrow." 
 
 " I try to remember I am a part of God's plan and 
 efface myself! " 
 
 " I don't ! I remember that because I am a part of 
 God's plan, to slight me is to slight God's handiwork. 
 It is my business to see that the plan is glorified by 
 my expression of my part. If I am a diamond, I may 
 not spoil the crown by refusing to shine because I am 
 so conscious of my modesty that I can't attend to my 
 business. I must realize that I shine to the glory of 
 the whole. I am here, ineffaceable, occupying a place 
 no one else can fill. The part is not I ! I am the part 
 and its moving factor. When the good of the whole 
 demands that I move, I move ; thus, I am always mov 
 ing, and so are you. ' Jesus had a passion for person 
 ality and worked with individuals. The contagion of 
 his spirit revealed men to themselves.' Stop effacing 
 yourself and there won't be so many Cousin Matildas 
 and Grace Herricks and Aunt Luellas in your horizon." 
 
 " Aunt Luella is different. She needs me, I'm sure,
 
 232 The House of Landell 
 
 yet, I can't make up my mind to go to her. Mr. Her 
 man might think I was avoiding him. Her letters are 
 cheery, but they are always preceded by that strange 
 nausea. There it is now ' 
 
 " Because I called her to your attention ? " 
 
 " No, it is a more deeply seated suggestion than that 
 if it is a suggestion. Still, I am striving to rise su 
 perior to its demands." 
 
 " It's a shame. I don't understand it," muttered 
 Tom. 
 
 " Nor I ! But it is not disturbing me as it did 
 indeed, none of these things are, for I am being con 
 vinced that it is nothing abnormal and nothing wicked, 
 as I once believed. It is the extension of sense per 
 ception, and therefore, growth." 
 
 "Halloo, what's that?" 
 
 They had reached the old quarry a desolate spot. 
 Cave-like fissures had been made by blasting, and the 
 absence of trees, to the north, gave a wide view; to the 
 south it was densely wooded, and to the east were the 
 meadows and swamp they had been skirting. Tom's 
 exclamation was due to the sight of a glistening ex 
 panse of white some distance away. 
 
 " I know what it is," said Agnes, after a moment's 
 scrutiny, " the gardener told me this morning that a 
 circus had had a breakdown and halted here. The 
 white streak must be the tents." 
 
 "A dreary life, men and beasts herded together! 
 It looks to me as if these quarries were being opened 
 up again. Here are derricks and workmen's tools; 
 but no one in sight. The lot from this shaft looks 
 as if it had just been opened. I wonder where the 
 workmen are. Listen ! " Tom cut short his inspec 
 tion. " Run, Agnes, and save yourself! " 
 
 Terrified, but with no loss of self-possession, they 
 saw, lumbering towards them from the thicket, a large
 
 The House of Landell 233 
 
 bear, furious and frightened. A heavy chain clanked 
 behind as she came toward them over the shale. There 
 seemed no escape, for behind them stretched acres of 
 boulders and brush. 
 
 With sickening horror, Agnes saw Tom striving 
 to entice to himself the anger of the beast in the on 
 slaught he believed was inevitable. Determined to 
 save him, at whatever risk, she ran swiftly to his 
 side, and waved before the great creature's eyes her 
 long wrap which she had taken off and had swung 
 over her chest as a protection against the raw wind. 
 
 " Run, Agnes," panted Tom ; but, intent on averting 
 the coming terror from her brother to herself, Agnes 
 waved the cloak and moved steadily back. In a frenzy 
 for his sister's safety, Tom endeavored to get between 
 her and the grim pursuer, which, despite all his at 
 tempts, lunged rapidly toward her, in fierce acceptance 
 of her challenge, and furious at the insolent flapping of 
 the incomprehensible assailant. He ran after the two, 
 racking his brain for some expedient whereby to turn 
 the anger of the beast upon himself. 
 
 Agnes seemed to fly over the ground; but the dis 
 tance between her and the gruesome pursuer was grow 
 ing less. With a quick call to Tom, which he did not 
 comprehend, she turned, and sure-footedly ran across 
 a narrow plank bridging a deep cavity. 
 
 Ponderously, but surely, the great creature followed. 
 The lithe figure scarcely had left the further end of 
 the frail bridge, when the bear stepped on to the nar 
 row pathway, Tom in mad pursuit. Never, for an in 
 stant, did his brain cease to teem with plan after plan 
 for his sister's release, despite their fruitlessness. With 
 awful vividness he pictured the final scene when, with 
 fetid breath upon his sister's face, the creature's awful 
 arms would enfold her. He made great leaps forward.
 
 234 The House of Landell 
 
 At least she should not die without him by her side, 
 nor should she die while he lived. In a second, he, too, 
 would be upon the plank. He could almost touch the 
 bear with the tip of his alpenstock. 
 
 Suddenly, there came a shock, which threw him 
 back, followed by a snarl, and a rattle of stones. The 
 board Agnes had safely crossed could not, as she had 
 surmised, sustain the weight of seven hundred pounds, 
 and the bear had fallen into the pit. 
 
 So close was Tom to the edge, that had he stood 
 on earth or shale, instead of firm set rock, his fate 
 must have been sealed. He had been saved from fol 
 lowing the bear only by the balance afforded him by 
 the uplifted alpenstock. In a flash, he realized what 
 his sister had foreseen. He stopped, astounded. She, 
 the mystic, the meditator, had accomplished what he 
 had not even conceived of. 
 
 " ' The hermits lead the crusade,' " he quoted, auto 
 matically. 
 
 Meanwhile, Agnes had turned and was standing 
 on the other side, looking down at the trapped animal. 
 
 " I warned you not to follow ! " she called to Tom, 
 whose attention had been drawn momentarily from 
 the immediate scene by the commotion in the brush. 
 The shouts had been coming nearer and a posse of 
 men, among them, the workers in the quarry, broke 
 through the copse, the bear's keeper at the head. 
 
 "Where is she?" he cried. Then his astonished 
 eyes took in the situation, while the growling and 
 plunging in the pit led to the priming of rifles. 
 
 " Don't shoot," he cautioned, " old Dogskin is 
 frightened to death. Bring on the meat, and she needs 
 water." 
 
 " Let some down in one of those pails. There is a 
 rope over there by that derrick," and Tom aided in 
 assuaging the thirst of the beast, whose growls grew
 
 The House of Landell 235 
 
 less ferocious as the agony of pursuit were forgotten 
 and the hungry maw was filled. 
 
 " I shall get her out in decent human fashion if it 
 takes all night," said the keeper. " Thank you fel 
 lows for helping me to track her. Walk over to our 
 tents and take a look at our animals. We have a fine 
 lot and you, too, Miss. ' I'm sure old Dogskin is 
 grateful to you, whether she knows it or not." 
 
 The brother and sister started homeward. The 
 struggle for lives that never before had seemed so 
 sweet to themselves, or so dear to each other; their 
 marvel at the affection of the unkempt keeper for his 
 unlovely charge; the collapse of strength, that, with 
 Agnes, so frequently followed climaxes in her life, 
 held them silent. 
 
 Tom assisted her over the rough places with a touch 
 akin to reverence. Something other than thanksgiving 
 was filling his being, for he had been in difficult situa 
 tions before. He was thinking of Agnes and her denial 
 of personal love at the very moment she willingly, nay, 
 eagerly, turned from an easy escape and jeopardized 
 her life to save his. 
 
 They were near home before he broke the silence. 
 He assisted her over the wall and held her close as she 
 had held him for a moment on their way to the quarry. 
 Then he took her sweet face, tired but love-illumined, 
 between his hands and kissed it. 
 
 "If personal devotion such as you have manifested 
 toward me, to-day, is born of your idea of universal 
 love," he said, his voice deepened with emotion, " then, 
 little sister, I have nothing more to say."
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " The one great end of the church should be 
 the building of a state where there is honorable 
 work for every hand, bread for all mouths, cloth 
 ing for all backs, culture for all minds and love 
 and faith in every heart." 
 
 THAT same evening, Agnes attended a lecture by Dr. 
 Wehr, the great psychurgist. Tom joined her later, 
 and, at the close, the two left together. Agnes was 
 wonderfully free from exhaustion after the events of 
 the afternoon, and almost equally free from the state 
 of exaltation which she had begun to fear almost as 
 much as the old-time attendant depressions. She had 
 listened with intent delight to the truths presented by 
 Tom's friend and teacher, which illumined the every 
 day problems of life and gave basis for their solution. 
 
 " Wasn't that a wonderful lesson on the building 
 of our lives," she said, all intensity, to one of the com 
 pany, as she passed her with a merry good evening. 
 
 " Yes," came a languid, almost unintelligible voice, 
 " it looks like we must feed our babies more carefully, 
 doesn't it! Mine cries every night; but I give him a 
 little gin and he gets to look for it every bit like his 
 grandfather." 
 
 " Who is a regular toper, and she knows it ! " whis 
 pered Agnes, aghast, to Tom, her happiness clouded 
 as she realized how little of the lecture's meaning the 
 woman had absorbed. She recovered, as she heard 
 enthusiastic voices ahead. 
 
 " They have listened. Let's find out what they have 
 gained," and she drew Tom forward. 
 
 " That is worth trying, isn't it," she said enthusias- 
 236
 
 The House of Landell 237 
 
 tically, as she looked into the bright face of Mary 
 Zeidee. 
 
 " I didn't do it, Miss Landell, it was my mother." 
 
 " I did not mean to interrupt your conversation, I 
 referred to the lecture 
 
 " Oh," the girl replied, with peals of laughter, " I 
 was talking about hair combings." 
 
 " Try it again, Agnesia," said Tom in an undertone, 
 laughing this time outright at his sister's consterna 
 tion as she left the group and drew him hastily along. 
 
 " Don't people hear! " she cried despairingly. 
 
 " As far as I can see, the majority carry their limi 
 tations wherever they go. They stay at home with 
 their minds and hear very little outside of them. Here 
 is another group. Try it. No, no, let us pass. With 
 out stopping, I can hear Catherine Blaisdale shrieking 
 to the moon that she always goes to bed with cold feet." 
 
 " It takes a lot of patience to live what we believe, 
 doesn't it," he continued, as they passed the talkers, 
 " I suppose others have to be patient with us, as well ! 
 If it hadn't been funny, I should have been as dis 
 gusted as you are now, when, three minutes after 
 Dr. Wehr's explanation that the mind should hold it 
 self receptive to the thoughts of uplift he was about 
 to give them, two women began gloating over an opera 
 tion. What those two have taken home with them from 
 this evening's study is the same thing they started from 
 home with hospital wards and disease. Like most 
 texts, the one, ' As ye sow so shall ye reap,' can be 
 read so as to suggest stagnation as well as growth 
 towards betterment." 
 
 " To most of us, it has meant that there is but one 
 sowing and one harvest." 
 
 " We seek to better our material crops and if one 
 fails plant another. We don't wail forever about the 
 one lost crop."
 
 238 The House of Landell 
 
 " There are my blessed Mrs. Burton, Mrs. Bryce and 
 Marian Fosby just ahead. Whatever they may have 
 comprehended, I know they have drawn original con 
 clusions. Good evening, people, may we walk with 
 you?" 
 
 " Agnes, didn't that do your heart good, to-night ! " 
 Mrs. Bryce greeted the speaker with an affectionate 
 grasp of her arm as she linked it with her own. 
 
 " I was sure I should find you ready to talk it over," 
 Agnes responded with relief. 
 
 " It goes without saying that the doctor demon 
 strates it in his life! It sounds real," said Mrs. Bur 
 ton. 
 
 " I understood what he meant when he said the 
 word choice conveyed to him no idea of divorcement 
 from Jesus the Christ, no conception of a Christ of 
 the senses; that it just recognizes deeper meanings 
 through the power, active or latent, in every soul. 
 Explain what he meant about tracing through our lives 
 the same processes God used, when, as the Great 
 Architect, He brought the Ideal to expression through 
 the creation as described in Genesis," said Mrs. Bryce. 
 
 Tom repeated thoughtfully, 
 
 " I. In complete consciousness, the Great Architect 
 conceived the idea. In love, He kept it alive by brood 
 ing over it. 
 
 " II. Minutely and accurately He considered each 
 detail of the unfoldment as it grew in the womb of 
 consciousness, nurtured by understanding. 
 
 " III. When that grew ready for expression which 
 His perception had seen, and His love had fostered, 
 He declared the inherent life of each detail as it be 
 came manifest. 
 
 " IV. Then, did the Spirit of God move on the face 
 of the waters. Waters, you know, is a first expression 
 of principle. This consciously and intelligently con-
 
 The House of Landell 239 
 
 ceived, nurtured and directed idea of the Great Archi 
 tect, filled with His vital power, expanded through 
 specified avenues of activity, sequentially, till it ex 
 pressed itself in the embodiment called man, possessed 
 of the breath of life. This divine breath entitled man 
 to become coworker with God, though not, as yet, con 
 scious of this heritage. That knowledge came with 
 the birth of the moral concept the awakening of the 
 intuitive. With this conscious wakening, he began 
 to individualize in the economy of life. The so-called 
 perfection of Eden's garden seemed a crude waste field 
 of immaturity and ignorance, in view of man's next 
 estate as moral entities. Man's consciousness became 
 steadily more infilled with the spirit of the breath of 
 life and that means the growing within us of the 
 Christ until, through stages of growth of which the 
 Old Testament is a sequential history, humanity is 
 proven to be the manifest processes of the growing 
 consciousness of God. Through billions of avenues 
 of perception and selection we call minds is distributed 
 the realization that after all we are One Mind, which 
 is Christ Jesus Our Lord. Dr. Wehr went on to say 
 that as this realization becomes more universal, new 
 types of expression will arise. The prototype of this 
 expression is Jesus. As the beetle that crawls the 
 ground is to us, so are we to our possibilities." 
 
 " It makes it so much clearer to me to talk it over," 
 said Marian Fosby. " I am a college graduate ac 
 customed to lectures ; but even I find it difficult to take 
 in so much at one sitting, and I think it spoils the 
 spirit to be scribbling down notes, instead of dreamily 
 absorbing the many influences that go to make a lec 
 ture." 
 
 " I am glad to be told something that gives us a le 
 gitimate right to be proud of ourselves, instead of 
 that we are nothing. It gives us courage to know that
 
 240 The House of Landell 
 
 it is our happy right to grow and that our growth 
 inevitably assists the growth of others," said Mrs. Bur 
 ton. 
 
 " He made a fine point about visioning clearly, 
 thereby giving every message conveyance through the 
 nerve centres, ' to which the action is related, by na 
 ture,' and which, by our selections, we have con 
 structed, through past cycles," said Marian. 
 
 " It makes me more willing to shoulder my disad 
 vantages to feel that they are not unjust burdens. 
 It makes me concerned to lay to-day's foundations well 
 for to-morrow's building," added Mrs. Burton. 
 
 " I like the point he made, that these building ma 
 terials are qualities, and that noble qualities build body 
 structures of probity and honor, of love and intuition 
 and other attributes, which, as we grow in His likeness 
 shall be revealed," said Mrs. Bryce, as she considered 
 point after point of the talk in which they had found 
 so much profit and enjoyment. " How is the Bible 
 story of the creation like our lives?" 
 
 " It is this way. As soon as we reach an age to 
 make it possible far earlier than we sometimes think 
 we must know what we desire to make manifest; 
 we must consider the results if what we conceive 
 comes to maturity. We must direct the mind's ac 
 tivity toward the wished-for end, not allowing ad 
 verse impressions to dim the idea. This may be done 
 in an instant or it may take years. Like will, these 
 stages are reached in action and do not depend on time. 
 Will- forcing methods shall not prevail. They shut off 
 the vision. Internal uncertainty also halts processes." 
 
 " What you say translates that part of the creed 
 I have not been able to accept I believe in the resur 
 rection of the body." Marian waited eagerly for a 
 reply. 
 
 " It is beautiful to think that embodiments succeed
 
 The House of Landell 241 
 
 each other uninterruptedly, in phases temporal, spirit 
 ual, and what next doth not appear," said Agnes. 
 
 " I have often wondered why many who think purely 
 possess frail bodies," said Marian, who was not strong. 
 
 " Have you ever noticed," said Tom, " that health 
 is no greater asset than any other one asset, and that, 
 after all, it is a gauge of our trust in good our ac 
 knowledgment of our soul's expression. However 
 brutal this may sound can you not look back and truly 
 say that, as far as your experience goes, ill health an 
 nounces faith in an imperfect idea of yourself, your 
 heritage or your relation to the Father? " 
 
 " I cannot feel that is the whole of it," mused Agnes. 
 " One may be very near perfection on a material plane 
 of consciousness; but a soul in travail, born into a 
 higher vision, but not yet equal to coping with the 
 knowledge poured in upon itself, feels intimately its 
 kinship with the universe and suffers for and with it, 
 and not for and with itself. Sick with the anguish 
 of others; weighted with responsibilities of which it 
 is becoming aware, such an one is far beyond the 
 man who is materially well and asleep." 
 
 " What is this consciousness you talk about? " asked 
 Mrs. Burton. 
 
 " The only way I can explain it is, that it is the 
 knowledge that we exist, innate within each individ 
 ualized portion of God called the human soul. This 
 knowledge is dormant, almost wholly inhibited, until 
 eons of involving and evolving wisdom waken it. 
 We may follow the growth of soul consciousness 
 through the expressions cell-attraction; awareness; 
 blind instinct; the reaching out of instinct to a state 
 less than reason a stage I call psychic. As conscious 
 ness becomes more clearly defined to the intelligence, 
 reason sits upon a throne and rules. Then, the con 
 sciousness of the soul that it is infinite gives reason
 
 242 The House of Landell 
 
 deductions and inductions of wider and wider scope, 
 until we find that we are possessed of something above 
 and superior to reason, intuition and spiritual insight. 
 After all, the explanation comes through realization 
 of this consciousness rather than through words. Do 
 you leave us here ? And you too, Mrs. Burton ? Good 
 night!" 
 
 " It's chilly," said Tom, as he and his sister went on 
 together. 
 
 " I know my hands are cold. I must have dropped 
 my gloves." 
 
 " Put one hand in my pocket. When that is warm, 
 come round to the other side and warm the other one." 
 
 Agnes slipped her hand into the capacious pocket, 
 and, sweetly restful, they walked on in silence. Sud 
 denly, she began to tremble, and clung to him convul 
 sively. 
 
 " What is it? " said Tom, startled. 
 
 " Over there ! The motor car is wrecked." 
 
 " I don't see anything ! What is the matter with 
 you!" 
 
 " It's Mattee Sue!" 
 
 " Where do you see her? " 
 
 " Under the motor car, beyond the lake, to the 
 south!" 
 
 " Are you crazy ! What do you mean ! How do 
 you know it is she? " 
 
 " I've seen her before but now don't ask me any 
 questions for I can't answer them. She is pinned 
 under the car." 
 
 " Tell me ! You don't know the agony you are 
 causing me ! I love her ! Do you hear ! When have 
 you seen her? " 
 
 " Hush ! Oh, it's terrible ! Here comes help ! " 
 
 Tom tried to keep still ; but his anxiety forced him to 
 expression.
 
 The House of Landell 243 
 
 " Tell me, dear, when and where you have seen 
 her?" 
 
 " The night you left her letter in my room and 
 found ilin my hand." 
 
 " Why didn't you tell me then ! I thought you con 
 fided in me, always! " reproachfully. 
 
 " You went away at once. Tom, hush ! " 
 
 For some seconds she seemed to watch intently. 
 Then she asked, 
 
 " Have you a letter from Mattee Sue in your 
 pocket?" 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " Could my fingers have touched it? " 
 
 " Yes. It is the only paper in the pocket your hand 
 was in." 
 
 " Do you suppose I was enabled to see her through 
 touching that is it " 
 
 " Psychometry ? Perhaps so. Touch again, and 
 try to see something more." 
 
 She did so, and was silent for, what seemed to Tom, 
 a long time. 
 
 " I can see only the great flame. Now it is dark. 
 There is nothing." 
 
 " Try again, there's a dear." 
 
 " It is not right ! This very evening Dr. Wehr 
 warned us against approaching knowledge by forced, 
 unnatural methods. This sort of thing has happened 
 to me before, but I have never connected the cause 
 and the result. I am not ready for this development 
 or it would not frighten me. It would come naturally 
 like any other assimilated knowledge. This belongs to 
 that other plane he spoke about the one between in 
 stinct and reason. It comes of a negative, dependent 
 attitude and, perhaps, because of an exhausted 
 physique, instead of one rested and full of positive 
 trust."
 
 244 The House of Landell 
 
 ' Try it again, for my sake." Tom's wish to in 
 vestigate phenomena retired, for once, as his anxiety 
 for the love of his heart increased. 
 
 Agnes held the letter close ; but the vision was gone. 
 
 " I have done wrong," she sobbed, hysterically. " I 
 knew it was sinful to do that thing prerneditatedly, 
 before I was ready. If it comes when I do not court 
 it, perhaps God will forgive me for I don't know 
 how to prevent it but to go on coaxing it after I had 
 been warned I yielded, for love of you ! That is al 
 ways what personal love leads to the following of 
 personality, instead of principle." 
 
 " You didn't court it," said Tom, exasperatedly. 
 " It came to you ! For heaven's sake, don't lay it to per 
 sonal love! You got all nerved up, this afternoon, 
 then came the reaction. In that state, you went into a 
 crowd. Do put the cause where it belongs! Wasn't 
 it right for you to save me this afternoon? Was it 
 against your principle to be so personal ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid I wouldn't have been strong enough 
 to refuse if the two had been opposed." 
 
 " You never get into these frenzies of abnormal 
 righteousness unless you are nerve-exhausted. Do you 
 believe the vision is a real one? I'm going to tele 
 graph. Will you go back with me, or shall I take you 
 home and send the message from there? Make up 
 your mind," as she hesitated, " here we are talking, 
 while I am in the dark as to whether she is dead or 
 alive." 
 
 " I will go back with you, and stop this folly ! Let 
 me walk on and get the air in my face. Don't speak 
 to me!" 
 
 She set off at a rapid pace over the smooth road, in 
 creasing her walk until she fairly ran. To her chagrin, 
 as she turned a corner suddenly she found herself face 
 to face with a policeman.
 
 The House of Landell 245 
 
 "What's the matter?" he blurted, then, recogniz 
 ing her, he touched his helmet. " Beg pardon, Miss 
 Landell, what can I do for you ? " 
 
 " Holloa, Robinson," and, to Agnes' relief, Tom 
 caught up. " My sister is doing a bit of sprinting. 
 Her only chance to exercise outside the orthodox walk 
 is by moonlight." 
 
 The patrolman laughed and went on, and Agnes, 
 calmed by the encounter, joined her brother. 
 
 " Tell me something more about your visions of 
 Mattee Sue? " Tom pleaded after a silence. 
 
 " I can't, except that she appeared to me so distinctly 
 that I was about to offer her a chair, when I realized 
 it was an apparition. I suppose we are phenomenons, 
 too, that is, our shapes don't you? but there was 
 something else that frightened me I saw you in the 
 midst of flames." 
 
 " I'm all right, and I think the reason is that, no 
 matter what position I find myself in, I am sure there 
 will be a way out for me. See? But I confess, I am 
 all worked up about this motor business. Here goes! 
 Send this at once." He delivered the message to the 
 sleepy operator, and the two turned toward home. 
 Agnes was very tired, but, to her relief, her hysteria 
 had departed. 
 
 " Why do you suppose these things come to me, 
 Tom?" 
 
 " Don't be like the monkey, at Harvard, years ago 
 who heard the electric bell ring, traced the sound to 
 the button, then to the wire, and wanted to scratch 
 open that ; but spoiling my moral they didn't allow 
 him to kill himself. Let it ring, and it serves you; 
 investigate the reason for, and it kills you." 
 
 "If one is a monkey yes. If not, it serves you 
 ten thousand times the more." 
 
 Tom laughed.
 
 246 The House of Landell 
 
 " You are never too tired to get ahead of me. I 
 shall sit up for the answer." 
 
 " Let me know when it conies," and bidding him 
 good night at the foot of the stairs she went to her 
 room. She heard him whistle to his dogs, and, by the 
 moonlight, watched him tramp to and fro on the well- 
 kept driveway. The slight click of the gravel under 
 his feet made a little monody of sound as he walked 
 to the big gates and down the road and back again, 
 while the moon mounted higher and higher in the sky, 
 climbing slowly along the mountain peaks of cloud, till, 
 tired out, she fell asleep behind them, leaving the April 
 night in drowsy gloom. 
 
 It struck twelve. Tom could feel the message speed 
 ing upon its way. He wondered that it could be so 
 slow. One! It must have been delayed! He went 
 into the house with Trumbull, the setter, flung him 
 self on the couch and dreamed. How the girl had en 
 twined herself about his heart! Was that the door 
 bell? No, the clock, striking the half hour! He 
 must be sure not to let the messenger wake the house 
 hold! What a marvel Agnes was, to be sure! The 
 bell ! No, the three-quarter hour ! He must have 
 drowsed ! How could he, while even now, Mattee Sue 
 might be in horrible agony, or dead, and he had never 
 seen her face! 
 
 " What was that, Trumbull, did you hear any 
 thing ? " For the dog had pricked up his ears and 
 growled. " Hush, Trumbull, good fellow, it's all 
 right," and he went hastily to the door. His teeth 
 chattered; he could scarcely control his knees. Never 
 before had he known what fear was ; but that night, it 
 enswathed him. He was afraid. 
 
 The clock struck four-thirty as he met the messen 
 ger. Not waiting to open the telegram, he leaped, two
 
 The House of Landell 247 
 
 steps at a time, to Agnes' room, Trumbull following 
 anxiously, unwilling to leave his master alone. 
 
 " Agnes," he whispered hoarsely at the door. " It 
 has come. Read it. I can't see, somehow ! " 
 
 Agnes took the yellow missive from his shaking 
 fingers and read it twice, her eyes brimming with a 
 merriment her lips refused to conceal. 
 
 " ' Of course I'm safe,' " she translated slowly, while 
 Tom listened, tensely. " ' Tommy Tompkins pulled 
 me out ! How did you know ? Mattee Sue Romaine.' ' 
 
 " Tommy Tompkins ! " impolitely, Tom caught the 
 telegram from his sister's hand, and crushed it. 
 ' Tommy Tompkins, indeed ! The little kangaroo ! 
 I'd like to kick him ! " and he went down-stairs, quite 
 forgetting to thank Agnes for her interest in his venge 
 ful desire to punch Tommy Tompkins' head !
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 " Let them find out what my heart now hopes 
 and fears." 
 
 Erkel Elek. 
 
 " Gustaga, Georgia, Saturday Morning. 
 
 " What do you mean, Mr. Landell, by frightening respectable 
 persons out of their wits in such a fashion as you did last 
 night ! I'd have you to understand you roused the whole town 
 of Gustaga ! If you knew the place, you'd realize a telegraph 
 boy sent with a message at any hour after bed time, never goes 
 to the correct house first, but makes a point of waking up the 
 entire neighborhood, a sort of revenge, I suppose for having 
 to make the trip. 
 
 " Your wire came at one o'clock. The boy went to the next 
 door, and roused two big dogs and five puppies, together with a 
 very mad man who said words. 
 
 " Then he went across the street, where they have a parrot. 
 I am glad to say she called out words too, for it helped me, who 
 wanted to say them but mustn't for reasons religious and diplo 
 matic. 
 
 " Then he went to a house on the other side where lives a 
 very mean girl who goes with me but doesn't like me. Mamma 
 wonders why I always invite her to things. It's because I'm 
 afraid not to ! Her father came out, and he said words too, 
 and told the boy to go to some far off place with a very short 
 name and, if he ever came there again with a telegram in the 
 dead of night, he'd transfix him. 
 
 " We were all up at our house, because we were too excited 
 over the accident to go to bed, and by this time, we began to 
 pity the boy. I knew just how creepy his heels felt, with all 
 that yapping going on behind them, because mine used to feel 
 that same way when I was in short skirts and those same dogs 
 or some more like them, were saying their prayers at my feet. 
 
 " I never should have had your telegram if papa hadn't been 
 
 248
 
 The House of Landell 249 
 
 expecting one on some business matters and it finally dawned 
 on his sleepy brain that the boy might be looking for him; so 
 he hailed him at a venture. 
 
 " By this time the poor thing was quite discouraged at being 
 so persecuted for doing his duty; but then, if he had had 
 more worldly experience, he would have known that is what one 
 generally gets for doing one's duty. 
 
 " When papa saw it was for me, he was so surprised he 
 nearly collapsed, and wanted to know what it was all about. 
 I read it, and we were frightened to death about the whole 
 thing. The accident was bad enough, but this telegram was so 
 spooky we have shivered steadily ever since and refused to be 
 lieve it malaria. 
 
 " The whole square knew I had had a message and ten girls 
 were over before breakfast to find out what it was all about. 
 I told them I had a great-uncle in his dotage, who always tele 
 graphed me ' happy returns ' every year, on the exact hour I 
 was born two in the morning no matter how much we hinted 
 that we preferred sleep to congratulations. I always try to 
 have at least a grain of veracity in my statements and though 
 you are not my great-uncle, you must be abnormally far-sighted 
 to be able to see way down here! 
 
 " However, there really was an accident. I have not told you 
 this before for I think you need disciplining for frightening me 
 so with that telegram. I never was so terrified in all my life. 
 I used to walk in the cemetery, for mamma will not let me 
 promenade where there are men acting as sort of rail fences 
 along the pavement. What possible harm can men do, I should 
 like to know especially the kind that lines up on the sidewalk 
 and reminds you of mud walls in a Mexican village just about 
 as soulful and intelligent. So, of course, the cemetery would 
 be the only place left, and you have spoiled that for me. 
 Mamma does not seem afraid of having me walk where there 
 are dead men, but she is awfully nervous at having live ones 
 near me I wonder why! 
 
 " Tommy Tompkins was such a darling ! I have wanted to 
 fling my arms about his neck, oh, ever so many times, since ; 
 but papa says I ought, really, to let him take the initiative, so I 
 suppose J must, don't you? He will not be slow, I am very 
 sure, for, he adores me, and now that he has saved my life he
 
 250 The House of Landell 
 
 has a sort of first-mortgage on it or would you say, second? 
 Tommy, bless his dear faithful heart it is such a comfort to 
 have one's friends right beside one in time of trouble Tommy 
 was right beside me and we had been having a very confidential 
 talk between bumps. I must confess that when we crossed street 
 car tracks and mud holes, our voices jerked so that some of the 
 very most confidential sentences became rather public property, 
 and somewhat mixed. For instance, I had asked him to a 
 chafing-dish party and he was just saying ' I'd love to' at least, 
 I suppose it was when the car bumped and he bit his tongue 
 and said, ' I love you ' instead. Of course it was a mistake. 
 Like Z'Etta's minister lover she had refused him the night be 
 fore and he was feeling very low, so when he rose for the in 
 vocation, Sunday morning, instead of saying ' Let us unite in 
 prayer,' he said, ' Let us unite in love.' I dove for my hymn 
 book which I had not dropped and cracked my head so loud 
 it sounded through the church and turned my smiles to tears 
 and some others' tears to smiles and Tommy Tompkins oh yes, 
 that reminds me Tommy was being awfully nice and was telling 
 me that he adored waffles, I believe it was when whiz, bang, 
 there was such a smoke, and why, I couldn't tell just what 
 happened ; but the next thing I knew, I was in a mix and the 
 car blazing. That blessed Tommy Tompkins jumped and pulled 
 me out from under the car where I was nearly suffocated. He 
 risked his noble life for me! T shall never forget Tommy Tomp 
 kins for what he did last night. But how on earth did you 
 know about it ! I sincerely hope you do not see everything I do, 
 it would be so embarrassing! Tell me at once, for you have 
 given me a perfectly dreadful fright and I feel quite collapsed. 
 It is weird enough to be choked by flames and gasoline, without 
 being surrounded by intelligences and spooks! 
 
 " You would better write and thank Tommy Tompkins for 
 saving my life, for, really, in case you do care for my friendship, 
 it was a very narrow escape for me, and mamma and papa were 
 quite prostrated. They are so grateful to Tommy Tompkins. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 " MATTEE SUE ROMAINE." 
 
 " Agnes, listen to that ! " 
 
 Disgustedly, Tom threw the foregoing letter into his
 
 The House of Landell 251 
 
 sister's lap and ploughed his hands deep into his 
 pockets, jealously watching, from under his eyebrows, 
 the expression of Agnes' face. " If I had Tommy 
 Tompkins within reach, I'd kick him round the square 
 and back again. Tommy, indeed ! I thank heaven, my 
 makeup has attached no such curtailment to me! 
 Tommy! Pouf!" 
 
 " On the contrary, as Mattee Sue says, you should 
 be deeply grateful to him for saving her life," his sister 
 replied soberly. Inwardly, she was convulsed. 
 
 " Yes, sir, round the square and back again," and 
 he savagely kicked a hassock out of his way. 
 
 " This settles it ! I am going to Gustaga, to put a 
 spoke in the wheel of that upstart, Tommy Tompkins. 
 When I get there, he had better look out ! " 
 
 He tramped venge fully down-stairs. In half an 
 hour he returned, looking half sheepish but wholly 
 determined. Settling himself on a footstool before 
 her, he rested his head on the arm of a chair near-by. 
 
 " You have such splendid intuitions, tell me, Agnes, 
 do you really suppose she is in love with that popin 
 jay, ' Tommy ' ! " 
 
 " I would not attempt to tell you ! " 
 
 Agnes was glad that her face was not within his 
 vision, as he looked intently into a mirror. 
 
 " That is the bother with intuitions," Tom growled, 
 even in the midst of his love perplexities unable to re 
 lease his mind from scientific considerations. " Intui 
 tions are founded on law ! You must discover the law 
 to have your powers of permanent and reliable value," 
 he continued, half jesting. "Just think! All these 
 months without my seeing her. What possessed me! 
 She is a girl in ten thousand," he hummed, " the only 
 girl for me! Confound those Gustaga fellows! She 
 may marry before I even catch a glimpse of her ! " 
 
 " I confess, I have wondered, in view of the proxim-
 
 252 The House of Landell 
 
 ity of the South and the North, that you have not been 
 sufficiently interested to visit her." 
 
 " I wonder, too, in the face of the enlightenment 
 Tommy Tompkins has given me ! " he laughed. He 
 was getting over his heroics, and becoming himself 
 again. " It seems to take bombs to stir me up as well 
 as you, doesn't it! I wonder I never have been im 
 pelled to go to see her ! Until now, I have been wholly 
 content with her letters." 
 
 " Oh, you were amused and even interested at the 
 romance. You had been properly introduced, so the 
 excitement of a possible ' repulse ' was removed. Like 
 many of your sex, you were perfectly sure that a 
 patient Griselda of the fourteenth century was sitting 
 in a twentieth-century house, awaiting your pleasure. 
 It's the man in you. Then, your work was paramount. 
 Now you have a different perspective. That is all. 
 What are you looking at so steadily in the mirror? 
 Your eyes haven't left it since you sat down. What 
 is it?" 
 
 "Myself! Jupiter! I've never looked at myself 
 with any sort of discrimination before in all my life. 
 Isn't love a corker an optician an oculist an eye 
 glass-grinder ! By the way, I wonder if Mrs. Lavelle 
 had a bona fide love affair while South ! I believe she 
 had; for the morning she showed me Mattee Sue's 
 photo she hid the picture of a smashing looking man 
 never offered to show it. She looked as pink and 
 pretty as you used to when Ross Mevin came about 
 here so much. When would you go, Agnesia? " 
 
 " Sometime next fall," teased Agnes. 
 
 " Fall, nothing! I am going next week." 
 
 " I think I shall go to Aunt Luella's next week, too. 
 Her letters are bright and she says she's well and 
 happy; but I feel that the peculiar impression I re-
 
 The House of Landell 253 
 
 ceive, previous to the receipt of her letters, should be 
 regarded." 
 
 " I wouldn't go. It will do your mind no good to 
 scratch the electric wire for the sake of getting nearer 
 the death-dealing fluid 
 
 " Or the life-giving truth " 
 
 " I wouldn't go, unless you want to, or unless she 
 lets you know in twentieth-century fashion that she 
 needs you. It upsets you and her, too, as you can't 
 stay with her all the time. I do wish you had sufficient 
 influence with her to get her to employ some other 
 business-manager than Jack Jenkins. He may be a 
 shrewd financier with a keen brain, but he keeps it 
 constantly befuddled. Do you suppose you could have 
 any influence ? " 
 
 " I shouldn't like to interfere, for she told me she 
 was going to leave her money to me and I don't know 
 whether she ever made the will 
 
 " I expect it would go to the state if she doesn't 
 make one. She has no legal heirs, has she ? Her hus 
 band was father's brother and that makes her, of 
 course, no kin to us. Sort of a bother, these sensitive 
 nesses, yet I see, very well, how you feel. Now I am 
 going to talk with father." 
 
 Tom found Mr. Landell in the park. Together they 
 walked under the singing pines, the father's heart 
 mounting, with his son's, the rosy heights of love. 
 
 " Go on your way, laddie," the father said as they 
 neared home. " Measure your ideas by the standard 
 of your ideal and be sure of your compass and the 
 rule." 
 
 They walked on silently. The winds of the fragrant 
 afternoon blew refreshingly upon them. The sky was 
 very clear, and they watched, up, up, almost out of 
 sight, the swooping circles of a bird as it swayed and
 
 254 The House of Landell 
 
 swirled, diving into and out of little clouds of mist 
 ebbing and flowing over the low-lying hilltops. 
 
 " I thank you, sir, for taking this into your heart 
 with your great sympathy, which is the only kind that 
 listens to the trifles of others and gives to them the im 
 portance they bear the owner," and Tom grasped his 
 father's hand. " In other words, you are a trump ! I 
 hope I shall circle about in my skies as successfully as 
 that bird is doing." 
 
 " So do I, laddie," he added, whimsically. He 
 looked into the eyes of his tall son, with the same ten 
 derness as when he was a baby at his knee. " The eagle 
 must let the young ones go; still, he loves to swoop 
 under them, sometimes, and catch them on his back 
 for a second, lest their wings should weaken before 
 they have fully learned to fly."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " Thou thinkest, sun most bright, 
 That naught is radiant as the glowing light, 
 When, in springtide hours, 
 Thou fashionest the flowers; 
 But, lo! thou palest quite 
 
 Before the eyes of Amaryllis." 
 
 Louis XIII. 
 
 STANDING before a drawing table, on the north side 
 of the broad verandah of a fine old Southern home, was 
 a young girl. Devonienses, Marechal Niels and 
 Dorothy Perkins roses enclosed her as in a bower, 
 shadowing her a little from the golden sunshine that 
 proclaimed a Southern land. It was the first week in 
 April; but no cutting winds jeopardized the beautiful 
 neck and arms bared to the soft, mellow air. 
 
 Meditatively, she viewed the anatomical plat on 
 which she was at work, the keen sensibility of her 
 lovely face translating her discontent or her satisfac 
 tion, as, with erring touch, she perpetrated some 
 crudity, or, with a delicacy found only in the artist, 
 inborn, brought out lines in clear contrast of color, 
 with dexterous strokes of pencil or brush. 
 
 "Mauma!" 
 
 There was an exquisite trailing of inflection through 
 her scale of tone. " Isn't it very interesting, that lik 
 ing a man makes you like w'at he likes. Whoever 
 would believe it ! Tom Landell has made his study of 
 Psychurgy and Biology and all the other queer things 
 so attractive, that not only am I willing, I am abso 
 lutely pleased at reading w'atever he sends me, and am 
 
 255
 
 256 The House of Landell 
 
 positively anxious to elaborate as many skulls of ab- 
 normals and brains of Plato as he wants me to." 
 
 She moved the table into a better light, raising her 
 arm to push aside a drooping rose which tantalized 
 her ear, lingering a moment in that attitude, as her 
 gaze seemed to sink into the green of the weeping wil 
 lows. With the intent receptiveness of the artist, she 
 felt its ethereal tones make color music with the mili 
 tant Spanish bayonets and the rich green of the mag 
 nolias. The deep note of the city's industries played 
 a sounding bass for the fluttering staccatos of wander 
 ing petals and falling leaves. 
 
 It was time for the mail from the North, and, while 
 watching for the postman, the young girl's face was 
 held in beautiful enchantment by the sweetness of her 
 dream. A witching little tremor at the corner of her 
 mouth became allured, by her happiness, into the open 
 confession of a smile. 
 
 " It is my day for a letter," musing. Evidently it 
 has become a matter of days this Northern correspon 
 dence for true it was, that the great needle of cir 
 cumstance, threading its way through the plans of 
 men's lives, had drawn together the affairs of these 
 two, through the kindly offices of the learned Dr. 
 Genung and the sympathetic Mrs. Lavelle. 
 
 " Mauma, do you suppose I shall ever see him?" 
 speaking her thought unconsciously, without seeming 
 recognition that there might be more than one him 
 in all the world. 
 
 " I think it fairly possible," Mrs. Romaine replied 
 dryly, with the strange perspicacity which enables lov 
 ing mothers to reach into the invisible and draw the 
 right thread of their daughter's meditations. 
 
 "I wonder if he will be as nice as his letters?" 
 Aimlessly, Mattee Sue picked up a paper, looking over 
 it at random. Suddenly, with an impatient gesture,
 
 The House of Landell 257 
 
 she tossed it from her, to draw it back to her again, 
 puzzlingly. With a tender expression on her face, 
 Mrs. Romaine passed into the house, and again Mattee 
 Sue turned to the beautiful street, looking down the 
 gothic vista of trees, past the pretty picture of nurses 
 wheeling their radiant charges up and down in the 
 sunshine. 
 
 Finally the postman appeared, his bag over his shoul 
 der. He was some time in delivering the mail along 
 the way and she watched him anxiously. As he ap 
 proached, she moved to the edge of the piazza with a 
 lissom grace uniquely her own, and extended her hand 
 for the Romaine budget. 
 
 As the postman passed on, a well set-up man came, 
 with swinging step, toward the alluring figure on the 
 verandah. He awaited her attention in respectful si 
 lence, though his eyes, deep as mountain lakes, chal 
 lenged her response ; but, having glanced once through 
 the packet she was examining it a second time, a 
 puzzled wrinkle of disenchantment on her smooth 
 white forehead. It was evident that she saw him, but 
 was too downcast with her disappointment to feel her 
 responsibility as a hostess. She was turning, as if to 
 enter the house, when the stranger intercepted her re 
 treat. 
 
 " Is this Miss Mattee Sue Romaine? " 
 
 A twinkle of amusement mingled with his deference. 
 
 Called, thus, to herself, Mattee Sue rested her eyes 
 meditatively upon the speaker, in a manner intended to 
 be cold, but which instead gave her a witching dignity 
 like that of a gracious Queen Titania. Her attempted 
 severity yielded slowly to inquiry which peeped, like 
 an awakened hope, out of her mind and through the 
 windows of her soul. The delicately moulded chin 
 was brought exquisitely into relief, as it tilted upward 
 and outward, with the piquancy of an inquisitive bird.
 
 258 The House of Landell 
 
 A flash of color swept over her face and died quickly 
 away. 
 
 " May I be proxy for the letter? " 
 
 The man advanced a little, still remaining on the 
 driveway. 
 
 As Mattee Sue observed him critically, a light grew 
 in her eyes, until it bubbled forth 
 
 " Tom Landell ! Aren't you ashamed to come here 
 like a second telegram, without a particle of reason 
 for doing so ! " 
 
 " Isn't seeing you reason " 
 
 " It is simply terrible on one's nerves to have one's 
 friends act like shooting stars, on the twelfth of 
 August. You look and look and they never appear 
 that is, if you care enough about them, to watch and 
 then, w'en you've forgotten everything in the world 
 about them, down they flash, and out of sight before 
 you know it." 
 
 " I won't flash out of sight, be assured. Won't you 
 let me come in ? " 
 
 " I ought to have left you to announce yourself as 
 you should. Waiting would have been good for your 
 soul, besides ! " 
 
 " It isn't in your heart to be cruel ! I know that by 
 the kindly manner in which you held out your hands 
 to me, even before you recognized me." 
 
 " I wasn't holding out my hands to you, but for the 
 letter you should have sent me and didn't." 
 
 " I'll never disappoint you again, and even this time 
 I have brought you more than I have withheld my 
 self! Mayn't I come in?" 
 
 " Maybe it is not you at all ! " slowly withdrawing 
 her hands, that, as Tom had challenged her with doing, 
 she had extended to him at recognition. Piqued, as 
 she thought how plainly she had betrayed her pleasure 
 at his coming, she struggled to recover ground. Her
 
 The House of Landell 259 
 
 eyes searched deeper into the eyes looking up to hers. 
 She stiffened momentarily, relenting as he continued, 
 
 " I do not question that you are my rhetoric queen. 
 / know." 
 
 " Easily, sir, by the number of the house ! " 
 
 " I won't step on that piazza, until you say you be- 
 lieve- 
 
 " W'y, Tom Landell, you have to learn to believe in 
 people! " 
 
 " Such an one as you knows, at once, on the internal 
 evidence of the man. You believed in me when I first 
 wrote, or you'd never have answered. You look just 
 as I have always seen you in my visions your hair, 
 your eyes, your voice. You do believe in me! Tell 
 me quickly! I so want to come up the steps, after 
 the long journey of a thousand miles, to you! " 
 
 " I believe it is you but " She poised like a 
 startled bird before it takes flight for, in an instant, 
 Tom was beside her, looking into her eyes from above, 
 as she stood, now, looking into his. 
 
 They settled themselves on the piazza, and, bit by bit, 
 reviewed their acquaintance, dropping badinage as 
 they knit closer the threads of their friendship. Time 
 spun itself away, till the return of Max and Etta from 
 a drive. The appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Romaine 
 was succeeded by summons to dinner. Like an old 
 friend, Tom was included in the dining party. As 
 they were leaving the piazza., Major Verness cantered 
 up. As he alighted, Mattee Sue took a quick step for 
 ward, placing both hands in his. 
 
 " Why won't one hand do? " growled Tom to him 
 self. " I wonder who he is, anyway." 
 
 He was answered by Mattee Sue, who led the new 
 comer to him, flashing words, smiles and laughter in 
 such rapid succession that Tom felt the delicious ex 
 hilaration of a summer shower.
 
 260 The House of Landell 
 
 " I am so very glad to see you, Major Verness," she 
 was saying while everybody was shaking hands. " I 
 began to wonder if you had quite forgotten your little 
 sweetheart that you had not greeted her home from 
 school." 
 
 " She knows I could not have withstood the light of 
 her countenance had I been near enough to avail my 
 self of it. I have been away." 
 
 " Oh, Major, I'm so glad you realize I'm quite grown 
 up, so you may give me the Ph. D. grade of compli 
 ment. How I used to envy Mrs. Lavelle w'en you 
 made your truly grown-up speeches to her. I don't 
 know how much of them she believed; but you must 
 know that I know you just like to keep your English 
 flexible by use." 
 
 " Mrs. Romaine " the Major turned to his hostess, 
 gallantly offering his arm, " Miss Mattee Sue does me 
 wrong. Am I so palpably in need of exercises in lan 
 guage that I must practice on ladies! You do not 
 suppose I say to every one such things as I say to 
 you? " he laughed back at Mattee Sue. 
 
 " Oh, yes, far brighter to some, quite dazzling, 
 sometimes, sometimes, you know. You must have 
 said it all before, you say it so glibly quite as I do 
 after I've practised my Latin rules ever so many 
 times." 
 
 " It takes more than repetition to teach such finesse 
 as yours, young lady," and the Major pushed Mrs. 
 Romaine's chair into place. "If you consider my skill 
 in speaking truth due to practice, how can I do other 
 than lay your astute reception of it to the same cause ! '' 
 
 " You see, Mr. Landell," Mattee Sue drew Tom 
 into the conversation, " Major Verness is one of my 
 very oldest friends." 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Landell, I had the pleasure of knowing 
 this young lady at the advanced age of three weeks
 
 The House of Landell 261 
 
 and have been her devoted admirer ever since. Your 
 name is familiar, sir. Landell! Landell!" 
 
 " My hero of rhetoric fame, Major Verness." 
 
 " To be sure. Doubtless you bow to rhetoric hence 
 forth. Already, it has made a traveler of you, I see." 
 
 Then followed a delicious medley of repartee, to 
 which Tom listened, fascinated a babel of sounds 
 into which the one voice for him was merged, but never 
 lost. His eyes were fixed on Mattee Sue. He felt 
 that he could listen, forever, to her dainty little upward 
 portamento. Every new and bewitchingly graceful 
 poise of the head and quick change in the flashing 
 birdlike motions entranced him. She was, indeed, an 
 interesting study, as swiftly she affiliated to herself, 
 intuitionally, what passed about her. 
 
 " Tell us about your last conquest," the Major 
 beamed at her, over the soup. 
 
 " No one is paying the slightest attention to me 
 now, sir " the recollection that she had shown her 
 self unfeignedly glad to see Tom rankling in her flir 
 tatious little head, while, with the skill of a veteran, she 
 was planning how to retrieve. 
 
 " They say you do the boys very mean ! " The 
 Major was, himself, a veteran in the conquest of 
 hearts, and read Mattee Sue like the diplomat he was. 
 
 " Oh no, sir," and fun fairly garbed her, scintillat 
 ing like the iridescence of the butterfly. 
 
 " I hear you cut them all up." The Major, on the 
 warpath for amusement, was covertly watching Tom 
 while ruthlessly dragging forth the scalps of Mattee 
 Sue's sweethearts. " Preston Bird told me, the other 
 night, that you will tell him that it is a very pleasant 
 evening and when, innocently, he agrees with you, you 
 ask him so insistently what he finds in it so pleasant, 
 that you ball him all up." 
 
 " Oh er w, w'at fun is there in talking to a man
 
 262 The House of Landell 
 
 who is always unanimous ! " cooed Mattee Sue, in a 
 chromatic of tones that made Tom prickle all over 
 with the winsomeness of it. " Preston Bird does me 
 so mean! He listens to me with such a superior air! 
 He makes me perfectly furious! I'll talk and talk, 
 about quantities of things he ought to have at his 
 tongue's end, and all I get back is that perfectly in 
 furiating, ' W'y, I don't know ! ' I nearly asked him 
 his name, once, to see if he would say, ' I don't know,' 
 to that! But thank the twin sisters and the big bear 
 and the dipper and somebody's tears up in the con 
 stellations, I stopped myself in time, for it is the only 
 thing he docs know, and the one thing he would never 
 stop talking about, if you got him started." 
 
 " Where is Gilbert Baynes? " 
 
 " W oh erw y," and she dimpled bashfully. 
 " He wanted to teach me to play the guitar and we had 
 a mighty happy time for about fifteen minutes, then, 
 w'en I couldn't get something or other about the 
 fingering, he took my hand as if that would ever 
 get anything into my head and told me the only way 
 to learn expression in music was to love the teacher. 
 Now, Major, don't you know that is too much ! Who 
 wants to love anybody this weather! I call it right 
 hard work, loving, don't you! " 
 
 " Possibly so ! " the Major meditated. " But I don't 
 see how you can help loving Tommy Tompkins. Cer 
 tainly he saved your life." 
 
 Mattee Sue blushed a most adorable shell pink. It 
 seemed to come, for all the world, from a tugging at 
 the heart-strings. Perhaps it was suppressed laughter 
 at the thought of Tom Landell's appearance on the 
 strength of her recently written eulogy of this hero of 
 the motor car. 
 
 " Mr. Landell, please do excuse us for talking about 
 all these men you do not know and are not the very
 
 The House of Landell 263 
 
 least bit interested in. You will meet them all very 
 soon, especially Tommy Tompkins. I might not be 
 here now, were it not for him," sighing pensively. 
 " You may see him at any minute, for, since the acci 
 dent, he has been here constantly." 
 
 This was said with childlike innocence, though the 
 remark was advanced, with admirable skill, toward 
 Tom, who settled his pieces upon the board of wit, 
 primed for the game. 
 
 " I am fascinated, Miss Romaine, with the melody 
 of your remarks, though my intellect has not yet trans 
 lated the symphony of sound. In other words, I must 
 confess I had not the slightest idea you were talking 
 about men, for I have not understood a word of what 
 you have been saying." 
 
 Mr. Romaine laughed gleefully at his daughter's 
 check. Mattee Sue withdrew her pawn and advanced 
 her queen toward the Major's side of the board. 
 
 " Mr. Landell is a very great friend of Mrs. La- 
 velle's, Major Verness. Do you recall Mrs. Lavelle, 
 Major?" 
 
 " With pleasure, you little mischief." The color rose 
 
 to the Major's face, and, receding, left it rather pale. 
 
 ' You should have seen Mrs. Lavelle set all the old 
 
 bachelors by the ears, Mr. Landell," Mattee Sue teased. 
 
 " It was perfectly delicious." 
 
 " You know we Southerners gloat over love con 
 tests like Indians over scalps," said Mr. Romaine, in 
 whose speech was apparent the same elision of the 
 medial H as in his younger daughter; also, the same 
 quaint lingering on the U until it reminded Tom of 
 the honey he used to sip in his boyhood, through the 
 winding horn of the columbine, so long drawn and 
 sweet it was. " I was grateful enough to all of them 
 for giving me such a race to watch. I had not been 
 interested in an up-to-date contest for so long, I had
 
 264 The House of Landell 
 
 forgotten even how to hold the stakes. It dropped 
 ten years off my shoulders, sir, just to watch the 
 score." 
 
 " I judge Miss Romaine keeps you busy." Tom 
 tried to draw the conversation back to his rhetoric 
 queen; but she skilfully checked his move. 
 
 " It was such fun, Mr. Landell. Mrs. Lavelle told 
 both Colonel Shelby and the Major that she was going 
 to the Baptist church, but went to the Methodist; and 
 there they both were, w'en meeting was over, waiting 
 to walk home with her." 
 
 " That waiting at the church door to nab your best 
 girl was the greatest fun in the world in our courting 
 days, wasn't it, Fanny ! " Mr. Romaine turned to his 
 wife. 
 
 " Yes, Ted, I acknowledge that anticipations of that 
 closing event of the morning service have sustained 
 me through many a long, dreary sermon." 
 
 " Where is Mrs. Lavelle, now, Mr. Landell ? " the 
 Major asked nonchalantly. 
 
 " The Major has not the slightest idea ! " was Mattee 
 Sue's teasing sarcasm. " He never writes to her, Mr. 
 Landell, of co'se not ! He never sends her his photos, 
 certainly not ! " 
 
 "I knew it!" Tom exclaimed impetuously; but, 
 having said so much, he refused to divulge to the 
 laughter-loving company his half revelation of Mrs. 
 Lavelle's attitude of mind on the eventful day of his 
 own introduction to the pictured face of Mattee Sue.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " The May-time, the May-time, 
 
 It fills the world with flowers; 
 God seeth what I yearn for, 
 With all my quickening powers. 
 
 " For love is all my longing; 
 A maid as fair as May, 
 To bring her to my hearthstone, 
 And make the springtime stay." 
 
 " MAUMA, I like Tom Landell ; but it will never do 
 to let him see it too plainly," was Mattee Sue's dis 
 criminating remark to her mother, the morning after 
 Tom's introduction to the Romaine family. " I shall 
 invite all the men I can think of, to meet him. I never 
 knew anybody, before, that did not make a dead set 
 at love-making right away; but, after the first minute, 
 when he truly showed how glad he was to see me, 
 you'd think I was just his chum. I didn't quite fancy 
 it at first, then the novelty became perfectly delicious, 
 and now it feels rather comfortable to sit and talk 
 sense without having to be on the qiti vive to parry 
 speeches. Most of the men that call on me I sit and 
 giggle at, inside or out, according to the man; but 
 Tom really talks, and w'at is more, with a talking man, 
 he lets you talk too. W'y Mauma, he talks religion 
 so that it sounds like every day common sense; and 
 science, so it is as real as love-making and twice as in 
 teresting. Oh ! Here he comes. Mayn't I get the 
 Major to take us to the Locks? It isn't w'at it used 
 to be, but it is one of the things to have seen. 
 
 265
 
 266 The House of Landell 
 
 " Oh Mr. Landell," she called, as he approached, 
 " I want you to see the Locks before you go away," 
 purposely trailing a fleeting touch of melancholy 
 through the tones, recovering her vivacity with ad 
 mirably simulated effort. " They are ruining it and 
 everything picturesque, nowadays, making us com 
 fortable. They cut down shade trees to give us good 
 roads and dam up water to give us light. Life is 
 very paradoxical, isn't it ! " 
 
 " As much so as quoits," assented Tom. 
 
 " And the more you play it in the whole the more 
 fun it is. Life, in the hands of the vivisectionists, is 
 painful. I don't like pain." 
 
 " Surgeons are saying that that is what keeps our 
 sensibilities alive to new issues." 
 
 " So you think we sleep, mentally and emotionally, 
 w'en things are too pleasant?" There was a wicked 
 twinkle in Mattee Sue's eyes as her fertile brain con 
 sidered this method of keeping fun alive and highly 
 sensitized.. Enlarging upon this, behind the smooth 
 and innocent brow, she raised to him, a face, appar 
 ently so devoid of guile, that he was roused from his 
 matter-of-fact commonsense adoration. He yearned 
 for the gift of poesy, painting, sculpture, anything that 
 would enable him to preserve, for posterity to worship, 
 Innocence, as expressed in thin perfect symbol, her 
 lovely face. 
 
 " Here comes the Major ! I'm going to ask him to 
 get up the party. No one knows how better than he. 
 There isn't a stick or stone about this blessed old 
 town that he doesn't know the history of, and adore! 
 I just love the Major! He is the dearest darling! I 
 really believe that after all these years of flitting about 
 with a dozen sweethearts, the way lots of Southern men 
 do, that Mrs. Lavelle has won him with her very fri 
 gidity and aloofness. It's a puzzle to Southern men,
 
 The House of Landell 267 
 
 you know, w'en a woman seems to prefer not to have 
 twenty suitors about her all the time. It's very supris- 
 ing, you know." " Oh Major," for by this time, the 
 Major was within hailing distance, " I have a very 
 great favor to ask of you. Won't you take us to the 
 Locks? Not in a steam launch, but in one of those 
 lovely sleepy boats that rocks you up there like a 
 dear old-fashioned cradle, with a mule for a nurse? 
 W'en I am in one of those blessed old things, I 
 feel as if I could hug Ruskin for saying our brains 
 would be wittier if we used tow-boats and * all those 
 things w'ich induce the use of hands." 
 
 " That is one of the strong points we psychurgists 
 make," said Tom, a trifle didactically. " The discrim 
 inative use of fingers and hands as instruments for con 
 structing brain cell tissues, has been found one of our 
 most powerful allies." 
 
 "Periwinkle and persimmons!" shivered Mattee 
 Sue, wickedly. " I hope you won't compel your wife 
 to do the family washing to make her more companion 
 able, mentally. That might be a useful way of scrub 
 bing the color out of one's theories but not nearly so 
 delicious as crooning them in sweet bits of poetry and 
 other heart rhapsodies to the jog of those precious 
 mules." 
 
 Tom's egotism became quiescent under this pretty 
 little tongue lashing. 
 
 " It sounds very delightful," was his meek reply. 
 
 "When should you like to go?" asked the Major. 
 " Have you any choice, Landell? " 
 
 " It must be soon," said Tom ruefully, " I sail this 
 week." 
 
 " I'm bound for the North myself." The Major 
 tried to speak indifferently. " A day or so's difference 
 is nothing to me. Suppose we go on the same boat? " 
 
 " Our Locks trip must surely be to-morrow, then,"
 
 268 The House of Landell 
 
 Mattee Sue decided. " It has been so warm these last 
 few days I think we may safely venture. Here comes 
 Max. What do you call, Mr. Landell, that strange 
 sense of awareness lovers possess, by w'ich they al 
 ways know w'ere to find their beloved? Does psy- 
 churgy explain this phenomenon? " 
 
 " You may find answer to that at the Locks," warned 
 the Major. " You know it is considered a stronghold 
 of Cupid's clan. It is especially dangerous at full 
 moon, for then their aim is unerring, their wounds 
 fatal." 
 
 " How remarkable that I should have picked out 
 just such a night for our party; Major, it is a pity 
 Mrs. Lavelle went home too early in the season to 
 permit our placing her within range. Her armor is 
 almost impervious ! " 
 
 Deftly, she caught the rose the Major threw in play 
 ful punishment for her teasing as he bade them adieu, 
 to start, at once, upon preparations for the trip. 
 
 "'Joy-bells, joy-bells, 
 What a truth their music tells ! ' ' 
 
 sang Tom in a mellow barytone the next morning 
 while dressing. He had been invited to dine at the 
 Romaines' and, as he labored with his tie, was wonder 
 ing just how early he might present himself, and if, 
 once there, it would seem too intrusive to stay out 
 the afternoon. " ' Joy-bells, joy-bells,' " he hummed 
 again, " I wish I could recall the exact words of that 
 dear little song. It plays about my heart constantly. 
 The theme was woven from those few words, ' Joy- 
 bells,' but there were two or three lines in elabora 
 tion of that thought, just as the things I am doing now 
 are variations of the one motif, I love her, love her, 
 love her! Isn't she a darling! Her poses, so unaf-
 
 The House of Landell 269 
 
 fected and absolutely her own, haunt me! Her deli 
 cate little Southern 'isms enchant me! I could listen, 
 by the hour, to her voice, with its lingering caress upon 
 the words and the semi-elision of consonants. I won 
 der how soon I may decently go over there. Ah! 
 There is a letter from Agnes ! " 
 
 He opened the envelope that just then had skidded 
 across the floor, skilfully shot under the door by the 
 bell-boy. At once absorbed in the contents, his fine 
 face lost its joyousness and grew in tender concern 
 as he read. 
 
 " Dear Tom," it ran ; " Can you solve the mystery ! You 
 know that for some time I have been impelled to go to Aunt 
 Luella's. Her letters told me she was well which relieved me 
 from any sense of duty in the matter, yet, constantly, I was 
 urged, within myself, to doubt their written message. The feel 
 ing that she needed me, I turned aside as emotional sentimen- 
 talism in view of the dignity of my position in staying away 
 from her and thereby quieting any gossip that I was a fortune 
 hunter. To-day news came that she has passed the veil. Her 
 attendant writes that she seemed well, but that day after day 
 she had kept my picture in the bag that hangs always at her 
 side, and night after night it has been placed tenderly under 
 her pillow, and that often, through the night, she has held it in 
 her arms and crooned lovingly over it. Why did they not let 
 me know ! Why did she not send for me ! During the past 
 months, her only lapse from health has been violent attacks of 
 nausea, at not very frequent intervals, which seemed relieved in 
 some strange way, without vomiting. The letter verifies these 
 attacks as being synchronous with my own. Does that illustrate 
 the thought, ' By His stripes are ye healed ' ? " 
 
 " Perhaps," murmured Tom, as he folded the letter, 
 " but it seems a queer and unnecessary way of prov 
 ing our connection with each other; not a valuable 
 one, either. Dear Aunt Luella, God speed her! 
 Heaven show Agnes a way out! To shut all such 
 phenomena from the mind might be comparatively
 
 270 The House of Landell 
 
 easy; but to select the calls where one can serve, and 
 deny the rest ! " 
 
 As he turned the letter, he saw a postscript which 
 he read with the puzzled look deepening in his eyes. 
 
 " The hour of dear Auntie's death/' he read, " I was in my 
 room in meditation. As I bowed my head in prayer, a vault- 
 like well in which was an eye evolved before me. I looked at 
 it intently, when the eye moved into another well. There it 
 remained until I was called from its contemplation. What does 
 Aunt Luella wish to tell me? Why may I not learn to know 
 from spiritual discernment rather than by phenomena ! Do 
 try to see for me ! Should you think it related to spiritual, 
 mental or material matters ? " 
 
 Tom pondered, but could come to no conclusion. 
 
 " At all events, give her the optimism of your as 
 surance/' he said to himself, as he went to breakfast. 
 
 Breakfast over, he wrote to his mother and sister, 
 then walked to the florist's, selecting the prettiest 
 flowers he could find. By that time he decided it was 
 not too early to go to the Romaines'. 
 
 As he had hoped, he found Mattee Sue on the piazza.. 
 The apparently diligent artist was at her drawing 
 table which, in crass contradiction to rule, was facing 
 the south and an extended view of the street. As he 
 approached, she seemed completely absorbed in the 
 plates before her ; but being far-sighted in more senses 
 than one, he knew that she had been fully occupied 
 with a scrutinizing survey of the road. Vainly she 
 tried not to let the radiance of her heart shine through 
 her countenance ; but " one might almost say her body 
 thought," and her joy fairly bubbled. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Landell let's take a drive in my dear 
 little trap so we can go into the club grounds, one 
 place, thank Minerva's helmet, w'ere those squawking 
 creatures of transportation motor cars cannot go ! " 
 
 She dipped her face into the blossoms, partly to in-
 
 The House of Landell 271 
 
 hale their fragrance, partly to conceal the happiness 
 she felt showing itself too blatantly. 
 
 " Snowball, tell Nep to bring my new trap, instantly. 
 Then bring me some vases. Oh, how perfectly beauti 
 ful these roses are." 
 
 The trap was soon at the door. The two started 
 off, Mattee Sue handling the reins with a skill that 
 won Tom anew. 
 
 " What a blessing you sent that old rhetoric on such 
 a mission as finding me? " he said, at length, shaking 
 himself out of the sweet dream into which he had 
 fallen, into the sweeter delight of hearing her voice. 
 
 " W oh w er y, all of us girls exchanged our 
 old books for new ones. I think it colossal egotism, 
 however, Mr. Landell, even in a flight of rhetorical 
 hyperbole, to make any statement suggesting, in the 
 most distant manner, that that book had you in its 
 mind. Its finding you, was nothing more nor less than 
 a happen " 
 
 " There are no happens. ' There's a divinity that 
 shapes our ends, 
 
 " ' Rough-hew them how we will ! ' Mattee Sue 
 completed the couplet with a tender touch of voice and 
 eye and a sympathy of understanding that made Tom 
 take fresh heart. Then with the adorable verve that 
 always disclosed itself in her manner when convinced 
 she was losing her vantage but was resolved on rein 
 stating herself, she touched the spirited horse with a 
 dainty fleck of the whip and they went their way. 
 
 " School children don't have to buy their books in 
 Georgia, do they?" said Tom curiously. 
 
 " Of co'se. Don't they, North? " 
 
 " No, the state provides them for use in the schools." 
 
 "We are poor! Poor! You Northerners act as if 
 we enjoyed having nothing!" 
 
 " Don't say Northerners, as if we were an especially
 
 272 The House of Landell 
 
 noxious sort of beast in some isolated department of 
 the world's menagerie." 
 
 " W'y, then, don't we have art museums and boule 
 vards and reforms and plenty of money to pay our 
 teachers ! " 
 
 With a side glance at Tom, she saw she had scored 
 a point, and, gleefully hugging herself, continued, 
 
 " Please do not come and poke your superiority into 
 our faces. Every Yankee I ever met, looks at us with 
 a commiseration that shows plainly he believes us in 
 capable of putting on our cuff buttons, even, without 
 assistance from them. I suspect those letters you have 
 forgotten to mail, that are sticking out of your pockets, 
 are pitiful attempts to transfer my dialect to paper. I 
 hope it will be fully as interesting to your friends as 
 your brogue is to mine ! " 
 
 " I am doing no such thing," Tom hastened to as 
 sure her, funnily pathetic in his hope to hold himself 
 high in her favor, " I would not attempt it ! I wish 
 I might, for yours is the most fascinating melody of 
 sound I ever listened to, with its dear little inimitable 
 elisions and its original journeys among the intervals 
 of the scale, weaving the most entrancing 
 
 " You giggle, inside, every time I drop my G's and 
 H's." Mattee Sue was in no wise mollified. '*' You 
 don't know how I have tried to tack those abominable 
 letters w'ere they belong. feel sure I have not 
 dropped more than a hundred or two-00-00-/ and I 
 used to drop thousands ! There, I saw your eye w'en 
 I said tew ! " 
 
 " I love it ! Believe me ! Why should I want you to 
 say oo ? There is no music in it and no taste. I assure 
 you, my sister does not say oo! Your speech is like 
 liquid honey or the carol of the mocking-bird in your 
 own lagoons ! I could no;, imitate you if I would ! I 
 have always thought attempts to reproduce dialect "
 
 The House of Landell 273 
 
 " I haven't any more dialect than you have brogue," 
 flashed Mattee Sue. 
 
 " I was going to say," said Tom, growing cooler as 
 Mattee Sue warmed to the conversation, " I consider 
 it buffoonery. Speech cannot be separated from per 
 sonality. Speech, ' Le style c'est I'homme! ' It 
 makes me happy that you care enough for me to feel, 
 even for the moment, like adjusting your enunciation 
 to please my ear." 
 
 " Certainly, you have a fine vocabulary at your com 
 mand," scoffed Mattee Sue. " As for pleasing you, I 
 am only studying differences. I still assert, you all 
 act as if you doubt our ability! Ability, you may 
 happen to remember, is power to perform ! O Tom ! " 
 
 They were driving over a high bridge at a lively trot, 
 when, coming laboriously up the incline, a slight, nine- 
 year old boy uncertainly wabbled his way on a bicycle. 
 Fearfully, with hopes of avoiding them, he ran the 
 machine into the vehicle, himself falling between the 
 wheels, which, in an instant more would pass ruth 
 lessly over the slender little frame. 
 
 Tom's heart stood still. He was powerless to pre 
 vent the catastrophe, for the child had fallen on Mattee 
 Sue's side of the trap. 
 
 Without drawing in the horse there was no time 
 the girl stooped toward the child. Even before his 
 body touched ground, her arm described the splen 
 did cycloid curve the eagle makes when he swoops 
 upon his prey, and, catching at the collar of his blouse, 
 she swung the little fellow on to the trap even while 
 his pitiful, terrified, " Please don't run over me " was 
 quivering on the air. 
 
 " Yes, ability is power to perform, you magnificent 
 little trump ! " cried Tom, in an enthusiasm of pride 
 at the fortunate termination of a nearly heart-breaking 
 tragedy.
 
 274 The House of Landell 
 
 " You seem to need a kindergarten demonstration 
 to teach you that any of us Gustaga girls can lift a 
 man to the clouds if we wish, and drop him with 
 equal facility," she concluded after an infinitesimal 
 pause. 
 
 Tom gasped. Perhaps she meant to do that to him ! 
 She had been so kind and had lifted him so high and 
 it was notorious that Southern girls were skilled tac 
 ticians in heart affairs. They could slip your head into 
 a noose and leave it there while you supposed you were 
 being led through the gates of Paradise. What chance 
 had he! He was only a straightforward man, des 
 perately in love and accustomed to walking directly to 
 his goal. Only the sincerity of his purpose and his 
 habit of working till he got what he wanted, could 
 withstand the subtilty of her finesse. 
 
 " Now Howard Keep, do you learn to ride that 
 bicycle before you come spirating up this hill again," 
 she was saying with severity, to conceal her agitation 
 as the little fellow, frightened, but grateful, jumped 
 down to his wheel, uninjured on the roadway. " And 
 don't ride into danger, again, before you are twenty- 
 five," she tossed after him, with an air of angelic in 
 nocence. "After that "her eyes saw Tom as dis 
 tinctly as if she were looking into his face " you will 
 not be a bit better able to cope with it; but you will 
 seem fairer sport for fate." 
 
 At six in the evening the party started for the boat 
 landing. As the automobiles turned into the main busi 
 ness street and faced the west, Tom, as never before, 
 noted the ethereal beauty of the memorial monument 
 poised in an atmosphere all its own, apparently un 
 sullied and untouched by the soot and dust of lower 
 air. It seemed a luminous manifestation rather than a
 
 The House of Landell 275 
 
 marble shaft, and the visitor's aesthetic and emotional 
 nature was stirred to the depths. 
 
 " What grace ! " he said reverently. " Its simple dig 
 nity must impel the regard, even of the thoughtless. A 
 symbol of the ideal is ever before one who drives into 
 the sunset from the eastern approach of this street. 
 Back of the vista of trees at the further end," he medi 
 tated aloud to Mattee Sue, who sat beside him, " hangs 
 the sun, like a ball of flame. The dust from the broad 
 avenues on either side the green sward of the mall is 
 like a rain of red gold falling to earth, to rise in fire 
 mist. The sun sends long, lurid bars through the at 
 mospheric glow, and illumined, poised in the white light 
 against the background of foliage, of translucent dis 
 tance and of dust flame, overlooking the city stands the 
 soldier on this pure white shaft, never betraying his 
 trust, watchful of the city's ideals, a suggestion that 
 every citizen shall be the same, a type of faithfulness 
 and honor! Somewhere, I have read a poem, The 
 Man on the Monument!" 
 
 " Yes, it is about this very shaft." Mattee Sue's 
 face glowed with that patriotism for her fatherland 
 found and nurtured in almost every Southern heart. 
 
 " I do not wonder it appealed to a poet's vision ! 
 Every time I come into this street and face the sunset 
 and see that figure limned against the sky, the blue 
 of the heavens truth for his background and his 
 ether, I shall long to put into words the power I feel 
 transfused in me through the ideal it represents." 
 
 He saluted, as they passed. 
 
 " Here is some more golden water, as you politely 
 called our huge mud puddle the other day, when you 
 were entertaining fancies, more removed from the 
 dramatic and poetic, and closer to the civil engineer 
 ing chamber of your brain," and Mattee Sue, who 
 liked, what she called heroics, only for short periods,
 
 276 The House of Landell 
 
 drew Tom's attention to the stream they were ap 
 proaching. " It is not the river, this time, though, it 
 is the canal. Pretty soon, we shall be at the landing. 
 There is the boat waiting for us, now." 
 
 With much laughter and delicious flutters of excite 
 ment, the automobiles came to a stand, and ere long 
 the occupants had taken possession of the commodious 
 tow-boat with its wide-spread awnings. Rhythmically, 
 and with the dolce far niente of his kind, the driver 
 transfused into the sleepy mule an action that seemed 
 to Tom rather an extension of stillness than a change 
 to motion. Indeed, there was to him the drowse of 
 the land of the Lotos-Eaters over everything, and with 
 half shut eyes he rested in the lap of indolence. 
 Dreamily, he felt the rope tremble and move swishingly 
 against the sedges. Almost imperceptibly the boat 
 obeyed the impulse and began to cut the stream with a 
 cradle-like swing. It brushed the banks tenderly, as 
 with gentle farewell, then swung boldly into the centre 
 of the channel; past the mills, less like factories than 
 like feudal castles under the bridges, far from the 
 black city smoke, farther and farther into nature's 
 heart. The sun, magical alchemist, transfused life and 
 brilliance into the muddy waters, until, sparkling and 
 floating, swaying and dipping, clarified into a sheet of 
 liquid gold, it mirrored strongly shadowed cloud effects 
 and imaged the celadon green of the grasses. Slowly, 
 at first, then with the rapid oncoming of the Southern 
 twilight, the clouds swept the sky. Masses of black 
 and gold, yielding to copper and bronze and sepia 
 browns and nile and apple greens, shimmered faintly 
 away, until they melted into the colors and odors of 
 the sedges as their aroma was crushed from them by 
 the rope attached to the elbow of the drowsy man on 
 the back of the plodding mule. As, from moment to 
 moment, the fluttering clouds of fancy faded to the
 
 The House of Landell 277 
 
 border land of dreams, so day slipped to night; its 
 light the moon, with satellites of stars. 
 
 Making himself one with the merriment of the party, 
 still Tom endeavored to keep his mind in the delicious 
 maze into which love had led it. Unimaginative, in a 
 sense, and thoroughly practical, as he was, this mys 
 tical spell stole over him with a novelty and charm 
 he was loth to break. With the strange flash of recol 
 lection which calls up incongruous figures to illustrate 
 some gripping truth, he saw himself, as a boy, trying 
 to shake the milk in a bowl without disturbing its rich 
 coating of cream. So, now, he tried and he laughed 
 grimly to himself as he followed the figure to give the 
 joy of his companionship to the merry crowd, while 
 holding the richness of this love dream, without jar 
 or interruption, in his heart. Ever and anon, his half 
 shut eyes dwelt upon the enchantress who had so com 
 pletely enmeshed his emotions and led him captive, 
 while, in the intervals, with eyes wide open and in 
 tellectual, he parried the banter of those about him and 
 gave his Roland for every Oliver with a charm that 
 made him the lion of the occasion. 
 
 After three hours, the boat edged its way heavily 
 to shore, and the party landed at the Locks. The 
 moon, poised above the massive masonry and natural 
 crags, silvered the turbulent waters as they seethed 
 against the background of rock and cedrine hills. It 
 was a scene, indescribable, never to be forgotten this 
 majesty of nature silent, even in the thundering 
 water, the soughing trees, the life, immanent, of the 
 motionless yet vibrant rocks. 
 
 In a moment, the boat was emptied of its human 
 freight; a bugle crashed into the conclaves of the 
 pines; fiddle and trombone stirred waves of sound in 
 the symphony of night. Echoes heralded the melody, 
 playing with ever-changing variations upon the theme
 
 278 The House of Landell 
 
 of life. Scouting groups tested the pavilion floor, 
 circling discreetly away from chaperones in well- 
 planned, lengthening curves. 
 
 After a few turns, Tom drew Mattee Sue outside 
 the pavilion, and together they reached a jutting of 
 masonry. Time was leaping with long and hateful 
 strides toward the hour of his departure, and he 
 grudged every minute of trivial converse with others 
 when he longed to send his coul further toward the 
 realization of his quest. From the massive bulwark 
 of stone they looked upon the rampant, turbulent 
 waters, which, strong in comradeship with lovers, ex 
 pressed, in songs without words, a willingness to en 
 fold in their noisy surging the voices of the man and 
 maid. Beyond the ledges of gaunt and naked crags 
 were the serenely flowing waters of the canal. 
 
 Encouraged by the immensity on every side, their 
 voices rose upon the night zephyr and were lost in 
 the rustling of the dead oak leaves restively moving 
 upon the stems that had held them all too long. In 
 rests, staccatos, silences and exclamations, their souls 
 moved to the accompaniment of the seething mass be 
 low, as, in swirling rhythmic nocturne, it played the 
 dreamy mystery of the Southern night, an impelling 
 accompaniment to the intermittent melody of their 
 speech, as love pulsed in and about them as strong as 
 life itself. 
 
 At times throughout the afternoon, Tom had felt 
 inundated with a depression wholly alien to his tem 
 perament. It had seized upon him after Mattee Sue's 
 insinuation that ability implies a latent power of an 
 nihilating men. Alternating with attacks of merri 
 ment and blissful introspection, he had been the prey 
 of moods, an unheard of thing with him. As for 
 Mattee Sue, she was in a delicious tremor of excite 
 ment. Even as she had seen Howard Keep wabble
 
 The House of Landell 279 
 
 his uncertain way toward the inevitable, she had known 
 Tom's capitulation imminent. She knew, too, that 
 she could, with equal ease, raise him to the heights, or 
 leave him to disappointment. 
 
 " You know why I am here," his voice sang into 
 her heart. " You know why I am a thousand miles 
 from home beneath a Southern sky." 
 
 " To study types, I suppose," was Mattee Sue's 
 succinct reply. " To learn w'y we are so poor we can't 
 buy schoolbooks ! " 
 
 " I am too desperately in love to be tormented ! I 
 can't stand it! Be as good to me as you were to 
 little Howard Keep. Do not leave me writhing be 
 tween the wheels of your wit and sarcasm ! " 
 
 As was her custom in affairs of coquetry, when, as 
 the Major said, she was preparing to hang hearts on 
 her scalp belt, her lips opened to parry his suit; but 
 one look at his face melted her mood. His earnest 
 ness and simplicity proved a more virile power than 
 any art of fencing. Her head drooped. She turned 
 her face aside, but listened. 
 
 " Life has such wonderful experiences for us both," 
 Tom went on, earnestly, " let us find them together." 
 
 Mattee Sue stood silhouetted in the moonlight. 
 Her shadow stirred as she quivered with the wonder 
 of a new-found tenderness. 
 
 " You do love me ! You do believe in me ! My 
 rhetoric queen!" His heart joined its throbs, almost 
 audibly, with the sound of pine and wave. He noted 
 her attitude of listening, and urged his suit. 
 
 Unconsciously, she swayed toward him, her chin 
 leading the beautiful bended head, until the fair face, 
 luminous with emotion, was raised slowly upward and 
 her eyes met his. The two seemed lifted up and drawn 
 together. A sense of perfect safety and rest, enfolded 
 her. In this man were to be found those " high erected
 
 280 The House of Landell 
 
 thoughts, deep seated in the heart of courtesy," of 
 which she long had dreamed ; deep, stirring, true, real, 
 restful, and safe the courtesy in which a woman 
 could abide and know to be love. She gave a happy 
 little sigh. 
 
 " I believe in you and love you ! " 
 
 " Do you always bring your plans to such rapid 
 culmination?" said Mr. Romaine the next day after 
 dinner. 
 
 " Rapid, Mr. Romaine ! " protested Tom. " It's 
 been over two years ! " 
 
 " That sounds like an eternity, as you intone it ! You 
 do not expect to take my daughter away with you, I 
 hope?" 
 
 " There is nothing I should like better ; but I sup 
 pose I must give you a few months to get used to 
 the parting. I shall endeavor to express in my atti 
 tude toward your daughter, as my wife, her right as 
 an individual, wife and mother, and to make our lives 
 a union of love and of understanding." 
 
 " God bless a lover like yourself," Mr. Romaine 
 covered his emotion under the careful selection of a 
 cigar, " and bring you both to the fulness of your 
 high desire."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 "A truth that the heart acknowledges last of 
 all, that even if we poured out our own blood in 
 streams for any one, we could not, thereby, give 
 him a drop of richer or more noble blood than is 
 found in his own heart." 
 
 THE platform was filled with friends of Tom and 
 the Major bidding them good-bye. The reason for 
 the latter's trip North seemed as clearly defined in the 
 minds of the merry group, as was the coming of Tom 
 South. Amidst laughter, waving of handkerchiefs and 
 hats, the train moved slowly away, gradually increas 
 ing its speed until out of sight and the two settled down 
 for a season of congenial companionship. The Major 
 whiled away the hours with lively bits of history con 
 cerning the country through which they traveled, its 
 past, present and future, the business prospects, new 
 industries, towns springing up by the way, with now 
 and then a war story, as a passing scene or old planta 
 tion recalled to mind one of many " before the war " 
 legends. 
 
 They reached the port city, and soon were at the 
 wharf and on the steamer, Tom enthusiastically watch 
 ing the loading of the boat with its cotton freight, 
 and the Major, to whom that scene was familiar, 
 equally interested in watching Tom. 
 
 " Yes," he responded, in answer to a question, " that 
 fellow who sets the pace, gets extra wages for the noise 
 he is making." 
 
 " See them hustle to get in these last bales," called 
 Tom, as excited as a lad. 
 
 281
 
 282 The House of Landell 
 
 " Look, yonder go the hatches. The next thing of 
 interest will be the swearing. Of all extensive, ex 
 pansive cussers Captain Crossleigh is the most expan 
 sive. I hope we shall have a good trip." The Major 
 settled himself to watching the casting off of the lines 
 and the sliding away from the wharf into the channel 
 and down to the sea. 
 
 The river lay like the broad sheet of gold of ancient 
 poetry as the boat steamed slowly down to the bar. 
 The rice fields, with their wonderful greens, than 
 which, among all of nature's, there is none more deli 
 cate; the foreign shipping in the harbor; the many 
 matters which awakened interest on a new trip, kept 
 Tom on the alert. 
 
 " I recall coming up here one night in the late fall." 
 The Major moved his steamer chair a little closer to 
 the gunwale. " We worked our way at a snail's pace 
 through the crowded harbor. It was moonlight and 
 cold. The scows about us were covered with sail 
 cloths and the hoar frost encrusted them, sparkling 
 and glistening in the moonlight. They looked like huge 
 corpses laid out on mighty biers. I assure you, it was 
 weird." 
 
 " ' Full many a shape that shadows were,' " quoted 
 Tom, thoughtfully. " I wonder how the Ancient Mari 
 ner felt when he saw them floating all about him." 
 
 "I know how I felt! I realized, as never before, 
 how truly we are ghosts ephemeral shapes of an idea. 
 After all, we are like those scows, filled with sail- 
 covered actualities. When conditions favor, we may 
 throw aside these shrouds we are pleased to call the 
 all-powerful body, and display what we are inwardly. 
 I have not, for a great while, had in mind the poem 
 you quote, but now there comes to me the stanza fol 
 lowing that one lines, descriptive of the moment when 
 the life within the seeming dead reveals itself,
 
 The House of Landell 283 
 
 " ' Each corse lay flat, 'lifeless and flat, 
 And by the holy rood, 
 A man all light, a seraph man, 
 On every corse there stood.' 
 
 " Watch ! We are nearing the mouth of the river. 
 Note the difference in the color at the bar and beyond. 
 At once, the golden mass becomes a tossing, billowing, 
 foam-capped silver sheet, extending as far as the eye 
 can see. Isn't that a pretty good illustration of the 
 effect of influence in the making of humanity? " 
 
 " Tom Landell ! " A voice that conveyed but a dim 
 sense of recognition to Tom's ears made itself heard 
 at his elbow. " Let me see ! Have I met you since 
 my marriage with Jack Jenkins? Oh, of course! 
 Everybody thought I was going to be Mrs. Horace 
 Vernon, you know what an escape! I'd introduce 
 Jack but unfortunately he's down with rheumatism, 
 poor fellow. He is a thorough man of the world 
 a nice man he could give you lots of dots, ' 
 
 Her face clouded a little but she rambled on. 
 
 " I forgot. You know Jack already. He's got all 
 of your Aunt Luella's money maybe you don't know, 
 if you've been away long. She left no near heirs and 
 made the will in his favor at the last minute. It was 
 a great tribute to her confidence in him, and it affected 
 him very much. Her death quite broke him up and he 
 was obliged to have a change, so we took this trip to 
 get the sea, and turned right round and came back, 
 
 "May I introduce my friend, Major Verness?" 
 While Grace stopped to take breath, Tom seized the 
 opportunity to present his companion. 
 
 Grace gave an almost imperceptible nod, and began 
 again, 
 
 " Where did you come from, Tom? " 
 
 "Gustaga. We"
 
 284 The House of Landell 
 
 " Oh, did you ! Mr. Jenkins and I were going there ; 
 but he had a dreadful attack, poor fellow, and we 
 didn't get so far. He suffers terribly with rheumatism. 
 Do you ever see Horace Vernon, nowadays ? He was 
 a nice man Her eyes clouded again, but she went 
 on, " So glad to know you, Major Verness. Jack will 
 like to meet you, I'm sure. I'll see you at dinner." 
 
 She went to her husband's stateroom and tapped. 
 A sodden voice bade her enter and, when the door 
 opened, no explanation was necessary as to the sort 
 of rheumatism from which Jack Jenkins suffered. 
 Escaping, in an agony of disgust, she went to an 
 adjoining stateroom and threw herself upon the bed 
 in a tempest of tears. 
 
 " A man of the world ! " she sobbed. " God, can't 
 you hear me ! Tell me what to do ! " 
 
 She went to dinner that night, radiantly pretty, her 
 eyes gleaming with the mysterious and fascinating 
 splendor that only tears can give. No belladonna, no 
 kohl, no secrets of the boudoir bestow such mystery of 
 charm to eyes as tears shed by a broken heart, but con 
 quered, mellowed, and steeped in smiles. 
 
 She had wheedled the purser into placing her at table 
 near the two men she knew and kept the ball of con 
 versation tossing lightly in her usual flippant manner. 
 At the close of the meal, smiling coquettishly, she left 
 them and went to her stateroom. As before, she threw 
 herself upon the bed, this time, sobbing, " Horace, 
 Horace, what have I done ! " 
 
 " See here, Tom," said the Major, as the sound of 
 rain beating against the porthole woke the two men, 
 " do you know we are cutting through this water like 
 scudding clouds ! I never was on a boat going at such 
 speed! By the way, is that Mrs. Jenkins a special 
 friend of yours? "
 
 The House of Landell 285 
 
 " No she lived near my aunt, and my sister knew 
 her, and has always kept up with her. I can't imagine 
 why, unless it's because she adores being in at the 
 awakening process. She is a sort of godmother of 
 souls is my sister." 
 
 " Her husband's rheumatism, poor fellow, gets on 
 my nerves. I imagine it does on hers, too. This boat 
 is going like a house afire. Suppose we reconnoitre." 
 
 " Don't you think it's all right? " 
 
 " I reckon so ; but there is no harm in our looking 
 about and seeing what we can see." 
 
 The men prepared, hastily, to go on deck. As the 
 Major opened the stateroom door, he halted an in 
 stant, threw up his head, then walked on rapidly, Tom 
 following closely, scenting danger. 
 
 The captain had just come from the hurricane deck 
 and was standing at the prow looking over the wide 
 expanse of ocean looming in the darkness. The boat 
 was plunging ahead, cutting the water with a hissing 
 sound and leaving behind a broad, light green, foamy 
 wake. The captain turned and greeted them. 
 
 " A gallant sailor," said the Major, as the boat 
 throbbed under him. 
 
 " Yes, sir, a craft to be proud of." 
 
 " Well freighted with cotton? " 
 
 " To the very hatches." 
 
 The Major stepped closer and spoke in an under 
 tone. 
 
 The captain's chin shot out and his eyes almost 
 closed, while, between their lids, there flamed the steady 
 light of courage and determination. 
 
 " How did you know ! For God's sake, keep it 
 secret. I have three hundred souls on board." 
 
 " Not to know that smell ! There's nothing like it ! " 
 
 " Like what? " Tom questioned. 
 
 " The cotton is on fire," was the Major's low re-
 
 286 The House of Landell 
 
 sponse. " Captain, at this rate, what is the earliest 
 we can hope to land? " 
 
 " Thirty hours," his firm jaw set more firmly still. 
 
 He returned to the hurricane deck and did not leave 
 it for some time, while the great search-light swept 
 the dark spaces and his eyes were strained to see land 
 land! 
 
 When Grace appeared at the breakfast table, as 
 pretty as ever, no one would have dreamed that all 
 night long she had lain awake feasting on the bitter 
 fruit of repentance, with the eye of a good sailor, 
 watching the horizon line appear and disappear as the 
 ship bowed and bounded over the waves. 
 
 " Good morning ! " she said briskly. " How finely 
 we are driving along. Jack is not coming to breakfast. 
 He has rheumatism so badly, poor fellow." 
 
 " How much easier to call it sick, and not half so 
 irritating, if she really wants to lie," thought the 
 Major. " Evidently she has adopted that phrase and 
 holds to it, irrespective of fitness. Adjustability takes 
 brain, I suppose ! " 
 
 " Do you carry all your beautiful jewels about with 
 you?" as, later, they were standing at the prow, the 
 two men serious with the burden of their terrible 
 secret and Grace making valiant attempts to coquette 
 with them as she played with her handsome rings. 
 
 " Oh, I leave them about anywhere. There are a 
 lot in my stateroom, now." 
 
 "If you won't mind my suggesting it, I would se 
 crete your valuables upon your person. There are 
 often sneak thieves on boats." 
 
 Thrown into a flutter of excitement, Grace hurried 
 to her stateroom to follow the Major's advice, just as 
 Captain Crossleigh appeared, cool, suave, and smiling. 
 
 " Major," he concealed the gravity of his words 
 behind a jovial laugh that could be heard by the by-
 
 The House of Landell 287 
 
 slanders when the words could not, " I shall burst the 
 boilers! Don't look concerned or the others will sus 
 pect. Laugh, for God's sake, laugh ! " 
 
 The two obeyed, and the echo of the sound haunted 
 them for many and many a day. 
 
 " I have followed your advice," Grace told them on 
 her return. " Jack wanted to know what I was do 
 ing; but he was in such pain he didn't notice especially. 
 Do you mind if I stay about with you, Tom?" a 
 shadow of wistfulness in her tones, " I like you for 
 your sister's sake. She is the only one in the world 
 who doesn't treat me as if I were a never-to-be-any- 
 thing-else-flibbertigibbet except one and he didn't 
 hold out." She broke off suddenly. "Mercy!" re 
 turning to her usual manner. " Isn't this boat cutting 
 the water! I don't consider it safe! Do you, Major 
 Verness? It makes me nervous! Did you speak to 
 the captain about it? I saw him leave you just as I 
 came on deck." 
 
 " Pretty fast craft, this, stranger," remarked a by 
 stander. "Don't you call it pesky risky traveling?" 
 
 " So much the better ! " laughed the Major. " The 
 sooner to home and sweetheart." 
 
 " Why is this boat plunging along like a mad 
 thing?" a bright little woman addressed him in low 
 tones. " Don't utter platitudes to me, I beg," checking 
 the jovial answer, " I know the odor! There is noth 
 ing like it!" 
 
 " Only the majesty of calmness will bear us 
 through," the Major returned, under his breath. 
 
 " I saw the burning of a boat off Apple Island " 
 she shuddered, moving closer, as they stood by the 
 gunwale, oblivious that the waves at times dashed over 
 the railing upon them " the captain ran for the old 
 wharf at Shirley Gut, and, as the fiery mass cut through 
 the waves, the people jumped for their lives. The
 
 288 The House of Landell 
 
 steward's wife was swept under the wheel and ground 
 to death! I saw her go!" 'She trembled. "Under 
 the wheel, and I saw her go ! " 
 
 " It is best not to dwell on that now. We shall not 
 go beneath the wheel but on to the fair green land to 
 live and love, " The Major was interrupted by 
 Grace, who came hurrying to them. 
 
 " Major ! " she called, with the wild inconsequence 
 of fright, " I'm going to tell the captain I'll not stay 
 on this boat if he doesn't slow down. This pace is 
 scandalous ! " 
 
 On lunged the steamer, now in uneven leaps like a 
 horse wearying in the race. Stealing out of the blue 
 gray of the horizon peeped the outlines of land, to dis 
 appear, again, as the tossing surf and clouding mists 
 concealed them. Louder and louder grew the denun 
 ciations of the passengers as the captain failed to re 
 spond to their demands and the steamer madly sped on ! 
 
 " He will burst the boilers ! " said one. 
 
 " He is drunk ! " said another. 
 
 " He shall be reported! " said a third. 
 
 Then came the inevitable. 
 
 " I smell smoke ! My God, the boat is afire ! " The 
 company became a frantic mob, a seething mass of 
 unrestrained humanity as wild and relentless as the 
 fire and water they so madly feared. 
 
 Underneath the hideous obligate of curses, screams 
 and groans, above the double bass of the ocean's relent 
 less roar, sounded the steady pumping of the engines, 
 their motif translated to the ears of terror that now 
 heard it, as an herculean struggle for life. 
 
 After a few moments, the captain held them together 
 with the baton of his will, swaying these undisciplined 
 or unleashed minds to the theme of his own, which 
 was, safety, through calm. Quietly, he told them how, 
 unknown to them, with hatches down, keeping the
 
 The House of Landell 289 
 
 flames in check, he had been racing for land through 
 many hours. 
 
 Grace had run to Jenkins' stateroom, where he lay 
 in the throes of his debauch. 
 
 " Get up, Jack, and go on deck with me," she 
 pleaded. 
 
 " Rheumatism too bad, Grade." He stirred feebly, 
 then settled back. 
 
 " Come, Jack ! " she insisted. 
 
 "I can't!" 
 
 "You shall, Jack! Come!" 
 
 She took his arm and tried to draw him to his feet. 
 
 " Leave me 'lone ! " he snarled, then, apologetically, 
 " 'Scuse me, Gracie, rheumatism too bad, dear ! " 
 
 Frenzied, she flew back to Tom. 
 
 " I can't make Jack come up on deck ! It's his 
 rheumatism, poor fellow ! " 
 
 The moments were passing. The insistent, pungent 
 odor of the burning cotton grew more apparent. The 
 pumps were strained to the utmost one was already 
 disabled, but still in use. The sails were spread; the 
 great funnels belched forth dense volumes of smoke; 
 and the captain, on the hurricane deck, looked over 
 the seething spume of waters to life? or death? 
 
 Tom and the Major had gone to Jenkins' stateroom. 
 
 Words failed to rouse the man to action, and, to 
 gether they dragged him to the gunwale, where the 
 ship's load, awaiting the captain's orders, were so 
 grouped as to prevent the careening of the vessel. 
 
 Then through every stateroom and salon came the 
 call of the stewards. 
 
 "On deck! On deck !" 
 
 Each went to his appointed place in the boats. There 
 was no halt until it came to Grace. 
 
 " I shall wait for my husband," she declared. 
 
 She had her way and the other women surged into
 
 290 The House of Landell 
 
 the life-boats, leaving her with the men whispering 
 over and over to herself, 
 
 " If I die, Horace Vernon, I'll die true to the little 
 good you saw in me, and loved ! " 
 
 "Ready!" called the mate to her. "We'll send 
 your husband after you." 
 
 Grace responded to the summons. Her husband 
 was bestowed safely in the bottom of the boat. Tom 
 and the Major were about to follow, when, with an un 
 certain lurch, Jack Jenkins struggled to his feet, and 
 pitched, headlong, overboard. 
 
 " Jump for your lives," shouted the mate. " The 
 fire is coming through ! " 
 
 The two men sprang surely into the boat just as a 
 snaky tongue of flame licked its way through the deck 
 where they had stood. 
 
 Meanwhile, Jack Jenkins had floated upon an out 
 going wave toward a grave in the abysmal waters. 
 Motionless, in his maudlin state, he lay on its crest. As 
 Tom and the Major landed in the centre of the boat, 
 the ceaseless undulation of the mighty ocean rolled the 
 billow, with its living freight, in their direction. The 
 boat, tossing and dipping, careened toward the ap 
 proaching raft fashioned not by mortal hands, wafting 
 back to safety this plaything of destiny. With a sturdy 
 twist of the arm, a sailor caught the almost inert mass 
 and flung it, drenched, but otherwise unhurt, into the 
 bottom of the craft. Then the boat pushed off, and 
 swept toward shore, with scorching flames bursting 
 forth behind it, in glorious and horrible brilliance. 
 
 With the mutual errand of greeting the travelers, 
 Agnes and Mrs. Lavelle had met upon the wharf. 
 Hand tightly grasped in hand, together they watched 
 the awful display, as mass after mass of blazing flakes 
 shot into the air and dropped hissing in the sea. After
 
 The House of Landell 291 
 
 moments which seemed a lifetime they discerned tiny 
 specks detaching themselves from the pall that lay 
 dense upon the horizon, and soon they distinguished 
 these as heavily-laden boats. Revenue cutters, as close 
 as they dared venture, were waiting to render aid. As 
 Agnes stood, every nerve strained, a sense of peace 
 stole in upon her consciousness, releasing the tension 
 of her fear and impressing her with the tenderness 
 and protection of its ministry. With her realization 
 of its unfoldment, vision seemed extended beyond the 
 opaqueness and the struggling of the present. Memory 
 held before her the picture of months ago Tom, un 
 afraid, coming, unscathed, from clouds of smoke and 
 flame. She turned to Mrs. Lavelle. 
 
 " Do not fear." All her terror gone, she transmitted 
 her assurance to her friend. " There is no danger for 
 our loved ones." 
 
 As she spoke, great columns of flame shot skyward 
 from the nebulous mass, and with a series of detona 
 tions, stunning, even across the great expanse, the 
 steamer plunged beneath the wave, and only a swirl 
 of waters bubbled where a proud ship had queened it 
 o'er the deep.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 " One ought neither to laugh, nor weep at, exalt, 
 nor curse a human being's actions; but only try to 
 understand them." 
 
 Ellen Key. 
 
 ABOUT a month after Tom's return from his South 
 ern trip, Agnes was sitting with her mother in the 
 large upper hall overlooking the avenue leading from 
 the road, when she saw him coming toward the house 
 driving handsome Guy, the mate to the lamented 
 Prince. A figure beside him attracted her curiosity 
 and she stepped to the oriel, which was open, and 
 watched them until under the porte cochere. A mo 
 ment later, she and her mother appeared at the en 
 trance to greet the newcomers. 
 
 The figure Agnes had seen sitting beside Tom was 
 a wisp of humanity, perhaps about twelve, though the 
 wizened face and frail physique afforded no accurate 
 register of age. The shape of his head was concealed 
 by a shock of hair, no two strands of which seemed 
 inclined to lie in the same direction. The eyes were 
 frightened, the skin was sallow. More than that one 
 could not see, for the child was almost hidden behind 
 a violin he was hugging to his bosom. 
 
 Tom was standing by the trap, urging the little 
 fellow to descend. 
 
 " Hop out, Hi-Timmy Tidmouse," he was saying, 
 " I will help you." 
 
 The boy met Tom's offer with a scowl and, for reply, 
 clutched his instrument the tighter. 
 
 292
 
 The House of Landell 293 
 
 " Very well, clamber along by yourself, if you pre 
 fer. Surely, you don't think I would touch your pre 
 cious fiddle, do you ? " 
 
 Without a word, the boy turned, balanced his trea 
 sure on the floor of the cart, backed away from it and 
 stood, presently, upon the gravel; then, after labo 
 riously climbing to the top step, he sat down and laid 
 the violin across his knee, his every movement betray 
 ing distrust and fear. 
 
 " Timmy Tidmouse has come to see our musical in 
 struments," Tom turned to his mother and sister as 
 they stood in the hall, beautiful enough, both of them, 
 to attract the attention of the most inattentive little 
 waif. "I must introduce him properly, mustn't I! 
 Hi-Timmy Tidmouse is my chum name for Alexander 
 Steny, a great friend of Dr. Wehr's and mine." 
 
 The boy ignored this good-natured attempt to make 
 him feel at ease. Not the quiver of an eyelash be 
 trayed that he heard. 
 
 " Won't you speak to my mother and sister ? Well, 
 next time! What do you say to something to eat? 
 Shall he go in with us, mother? Come on, Hi- 
 Timmy," adding, inconsiderately, " It is part of a plan 
 for awakening latent centres and building new tissues 
 in short, for unfolding mind to the point of demon 
 strating moral qualities. These, in turn, will become 
 incorporate expressions, through finer bodies." 
 
 " Some cells you consider latent may be more awake 
 than you realize," said Mrs. Landell, meaningly. 
 " Yes, come in to luncheon, Hi-Timmy. It has been 
 announced." 
 
 The boy did not move until Tom started into the 
 house; then he followed, slowly. As a few minutes 
 later they all entered the dining-room, he still clutched 
 his violin. 
 
 " Shall we put your pet here by the wall ? " Tom
 
 294 The House of Landell 
 
 made a move to take Hi-Timmy's instrument ; but the 
 child only grasped it more tightly. " It must be taken 
 care of while you are eating. You can't hold your 
 knife and fork and that big thing." 
 
 This remark impelled attention. A glimmer of in 
 telligence flickered in his eyes. He seemed to be puz 
 zling the matter out. Finally, he transferred the pre 
 cious violin to one hand, while, with the other, he as 
 sisted himself to a chair. Sitting sideways, he be 
 stowed the object of his affection between his knees, 
 gripping it with a rigidity that stiffened his emaciated 
 little body. 
 
 Tom said nothing. He drew a ball of twine from 
 his pocket. Hi-Timmy espied it and, reaching for 
 ward, took it from Tom's unresisting hand. Then the 
 dazed look again came over the tired little face. 
 
 ' You use your knife and fork so beautifully," en 
 couraged Tom. " There are such good things to eat." 
 
 Hi-Timmy looked at the cord, then at the violin. 
 He left the chair and put the treasure upon it. He 
 saw, at once, this would not do. At the same time, he 
 raised his head, and his dilating nostrils inhaled the 
 odor of the coming meal. Hunger acted as impetus to 
 invention. He walked behind the chair, and, balancing 
 his violin against it, tied it to the leg. Looping the 
 string, he put it over his head, clambered carefully 
 on to the chair, then said, dully, 
 
 " I'm hungry. Gimme something to eat." 
 
 He used his soup spoon surprisingly well, and the 
 bowing of his knife and fork was good for so uncouth 
 a lad. It could well be called bowing, for the use of 
 the arms and the muscles beneath the shoulder blades, 
 trained by his study of the violin, were full of a grow 
 ing grace seeming to belong to a different evolution 
 from that of the rest of the boy. 
 
 No one disturbed him as he ate greedily. Tom
 
 The House of Landell 295 
 
 longed to extend his explanation of the plan for the 
 boy's unfoldment by the building of brain tissue 
 through the use of the hands and the developing of 
 the sound centres, and to point out to his mother that, 
 already, the method of procedure had changed the shape 
 of the child's head in the motion and music areas ; but 
 he contented himself with formulating statements, for 
 her further enlightenment, concerning this child whom 
 Dr. Wehr, with infinite tenderness and care, was mind- 
 building into a man. 
 
 " Now, let us see the instruments," said Mrs. Lan 
 dell, as, luncheon over, she led the way to the music 
 room. 
 
 There were two pianos, a guitar, a mandolin, a 'cello 
 and a violin. Hi-Timmy knew what they were, for he 
 had seen such before. He went up to each and touched 
 it gently. As he was doing this, a low sweet sound 
 echoed in quivering cadence on the air. Then came a 
 harmony of response like the summer wind whispering 
 in some mountain canyon; like the distant murmur 
 of a waterfall; like notes of melody floating in wood 
 land depths; the one answering call of a mocking-bird 
 among deep and lustrous foliage beneath which are 
 soft green rushes and the sheen of still waters; a sound 
 like the moaning of winds across the hilltops when the 
 storm is near; a cry, as of some imprisoned soul, 
 moaning, pitifully, to be set free from the bondage 
 of isolation and desolation and linked with the heart 
 of humanity. It seemed as if the great spirit within 
 the sound were reaching out to all created things, hold 
 ing everything in its embrace; quivering with their 
 sorrows; radiating with their joys; and gathering all 
 to its great soul. 
 
 The boy stood motionless. It was music, he knew. 
 Music! His heart told him that! His every nerve 
 and sinew were alive and trembling with the wonder
 
 296 The House of Landell 
 
 of it. Whence came it ! Never had he heard its like 
 before! Often, his violin had cried to him, as if try 
 ing to catch and fix the shadowy dreams of his imag 
 ination or memory; but this reverberated through his 
 being; swept in waves of sound from head to feet, and 
 woke still valleys of the soul that never would be 
 silent or wholly in shadow again; spoke to something 
 inside him and made him long to live and be. 
 
 " Where is it ? " he whispered. He looked about 
 him wildly, passionately. 
 
 Agnes was playing on a harp. Her delicate 
 draperies fell gracefully about the golden base; her 
 supple fingers summoned magical harmonies through 
 her love for the thought those vibrant strings conveyed 
 to her welcoming ear. Pausing an instant, he sped 
 across the room, threw his arms about the instrument 
 and fell sobbing at her feet. 
 
 After a while, his weeping ceased. He raised his 
 head. 
 
 " Make the music come again, lady," he pleaded, 
 with bated breath, " make the music come again." 
 
 She began again, and the air about him seemed to 
 dance with melody, the being of him to sway with 
 sound. 
 
 She took him to the organ and let him feel the 
 keys lift to the wind of the great pipes; showed him 
 how to pull out the stops and make the instrument 
 tremble as he trod the pedals to suit his fancy now 
 making a fierce jumble of sound, like the noise of 
 many waters; now daintily picking out a key and lis 
 tening to its message. She let him feel the rush of 
 wind upon his hand as she put on the swell, and 
 startled him a little when the vox humana spoke from 
 out this massive box of mysteries. 
 
 Next she took him to one of the pianos a Steinway 
 and showed him the wonderful arrangement of the
 
 The House of Landell 297 
 
 strings, told him to follow with his heart, the sound 
 they made as she caressed the keys with skillful and 
 loving fingers; bade him hear each tone as it leapt to 
 its third, its fifth, its seventh, the singing overtone 
 gathering all and moving on and out into the sunshine 
 of the clear, crisp air. His hands reached forward to 
 act to do their part in helping make brain tissue over 
 which the awakened self soon would recognize con 
 structive power. The lethargy lifted from his face. 
 For the time, at least, he seemed to feel himself a 
 living soul. 
 
 " Let us go into the garden," said Tom. " I want 
 to show you some things I keep out there. Will you 
 take your violin or leave it here ? " 
 
 " I'll leave it." He waved his hand toward the in 
 struments, in whose spirit of comradeship, courage, 
 and understanding, he had come to trust. 
 
 They reached the summer house through gardens 
 of sweet flowers. Tom showed the manikins, of which 
 he was so proud, and the skeletons, of which, at first 
 Hi-Timmy was very shy. After a while, the boy was 
 persuaded, though gingerly, to touch a skull. 
 
 Tom opened the head of one of the manikins and 
 showed the little fellow the brain, and told him a bit 
 about the wonders of its unfoldment. 
 
 " You saw the keyboard of the piano ? " he ques 
 tioned. When Hi-Timmy nodded affirmatively, Tom 
 showed him, first by the manikin, and then by means 
 of pictures, the location of the wonderful sounding- 
 board within the human body, watching to see if the 
 mind remained awake. It did. It was taking in, as 
 never before, what he was saying. 
 
 " Here, Hi-Timmy, only four thousand times smaller 
 than this picture shows it to be, at what is called the 
 middle ear, is a piano-forte keyboard. Here are both 
 tlie long and the short keys. This keyboard floats on
 
 298 The House of Landell 
 
 a little lake we call nerve fluid that is something that 
 flows, you know. Listen." 
 
 He repeated slowly, 
 
 " ' This tiny bit of mechanism represents the mind's 
 registry and use of the tonality of ihe scale.' That is 
 too much for you to understand, now; but remember 
 this: You have music in your soul and you are the 
 one to make it speak and do good to the world, as it 
 has done you good this afternoon. You can send any 
 strain of thought singing through you, until we can 
 see as well as hear what you are thinking. ' To paint 
 a picture well is to paint it according to the waves of 
 sound. Unless it can be transposed from color into 
 music, it has not the essentials of true art.' Let this 
 mean to you, that everything you learn you can put to 
 use in many ways, and make many persons happy." 
 
 Hi-Timmy smiled as if the depths of him had come 
 into direct comprehension of what Tom meant, if not 
 of what he said. It was the first real heartfelt smile 
 Tom had seen upon the boy's face during four years 
 of casual acquaintance, and a year or more intimate 
 knowledge of him in Dr. Wehr's school for the up 
 building of children's bodies through mind. 
 
 " I wish the doctor had seen that awakening of the 
 soul's expression," Tom said to his mother and sister 
 after his return from taking the child back to Dr. 
 Wehr. " The blessed man has been five years coaxing 
 that puny seed to grow. Its roots must be strong, so 
 I am hoping that, from now on, its normal growth will 
 be what, to the uninitiated, may seem phenomenal." 
 
 "Tell us about the little fellow?" questioned his 
 mother. 
 
 " When the doctor first became interested in him, 
 he seemed hopelessly wrecked by a series of terrible 
 shocks. He was a travesty of what he is to-day bred 
 in stark, poisoning fear. We tried to stimulate his
 
 The House of Landell 299 
 
 feeble circulation, not with drugs but with joy or, at 
 least, interest. We found no response, and began to 
 question if there were any joy cells to waken. One 
 day, a violin in the room where the boy was, fell to 
 the floor. The whirring strings, spurred to motion 
 by the fall, seemed to stir a corresponding motion 
 within him. : The doctor saw it. It gave him a clue for 
 action. He provided Hi-Timmy with the most com 
 prehending teacher he could find, and the results have 
 been illuminating, not in the lines of musicianship but 
 in coordinating the boy within himself." 
 
 " It is plain he adores his instrument," said Agnes. 
 " After the exhibition at the lunch table I was sur 
 prised that he allowed it out of his sight." 
 
 " Yes, he loves his violin. He has feared constantly 
 for its safety since some boys teased him by trying to 
 steal it. This afternoon, his idea of external rela 
 tionships seems to have become more definite than 
 ever before. Now, through normal means, we shall 
 work to introduce a consciousness of coordination of, 
 as well as cooperation with, each truth as he perceives 
 it." 
 
 " That is no easy task with the average child," said 
 Mrs. Landell, thoughtfully. " But with such an one 
 perhaps easier, after all, than with one bound by tra 
 dition. Bring the little fellow here as often as you 
 please."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 " Thou smilest at the child that crieth for his toys, 
 Are they less toys, old man, which cause thy 
 griefs and joys? " 
 
 The Cherubic Pilgrim. 
 
 THE quality of the groups that came from the chaste 
 little temple on the hill was distinctly finer, even in the 
 not-so-many months intervening between this evening 
 and the one when Agnes' heart was so disturbed by 
 her sense of discoordination. There was a virility in 
 their step, a ring in the voice and a directness in the 
 eye and the bearing that spoke well for the acceptance 
 of the truths Dr. Wehr came week after week to teach. 
 Philip Herman lived in the holy attitude of expressing, 
 despite the miasma that his mind, again and anon, 
 would draw from the swamp lands of discouragement 
 and disaster, to inhibit his vision and cloak him with 
 its clammy chill. One by one, some recluse who 
 hitherto had tried in vain to strike a consonant chord 
 with his fellows through the organized religious bodies 
 of the town crept forth to join his melody of redemp 
 tion with that of the redeemed souls whose call was, 
 ' Onward Sons of Morning.' Mind joined with mind, 
 without distinction of rank. The educated were find 
 ing in the original deductions of the uneducated the 
 salt that gave savor to the food of their minds and 
 warmed the chill of the learning that smelt only of 
 tomes in academic libraries. The uneducated were 
 learning from breathing human mortals the warmth 
 and life of culture, and the idea of cooperation was 
 rising in their midst, upon which was to be born a new 
 
 300
 
 The House of Landell 301 
 
 generation of nobility and intrinsic worth, material, 
 mental and spiritually moral. 
 
 Mrs. Bryce and Mrs. Burton had left the lecture 
 room a little in advance of Agnes; but waited outside 
 for the word they always loved to have with her. 
 
 " I am just obliged to get light on what Dr. Wehr 
 said about . transmuting ideas into ideals," said Mrs. 
 Bryce. "1 know Agnes can help me. I want to be 
 ready for John to-night. He said that a man on the 
 train asked him if the church was turning into a sana 
 torium to save its skin." 
 
 " I didn't understand about this mixing of health 
 and religion, myself, at first," returned Mrs. Burton, 
 " I do now, though. You can't separate them if you 
 understand their meaning right that is, if health 
 means wholeness in all states of consciousness." 
 
 By this time the Landells and Dr. Wehr, with 
 Marian Fosby, John McBarr and Philip Herman had 
 joined them. They strolled along in the free and easy 
 manner of suburbanites. 
 
 " Come here, Tom," said Mrs. Burton in an aside. 
 " Explain things to us. Dr. Wehr was clear enough, 
 but it takes time to digest it all." 
 
 " Or recognition," responded Tom. " Did you ever 
 think of that? Not time, but recognition ! What is it 
 you want to unravel? " 
 
 " He said that what is called flesh and blood are 
 really phases of qualities or spiritual attributes. I 
 didn't believe this at first. I do now. I see it verified 
 daily." 
 
 " You see you don't need me to explain." 
 
 " Well, then, see if you think I do understand. The 
 next point I took in partially, anyway was that law 
 is the statement of the processes of discovering; un 
 covering, placing in new lights ; building, upon old find 
 ings, new interpretations of action, according to the
 
 302 The House of Landell 
 
 different states of consciousness with which the mind 
 views them. The reality of law exists in its expres 
 sion through our lives, not in making it an axiom, 
 only." Mrs. Bryce was a thinker, though, according 
 to academic traditions, not what is generally called 
 educated. " But right here," she continued, " I did 
 not get at his method of making it a living expression 
 instead of axiomatic." 
 
 ' You understand, do you not, that discriminative 
 action of mind wakens functions of brain and makes 
 more alert those already in use ? As we coordinate this 
 brain action, not in philosophizing or dreaming ab 
 stractly, but in living the life, we find mind, body and 
 spirit expressing our thoughts in harmony with each 
 other as well as with the active thought of others. We 
 find the world larger than we thought, or, as St. Paul 
 says, ' I am not in my flesh, my flesh is in me.' That 
 is, our consciousness unfolds to us the possibilities of 
 our souls, Dr. Wehr, come talk to these intelligent 
 listeners of yours." Tom gave way to the lecturer and 
 fell behind. 
 
 " We all want to see into the universe, instead of 
 living on the surface of ' a daily grind,' said Dr. Wehr 
 companionably. " We want to glorify daily events 
 with the light of understanding, as we wait for the 
 sun to show us the dust in unswept rooms or to help 
 us find the weeds about the roots of our cherished 
 plants. There are so many figures of speech to be used 
 in explanation, that I may mix metaphors. To me, 
 the opening up of consciousness which is a state of 
 knowing is like entering room after room of a house 
 filled with treasures." 
 
 ' That is a splendid way of explaining to us house 
 keepers," said Mrs. Bryce, happily. 
 
 " Some scientists speak of the functions of the body 
 and of functioning qualities in certain parts thereof.
 
 The House 01 Landell 303 
 
 As consciousness extends, they learn that qualities 
 are functioned in our beings and, finally, that they 
 function in Being. One state of consciousness recog 
 nizes us as physical organisms made of tissues and of 
 cells; another state of consciousness perceives that 
 these tissues and cells are really qualities formed of 
 our past discriminative actions, transformed by the 
 renewing of the mind. This is true transmutation. 
 We learn that physical sight sees nothing nor is the 
 physical brain more than the substance such as one 
 buys from the butcher for the breakfast table." 
 
 " That explains the term continuity of life to 
 me," said Marian thoughtfully. 
 
 " So it does to me. To some states of consciousness, 
 body is matter only, a strange rending called death 
 tearing us from all we are and were and plunging us 
 into what may or may not be. To other states, we 
 are thought, plastic, not static, always responding to 
 the moving forces of life, not as a mass, but according 
 to the inherent choice of every part, moving at different 
 rates of aspiration and unfolding consciousness at 
 different periods of what we call time. The soul never 
 is separated from an embodiment which is the manifest 
 gauge of what it embodies. There was no mystery 
 in Jesus' death. There was no death. The soldiers 
 could not find the body, not because it had been spirited 
 away by friends; not because He was a deceiver. It 
 was because He expressed a complete unifying with 
 Universal Consciousness, and the rate and quality of 
 aspiration throughout His being were synchronous. 
 With this understanding of life, the noble love of one 
 state of consciousness becomes the noble life of the 
 succeeding one." 
 
 " I don't see how to realize this consciously," said 
 Marian. 
 
 "Know that creative energy manifests in us and
 
 304 The House of Landell 
 
 through us. Teach it that it is functioned within us, 
 not for the generation of children alone, but for 
 achievement in the arts and sciences and noble deeds. 
 Then, Christians no longer will go about with wings 
 spread but too devitalized to fly. We shall express life 
 in finer quality for ourselves and for the coming race 
 beings akin to gods. As in physical unfoldment, we 
 have passed the seeming immobility of the protoplasm 
 and are conscious of our flowing blood, so we shall 
 learn that we are beyond the blood and lymph stage, 
 transcending what physical sight can see, and are, in 
 reality, children of light. What, in one stage of our 
 enlightenment, spells materialism, in another is ethe- 
 rialism, and in another spiritualization." 
 
 " How much clearer and all-compensating that 
 makes God," said Marian. " I wish I knew the pro 
 cesses." 
 
 " Will this aid you ? Sit at ease. Know that you 
 are one with the Infinite All. Think no more of your 
 embodiment than when you are connected with Central 
 at the telephone. At first you may find difficulty in 
 doing this; perseverance, tranquillity and coopera 
 tion accomplish both. Decide on the message you wish 
 to transmit, nor permit your intelligence to be lulled, 
 either by persons or conditions. Consciously choose 
 something worth perpetuating and vitalize it with de 
 sire. Speak to creative energy; demand that it give 
 you executive ability to perform; to the love energy 
 that it vitalize you with divine purity on all planes of 
 consciousness; to individuality that it rise and shine 
 with the light of good tidings. This glorifies our 
 meaning of the phrase, ' I have done it/ it does not 
 mean yourself as a whole but as part of a perfect whole. 
 With thought thus consciously and definitely directed, 
 there are transmitted into expression cell-building
 
 The House of Landell 305 
 
 powers of health and blessedness," concluded the Doc 
 tor. 
 
 " That is worth hearing," said Mrs. Burton to Mrs. 
 Bryce, as the two parted with the others and went 
 their way. " It is beautiful that God is our mind. It 
 makes me feel like running like a hart without faint 
 ing. I quote the Bible more than I used to. It means 
 something to me now. Lots of it used to seem like 
 nonsense." 
 
 " I enjoy going to church nowadays," said Mrs. 
 Bryce, " I get something for every day's living." 
 
 " I like to hear Tom Landell and Dr. Wehr talk 
 when they come to see little Alexander Steny. He is 
 boarding with me to get domesticated, so to speak. I 
 heard the Doctor tell Tom that to try to make sugges 
 tions to brain cells that haven't been constructed tends 
 to form clots on the brain," Mrs. Burton continued. 
 " You have to wake up, mentally, and work out con 
 sciously and discriminately in some sort of action, if 
 you want to build brain cells. Do you know, they are 
 training this child, part of the time, as if he were 
 blind ! " 
 
 "What's that for?" 
 
 " They claim that his growth has been by leaps and 
 bounds since he has had to use the motive vision back 
 of sight without the aid of the eyes. I believe it, too, 
 for I have a little nephew in the school for the blind, 
 who in seven months learned to read with a compre 
 hension I haven't seen equalled. They blindfold Alex 
 ander, and he walks and acts with what the Doctor 
 calls his true vision. As for his reasoning in six 
 weeks he learned to walk and find his way without 
 fumbling. There is a wonderful difference in him 
 every way, though he is a wild sort of thing. Good 
 heavens, what is he up to just as I'm telling you how 
 he's improved ! "
 
 306 The House of Landell 
 
 A prolonged wail came from her house as they ap 
 proached. 
 
 " What is it, indeed ! " exclaimed Mrs. Bryce. 
 
 " Alexander Steny at his violin. I can't endure the 
 noises he makes. It seems that his love for his violin 
 is the entering wedge to his unfolding if unfolding 
 has a wedge. They let him make all the horrible 
 noises he wants to just to train him to get something 
 of some sort out of his exertions. He doesn't seem 
 to care for tunes; but draws out the most dreadful 
 wails of sound and says they are things he's seen. He 
 must have lived in an awful lot of nightmares if they 
 were as terrible as that! Good night. I'll send the 
 pattern over in the morning." 
 
 Mrs. Burton went into the house. Alexander, other 
 wise, Hi-Timmy Tidmouse, was perched on the piano 
 stool, his undecided hair pointing, as usual, in all di 
 rections. A piercing intelligence shone from his eyes 
 with such intensity, it seemed to send tangible rays into 
 the unknown. His head was bowed lovingly to meet 
 the violin which he had snuggled under his chin. He 
 had drawn an ottoman up to the stool on which to 
 rest his feet, and, with utter unconcern, his boots were 
 planted on a pale blue satin cover where were painted 
 extraordinary pink roses. Amy, the little twelve-year 
 old mother of this bespattered travesty, sat in tears on 
 the other side of the room. 
 
 " He's spoiled my roses! I feel as if hornets were 
 stinging the inside of my ear," she wailed, as her 
 mother appeared. 
 
 " Shut up ! " came the ungracious rejoinder from the 
 piano stool. The search-light was turned off in the eyes 
 that now showed themselves sullen and dull. Their 
 owner drew the bow passionately across the strings 
 and again the search-light crept over the sea of the un 
 known from the wakened soul within.
 
 The House of Landell 307 
 
 It was one note that cried out in response to the 
 short, sharp stroke and swift downward sweep of the 
 bow. 
 
 " Stop fussing over those painted things and I'll tell 
 you what these sounds mean," he said with petulant 
 irritation at the child's tears. " This is the way the 
 cars uster v go smashing against the freight yards, and 
 this is the way it uster jar the house, so my mother 
 uster fall down in fits leastways, that is what Dr. 
 Wehr said was what did it. The shock gave her cata- 
 flectic fits " 
 
 " Cataleptic," said Amy, stifling her sobs. 
 
 " What's the difference. They was fits ! " 
 
 """ You don't want to give us fits, too, do you, Alex 
 ander?" Mrs. Burton said, cheerily. " Show us dif 
 ferent notes, do." 
 
 " No, I won't ! There wasn't any difference in what 
 I uster hear. It was always the same," cried the child, 
 and out of his undeveloped face there loomed the 
 vision of a soul in torment, now showing an angel, 
 paralyzed by a horror of which his soul never lost 
 sight; now seeming a mass of little more than proto 
 plasm; now flashing forth, not malignity, but undi 
 rected mind force, which, like the first steps of a baby, 
 may result in weal or woe. 
 
 " The long rush then the awful shock and then 
 my mother in fits all on one note." 
 
 " But Alexander, you don't want to have fits, too ! 
 Can't you recall something happier about your 
 mother? " Mrs. Burton folded her veil and blew into 
 her gloves, preparatory to laying them in the desk 
 drawer. 
 
 The boy drew the bow across the string with a 
 fierceness that made Mrs. Burton jump, while Amy 
 screamed and the baby waked and cried. 
 
 " Gracious, Alexander ! All right, baby, mother is
 
 308 The House of Landell 
 
 here. Come down, you sweet tootsey, if you are 
 lonely. Dear, mother must lock the windows before 
 she goes up-stairs. Come, Alexander, it is time to go 
 to bed. Al-ex-an-der ! Do make some other sort of 
 noise ! It sounds like somebody dying ! " 
 
 " It's the way my baby sounded when she pitched 
 outer a five-story window. When they picked her up, 
 she was all dead and mashed, and this is the way my 
 mother sounded, and this is the way the street sounded, 
 I didn't sound at all ! / was still! I listened! " 
 
 It was horrible, how, in view of the tenseless, ex 
 pressionless explanation, the wail of the one note took 
 on the heart of the life which, through his memories, 
 had become cell and tissue of the boy. To the mother, 
 the horror was accentuated through the cries of her 
 own child, which, though only the healthy bawl of a 
 four-year-old baby howling because he felt like it, 
 seemed to partake of the death screech of the falling 
 infant, as portrayed by Alexander's dissociated tones 
 of voice, but unforgettable agony. 
 
 " Mother's coming, blessed ! Come, Alexander, 
 that's a good boy. Don't you hear baby crying? Let's 
 go up to him." 
 
 " I want to go to my own baby," monotoned Alex 
 ander. 
 
 " You can't. Your baby's in heaven." 
 
 " I want her." 
 
 " But dear yes, baby, do be still, mother will be 
 up in a minute. Amy, run and see if you can't quiet 
 him. If you can't, bring him down. Now, Alexander, 
 your little sister 
 
 " I don't want any guff ! I want my baby ! She's 
 got hers, I want mine." He jerked his bow in the di 
 rection of the little girl fast disappearing up the stairs. 
 
 " You'll see her when you've learned to " 
 
 " I don't want to stop to learn ! I want her now !
 
 The House of Landell 309 
 
 This is the way she screamed, and then came the 
 freight cars crashing, and then mother had another 
 cataflectic fit " 
 
 " A-lex-an-der ! You will be crazy ! How do the 
 saws sound when you are making boxes in the car 
 pentry shop ? " 
 
 The expression of Alexander's eyes changed slightly. 
 He made a rasping noise on the strings which made 
 Mrs. Burton grit her teeth; but she pursued the ad 
 vantage she thought she had gained, in changing, if 
 ever so little, for the instant, the picture in the mind 
 that memory had inducted into his blood and tissue. 
 
 " Now think ! Don't you recall ? It was not all on 
 one note. It went up and down. Show me." 
 
 Alexander's search-light went out for a mental 
 vision of the sounds of the saw. He had just com 
 pleted what seemed to him a fair repetition of what 
 was incorporate in his being, through memory, when 
 Baby Burton toddled in, pretty and warm from his 
 nap. His cheeks glowed with the exertion of the 
 lusty howling, which, now, in the attainment of his de 
 sire to be near his mother, and, primarily, perhaps, 
 with the delight of having his own way, dimpled with 
 gleeful smiles. His little toes peeped out from under 
 his nightgown and his hands reached forward to grab 
 at the violin, as he sped hilariously across the floor. 
 
 Angrily, Alexander jerked the violin away, trying 
 to draw it under his body to protect it from the child's 
 clutch. The sudden movement brought it against the 
 piano leg and the delicate stem snapped from the body. 
 
 For an instant Alexander was motionless ; then his 
 concentrated grief blazed out. Seizing his idol, he 
 flung it hysterically at the child, missing his aim, and 
 it crashed through the window just behind. Then, 
 with a howl of anguish that recalled to Mrs. Burton 
 the pent-up agony of his recently voiced picture, he
 
 310 The House of Landell 
 
 dashed into the night. She hastened after him; but 
 Baby Burton yelled lustily as he witnessed her exit. 
 Dark night, with the figure of a rapidly receding 
 child were before her; a trembling little girl and a cry 
 ing infant were behind. She turned back and closed 
 the door, 
 
 Tom Landell had reached home and was deep in a 
 pile of physiologies and psychologies when the tele 
 phone interrupted his study. In response to his hello, 
 Amy's childish voice, pitched high with excitement, 
 called loudly, 
 
 " Mr. Landell, Alexander Steny is a-putting down 
 the street as fast as he can go and there isn't any one 
 to catch him, 'cause mamma can't leave baby." 
 
 Hanging up the receiver, he took his hat. 
 
 " I am going to hunt up Hi-Timmy Tidmouse, 
 mother," he said, as he passed through the hall. " He 
 has run away from the Burtons'." 
 
 Almost on the wave of his good night, came the 
 chug of his motor-cycle as it went speeding down the 
 street like some strange bird. 
 
 Suddenly, from the wayside, there came a cry of 
 terror. Slowing down, he alighted to find the source. 
 
 Huddled amid the shrubbery, in a frightened little 
 heap, he found Hi-Timmy. 
 
 "What is it!" he said tenderly. "This is your 
 friend, Tom Landell. What is all this about? " 
 
 " I heard the smashing of the cars," quivered 
 Timmy, crouching back into the darkness. 
 
 " It's my dreadfully noisy machine.'' Tom drew the 
 little figure up, supporting it reassuringly with his 
 strong arms. " What do you want to do? " 
 
 " I want to die ! " shouted the child. " So's I can't 
 hear the sound of the cars any more, nor my baby 
 when she screamed, nor hear my mother in her cata- 
 flectic fits ! I want to die ! "
 
 The House of Landell 311 
 
 " It is a strange idea we have about dying." Tom 
 held the little fellow close. "If you do not want to 
 hear those sounds after you are dead, as you call it, 
 you must begin to listen for something better and 
 sweeter, now." 
 
 " I can't! " he sobbed bitterly. " So must I always 
 hear it?" 
 
 In his agony, through some rift in his ill-structured 
 tissues, there gleamed a nature so finely keyed that it 
 compelled the ricketty instrument to express him 
 through it. 
 
 It was no time to exhort. Tom drew the child more 
 closely to him. 
 
 " Don't you want to ride my wheel? " 
 
 He lifted him to the seat of his motor-cycle as he 
 spoke. 
 
 Hi-Timmy shivered. 
 
 " Take me down ! I'm afraid of the noise ! 
 Quick ! " he screamed. 
 
 " Then walk along beside me. I will walk, too, so 
 you may not hear the thing chug. I have the dearest 
 little spot you ever saw for you to curl up in just as 
 soft and still! You can lie there and sleep and 
 sleep 
 
 " I've smashed my violin," said Hi-Timmy brokenly, 
 " and I don't care for anything else in the world, but 
 it." 
 
 " Well ! Well ! Don't you like me ? " 
 
 Timmy looked doubtful. 
 
 " Nor the piano inside of you, where the brain marks 
 down what you hear, and that does not let you know 
 about anything you refuse to know about or listen to ? " 
 
 Timmy, his storm spent, was too tired to respond, 
 and Tom, having telephoned Mrs. Burton of the child's 
 safety, took the little fellow to his room to sleep the 
 sleep of oblivion.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 " The secret of happiness is Joy in the work 
 of our hands." 
 
 EARLY the next morning, while Hi-Timmy was still 
 asleep, Tom sought Dr. Wehr and laid the case before 
 him. The wise philosopher listened attentively, and 
 was silent for some time after Tom had ceased speak 
 ing. 
 
 " May the cause of the outburst have been the asso 
 ciation of ideas with a home, a mother and a baby? " 
 he questioned, slowly, aloud. " We must select sur 
 roundings with a view to reforming and replacing, not 
 to the strengthening of, old memories and pictures 
 which are working disaster. I am not sorry that the 
 violin is out of commission for awhile. We raised him 
 out of distressing memories on the wings of sound, but 
 he needs other support now. Other centres of vision 
 must be awakened. It is possible in a child to change 
 completely the ruling elements of desire and motive 
 by controlling no, no, now I am learning to avoid 
 that word by cooperating with experiences; and 
 by eliminating, constructively withdrawing the mind's 
 activities from consideration of undesirable memories. 
 Memory structure is incorporate through the being. It 
 is improved or rebuilt by setting certain processes to 
 work and guiding others inducive of brain growth. 
 With new growth acquired, ' new ideas dawn as sud 
 denly as lightning illumines the landscape.' ' 
 
 " Suppose I keep him with me awhile ? My mother 
 is glad to have him, and the surroundings and influ- 
 
 312
 
 The House of Landell 313 
 
 ences are less like his previous ones than may be found 
 in a home like the Burtons'." 
 
 " Good ! Don't assume any pedagogic attitude to 
 ward him," he smiled. " Only we old fellows realize 
 how useless that is, and how antagonizing. Let him 
 be care-free and as leisurely as he pleases, providing 
 he does not lapse into dilatoriness and procrastination. 
 The new fibres will incorporate new memories, natu 
 rally and easily. Skilfully check inaccuracies or exag 
 gerations of expression without limiting the scope of 
 the imagination. I believe this marks the path from 
 inspiration to aspiration. Don't let the vision be the 
 goal of your desire, however. The goal is so far ahead. 
 We used to be taught to keep the mind on that and 
 groan over the reaching of it. It is the attaining, 
 my boy, that should keep us nourished with courage. 
 When our ultimate arrives, we shall scarcely know it. 
 It will have come to realization naturally and left us 
 the zest of progress toward the new vision unfolding 
 from the old. Be discriminative, not excessive, in his 
 exercise. This case interests me extremely. Not all 
 horrors, formed on terrorizing experiences and pictures 
 or visions, are as easily traced as in Alexander never 
 theless, they inhere in every mind." 
 
 Tom took the next train out from town. He found 
 Hi-Timmy moping in the dressing-room leading from 
 the bedroom where he had slept the night before. It 
 was evident he had been crying. 
 
 " What joy can I find for the little fellow that will 
 be antidote for the poisonous precipitate of sorrow? " 
 he meditated, meanwhile diverting him by his own 
 preparation for luncheon. After a while, Hi-Timmy 
 inferred that it would please his friend, should he, also, 
 prepare for the meal. Though the following was not 
 very accurate, it was accomplished after a fashion. 
 Tom did not object that the comb made slight acquain-
 
 314 The House of Landell 
 
 tance with the unruly hair. After the child had eaten 
 a satisfying meal, Tom took his hat. 
 
 " I am going to the woods, Timmy. I found a chip 
 munk's nest, yesterday." 
 
 Timmy did not speak. His eyes looked as if he 
 would like to go. Tom paused. 
 
 " Want to come ? " 
 
 There was no reply; but the boy moved slowly to 
 ward the door. 
 
 " May I go ? " inquired Agnes. 
 
 " Always, Agnesia," and the three struck into the 
 park by a short cut. 
 
 The air was soft and still in the woods, and the 
 singing of the hemlocks made their tranquil compan 
 ionship more virile because it seemed to breathe life 
 more abundant. Oh, it was beautiful. Hi-Timmy 
 laid his hand gently on a tree trunk, as the blind do. 
 He seemed to listen, rather than look, wonderingly, 
 into the branches, as if he expected to find strings and 
 pipes, as in the musical instruments he had seen. At 
 length, he turned a wistful face toward Tom. 
 
 " If I had my violin, I'd show you how these sound." 
 He threw himself heart-brokenly upon the ground, 
 burying his face. After a while, he looked up, 
 
 "I've been thinking. Dr. Wehr gave me that violin. 
 Do you suppose he would give me another one? " 
 
 " Why no," said Tom in a matter-of-fact manner. 
 " He bought you that one so you could use it, not 
 smash it. You did just as you chose with it, you 
 know." 
 
 " Then can I never make pictures on a violin 
 again? " 
 
 "If you choose to think up a way to get one for 
 yourself, you can." 
 
 " I don't know how." 
 
 " Tell me how you broke yours."
 
 The House of Landell 315 
 
 Tom's heart was full of tenderness for the soul 
 looking out from those frightened eyes, seeking, 
 though it might not know it, for more awareness of 
 its possibilities. " What did you do that night, that 
 you are ' he checked his words " No, not sorry," 
 he said within himself, " that is poison, I want him 
 to feel only uplift oh for a set of new words not 
 steeped in the depressing gloom of man's half interpre 
 tations ! I mean, what happened just before the violin 
 broke?" 
 
 " I dug my heels into that little girl's painting and 
 made her cry." 
 
 " We never can change that fact ; but can you think 
 of a way to help make up to her for what you have 
 done?" 
 
 " Not unless I give her another " 
 
 " I will give her one," Agnes interrupted enthusias 
 tically. " It shall be " 
 
 " Timmy must give with himself, not with you," 
 said Tom, meaningly. " Now, Timmy, how can you 
 doit?" 
 
 " I don't know," helplessly. 
 
 " Can you black boots? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Supposing you do mine, at ten cents a pair, until 
 you get money enough to buy Amy new silk and paints, 
 and pay for three lessons for her. You never can re 
 pay ; but you can help things go in a happy way from 
 now on." 
 
 Agnes looked at the little mite. A truth was re 
 vealed to her she long had known abstractly, but for 
 the first time realized she was not personally demon 
 strating. Through the child's face, she saw he was 
 perceiving and embodying processes resulting from 
 outside stimulus to brain centres. He was arranging 
 and organizing the plan of redemption, sending from
 
 316 The House of Landell 
 
 the brain centres the impulse to do. Would this im 
 pulse travel from brain centre to brain centre, inducing 
 vacuous longing and dreaming, only ; from brain centre 
 to muscle, inducing irresponsible impulse, such as had 
 overcome him when he had made his wild venture at 
 ridding himself of interference, or could it be trained 
 to will from brain centre to brain centre, as well as 
 from brain centre to muscle, balancing, in him, plan 
 ning and execution! Tom was going to work hard 
 to find out. 
 
 Meanwhile, Hi-Timmy had entered upon the path 
 of perception. Though far from his first offence, it 
 was the first time he had understood. With the revela 
 tion had come life and enthusiasm. He had not, as 
 Carl Ewald has said, " The black sting of remorse in 
 his soul nor the black cockade of forgiveness in his 
 hat." 
 
 "Will you help me buy the stuff?" There was a 
 new light of interest in his eyes, all anxious, as he 
 was, to atone. 
 
 ' The satin ? Yes, because you wouldn't know about 
 that ; but you do know about blacking boots and mak 
 ing a square deal, don't you! " 
 
 ;< Yes." Timmy held his head higher as the thought 
 enfibred him with courage, bringing him from his 
 huddled, stooping position, into the erectness of man. 
 
 ' Then what happened? " Tom spoke in so matter- 
 of-fact a tone that Timmy was not depressed, but 
 rather uplifted by it. 
 
 " After I broke my violin, I got mad and smashed 
 it through a window. I didn't go to kill the baby ; but 
 I wouldn't have minded if I had, I was so mad." 
 
 Tom evaded this part of the confession. It would 
 entail dealing with complexities, the way out of which 
 he felt neither he nor Timmy was equal to. 
 
 " So you smashed the window ! Mrs. Burton is a
 
 The House of Landell 317 
 
 poor woman. She cannot afford to pay for that glass ! 
 What will she do!" 
 
 " Couldn't you give me some money to buy a new 
 one?" 
 
 " I ? Oh dear no ! Why should I give Mrs. Bur 
 ton a window ! You broke it, you should replace it ! " 
 
 " I can't I'd put it back if I knew how, but I don't." 
 He looked despairingly at Tom, his eyes wistful and 
 sad. 
 
 " Stand still, just where you are. Think, way deep 
 down, how you can get that window mended. There 
 is a teacher inside of you." 
 
 Hi-Timmy stood still a part of the life which moves 
 in God. His eyes rolled vacuously among the trees; 
 but evidently found no answer there. His expression 
 changed. He was finding his mentor. In a moment, 
 his face brightened. 
 
 " Isn't there some one about here who mends win 
 dows?" 
 
 " Yes, there is a very good man in the village, named 
 Winters." 
 
 " Will you show me how to get him, or must I do 
 that too? I will black his boots until I get money to 
 pay him to put it in." 
 
 " Two strokes and the words, help me, left out," Tom 
 thought as he shouted for joy. 
 
 " Now we will go to the glazier's the man who 
 sets the glass," and they started on the pleasant walk 
 to town, Timmy believing himself fully equal to meet 
 ing Mr. Winters. When he did, however, his old in 
 ertia overcome him and Tom had to explain. 
 
 " Good-day, Mr. Winters," was Tom's greeting. 
 " Here is a boy who has broken some glass and wants 
 to put it in. As he doesn't know how to do it him 
 self, he wants the next best thing, pay some one who 
 does."
 
 318 The House of Landell 
 
 " I can't " Timmy forgot this was his own sug 
 gestion. " I haven't got any money." 
 
 " You have legs, I see," said Mr. Winters. " It 
 happens my horse has gone lame and for the last few 
 mornings I have had to carry my materials to work. 
 I will pay you twenty-five cents each day for the 
 present, to come at six thirty in the morning and stay 
 round awhile, in case I have to send back for anything. 
 I know the size of Mrs. Burton's windows. Why, I 
 guess it will take you about a week's work, sonny. 
 When it is done, Mrs. Burton will forgive you for 
 breaking it." 
 
 " That is the usual idea, Mr. Winter, but honestly, 
 do you suppose that helps ? " interposed Tom. " How 
 should her attitude of mind avail against the fact that 
 he has betrayed his trust ! The point is to make right 
 with himself and receive the soul sunlight and air the 
 Great Heart gives. She may say she forgives him. 
 Of course, that does her good and in a way makes him 
 happier as the superficial currents bathe him exte 
 riorly; but does it lift the responsibility from him, or 
 really touch his character ? " 
 
 "That is a question!" pondered Mr. Winters. 
 " That is a question ! " 
 
 " Perhaps the tenderness of her heart as she really 
 forgives will touch his consciousness and give it the 
 spur of growth; perhaps, it will be a soporific to it. I 
 very much wonder which it does, as I look about and 
 see that almost every instance I recall of what is called 
 forgiveness, unaccompanied by the insistence that the 
 atonement come from the offender instead of the in 
 nocent, has resulted in the inhibition of the former. I 
 also notice that the sense of forgiveness of others often 
 saddles a soul who has atoned with the weight of past 
 immaturity that grows into damning remorse and pre-
 
 The House of Landell 319 
 
 vents the currents of the universal from playing and 
 breathing into all the breath of life." 
 
 " We should all be more stalwart if we lived on that 
 basis. I know just what you mean by the weight of 
 the forgiveness. The best forgiveness is to leave it 
 to God, as you say." Mr. Winter's ruddy, sturdy face 
 brightened as he spoke. " God is too large to keep in 
 mind against us our action of yesterday. He is great 
 enough t: efface it from our memories that it may 
 grow in our characters." 
 
 The three left tHe glazier's. Hi-Timmy's spine 
 straightened dgain, not with pride but with the stirring 
 of life within, which had told him how to act with a 
 view to upbuilding what, in a moment of rage, he had 
 torn down. When Mrs. Burton met them at the door, 
 it drooped again and he hung the little head that had 
 so many states of consciousness to unfold before it 
 would hold itself always courageously in appearance 
 and in truth." 
 
 " Well, well, Alexander," she said, cheerily. " How 
 do you do ! I have made some tarts purposely for you. 
 Do you want some? " 
 
 " I'd like them," returned Timmy, scanning in nerv 
 ous haste every corner of the room. When he espied 
 the object of his search, he ran to it and hugged it in 
 his arms. 
 
 " Oh, my violin, my violin, shall I ever make sounds 
 on you again ! " and behind the instrument he burst 
 into tears which he wiped quickly away. " But I'll 
 have you yet, and whole." 
 
 " You can think of the beautiful pictures you are 
 going to make for us when this is mended," said Tom, 
 and having explained that next morning early Timmy 
 would be there with the glazier to set the window pane, 
 the three returned to the Landells', Timmy bearing his 
 violin.
 
 320 The House of Landell 
 
 When they had reached home, Tom sent the boy 
 to prepare for dinner, then threw himself into a chair 
 and mopped his forehead. 
 
 " Jupiter, mother, how did you bring up children ! 
 I thought I knew something about child-culture, from 
 being in an institution with them; but there you can 
 turn them over to some one else for at least an hour 
 or two, once in a while. Mothers have them trailing 
 after them or before them or alongside of them all the 
 time, don't they! School training and the real thing 
 is an equation. On one side charts, a room filled 
 with appliances with thermometer, barometer and elec 
 trical conditions and ideas ; on the other side a big X. 
 I am exhausted with just these few hours of X. I am 
 as slimpsy as wet tissue paper ; like Mrs. Perriwinkle's 
 curls during dog-days ; like a picnic crowd caught in a 
 shower; in short, my two hours' attempt to teach the 
 other fellow to bear his own burden, instead of fol 
 lowing the line of least resistance and doing it myself, 
 has resulted in making me feel like a basket of smashed 
 eggs and I have only just begun! " 
 
 With an interest infecting every one in the house, 
 Hi-Timmy Tidmouse rose the next morning. By six- 
 thirty he was at Mr. Winters' shop, watching him take 
 the shutters from the low windows, that, peeping some 
 three feet above the sidewalk, lighted the cellar where 
 he kept his paints and varnishes. There was a very 
 nice smell about it all, Hi-Timmy thought. It re 
 minded him of the woods where he had straightened 
 things out the day before. He put his nose to the pail 
 to take a deep breath of the fascinating mixture, and 
 received a big daub of green paint on its tip. This 
 made him smile. Nothing in all his short life had 
 made him smile much and he wondered, though prob-
 
 The House of Landell 321 
 
 ably unconsciously, if waking up to work out some 
 thing for oneself always makes one feel alive inside. 
 
 They found Mrs. Burton frying cakes for breakfast. 
 She insisted on giving them some before they began 
 work. The two were nothing loth. 
 
 " I've started to buy you some stuff to make you 
 a new rose piece," Timmy looked shyly at the rosy- 
 cheeked little girl as she helped him and Mr. Winters 
 bountifully to the cakes her mother was taking from 
 the griddle. He felt interest in her, now that he was 
 trying to do something to dissolve in her memory the 
 tears of that horrible night when he had made himself 
 and others so unhappy. 
 
 " Oh, how nice of you ! " Amy colored with plea 
 sure, as, having put six fresh, hot cakes on Timmy's 
 plate, she took some herself. " I had worked so hard 
 on those roses, and only got them finished the day 
 before you before they got hurt, " politely refrain 
 ing from pointing her speech too incisively toward 
 the vandal. " I didn't mind working on them, but I 
 did mind having them spoiled." 
 
 " I am to get ten cents for every pair of boots I black 
 for Mr. Tom," Hi-Timmy's heart warmed more and 
 more toward his little companion. " It takes an awful 
 time to pay for things, don't it ! " thoughtfully. 
 
 " Lots longer than it takes to smash 'em," retorted 
 Mrs. Burton briskly, overhearing, as she came from 
 the stove with more cakes. 
 
 " Mrs. Burton, if you give us any more we shall be 
 too full to work, and we must get at it," said Mr. Win 
 ters. 
 
 " I should say you were at it already," Mrs. Burton 
 laughed. " How is the old church getting on, Mr. 
 Winters?" 
 
 " Mrs. Burton, I am ashamed to tell you." Mr. 
 Winters laid down his knife and fork, " I am just
 
 322 The House of Landell 
 
 ashamed to tell you. We decent ones feel disgraced by 
 it all, and some of us are heart-broken. We don't look 
 at it as being the Lord's way of doing. I was at that 
 meeting the night you walked off with our cream. I 
 ain't saying it wasn't the thing to do. I suspicioned 
 it was at the time and I think so still. I did hope that 
 what Mr. Landell said about cooperating would come 
 to pass, but it won't be possible, I fear, for the mess 
 we are in now is disgraceful. I would have gone with 
 you but I thought my mother wouldn't get over it. 
 She would have, though. It seems she wanted to go, 
 herself, and wouldn't because of me. How we do play 
 criss-cross in life! " 
 
 " Playing to persons instead of to principle, Mr. 
 Herman says ! " 
 
 " You know that Mrs. Bryce's John has followed 
 her!" 
 
 " She told me the other day that he had hardly 
 spoken to her for months after she left the church; 
 but that now, she believed that the truth she had dared 
 declare for God was bringing her a husband in a sense 
 she never had had one before." 
 
 Mrs. Burton sat down and drew the syrup jug to 
 wards her plate piled high with the trophies of her 
 housewifery. 
 
 " It hurts me to go there and hear the new minister 
 say what he said last Sabbath ! " 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 " That it makes him sick and angry to hear about 
 this divine spark ! That it is sacrilegious to talk about 
 any divine spark in human beings that there is no 
 God in us. Wasn't that awful ! What do you suppose 
 the denunciations in the Bible mean those of Jesus, 
 I mean? " 
 
 " Since I have been up here and heard Mr. Herman 
 preach, I have decided that it was Jesus' way of waking
 
 The House of Landell 323 
 
 the consciousness of a hard, wild, unthinking people 
 to a sense of their moral accountability, and that it 
 means the same as it does when He talks to the more 
 awakened ones of justice and mercy and love and 
 helping others. It's a great mistake to think Jesus 
 has ever said He would relieve us of our accountabil 
 ity. Now, I can hear sermons that used to make me 
 sad or angry and see just what sort of people they are 
 fitted for, and I don't, as I used to, take to myself 
 what is meant for others. The men Jesus hurled his 
 denunciations at stand out to me as a fiery mob who 
 understood only blood and vengeance. According to 
 the way He words His message, I can see before Him 
 the Salvation Army, the emotional sects, the intellectual 
 seekers, or the spiritual ones among them all. I begin 
 to understand and to be conscious that I understand. 
 It makes me happy and brave and brotherly, instead 
 of separate and antagonistic." 
 
 " That is fine. How did it happen that the Her 
 mans were so entirely alone? Did you ever hear? " 
 
 " I was told they were lovely people and very 
 wealthy; but that after the father died the manager 
 lost their money for the son had taken up the min 
 istry instead of business. The man took every cent 
 he could lay his hands on, but in some way that the 
 law couldn't touch him, misfortune, he claimed it 
 was, business and political conditions and such like 
 that may be true and may be something to hide be 
 hind. Even their house insurance was unpaid and 
 when the house burned down they had nothing but 
 the shooting-box on Mt. Nodel. They went there to 
 try to pull themselves together and the son was taken 
 ill you know the rest. I think there was a good 
 deal of bitterness on the son's part I don't wonder! 
 I can see he is trying to idealize the processes of growth 
 in his own life and I am willing to take his teaching
 
 324 The House of Landell 
 
 even if he can't quite live it yet, for I know he knows 
 what the rest of us are going through." 
 
 " How do you know he is bitter? " 
 
 " By the way he says Father in the prayers and bene 
 diction as if He didn't think God had made much of 
 a showing in fatherliness toward him! I never hear 
 people say anything without listening back to the way 
 they say it. I learned that from my brother." 
 
 " I guess the Hermans' experience wasn't any too 
 easy to take from a loving Father, and the newspaper 
 publicity given them was awful ! What does it mean 
 in the Bible the constant allusions to being lost?" 
 Mr. Winters reverted to the topic uppermost in his 
 mind. " This new minister talks about them, con 
 stantly." 
 
 " I can explain better by telling stories. I was at 
 an evening's entertainment with my brother the 
 organ builder. There was a reciter who gave us 
 Tennyson's ' Crossing the Bar.' After the entertain 
 ment, my brother went to her and said, ' Madame, your 
 work was very fine ; but what was in your mind when 
 you recited " Crossing the Bar " ? You never got over 
 it. There was something that prevented your cross 
 ing.' 
 
 " She looked puzzled, then said, ' The only way 
 I can explain it is, that when I was a child I was very 
 nearly drowned, when grounded on one.' So I think we 
 are in a mind maze. When we begin to know that all 
 right things are real, we don't get our own earth 
 shadows in the way of our Sun which is God, and we 
 see the path. Before that, in a certain manner, we are 
 lost, even on the very spot where, later, we find our 
 selves." 
 
 " You make that very clear," said Mr. Winters, ad 
 miringly. " Tell me this, what does it mean when it 
 says God is a consuming fire ? "
 
 The House of Landell 325 
 
 "I take it, that God gathers all to Himself. He 
 makes all His own. That frightens those who don't 
 understand; but makes those who do understand glad 
 and happy. They know they are being strengthened, 
 purified and reinforced by this cleansing power. It 
 doesn't frighten me. I think it is beautiful. Tell me 
 something about the church. I don't mean to dwell on 
 ugly things, but I am interested. I did hope we could 
 come together those that like to be scolded and 
 frightened, to get them to do right, and we who find 
 our help in being taught and encouraged. I don't see 
 why there can't be one church with God as the Unit 
 and the Purpose, to find the ' relationship of seemingly 
 unrelated things,' instead of tearing and picking every 
 thought to pieces as if we were crows. You see from 
 the way I talk so different from what I used to 
 how much I am learning by being in the sunlight of 
 truth here on the hill. Go on, tell me about the 
 church?" 
 
 " You know what Frisby said about the lien on the 
 land? Well, it is true. He has held us down for 
 years by ramming his father's gift down our throats 
 after our own fathers had swallowed it." 
 
 Amy giggled. 
 
 " There, Amy, don't you laugh at me. That was a 
 speech I'll allow." 
 
 " I don't see how he could'a rammed it down your 
 throat after your fathers had swallowed it," returned 
 the child with another giggle. 
 
 " He has, until I wish we could have bought it out 
 of the general contribution box, instead of out of one 
 man's pocket. His father, in an unworldly manner I 
 hope he wasn't knowing to, had the papers made out 
 to the three men, as individuals, instead of trustees, 
 and now, Frisby and his wife, and her brother, whose 
 father was another of the trustees, are laying claim
 
 326 The House of Landell 
 
 to it as their property. It has been put off and put off 
 and now is coming up in court next week, and we 
 decent ones are ashamed. Some of us are making a 
 move to worship elsewhere. We aren't ready to give 
 up the old traditions ; but we are willing to go so far 
 as to try for new light on them, " 
 
 " That's all we ask up on the hill " 
 
 ' To call what we do, now, worship, is an insult to 
 the Lord. Now, Timmy, if you've eaten your cakes, 
 we'll turn to and fix up Mrs. Burton's window." 
 
 Timmy sprang up with a vitality that was wholly 
 new to him. The glass was unwrapped, he was ini 
 tiated into the preparation of the putty, and then, sub 
 stantially assisted by Mr. Winters, he put the pane in 
 place, Amy and Mrs. Burton watching interestedly. 
 
 ' That's in now, in good shape, but it's an awful 
 dirty window." Mr. Winters stood off from the house 
 and viewed the glass. " I suppose the one you broke 
 was clean." 
 
 " I 'spose so ! " sighed Timmy. His vitality was 
 ebbing after the excitement and the exertion. 
 
 " Now, if I had your stuff, I'd have made my square 
 deal with you," said Timmy to Amy. " It does take 
 an awful long time, doesn't it, to straighten out a little 
 smashing ! I've only got ten cents towards it ! " Then, 
 despondently, " If I had my violin, I'd show you how 
 it sounded when I cut that glass ! " 
 
 " Thank the great horn spoon you haven't," Mrs. 
 Burton said, vigorously, gritting her teeth. "If you 
 had tried to show me after the fashion of that night, 
 there might be more smashing, and this time I couldn't 
 be sure that you would be the one to do it ! " 
 
 Hi-Timmy went to bed that night smiling, to dream 
 of groves carpeted with delicious, soft putty, that 
 smelt of linseed oil and turpentine, and that you could 
 shape with your fingers and knife; and of a great big
 
 The House of Landell 327 
 
 violin, whole, and his very own, with which he could 
 express, to his heart's delight, all the woodland sounds 
 he had heard, as he lay beneath the odorous, tremulous 
 trees. 
 
 After he was sound asleep and far on his journey of 
 wonderful adventure, Mr. Winters and two other men 
 were ushered into the library. 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. Winters," said Mr. Landell, 
 cordially shaking hands, " I am glad to see you, and 
 you, too, Prout, and Turner. How goes everything in 
 town?" 
 
 Mr. Winters straightened back in his chair with a 
 sturdy movement that strained every fibre of its stout 
 mechanism, nervously rubbing the palms of his hands 
 to and fro as he spoke. 
 
 " I'm bound to say, sir, they've taken a new turn 
 since that church of yours began teaching the ethics of 
 civics, as I believe you call it. Public opinion is a 
 great thing, Mr. Landell, and public opinion has been 
 waked up by that teaching of yours, till, somehow, 
 those hoodlums that used to make things noisy and 
 give the police trouble have subsided a good deal. You 
 teach us to spread the tidings given us by the church 
 and bear it into the working paths of life. There is 
 something deeper than efficiency and civilization, isn't 
 there, when both have threatened to crush the world 
 on the same lines that savagery has done but with so 
 much more skill." 
 
 " There's another thing. These things have to be 
 taught so carefully. A very good man, teaching that 
 workman, brother to brother, should wage the war 
 against tyranny, nearly precipitated a riot in my 
 saw mill in contention against me. You teach that 
 brotherhood is cooperation with all parts of the body 
 politic, not aggression against any part. It's won 
 derful how, as soon as that thought crept in, I was
 
 328 The House of Landell 
 
 no longer considered a tyrant but a man with the 
 rest of them, trying to work out the best for all," 
 put in Mr. Turner. " I wasn't in favor of mixing 
 civics and religion; but I see you can't unmix 'em, 
 so to speak." 
 
 " That is the way I feel, Turner. Everything is 
 based on Unity." 
 
 Musingly, Mr. Landell sought the heart of the flame, 
 as if to fathom its secrets. 
 
 " How are matters at the old church ? " There was 
 a touch of tenderness in his tones. " I love the old 
 church. It was my father's and mother's, and they 
 were saintly." 
 
 Mr. Prout hitched his chair forward with a confi 
 dential gesture, as his host stooped and threw some 
 driftwood on the fire. 
 
 " Mr. Landell, things couldn't be worse," Mr. Prout 
 followed his gesture with words. " We have come to 
 talk it over with you." 
 
 " We want to act decently and in order," said Mr. 
 Turner. " Frisby has taken his case into court and it 
 is up to us whether we fight the claim. I, for one, 
 don't want to go to law over a church affair." 
 
 " I do not believe the court will sustain the case. 
 It is too evident the men were servants of a body." 
 
 " We are in no position to build, for you took a 
 great deal of our root with you that night. It seems 
 foolish to clutter up the landscape with any more ill- 
 kept, half-filled, dead-and-alive church properties, when 
 there is a communion like yours, ready to receive all 
 grades of wisdom on the one basis of God the Maker 
 and Finisher of all, giving the hand of fellowship on 
 the truth that worship to God is service to man. We 
 aren't ready to give up the creed ; but can't we come in 
 with you, in part? If you could rent us your audi 
 torium for a Sunday service and Sunday School, we
 
 The House of Landell 329 
 
 will manage the rest at the houses. I suspect you'll 
 see us creeping into your heart bit by bit till we are all 
 yours, 
 
 " And ours is all yours," interrupted Mr. Landell. 
 " Belief is as a garment. It fits our embodiment. You 
 comprehend the line of march splendidly. We do not 
 wish to criticize old dogma, neither to become standard- 
 izers. What in one state of consciousness seems a mis 
 apprehension, is not so in another. We wish to in 
 volve the all-inclusive social expression of a spiritual 
 purpose; the growing out of all sorts of slavery to 
 wards freedom, personal, civic, universal. This im 
 pels expression of freedom and is constructive. Let 
 us stop talking of retrogression in the churches. It 
 has been steady uplift. Every oncoming generation 
 of ministers and of congregations has higher standards 
 than those before. Every day, congregations look for 
 greater and deeper nobility of character among their 
 members. Every day, less is heard of a lost world 
 and more of one universe, precious and valuable in its 
 continual making; less about the acceptance of a Jesus- 
 God of two centuries ago whose wounds are kept open 
 and bleeding by our sins, imposed upon us by our vile 
 nature, and more of the inherent divinity of human 
 nature of which Jesus is prototype redeeming us to 
 the reaching of that type through His example; more 
 of the inherent divinity of our natures one with God, 
 which we are to express; more of the preparation of 
 souls to nurture and home the Christ Spirit, making 
 each individual a redeemer to souls still asleep." 
 
 " I have been to a great many of your services," 
 said Mr. Turner, " and have learned of Jesus as I 
 never knew Him before. I see, too, that no man liveth 
 or dieth to himself but each to the glory of the whole. 
 To rejoice in being saved while one believes any
 
 330 The House of Landell 
 
 brother or sister lost, now seems to me impossible of 
 belief." 
 
 " The church owes this duty to society that it think 
 fearlessly upon the laws governing the relations of 
 human life and interpret religion in such terms as to 
 unite cooperatively, men now divided by their special 
 izations of thought and labor. It should express the 
 principle of social betterment, not make social better 
 ment the basis. With gladness, it should train the 
 mind toward recognition of the Spiritual power which 
 provides moral force for social coordination. It should 
 train men in the spiral relations of life a constant 
 mounting, in thought and desire, toward the concep 
 tion of the divine humanity demonstrated in Jesus, 
 the Master, who worked on nature's plane to express 
 Universal Principle through nature's forces and in 
 struments. Let me talk this over with some of the 
 others and arrange to meet you and plan together," 
 Mr. Landell concluded, as the callers rose to go, and, 
 with relief written on their sturdy faces, bade their 
 host good night.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 "Habits are principles which have become in 
 stincts and have passed over into flesh and blood." 
 
 Amiel. 
 
 A DISREPUTABLE looking object in training togs was 
 trotting along the country road, and old Mrs. Frisby, 
 as she passed, dropped her eyes in maidenly constraint, 
 remarking audibly, that " One might as well face the 
 Boston Art Museum statuary department exercising on 
 the square, as to meet those disgraceful athletes going 
 about in less'n their nightshirts." 
 
 For almost the first time in his life, Tom's mind was 
 not fully on the work he had in .hand. Truth to tell, 
 he never had been quite so care- free since the set-to 
 with the bear. His visit to Mattee Sue had broadened 
 his immaturity into something far richer and deeper. 
 Love, wonderful revealer, had involved new pictures in 
 his mind. Besides, he was feeling an irritating dis 
 quietude as he realized that the race is not always to 
 the swift nor the battle to the strong. He was irritated 
 by his sarcastic reflections that not he, with his phil 
 osophy, put up and labelled pharmaceutically, had saved 
 their lives when almost in the bear's clutches, but that 
 it was Agnes, the dweller among the stars, as some 
 had called her, who, by her sense of impending need, 
 had provided him with the implement which had stayed 
 him at the pit's edge, and who, by her swift thought 
 and prompt action, had enticed the beast to doom. 
 
 " I don't feel so cocksure as I did that I can teach 
 Agnes," he mused, slowing his pace, and, out of tune 
 
 331
 
 332 The House of Landell 
 
 with his exercise, dropping into a walk, " I don't wish 
 to lose my assurance, but I do want a perspective on 
 myself. I wonder what sort of puling creature I 
 should be if I had been fed on the damning effects 
 of loving persons, and impressed with the danger of 
 loving God through humanity, or of finding God in 
 humanity. She has always been on the wrong side of 
 the fence for comfort, has Agnesia, for when she be 
 gan to come out of this nightmare, she was condemned 
 as erratic or irreligious. Do you think, Tom Landell, 
 you would have done as well as she has, and moved 
 on an orbit so much larger than the majority, with 
 as much grace and helpfulness, making so few mis 
 takes in the unknown country she is treading! Pouf ! 
 You know you wouldn't ! " 
 
 Walking to the boat-house, he put a sweater over his 
 " disabilly," as the irate Mrs. Frisby designated it, 
 pulled out a boat, shot into the centre of the lake. He 
 endeavored, though contrary to the theory he often 
 propounded to his sister, to work off, by vigorous phys 
 ical exertion, this new experience, dissatisfaction 
 with self. 
 
 He rowed for some time, soothed by the beauty 
 about him. The waters lay transparent, caressing 
 miniature peninsulas which pointed, lance-like, or nar 
 rowed sinuously toward the forests. Rounding one 
 of these curves, he came upon Agnes, alone, in a boat. 
 
 " How relieved I am to see you," she called. " I 
 thought I'd take a row and my arms gave out." 
 
 " You should have known better than to overtax 
 yourself," was on the tip of Tom's tongue. Instead, 
 he said, beneath his breath, " Cut it out, ignoramus, 
 and learn a few things." Then he called cheerily, 
 " Throw your rope over and we'll wander about 
 awhile." 
 
 Agnes tossed the rope across into her brother's
 
 The House of Landell 333 
 
 hands, and the two trolled silently, the water humming 
 its pleasant song about the boats. 
 
 " Agnes, did you ever see any farther into those 
 wells? " said Tom after a while. 
 
 " No ; but I am far from satisfied that it was imag 
 ination. I want to receive messages while I am in 
 alert happy consciousness of my worth, as a messen 
 ger, to receive intelligible advice. I do not wish to be 
 thrown by some inhibiting force into a depleted condi 
 tion, that I may be worked on. It would be a com 
 paratively easy matter to cut the whole thing from my 
 life, but it is too tremendous a gift to toss aside. I 
 must learn how to use it. As to the well, I have felt 
 that it would be mercenary to think much about it; 
 but Aunt Luella often said she was going to leave me 
 her money, that she had no direct heirs, and that she 
 loved me best of her husband's heirs. It must be all 
 right, however. Probably Mr. Jenkins was nice to 
 her. He is an attractive and very magnetic man when 
 sober. I should wish her to do with her own as she 
 pleased. To change the subject it has been so won 
 derful I have not voiced it before, but what you said, 
 after we left the keeper at the quarries the day we 
 encountered the bear, gave me a clearer interpretation 
 of universal love in personal manifestation. I real 
 ized, as never before, my unity with all elements and 
 with all created things, and that in doing to the least 
 of these, I am doing unto Him. No one can make 
 character if he shuns opportunity to practice, can he ! " 
 
 Tom gasped. 
 
 " Are you loving me for practice! " he burst out, in 
 his state of self-conscious dissatisfaction, taking to 
 himself the remark he generally would have taken in 
 the abstract and passed over. He was humbled still 
 more in his own estimation of himself, at what he 
 chose to consider a wholesale classing of himself with
 
 334 The House of Landell 
 
 " the least of these." " That means any old thing in 
 the world," he continued indignantly. " Get into the 
 light of what you believe ! Don't carry a big umbrella 
 to hide from yourself the very view you have climbed 
 so high to find. Suppose I told you that the only 
 reason father and mother and I love you is because 
 we need to train personal love for character's sake. 
 What would you think of that for high-handed selfish 
 ness?" 
 
 " I should think you were right ! " 
 " You make me shiver in every fibre ! " 
 " I make myself shiver the same way. It is what is 
 breaking my heart in the midst of seeming happiness. 
 Oh, Tomsey, don't you see ! " 
 
 " No, I don't ! There seems nothing tangible about 
 you, even to pinch. I am here, your brother, by blood 
 and sympathy, 
 
 " The second counts; the first may or may not." 
 " Don't you acknowledge I bear a different relation 
 to you than does the drunken scissors-grinder who 
 frightened you so that you ran all the way to the sum 
 mer house for my protection! " 
 
 " I was a coward and did not recognize the unity be 
 tween us." 
 
 " Don't get into that selfless tangle, ' 
 " Just now, you accused me of high-handed selfish 
 ness ! I must see God in every being." 
 
 " Then do it in a common sense way. Do you want 
 to love human beings? " 
 
 " Yes." Her face became a radiant crimson. Tom 
 looked at her, a softening light in his eyes. 
 " H'm," beneath his breath. Then aloud, 
 " You would like that money of Aunt Luella's and 
 think you have no right to investigate a perfectly hon 
 orable claim ! Don't you think it is honorable ! "
 
 The House of Landell 335 
 
 " I won't put out my hand to claim what may not be 
 mine." 
 
 " Are you going to repudiate it ? Use common 
 sense." 
 
 " ' Ye objects brought my thoughts from diffusion 
 and formed them into shape,' ' quoted Agnes, a 
 mystical look in her eyes. " You are right. But I 
 won't claim it. The Maker of all knows what is mine 
 and I will make myself a conscious distributing centre 
 of His wisdom. Then, if it is right, the symbol of the 
 two wells will be explained." 
 
 " You are a strange combination of action and in 
 action." He looked at her meditatively, as they trolled 
 along, side by side. 
 
 " What has become of Ross Mevin," he said at 
 length. "Is it your fault?" Then, with a keen 
 thrust of his intellect into her mind, he said, almost 
 fiercely, 
 
 " Are you going to play round Philip Herman until 
 you get wrapped up in the meshes of misery? You 
 seem dangerously interested in him. I've lived side 
 by side with you and, notwithstanding my inherent 
 belief in your philosophy, I feel as if you were always 
 standing on the edge of a crater from which I must 
 rescue you; but, while I am thinking up the means, 
 you fly, above and over, and settle on some new 
 vantage ground. I am awfully worried about this 
 melodramatic interest you take in Herman's work. 
 Some of it is the real love of principle, or of forming 
 thoughts out of diffusion into shape as you said just 
 now, but there is a personal quality about it, that, 
 don't get your affections or your emotions tied up with 
 that man. He would kill you ! Nothing against him, 
 he's a fine fellow; but for you! Well, don't let's 
 poison ourselves by argument. It's a bad precipitate. 
 I came pretty near taking a dose. You see, you were
 
 336 The House of Landell 
 
 born on the spiritual plane and have to come down to 
 struggle with the details of our making. That is what 
 makes me always fearful lest you don't know how to 
 use the materials given you. You live in the realms 
 of universal love : when you attempt to actualize it in 
 individuals, do, for heaven's sake, choose the right 
 man." 
 
 " I meant the same thing you do when you howled 
 at me and called what I said, high-handed selfishness. 
 Words! Words! How often we mean alike and 
 would know it but that we cloud our meanings ! " 
 
 " I am living in the time of my growth when the 
 love of father and mother and you and Mattee Sue 
 are leading me toward the Great Light. You recall 
 the time when you lived as a soul in the universal with 
 out differentiating it into the loves of father and 
 mother and me and Ross Mevin, " 
 
 " I don't love Ross Mevin," she burst out, her face 
 aflame. " I never think of him except as an idea. 
 Stop laughing ! You'll tip us over ! " 
 
 " It would do you good to be tipped over. Mellow 
 up, the least bit, dear, the process does feel so good. 
 I wager you wouldn't hear a man propose to you if 
 your mind happened to be upon some theorem of the 
 stars. You are absolutely blank to such matters as see 
 ing a man looking in your direction when you are on 
 your trip to the universal, and when you come back 
 you would just as possibly put out your hand to the 
 wrong fellow as you would take a lot of pains to get 
 up a swell costume for a function, and then go to it 
 with your hat on hind side before." 
 
 Agnes laughed. 
 
 " I don't always do that ! Don't lay it up against me 
 as the inevitable " 
 
 " It isn't the usual that happens in choosing a man 
 either "
 
 The House of Landell 337 
 
 "Don't tease me, I am in agony! If I am to love 
 God, through individuals, I must love those I have 
 injured. I feel so distressed I am almost paralyzed at 
 times, I cannot throw off the terrible weight of re 
 morse at the part I have played in Philip Herman's 
 life or the horrible obsession of his antagonism to 
 me. I must sacrifice myself for him in some way, 
 give myself for him in vicarious atonement for the 
 indignity I have made him suffer. What can I do ! " 
 
 " Marry him and be his ' patience on a monument 
 smiling at grief ! ' " burst out Tom, furiously. " Giv 
 ing for him and giving to him are different proposi 
 tions and I don't see why either should concern you. 
 I am looking at you hard to find out if you have fallen 
 in love with that seething hot bed of rampant pride." 
 
 " It is not rampant pride ! I did a horrible thing 
 to" 
 
 " The newspapers did that ! " 
 
 " I will not evade the blame. It was my method that 
 gave them opportunity to place him on a saucer of 
 huckleberries and hawk him to the world, and to con 
 nect his name with mine, as a common psychic, 
 
 " There, you have as much right to be angry with 
 him as he with you, it was the fault of neither." 
 
 " With an insulting innuendo as to the culmination 
 of the romance in a manner amply making up for his 
 fallen fortunes and uniting two families it is dis 
 gusting and terrifying." 
 
 " Suggestion, influence, I thought you were su 
 perior to being spun like a top by the cord of public 
 opinion." 
 
 " On the contrary, I know that is one of the weakest 
 points of my character. I can be spun, and in my at 
 tempts to prevent this, I grow inert." 
 
 " How did you get hold of all that expose? We 
 kept the papers from you after the first one you saw."
 
 338 The House of Landell 
 
 " Grace Herrick didn't. She kept me fully supplied 
 with literature from every source. If he didn't seem 
 to despise me so, I would be willing to 
 
 " Give the papers a chance to say, I told you so ! 
 eh ! Big headlines, ' Natural sequence which we 
 foretold months ago ! Consummation of romance be 
 tween psychic and pauper in high life! Psychic and 
 pauper! Pleasant alliterations!" he sneered, wrath- 
 fully. " How do you purpose consummating this 
 union, disintegration is a better word! with a man 
 who does you the superior honor of disliking you al 
 most to the hating point ! " 
 
 " Often I feel as if unseen forces were struggling 
 for the integrity of my soul." 
 
 " They are; but they are natural forces of yourself 
 and not spooks. Your inert I won't say negative, 
 for negative is as strong as positive attitude of loving 
 the whole universe without regard to relations, which 
 your natural grit won't permit, will gain the victory 
 for them. Doubt and fear are elemental forces. Do 
 you intend to fall in love with them and let them rule 
 you! Love neither compels nor makes demands. If 
 what you feel within you does not cooperate with com 
 mon sense, set it down as not love." 
 
 " Love cannot be the greatest thing in the world ! " 
 
 " I like the thought of wisdom better. There seems 
 more positiveness and less emotionalism in our under 
 standing of it. It is better to keep the mind on that, 
 Agnes, than on mischievous forces, seen or unseen. 
 That is disintegrating." 
 
 " I know ! It is our attitude which enables mischief 
 or value to infill us. Fire is fire, be it preserver or de 
 stroyer." 
 
 " Never let yourself believe that you are listening 
 to mischief-making intelligences of any sort. Did I
 
 The House of Landell 339 
 
 unintentionally hit the nail on the head! Are you in 
 love with Philip Herman?" 
 
 " No, I only want to sacrifice myself for him in 
 some way as reparation. I should like to place him 
 rightfully before the world where I've debased him." 
 
 "On a pedestal! What sort of one? He, a god 
 with feet of clay, on an altar of delusion ! Do you love 
 him! " 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " Does he show any signs of proposing? " 
 
 " No! " indignantly. 
 
 " How do you suggest cementing the matrimonial 
 bond? Shall you make the advances yourself and 
 compel him to accept you? " 
 
 "If it is my duty the way will be made plain." 
 
 Tom gasped. 
 
 " Duty! When you are in these moods of self-con 
 demnation, the more one says, the more unmanageable 
 you become. You would not dream of marrying on 
 that false basis, would you ! " 
 
 " I would do anything I thought I should, to rectify 
 my mistake." 
 
 " We don't rectify mistakes by perpetrating others 
 and you know it! You will do well to look into the 
 ethics of marriage if you have any idea that you can 
 go into it to restore self-respect, or pay debts, or for 
 any other sort of vicarious atonement. You and I 
 are not here I am giving you your own philosophy 
 when I say this to rush into experiences of emotional 
 sentimentalism, to learn, with blood-sweat and anguish 
 the truth concealed in its horrors. We are here to 
 prove that pure aspiration and trust, inherent selec 
 tion, spiritual comprehension and apprehension, do 
 prevent wreckage such as yours must be should you 
 permit yourself to be drawn into horrible phenomena 
 of experience, through the acceptance of any other
 
 34 The House of Landell 
 
 guides. For you, with your ideals, even to formulate 
 such statements, astounds me! It proves how abso 
 lutely self-condemnation can disturb vision and make 
 one see at all sorts of angles ! Hasn't all your talk and 
 all your thought taught you that Philip Herman must 
 work out his salvation along with the rest of us; 
 and evidently, prefers to! You never can hear love 
 speak while your heavenly vision is so constantly in 
 terrupted by little gnomes of doubt, fear and self- 
 condemnation ! You shall love, for the love of loving, 
 the right man! I won't have any other kind and you 
 shan't marry any other kind; and you shall gain some 
 sort of perspective worthy your splendid powers For 
 a place with little current, our boats are moving swiftly, 
 where are we? " 
 
 Instead of the wooded shores sloping to the water's 
 edge, Agnes saw a well-kept green-sward, dotted here 
 and there with superb hydrangeas and fall cannse, set 
 back from the water amidst vines and trees. A man, 
 a woman, and some frightened children were trying 
 to attract the attention of the two in the boats, be 
 neath which tbe water swirled more and more rapidly, 
 while louder grew the sounds heretofore unnoticed, 
 mingled, as these had been, with the soughing of trees, 
 splashing of water and the intensity of their emotions. 
 
 "The gates! The gates!" she cried, "Oh, Tom, 
 the gates! " 
 
 The lake was one of a chain on which demand was 
 made when the water-supply ran low in the neighbor 
 ing city. The gates were up to-night, letting their 
 floods through, insidiously sucking to their death those 
 two bright lives; swirling, eddying, faster and faster, 
 while the steady boom grew more and more insistent. 
 
 In a flash, Agnes grasped the situation. She saw 
 they could be saved if they worked together but there 
 were the two boats! She knew Tom would not drop
 
 The House of Landell 341 
 
 the rope that connected these, though the holding lead 
 him to his death! Should she row, or be still! Her 
 efforts would prove worse than useless unless she 
 moved in rhythm with his. If she could depend on 
 her strength for one hundred and fifty yards, they 
 would pass the danger line and Tom could manage 
 the rest. One hundred and fifty yards against those 
 swirling waters, in time to the stroke of a college 
 crew! 
 
 In the midst of this turbulence of mind, thundering 
 through the sounding waters came the message to her 
 soul, " I and my Father are one ! " In that second, 
 strength supernal and vision for doing came to her. 
 Bending to the stroke, she recovered in perfect rhythm 
 with Tom and for the moment their dizzying onrush 
 was checked. Little by little they gained control over 
 the almost flying boats and skillfully made the turn in 
 the vortex of waters. Again and again she bent and 
 recovered, struggling for life against death with the 
 Lorelei singing in the rushing waters. Inch by inch 
 they forced themselves away from the seething, eddy 
 ing swirl that threatened to engulf them. 
 
 Again she bent and recovered. They moved on 
 while the group on the water's edge, added to the tur 
 bulence by their shouts of direction and encourage 
 ment. All grew black before her. The air seemed 
 full of flecks of fire, dipping and flashing. The danger 
 signal danced dizzily in the mist rapidly gathering be 
 fore her eyes. She was almost losing sight of Tom, 
 but the closeness of their spirits grew more assured. 
 They had walked together, talked together, rowed to 
 gether a little but most of all, they had thought to 
 gether. There was nothing impersonal in her attitude 
 towards him he need not be afraid ! Though her eyes 
 could scarcely see him through the fire-flecked dark 
 ness, still she moved with him. Rhythmically bending
 
 34 2 The House of Landell 
 
 and recovering, she dipped her sparkling oars, whose 
 blades dripped molten silver. Rather than seeing in 
 the darkness that had gathered about her outward 
 vision, she seemed, inwardly, full of light. She knew 
 that a black pole shot past them ; she knew, rather than 
 heard, enthusiastic cheers from the gate-keeper and 
 the lusty-throated children; she knew that Tom was 
 calling to her to stop rowing, and she knew that steadily 
 she was helping pull themselves away from the keeper's 
 lodge, away from the sounding, shivering, swirling 
 waters, back into the quiet lake. 
 
 The two said almost nothing as they landed. When 
 the boats were housed, they turned towards home. 
 
 " I won't walk up the road with you," Tom said. 
 " Sister Frisby eyed me as if I were a plucked cupid 
 and it won't do to include you in such a covey." 
 
 When she had left him, he walked sturdily into the 
 woods. 
 
 " Coroner's verdict : ' Drowned by dispensation of 
 Providence,' " he said grimly, as he stood still be 
 neath the trees, alone with himself. " Verdict of the 
 Great Knower : * Tom Landell chose to grow angry 
 over the problems of life so inhibiting his mind's ac 
 tivities that he did not cooperate with inherent intelli 
 gence and was swept into danger currents.' Drowned 
 by the dispensation of Providence ! Pouf ! We should 
 have been drowned by the dispensation of unconscious 
 choice."
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Searching what, or what manner of time the 
 Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, 
 when it testified beforehand the sufferings of 
 Christ, and the glory that should follow. 
 
 Peter I. i. n. 
 
 THAT night Agnes went to her room; but not to 
 sleep. Sitting in darkness, enveloping her in myste 
 rious folds, she looked into the seeming void that gave 
 no evidence of the landscape within and behind its 
 shadows. She knew it was there, even as she knew 
 that under the denseness of her superficial mind, stood 
 her soul, alight. As she sat there, her consciousness 
 began to feel its way through the opaqueness and she 
 sensed the forest in misty chiaroscuro, and the moon 
 light glancing upon the lake in flecks and falls as nar 
 row as lances and as keen. Excepting for the low 
 monotone of the waters rushing through the far-away 
 gates, so intense a stillness filled the night it became 
 like a palpable pulsing entity. 
 
 Little by little, her consciousness differentiated and 
 translated these mysteries behind the veil of nature. 
 There stole into the recognition of her hearing a sound 
 as of bullets striking steel. Sight pierced the lower 
 clouds and mounted to where black cumuli piled high 
 along a more distant horizon though toward the zenith 
 the concave heights were clear and blue. A breath of vi 
 talizing air sent a message to her nostrils of the moun 
 tains beyond sight, and her whole sense-being reached 
 out to welcome the rain. She knew that drops were 
 
 343
 
 344 The House of Landell 
 
 falling upon the leaves, and the sound echoed to her 
 from the forest; she felt them touch the soft green 
 moss and followed them as they leaped into the brooks ; 
 they spattered upon the lichen-dashed rocks and she 
 bounded in spirit with them as they ricochetted on the 
 grass; they touched the pebbles and her heart moved 
 as if it were itself the very heart of the ferns; they 
 entered, like life-giving elixir, into the dying brakes, 
 and, with them, she felt their vitalizing, potent energy. 
 
 She knelt by the window and leaned her arms upon 
 the sill, letting the drops dash in upon her face as she 
 drew deep breaths of enlightenment and inspiration. 
 The shower was sharp and short. The battalions of 
 rain-drops surged across the lake, echoed in the dis 
 tance, then died away, still leaving the landscape en- 
 veiled in brume. 
 
 A surge of desolation and apartness unfelt for 
 months, swept over her. 
 
 " I, not see the personal ! " She dropped her head 
 upon her arms. " It is what I do see! Night after 
 night I hold the forms of the little sisters and brothers 
 who died long ago. I suffer, even now, in the suffer 
 ings they have transcended ! And Aunt Luella ! Why 
 did I not respond to the call of her heart ! It was be 
 cause I was trying to rise above the psychic and 
 analyze the divine currents of the universe! 
 
 " I wish I knew. I do feel that I am gaining in 
 consciousness of intuition. I am beginning to recog 
 nize the passivity which admits the drift of flotsam and 
 jetsam toward my mentality, absolutely sucks it in 
 as into a vortex of confusion. There is a fierceness in 
 my attitude as I sense the coming, a resentment that I 
 should be intruded upon. Training will enable me 
 to act intuitionally, on the instant, concerning truths 
 to which reason leads us slowly. 
 
 " Have I been wrong ! " She kept the question surg-
 
 The House of Landell 345 
 
 ing through her mind. " If I am personal, I am ac 
 cused of being impersonal; if I try to be impersonal, 
 I am accused of ' high-handed selfishness ' ! I will see 
 humanity only as instruments and will ignore person 
 ality and personal friendships. I will crucify personal 
 love and ignore lovers." 
 
 Leaning far out of the window, she looked into the 
 all-pervading mist. Suddenly it became a surging, bil 
 lowing sea. 
 
 " Look deeper still into the pains and sorrows," it 
 seemed to say to her heart, " you have not probed 
 the depths when you stop at the thought of pain. The 
 power and the glory are underneath the suffering. 
 Ignoring that will never help you find them. Search 
 the heart of pain and you shall find help, service, co 
 operation." 
 
 " God, teach me ! " she cried. " Ever since I was 
 a little child I have sought but I do not find." 
 
 "Learn!" 
 
 The word came from within an impression as dis 
 tinct as a speaking voice. A faint light penetrated the 
 mist. As she watched, the full moon appeared in a 
 clear sky. Below her, not a church steeple, not a hill 
 crest were visible. 
 
 " I am above the clouds ! " She gazed from the 
 elevation of her windows, veering, as she often did 
 filled now, with an ecstasy of delight. " Just you 
 and I, dear moon, are up here in the open. If only, 
 I could always be above the fog! Oh, I am so un 
 utterably lonely." 
 
 Again, she dropped her head upon the sill. The 
 complications of her life regarding Philip Herman 
 seemed but one of a thousand struggling, with human 
 intensity, for settlement. 
 
 "God, teach me!" 
 
 " Learn/' again came the command within her.
 
 346 The House of Landell 
 
 " Every travail of desolation gives birth to higher 
 understanding, doubtless; but after travail comes ex 
 pression. Is that true!" she challenged herself. 
 " Does not the travail of desolation give birth to deso 
 lation! Of course it does. It is the conception of 
 Light that leads to the birth of light within our souls 
 and in our activities. If our light is dim our expres 
 sion is not clearly defined. 
 
 " I make myself a centre of God's Light. I hold 
 still in Thee, O Great Creative Power. From thy cen 
 tral station, use me as distributing force," she prayed. 
 " That Light of Thine, I hold in my heart for the 
 help of Philip Herman. I am not the maker of his 
 destinies. Thou art the Master-Builder, he is the 
 mason of his life. I bless it to the universal purposes 
 of his being." 
 
 A rare quiet succeeded this expression of the soul. 
 No longer forming questions or preparing answers, 
 she lived in spirit. 
 
 She sat in heavenly stillness. The turbulence of 
 longing the attitude of seeking slowly yielded to 
 the one of having the peace that passeth understand 
 ing. The tangle of thought unraveled slowly, directed 
 in peace from and toward the Great Centre. She 
 knew the currents were flowing to her and from her 
 with the strength of the Central Power. A faith en 
 folded her ; a trust directed her. She saw not the facts 
 that might arise upon her path; but she lived in the 
 assurance that the principle of Universal Unity will 
 surely evolve in universal good." 
 
 " Where is Ross Mevin? " 
 
 This question, clear and incisive, borne to her on 
 the currents her peace was allowing to flow to her, was 
 repeated. 
 
 " Why think of him! " she said, irritably, disturbed 
 at being moved from out the state of heavenly satis-
 
 The House of Landell 347 
 
 faction. " My desire to learn relates to spiritual mat 
 ters, not to Ross Mevin." 
 
 " No man cometh to the Father but by Me," sang 
 through her heart. " That means the universal spirit 
 found in humanity," she returned, aloud, and cava 
 lierly sought to turn her lesson after the trend of what 
 seemed her own liking; but, as always the case, when 
 mighty currents are set in motion, they sweep the indi 
 vidual understanding toward the sea of enlightenment. 
 Thrice came the question, 
 
 "Where is Ross Mevin?" 
 
 "A strange response to my giving up of self! I 
 promised myself to God and not to man." 
 
 "Where does one end and the other begin! Has 
 any one ever found the dividing line? " 
 
 " To humanity, then, and not the individual." 
 
 " Who knows of humanity, excepting through the 
 individual. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. 
 Jesus dealt in personality. His work was with the 
 individual. He taught universal truths by means of 
 the single one. He came to earth the expression of 
 universal truth through the activities of the individual. 
 He gave us the right of selection and fitted each to 
 each. But how shall we learn whom we can serve and 
 who shall serve us ! " 
 
 " Through love, learn ! " 
 
 The command was more definite than an articulate 
 utterance. She answered in enunciated words. 
 
 " He has never given me sign that he considers me 
 his destiny." 
 
 As she said this Tom's words of the afternoon rang 
 in her heart, " You never can hear love speak, your 
 heart is so beset with fear and self-condemnation." 
 
 She sprang up, appalled. 
 
 "What is this knowledge struggling within me!"
 
 348 The House of Landell 
 
 she cried. " This vision of a drive in the sunset; this 
 rhapsody of infilling joy! " 
 
 She recalled every step of her companionship with 
 Mevin from the moment of meeting him, the gradual 
 slipping into friendliness of conventional sort. The 
 light across the fields from his window flashed into 
 remembrance; his rescue at her hands, his comfort, like 
 balm upon her wounded heart and frightened mind 
 all the soul communion which she never such stu 
 pidity! had realized to be other than simple com 
 radeship; the night of his departure his words, which 
 she had heard but not interpreted, the sense of abiding 
 sweetness and rest she had known when with him, but 
 had not translated, oh, the blindness of it all ! Tears 
 burned behind her eyeballs for very shame that she 
 who could read between lines should see nothing in 
 the lines themselves! The sorrowful mystery of her 
 life was revealed through this lightning blast upon her 
 heart! 
 
 " I have cried for love and it has been wooing me 
 for many days! How many messages have I failed 
 to hear because I have held my own concept of my in 
 capacity ever before my mind! " 
 
 She paced to and fro in the room. From the 
 retrospection of her life entire, her mind reverted ever 
 and again to Ross Mevin. Here was a blindness that 
 seemed the climaxing folly and disaster of all. 
 
 "I must be impersonal!" she said, over and over 
 within herself. 
 
 Again she went to the window. The mist had 
 cleared. Down, down, far below what she had seen 
 before, was life, the life of the village. 
 
 " Look deep," said the teacher. " Look deep and 
 learn." 
 
 She sat long and silent, dreaming of the life below
 
 The House of Landell 349 
 
 her. As she turned away, she touched a table piled 
 high with books. The jar sent them careening to the 
 floor. She caught them in her arms, a book came 
 open to her hands. She looked at the page. 
 
 " * Marriage,' " she read, " ' is a revelation to spir 
 itual consciousness of the union between the universal 
 and the individual idea. It leads more completely than 
 any other one relation to the understanding of the 
 ideal.' ' She paraphrased this, as her eyes fell on 
 the words in the book, " Agnes, you are making life 
 a series of practices, exercises and definitions, instead 
 of living the life. Your whole existence is a substi 
 tution. You live for others, bleed for others! You 
 need to live the very self of very self. Would a mar 
 riage with Philip Herman in substitution for a debt, 
 or your marriage with any man other than Ross Mevin 
 translate unity to you ! Can you learn otherwise, that 
 only the ascent to the highest heights of the imper 
 sonal can teach you the lesson of the personal or 
 translate unity to you ! " 
 
 She closed her eyes and prayed. The sense of cap 
 tivity grew more insistent. She saw chains which she 
 had but felt before. 
 
 " You are under the law," came a voice far, far, 
 within her consciousness. " It is the law of growth. 
 No abstract love; but its concrete expression in the 
 various relations of life, alone can set you free." 
 
 Again she looked from the window. The lights 
 in the village homes twinkled lovingly; the voices of 
 playing children floated to her; the earth sent sweet 
 aroma to her nostrils ; the air was full of friendliness ; 
 the water sent messages of comradeship, as the moon 
 beams played radiantly upon its surface; the low fire 
 which took the chill from her room this soft fall night 
 sang to her in tones of comradeship; the interchange-
 
 350 The House of Landell 
 
 able relationship of all creation, helped and helpers, 
 spoke to her. 
 
 " God, expressed in humanity, in human loves, in 
 human relations." With illumined face she looked 
 into the heavens and down on to the earth. " I may 
 express my own heart ! It is best ! It is right ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 " / thought I'd vanquished mighty love 
 
 But find myself deceived; 
 For every hour, alas! I prove 
 The conquest unachieved." 
 
 AGNES fell asleep and woke just in time to prepare 
 for breakfast. As, filled with the exaltation the re- 
 vealment of the night before had brought to her un 
 derstanding, she took her seat at table, her father 
 handed her an envelope, at the same time opening a 
 similar one of his own. Her heart was singing, for 
 love was showing her the world as never before. She 
 felt such happiness speaking from her eyes that she 
 studiously kept them on her plate, lest her secret be dis 
 closed. 
 
 " These are attractive invitations," Mr. Landell was 
 saying, " Mevin is a fine fellow. He deserves the best 
 life can give. I hope he will be very happy." 
 
 Agnes' hand lost its hold upon the missive which 
 she had not opened. It dropped to the table where 
 she let it lie. 
 
 " Yes," she said faintly, " I hope that for every one 
 I know." 
 
 " Such a man is sure to make a wise choice in life. 
 It is born in him." 
 
 " When is it to be ? " Agnes battled with a strange 
 darkness that enveloped her. 
 
 " I haven't looked at the date, oh, yes, the tenth." 
 
 "Aren't you going to open yours?" said her 
 mother. 
 
 " Any time will do. I suppose they are all the 
 351
 
 352 The House of Landell 
 
 same." Nervously she fingered her roll. She felt as 
 if she should swoon. 
 
 Mr. Landell, apparently unaware of his daughter's 
 perturbation, did not raise his eyes from the announce 
 ment. 
 
 " I think Hardocker does the best work of this sort 
 in the country, don't you, Helen? He always en 
 graves well and this is especially pleasing." 
 
 " With an effort of will Agnes picked up her en 
 velope, and half rose from the table. 
 
 " I must go. At last Hi-Timmy has money to buy 
 the satin for Amy's roses. I am to take both children 
 to Boston, this morning, and we are to select it to 
 gether." 
 
 Her remarks concluded in a strangle from which 
 she strove to recover by speedy recourse to a glass of 
 water. 
 
 " What shall we say to these invitations ? " Mr. 
 Landell's persistence was rather unusual. 
 
 " I should like to go," was Mrs. Landell's response. 
 " We have not been away this fall and it will be a 
 pleasant trip." 
 
 " I believe I won't go," said Agnes, promptly. " Ex 
 cuse me, mother, I will get ready for the trip to town." 
 
 " Oh, the travesty of expecting any benefits from 
 personal love! " she sobbed inwardly, as, with the door 
 closing behind her, she struggled with her emotions. 
 " My love! My love! I awaked last night to the joy 
 of loving you, too late, too late ! " 
 
 Hunting up Hi-Timmy and telephoning Amy not to 
 be late for the train helped her to regain composure 
 and forget herself in the children's joy. Their delight 
 and the sense of self-respect that the attainment of the 
 end in view had given Hi-Timmy, were an interesting 
 study to her. She watched, with interest, the little air 
 of importance with which Amy settled back in the
 
 The House of Landell 353 
 
 seat of the car when they had really started and the 
 wheels were making that lovely bumpy feeling under 
 them, that made you know you were truly traveling. 
 
 " Where shall we go for the satin ? Have you any 
 special place you prefer, Amy ? " 
 
 " Yes, Miss Landell," Amy was all aquiver with 
 excitement, " I think the best stock of silks in the whole 
 city is at Quirkle & Quake's." 
 
 Her manner was so wholly like her mother's that 
 Agnes could not help being amused, though a shudder 
 ran through her as she realized that the day's shop 
 ping lay, not in the cool and restful select shops of 
 her choice, but in the hustling department stores down 
 town. At first she thought of urging her own pref 
 erence; but finally decided to be led by the children, 
 whose delight grew with each added responsibility. 
 
 Once in the unaccustomed land of purchases, Agnes' 
 acute heartache was submerged in the joy of the chil 
 dren, though always, the dirge, too late! sighed through 
 the laughter and chatter. Under the exhilaration of 
 their enthusiasm the expedition proved nearly as in 
 teresting to herself as to them. The silks were spread 
 upon the counters in a profusion of colors that made 
 Amy almost hysterical with joy; and her first decision, 
 for blue, swerved for a while. She alternated in hang 
 ing rapturously over them in silent admiration, and 
 pirouetting about excitedly, her mind as active as her 
 feet, her fancy playing in and out in " sweet delay 
 of choice." 
 
 Hi-Timmy stood more silent, as to his feet, and less 
 expressive, as to words, but in equal quandary as to 
 choice. He had not cared very much for one color, 
 over and above any other, but when Agnes told him 
 they were made of the same something as sound, an 
 eternal something that is always back of everything, 
 and recalled to hi.n what Tom had said in the labora-
 
 354 The House of Landell 
 
 tory that first afternoon, now almost long ago, when 
 he had received intimation that he was a vital member 
 in a household of harmony ; and lingered on what Tom 
 had said about color and music being interchangeable, 
 he was almost overwhelmed with the wonder of it. It 
 made him more silent, but very much more happy. He 
 did not recall Tom's statement, in one sense, but in 
 another, he did; for, without consciously realizing it, 
 he had been drawing the thought, as an elixir, into his 
 very existence. 
 
 " When I get my violin, I will show you these colors, 
 Amy," he whispered in a shy aside, " buy that one 
 over there." 
 
 But Amy, with a sigh at having to relinquish all 
 the other beautiful flashes of radiance, decided, after 
 all, on the blue. 
 
 " Are you taking lessons, now ? " asked Agnes, while 
 they were waiting for the material to be wrapped up. 
 
 " No'm, I can't afford it. I only took enough to 
 make my other roses. That is why I felt so 'specially 
 bad about their being spoiled. I didn't know how to 
 make any more." 
 
 " Didn't your teacher show you how ? " 
 
 " No'm, she did them for me mostly, I sorter 
 helped." 
 
 " Let me teach you how to do them by yourself, " 
 
 " I guess Miss Cherry will be glad enough to get me 
 back, if only for a few lessons," went on the child, 
 reflectively, in the pursuit of her own thought, not 
 hearing Agnes' words, " she's dreadful poor. She 
 will give me six lessons for two dollars." 
 
 Agnes did not complete her sentence, halted before 
 a lesson many a woman with a competence must learn 
 that the acceptance of her offer would mean tak 
 ing bread and butter from one who needs it. She 
 must adopt other methods of teaching color and nature
 
 The House of Landell 355 
 
 to the children towards whom her heart was reaching 
 out and warming strangely, as the great love was 
 withdrawn from her at the very moment she had abso 
 lutely and completely realized its existence and its 
 compelling influence in her life. She sighed, then 
 smiled bravely, through unshed tears. 
 
 " Next, we will go to the violin maker's," she said, 
 after the wonderful blue satin had been presented to 
 Amy by the happy Hi-Timmy Tidmouse, who proudly 
 tucked into his pocket twenty-nine cents in change, 
 his gallant offer to spend the same in cheap candy hav 
 ing been skilfully waived by Agnes, who promised to 
 go, later in the afternoon, to a little candy kitchen, 
 where you could see candy made out of the purest of 
 materials, while you wait. 
 
 " The violin-maker is a marvelous man," she coun 
 selled, as they climbed the steep stairs to the quaint 
 old shop, " perhaps he will explain how sound induces 
 forms of entrancing beauty and tell us what I sug 
 gested to you at the silk counter, about color and 
 sound, and about the great and beautiful truth that 
 every wood has a voice of its own." 
 
 The violin-maker was very kind. He loved little 
 people and he loved violins. His time did not repre 
 sent, to him, money alone; but sweetness and beauty 
 and rhythm and ideals. Glad enough was he to talk 
 with those who appreciated the worth of ideals and 
 wanted to learn about them. 
 
 " The desire to associate sounds and trace an idea 
 through that medium, as you explain to me, he loves 
 to do, Fraulein," said the dear old German, as they 
 stood apart while the children were delightedly roam 
 ing undisturbed about the workshop, " would indicate 
 that the making of instruments, rather than the mak 
 ing of music upon them through musicianship, compo 
 sition or instrumentation will be his activity.
 
 356 The House of Landell 
 
 " Alexander," he turned to Hi-Timmy, " what would 
 you think of my teaching you to mend your violin? 
 There will be much of pleasure in your knowing the 
 very heart and spirit of your instrument, and mend 
 ing it and learning to make others will give you very 
 much of happiness." 
 
 " I should like it," said Timmy, shyly, yet positively. 
 So it was planned that, if Dr. Wehr approved, he 
 should go to the violin-maker at stated periods, and 
 if he showed any aptitude for the work, should be 
 come a maker of violins. 
 
 Then the master showed his interested visitors dif 
 ferent sorts of woods, as Agnes had hoped he would. 
 He spoke of varying qualities of sound produced ac 
 cording to the kinds and thicknesses of the woods, and 
 called to their attention the rhythms of different lengths 
 and qualities of string. His mind was filled with rich, 
 deep philosophy, and his heart full of joy at their 
 interest. As he showed them these wonders, latent in 
 wood and string, he hinted only hinted in such 
 manner as to stimulate their desire for knowledge 
 of the lives of the great ones, who expressed in sound 
 the ideals of their souls. He told them tales of Ole 
 Bull, the wandering Paganini, the Amati, and of the 
 Stradivarii who made violins to the glory of God ; 
 sent all this to join other memories in their minds, 
 thus picturing indelibly, qualities of aspiration, em 
 bodied in thought and deed the secret of inspired 
 lives. 
 
 " I shall withhold the completion of the repairs," he 
 said aside, to Agnes, as the children were trying to 
 synchronize the pitch of a tuning fork with that of 
 the big 'cello. " Motion, form and color areas shall 
 have attention in the making of cell and tissue until 
 the impressions have begun to reflect, in manifold ac 
 tivity of those functions the sounding of the iron
 
 The House of Landell 357 
 
 string of self-reliance and the perfectly tuned string 
 of joy. You see, Fraulein," with a winning gesture 
 of his handsome head, " it is only by way of becom 
 ing a little child that one enters the kingdom of heaven. 
 So, true it is, that if the boy comes to me to learn, he 
 shall, each day, listen for the Key Note, to see if he 
 lives true to It, even as now, he is listening to the tun 
 ing fork to see if the 'cello accords with it." 
 
 When they had started for home, Agnes felt the 
 desolation the excitement of the afternoon had, in a 
 sense, submerged, coming to the surface again. She 
 bade the children good-bye, and entering the house 
 went at once to the great organ. Seating herself upon 
 the bench, she filled the rooms with sound, through 
 which a strange cry insistently penetrated. 
 
 "The travesty of love! The tragedy of love! A 
 constant sacrifice! A constant crucifixion! I re 
 nounce humanity! " She pulled out the diapason and 
 poured forth her agony in the waves of sound. 
 "'I go away! I send the Comforter,'" she quoted. 
 " The deeper the tragedy, the heart-break, the desola 
 tion, of that we must renounce the touch of the hand, 
 the smile, the pressure of tender lips against these lips 
 that breathe and burn love into the soul the more 
 scorching the flame that desolates that soul from valley 
 to hill-top the more space of spirit for the Comforter 
 to fill; the more absolute the renunciation; the more 
 absolutely the Great Impersonality of the Universal 
 infills us. I renounce the personal! I renounce it! 
 Renounce it ! Life is a constant crucifixion ! My Jesus 
 is still a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief ! I 
 must mount the universal cross and suffer even as He 
 has suffered. His was a life of constant sacrifice. He 
 placed His life where it would bless, not where it 
 would bring Him pleasure! That is to be truly un 
 selfish! If this newly- found love of mine is taken
 
 358 The House of Landell 
 
 from me it must be to lead me into paths of helpful 
 ness and self-abnegation. What is there in my life 
 for which I must atone! I have ruined Philip Her 
 man's self-respect before the world! I see more and 
 more plainly that I am to devote myself to restoring 
 it, to honoring it ; to supporting it in its worldly needs- 
 and spiritual leadings." 
 
 So dissonance of mind and of instrumentation re 
 solved into dissonance, slowly and intricately moving 
 toward consonance, as she wandered about in the blind 
 ness that enveloped her. The chords cried forth her 
 agony and died in a wail of discord; the pedals quiv 
 ered as they were trampled beneath the feet that 
 struggled to bear the burden of her weight away from 
 this sounding board of her despair to the seclusion of 
 her room. She stumbled up-stairs with a plea of ex 
 haustion to her mother, who, puzzled and concerned, 
 passed her at the turn in the hall. 
 
 " I don't see what you base your conclusions on 
 that Agnes is in love with Ross Mevin," she said, seek 
 ing her husband. " She has been making as many 
 discords on the organ as she does in her love-making 
 and now has gone to her room with such utter aban 
 donment of all life's joys on her face that I don't know 
 whether to follow her or not ! It is a most lamentable 
 thing to be imbued with the idea that holy living means 
 seeking the unpleasant and miserable for oneself! I 
 wish she could learn better! Talk to me now about 
 this dreadful Herman chimera she has in her brain and 
 try to encourage me about Mevin ! " 
 
 " I consider the affair a most interesting psycholog 
 ical study ! " returned Mr. Landell, a happy light in 
 his beautiful eyes. 
 
 " You are an inhuman father ! " Lovingly, Mrs. 
 Landell ruffled her husband's hair, as she often did,
 
 The House of Landell 359 
 
 when she liked and, at the same time, was teased by 
 him. 
 
 " A remarkable psychological study," he repeated. 
 " They who say, ' Sally, will you marry me ? ' and, 
 * Yes, John, I will,' are elementary, Helen. These two 
 are complex." 
 
 " I suspect the Sallies and the Johnnies have far 
 less troublous times." 
 
 " I do not know about that! If you and I were ab 
 solutely sure there was nothing more in either of us 
 to unfold, we might tire of each other. You are full 
 of surprises to me and I suspect I am a Chinese puzzle 
 to you ! " 
 
 " Why is it that persons like Agnes and Mevin, 
 whom the Lord simply made for each other, haven't 
 the slightest idea of love-making! Agnes seems so 
 wise she appals me, yet lacks knowledge in so many 
 things the average schoolgirl seems quite assured of! 
 I wish she would stop this incessant puzzling over 
 every passing event. It is unnatural for a woman not 
 to know when a man is in love with her and to ignore 
 her very counterpart if there is such a thing 
 
 "I do not fear! Let her 'lie in the lap of the 
 great Intelligence ! ' The Universal Mother has a 
 broader vision than the little mother, dear and wise 
 though she be! " 
 
 " I want her to live more outside of herself, to go 
 about among people." 
 
 " She is doing that in her own way." 
 
 " She used to be active in so many directions " 
 
 " Now she accomplishes more than ever before, but 
 is conserving her forces. She is responding with dis 
 cretion to demands no longer permits herself to be 
 indiscriminately at the beck and call of others 
 
 " She is losing her friends 
 
 " To find them again in the finding of herself."
 
 360 The House of Landell 
 
 " She has almost entirely dropped her music." 
 
 " To study, in the very heart of its making, the 
 divine principles of its expression." 
 
 " She is held, alternately, in attacks of exaltation 
 and depression 
 
 " Less than for years." 
 
 " For a woman of her reserve she is at times 
 strangely communicative of her mental processes. She 
 loses her sense of proportion " 
 
 " To find it in the same Mind which is in the Christ, 
 Helen, Agnes is not studying herself. Therein, you 
 and many others misunderstand her and her type. 
 She is studying processes through available channels. 
 She is as much an impersonal subject as if no part of 
 herself. What seems self -consciousness is lack of self- 
 consciousness, as she reaches out for universal con 
 sciousness. Though her questionings are suggested by 
 contact with the world, her answers come from the 
 inner places of the Most High. She is conscious of 
 states crude minds do not know exist, or else allow 
 themselves to be dominated by. Soon, she will deliber 
 ately make up her mind to forget what has served its 
 purpose in the making of character. She has been in 
 the period of remembering; but, for the initiate, there 
 is the period of forgetting, as well. She feels the pres 
 ence of other entities and her mind responds to such 
 an extent that she is actually surrounded by a cloud of 
 witnesses. Like all great souls, she constantly assumes 
 the burdens of the race. Now she is learning that one 
 may not do this and thus deprive others of the right to 
 work out their own salvation." 
 
 " Unprincipled men seem to know so much better 
 how to attain their ends than honest ones who accord 
 the right of the individual. Did you ever really con 
 sider, Daniel, that a girl of eighteen must fence with 
 pastmasters of diplomacy well acquainted with the art
 
 The House of Landell 361 
 
 of making love; must treat all with kindness; retain 
 their friendship ; in no way rouse antagonism or enmity 
 by repressing natural expression, or compromise char 
 acter or reputation by permitting it. Ignorance or 
 lack of judgment affords no excuse. Wholly unin 
 formed she must dominate the emotions awakened by 
 the magnetic personalities of the good men, and their 
 desire-impelling influence, or the chloroforming mach 
 inations of the bad. She is supposed to make her life 
 choice with a view both to moral and worldly consid 
 erations ; as a matter of course, to distinguish between 
 spiritual power and physical attraction which men 
 and women of maturity often cannot do. She is sup 
 posed to select true love with all its concomitants, and 
 bring it to capitulation. Commanders-in-chief of the 
 armies of the world are called upon to do little more." 
 " So it will be while mankind magnifies sex in 
 stead of realizing that it is but one of millions of ex 
 pressions of creative power. Every day, I realize more 
 clearly the ideal embodied in the Immaculate Concep 
 tion. Struggling into consciousness, through the stages 
 of cell-attraction; awareness; of instinct; of uncon 
 trolled, inordinate desire; of legitimatized lust; of re 
 ligious symbolism; into that of controlled, emotional 
 utilization of creative power, life has not known how 
 to comprehend its next attainment ' the foreshadow 
 ing of Holy Spirit.' It has needed just men, like 
 Joseph, to protect the Ideal. To-day, men and women 
 are learning that women must be overshadowed by 
 Holy Spirit, which shall say, ' conceive and bear a 
 child ' whether embodied as a being or a deed be 
 fore she can rightfully receive man's executive action, 
 also overshadowed by Holy Spirit. Helen, we are 
 rising out of a religion of feeling; of a physical heaven 
 or hell; of promises of sensuous bliss; even the de 
 lights of mental visioning, into the spiritual teachings 
 of the Christ."
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 "But this much has been revealed to us in the 
 new Light of Life, that it is not the cold ' mental ' 
 affirmation that brings health to the bones and 
 watering to the marrow. It is the soul-joy, the 
 heart-satisfaction., it is Love, expressed in the 
 Life that does this." 
 
 THAT night, the name of Ross Mevin rang persis 
 tently in Agnes' ears. As never before, she realized 
 that in her strained, puzzled, mental search for truth, 
 she herself had been withholder of the vision and the 
 illumination. So often brave in the emergencies of 
 life, of which there had been many; so often straining 
 to see and follow God's will, this night she gave way, as 
 never before, to the heart-break of her despair. She 
 loved Ross Mevin ! Loved him ! How could she give him 
 up ! She could feel the touch of his hand as he helped 
 her across the roadway; she looked into the dark, to 
 see shining therefrom, his eyes, gazing deeply into her 
 own, mutely asking in a language she should have un 
 derstood for her love which she had withheld. She 
 heard his voice rich with character and vibrant with 
 emotion appealing for her heart, while she bestowed 
 upon him the stone of her intellect ! A wave of humil 
 iation swept over her as she realized that she was now 
 appropriating to herself a gift he no longer offered to 
 her but was bestowing on another. Aside from the 
 broken-heartedness of it all there was an anti-climax 
 about it that humiliated her. It was beyond endur 
 ance, and increased, a thousand- fold, the torture of a 
 heart alive and bleeding with its loss. Her fancy 
 
 362
 
 The House of Landell 363 
 
 played in the galleries of her mind until it gathered 
 feature and form for a photograph of the woman who 
 had recognized the value of the soul she had cast aside. 
 A passion, new to her, clutched her, and, horror- 
 stricken, she knew it to be hate. It rose' in her as 
 the vaporous steam, rising from simmering water, 
 fills the vessel and suffocates the victim in the boil 
 ing vat. She strangled as she fought against the 
 desire to kill, to kill the one who held the place she 
 felt was hers and hers alone. 
 
 After long hours, her inherent integrity slowly as 
 serted itself. Like dawn stealing over the mountain 
 tops, spiritual light flowed slowly in, transmuting the 
 venom of hate, and softly but surely illumining the 
 darkness of her emotions. Wavering, pulsing, as when 
 the light first sends its penetrating presence into the 
 great dark to mold and shape figures and forms 
 of beauty and of helpfulness, just by possessing space, 
 so, inoculating the heartache with resignation, came 
 the knowledge, as never before, that there had been 
 One upon earth who, through His sorrows, under 
 stood what she might know of sorrow. He suf 
 fered; she would suffer. He came only that she and 
 those like her might learn the lesson of renunciation. 
 
 Long she lay submerged in her atmosphere of sub 
 ordination. Suddenly, she shook off this supineness 
 and took on the armor of courage. What had Jesus 
 meant when He said ' Follow Me ! ' Surely, not to 
 remain on the cross where misunderstanding had cruci 
 fied Him ! It was to follow Him to realms of trans 
 figuration! Life must flow more and more wisely 
 into new understandings and beautiful experiences, 
 v, -holly unlike the tragic, tinselly expressions ' of ab 
 orted thought. Was not this the lesson that Jesus 
 could not teach the multitude, nay, not even the dis 
 ciples, because not until one has reached the heights
 
 364 The House of Landell 
 
 of Impersonality, can one understand the intense mes 
 sage of personality, of the individual ! Was this the 
 very secret she had been striving to struggle away 
 from, the truth, that the loving of the individual in 
 all different relationships, is, step by step, entrance into 
 the holy of holies of the Universal, and that it is this 
 loving, as well as the being loved, that raises man to 
 the supernal realms of life! 
 
 She lay back, exhausted, on the pillows. Little by 
 little a tender benediction overshadowed her. Her 
 mind left her own problems. Her heart dwelt on the 
 Jesus, whose life, as she saw it in the light of this reve 
 lation, was like the life of every man; temptation fol 
 lowing every new plane of attainment; isolation fol 
 lowing every new phase of growth; rejection by men 
 following the discernment of each truth in the chain 
 of All-Truth. So, in her life, each step forward had 
 been succeeded by new heart-breaking ordeals. 
 Through His life, she followed mankind, at every turn 
 in its career, years of preparation, of testing ideals, 
 days of triumph, of failure and despair, even as His 
 brothers have striven since the world began. 
 
 She recalled the culmination of one phase of His 
 life, when, at thirty, He had unfolded from the dis 
 ciple to a Christ, as is possible for all daughters and 
 sons of God. Where lesser ones have seemed to lie 
 buried in their own ruins, He proved His possibilities 
 and lifted a seeming failure into a redeeming lesson 
 for the ages. He saved men from a low conception of 
 their inherent selves ; He dissipated the idea of separa 
 tion from the Father; He revealed the inheritance of 
 their power through oneness of substance quality 
 with their Origin. The narrowness of life as limited 
 by a human embodiment fell from her as she lay 
 there. She saw that the " Christ of the human heart, 
 is, for the most part, Jesus, seen in the mystic human
 
 The House of Landell 365 
 
 Christ, struggling, suffering, dying, finally triumphant, 
 the Alan in whom humanity is seen, crucified and 
 risen; whose victory is a promise of victory to every 
 one who like Him, is faithful unto death, and be 
 yond, The Christ, who never can be forgotten, while 
 He is born again and again in humanity; while the 
 world needs saviours and saviours give themselves for 
 men." 
 
 She saw this God-Man spring out of the darkness, 
 strong to help His brother, able to pour His life into 
 every struggling soul. 
 
 " Courage, brothers," she heard Him say, " I, Jesus, 
 Man-God, have trod the way before you. I have 
 proved that it can be trod. I have shown, by my ex 
 ample, that you and I are one in God. I have done 
 nothing different from many and many of you; I have 
 gone on, out of your physical sight and present under 
 standing as you do, every day, to those about you, as 
 you grow. This must give you courage when you 
 seem to lose those about you, and, yourself, seem to be 
 lost. It will prove what I am striving, still, to teach 
 you, that we have no right to force any manifesta 
 tion, through indiscriminate bestowal of life-essence 
 and purpose, in any direction of self -depletion, or self- 
 immolation upon the altar of a semi-ideal. Only that 
 idea is complete which leads to life of, not to death 
 of self. I live on, as do you, without let or pause; but 
 few there be who see Me, few there be who know Me." 
 
 She sat up in bed and threw back her beautiful hair 
 with an attitude new to her who had sought, so con 
 stantly, to renounce all. 
 
 " I 'give myself as never before," she said aloud, " I 
 save myself for the service of mankind in just and 
 righteous exchange, not squandering, unconstructively. 
 I have sat at the foot of the Cross; I have taken Jesus 
 down and mounted it myself; what helpful exchange
 
 366 The House of Landell 
 
 in that! None! I will fix my eyes on Him as a 
 radiant, luminous Ideal, where once I saw a cross 
 suspended in the air; but, now, with the cross faded 
 quite away and as one apart, I will minister to and 
 realize the Universal, through mankind." 
 
 Her mind was full of this expression of God in the 
 individual, when she went to the dining-room the next 
 morning. The newly-acquired understanding of Unity 
 had given to her bearing a quality of coherence that, 
 notwithstanding its former nobility it had never pos 
 sessed. The forehead, almost massively masculine, 
 that always had seemed at war with the tenderness 
 of the delicate chin, was won into copartnership by 
 the eyes that spoke a new message and called the chin 
 forward and upward to send it on its way. The child 
 like simplicity was more clearly marked than ever on 
 the beautifully rounded cheek and the curve toward 
 the exquisitely dimpled indentures below the lower 
 lip. The lips, moulded with the purity of thought 
 of one who from babyhood had moved them, always, 
 in life and thought, in the utterance, " Our Father," 
 had gained, in the night, a strength that but added to 
 their beauty as she realized and spoke of Him, now, 
 as no abstract principle but as the Living God. Her 
 voice was vibrant with new resolve as she passed the 
 good mornings, then seated herself. 
 
 " Father," she said, " what relation has fact to prin 
 ciple?" 
 
 " Fact is transitory expressing of an Eternal Idea. 
 Principle is the fount whence flow many streams, merg 
 ing, lost and found in constantly changing forms and 
 relations. The fact as we see it, tabulates our con 
 sciousness of principle. The longer I live," thought 
 fully Mr. Landell laid down his knife and fork, " the 
 more convinced I am that it is truth, not experience,
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 367 
 
 which teaches. We need not impel unfortunate inci 
 dents into expression for the sake of learning the les 
 sons they embody. An intelligent insight into principle 
 will lead into ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. 
 Every bit of wisdom, of influence, of contact in higher 
 spheres, is experience, rather than the external demon 
 stration of an unhappy life, a tragedy of unlicensed 
 passion, the slime of the divorce court, the ignominy 
 of a blasted progeny." 
 
 " We do expect to follow a map of some sort, or, 
 at least, mile-posts in going from here to Worcester, 
 don't we," said Tom. " But in the affairs of life we 
 seem willing to follow all sorts of blind alleys, hit or 
 miss." 
 
 ' Yes, and if, in sheer despair, we finally charter in 
 telligence to guide us to the highway, some claim that 
 experience has been the guide, meaning the untoward 
 incidents to which blindness to the teachings of prin 
 ciple has led us. On the contrary, the waste of energy 
 delayed the pilgrim on the way." 
 
 " True," said Tom, " the child stumbles in learning 
 to walk ; but when he coordinates right processes with 
 right instruments, and uses his motor centres to a 
 definite and desired end for the best direction and use 
 of his activities, he is led, logically, to the goal of his 
 intent, " 
 
 " Not because he strengthened his muscles by 
 tumbles and mistakes ; but because he is systematically 
 applying the law of locomotion. I do not say that 
 we do not trace truth through events, I say truth is 
 the teacher. If you wish me to believe to the con 
 trary, prove that two and two are four by continuing 
 to pay five dollars for two two-dollar theatre tickets." 
 
 " That is easy," laughed Mrs. Landell. " It is by 
 coming to the limit of the theatre allowance before 
 the close of the season."
 
 368 The House of Landell 
 
 " It does not even teach that, specifically ; it takes 
 knowledge that two and two are four to enable us to 
 discover why the money hasn't held out," said Mr. 
 Landell, in repartee. 
 
 " I'd be willing to take a few whacks at experience, 
 even on the basis of its meaning what happens to us," 
 said Tom, a glint of fire in his eye, " my life has been 
 so dully prosaic, everything coming straight to my 
 hand. Either I was born with the golden spoon of 
 spiritual heredity, or I have been fairly successful in 
 well-directed, conscious choice. I should really like 
 an experience that is a happen, or a direct outcome 
 of an unwise, undirected, or misdirected choice " 
 
 " Oh, Tom ! " An expression of torture passed 
 swiftly over his father's face, which, flitting out as 
 quickly as it came, gave way to his natural calm. " As 
 you wish, it shall be given you," he concluded. 
 
 " Honestly, I should like to test myself in other 
 than the manner that is usual to me. I may be imag 
 ining I am free from weaknesses and the taint of ex 
 ternal mistakes, because of my directed activity. That 
 may not be so, 
 
 " We need not lay traps nor dig pitfalls for our 
 feet." 
 
 " Follow your own advice which is saving me from 
 a demonstration of tragedy," Agnes caught up her 
 brother's words with the same intensity that her father 
 had done ; but without his prompt return to tranquillity. 
 " I am going to repeat your words to you, 
 
 " ' You and I are here to prove that pure aspiration 
 and trust, inherent selection, spiritual comprehension 
 and apprehension do prevent wreckage of life such as 
 yours must be, should you permit yourself to be drawn 
 into horrible phenomena of experience through the ac 
 ceptance of any other guides.' '
 
 The House of Landell 369 
 
 There was a moment of thoughtful silence, then Mr. 
 Landell said, 
 
 " What shall we do about these invitations of 
 Mevin's? I think your mother and I will accept. His 
 father was my chum at college and I should like to 
 see him on his way." 
 
 " Let's all go," urged Tom. 
 
 " Oh, no ! " Agnes' exclamation came like a cry of 
 pain, which she covered quickly. " I really couldn't ! 
 I have no suitable gown." 
 
 " A woman always makes that excuse," scoffed Tom. 
 "Get one!" 
 
 " I am in no mood to stand for hours, this divine 
 weather, planning a wedding-reception gown," Agnes 
 replied, and a line of gray traced itself about her 
 trembling lips. 
 
 Mr. Landell studiously regarded his plate; but her 
 mother looked at her with a quick glance of relief 
 and satisfaction. 
 
 " You always do leap chasms in your conversation, 
 Agnes, and it takes an alert mind to follow you. I 
 confess I cannot trace the relation between weddings 
 and these invitations to the dedication of a memorial 
 building, what is it dear ! " for Agnes had reeled and 
 would have fallen from her chair if her father had 
 not reached out and caught her. 
 
 " Just a passing faintness," said Agnes, bravely. 
 " Tell me about all this. I quite neglected to open my 
 envelope yesterday, and know nothing about it." 
 
 Her pride forbade her capitulating before the fam 
 ily, so she wrote formal regrets to the invitation and 
 put the envelope in the mail pouch, locking it with 
 a reluctant click. 
 
 " I am sorry we are not going to Mevin's." 
 Tom, the next time he met her. " I think I should be 
 tempted if I had not promised Cousin Matilda to see
 
 370 The House of Landell 
 
 her off to the town for the winter and stay there over 
 night to protect the silver and other valuables she re 
 fuses to send to the bank. Nothing would induce her 
 to delay or advance by one hour the time of her de 
 parture. She sails out at a submarine hour of the 
 morning, so I am to go there the day father and mother 
 leave. It takes days to shut up the house to suit 
 Cousin Matilda. It's a pity you sent regrets. You 
 would enjoy seeing what a fine pottery Mevin is mak 
 ing with his talents." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " puzzled Agnes. 
 
 " I believe this whole wonderful civic centre he is 
 making of a little down-trodden, broken-down, fever- 
 ridden mill town is the direct outgrowth of your call 
 for teacups at the prayer-meeting that summer night, 
 how long ago it seems ! When you dug up a talent 
 that night to examine it, you did not know a whole 
 pottery was to be set to work in its tomb, making clay 
 into men and women, did you ! " 
 
 " I don't know what you mean. Who is making 
 men and women out of clay? " 
 
 " Ross Mevin. His father left him a lot of money- 
 making, disease-breeding mill property. It is becom 
 ing one of the most remarkable civic centres in the 
 world. The exhibitions of landscape and market gar 
 dens were very remarkable last year and the town voted 
 salaries to some of the prize-winners for keeping plots 
 as public parklets. What is the matter ? Are you ill ? 
 You look fairly green you are so white. I am sorry 
 you did not decide to go. Can't I get your refusal 
 out of the box for you? No, it's too late. I saw 
 the postman gathering up the mail nearly twenty min 
 utes ago."
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 " Why travel over seas to find what is so near, 
 Love is the only good, love and the blessed here." 
 
 THE train moved rhythmically through the beauti 
 ful hill country, misty mountains and chains of lakes, 
 with here and there broad sweeps of rivers, making 
 a scene of ever varying beauty. At a station, nestled 
 among flowering shrubs and brilliant foliage, Ross 
 Mevin was awaiting the Landells, who had reached 
 Lodesminster the day before the memorial exercises. 
 Well-knit, with the poise of power, and the power of 
 poise, he rested lightly but firmly on his feet, with eyes 
 that knew the puzzles and mazes of life and had set 
 themselves well upon the way to the solving thereof. 
 
 With all the clarity of vision, there was a shadow far 
 back behind the mists of longing that told the tale. 
 The attitude of seeking is one, of having is another. 
 The taking-in of a long vista with shadows and lights 
 gave a searching longing to the eyes that seemed apart 
 from the healthy buoyancy of the man. It never failed 
 to show itself, but only as a falling star to disappear 
 even as the beholder strives to point it out. It came 
 and went like a flash as he bent over Mrs. Landell's 
 hand, then took Mr. Landell's in his friendly grasp. 
 
 A moment, and they were bowling down a street of 
 matchless cleanliness, with great trees boughing in 
 gothic arches above and over them. Everywhere were 
 incipient signs of a great cooperative plan that was 
 unfolding for utility, beauty and harmonizing of hu 
 man needs with ideals. Great marshes, freed from
 
 372 The House of Landell 
 
 deadly miasma, were disclosing their fertility instead 
 of the hydra of pestilence to the country round about. 
 Forests of first-growth pines and hemlocks were be 
 coming parks for the people. These were carefully 
 cleared so as to leave the pristine beauty, holding 
 within its bounds, by firm and loving interlacing of the 
 roots with mother earth, the water bed of the river 
 that ran through the town. Meadow lands were dotted 
 with little children and old men, earning livelihoods 
 by freeing the sweet and healthful grass from noxious 
 weeds. Everywhere were signs of the civic life 
 founded on livable ideals. New cottages were taking 
 place of the blocks that had spread from street-end 
 to street-end in hideous sameness. Where this had 
 not yet been done, there were porticoes, and window 
 boxes and plots of green, large, clean windows and 
 many signs of diversifying the idea by individual ex 
 pression. In the mills of new type, work was be 
 coming an educator of humane and economic value to 
 the workers, as well as a financial blessing. 
 
 They stopped a moment to note progress on one of 
 the new mills, then whirled smoothly on to the home 
 stead, where, years before, Daniel Landell had passed 
 many enjoyable days with Martin Mevin, then a col 
 lege man. 
 
 " Have you dropped law practice, Ross ? " said Mr. 
 Landell, as they sat down to luncheon. 
 
 " No, simply changed methods. I left the halls of 
 justice and the chambers of equity, one day, to come 
 down here to a directors' meeting. It was after my 
 return to the city following the wonderful summer at 
 Beneby. I wandered over the old house which had 
 long been closed, with an appalling sense of divorce 
 ment from the law I was practising in the courts and 
 an increasing revelation of the lawlessness I was al 
 lowing to run riot in my affairs. As I rested after a
 
 The House of Landell 373 
 
 lonely dinner I sat in the old library and " he smiled 
 a happy reminiscent little smile, " I seemed to see 
 dozens of teacups walk out of the church pantry in 
 Beneby to be arraigned by that daughter of yours with 
 her eyes of vision. I felt that I was one of those tea 
 cups. Round me was the written law ; within me, was 
 emptiness ! From the windows I could see houses that 
 no human should live in ; a death-dealing odor wafted 
 through the open doors. I set out to find its source. I 
 found it in swamp lands belonging to me too large a 
 proposition for the local Board of Health to deal with. 
 I sauntered about the village. Typhoid, diphtheria, 
 fever the placards were so many as to be horrifying, 
 I went through the mills. There were hundreds of 
 exhausted men and women. Deadly routine was turn 
 ing some into automatons and crazing others. I saw 
 the opportunity of extending the practice of law, out 
 side the courts, into the lives of men and women 
 and I am trying to demonstrate that it can be done." 
 
 " You are mentioned for legislature in this district, I 
 see?" 
 
 " Yes, the practice of the law must be extended into 
 legislation. I saw, at length, that I was a craven 
 to refuse to raise the standard on the shoulders of 
 understanding, and to share the responsibility of guid 
 ing its expression." 
 
 " The car is at the door, sir, and there is a message 
 for you from the Memorial," said the butler. 
 
 " We will go on," said Mevin, rising. " Mr. Lan 
 dell, I don't like the name, Memorial. My father still 
 lives. He lives ! What can the building be called that 
 announces continuous life instead of death?" 
 
 " Do you ask me? " said Mr. Landell. 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Shall it be," he said, meditatively, " The Practice 
 of the Law of Martin Mevin's life? "
 
 374 The House of Landell 
 
 " It shall ! We will go to the building where I 
 shall confer with the master of ceremonies then drive 
 about the place. It is not long since I began the work, 
 but in these days of directed effort years seem more 
 and more unnecessary to the fulfilment of dreams 
 some dreams ! " 
 
 He sighed and turned away. 
 
 " You have worked wonders," said Mrs. Landell, 
 as, after an exhaustive survey of the building, they 
 drove from point to point of interest, skirting the 
 swamp lands, which, as fast as drained, were being 
 made to bloom and fructify. 
 
 " It has been the result of cooperation from the first. 
 Each step has been explained and tested before a board 
 of the people and of experts. It has been taught in 
 dividually and from the forum, for change terrifies 
 those to whom change has generally meant something 
 worse than before." 
 
 " Because the working man's mind is awake, as 
 never before, it finds itself coming out of the state of 
 inertia to that of chaos which always precedes forma 
 tion and crystallization," said Mrs. Landell. " Tell us 
 more," for Mevin, feeling he might be tiring his 
 guests, had made a move to change the subject. 
 
 " First of all," settling, now, into the subject, as 
 sured of bearing his listeners with him, " I called 
 the operatives and the townspeople together and ex 
 plained reasons for, and methods of, clearing and 
 draining the swamp lands and turning them into truck 
 gardens on cooperative lines. There is an educational 
 system, connected with the mills, that the mind may 
 lead in what the hands are given to do. The operatives 
 are not kept at one loom in the mill's work, but may 
 take all steps from crude material to finished product. 
 They who choose may take six months in the mills and 
 six in the open, as in the dairies, for instance. At
 
 The House of Landell 375 
 
 first, there was a certain amount of suspicion and indo 
 lence; now, though never free from the serpent of dis 
 content that, in the mists of ignorance and non-com 
 prehension, insinuates its way into every paradise, we 
 feel assured, in the main, of cooperation." 
 
 " I see many women working in the gardens/' said 
 Mrs. Landell. 
 
 " Yes, they began, at once, planting the most avail 
 able parts of the swamp lands and delight in planning 
 details together with an advisory board of agricultur 
 ists. A corps of sanitary engineers and experts worked 
 ahead of them to prepare, for cultivation, what has 
 been a death dealer for years. Best of all the faces 
 of the men and women are unfolding their latent 
 intelligence expressing purpose and self-respect." 
 
 " What was your next step ? " said Mr. Landell. 
 
 " Some of the men were developing anarchic ten 
 dencies to a marked degree. Investigation showed that 
 one of the most vicious had been a farmer at home. I 
 gave him oversight of one of the trucking districts. I 
 believe this return to a life in the open is relating him 
 to his problem." 
 
 " You seem to have all industries needed for the 
 sustenance and comfort of the townspeople right here." 
 
 "Yes, that is my idea of a civic centre, where the 
 needs and the supply for the same are centralized. 
 This bakery you see is serving to save the lives and 
 reason of two English bakers who were eating their 
 hearts out in the roar and whirl of the spindles. Now, 
 they are using their energy in making a success of a 
 bakery heretofore a failure. They are provided with 
 the best materials and are giving the community good 
 bread." 
 
 " These were the dreams your father dreamed when 
 we were lads at college." 
 
 " I am happy that I am doing what I can to relieve
 
 376 The House of Landell 
 
 the monotony of routine he, himself, disliked it so. 
 I am happy, too, in the general sense that we are 
 working together toward the one divine event unity. 
 There are one or two, several, in fact, who are 
 resenting replacing human beings with machines, but 
 surely understanding is greater than ignorance, unity 
 greater than dissension; illumination more powerful 
 than darkness. Here come the operatives from the 
 lower mill. I want your opinion as to whether variety 
 of occupation adds to their personality as I know it 
 has to their economic value." 
 
 Mevin threw back his hair with a winning gesture 
 so familiar to Agnes. 
 
 The bell struck. The employees walked into the 
 streets, not with a straggling slouch but with purpose 
 and virility. As they saw Mevin, one and another 
 smiled at him with a sense of comradeship. 
 
 " Through it all," Mevin turned again to his guests, 
 while his splendid face glowed with the recognition of 
 his idea, " there is the principle of unity of thought, 
 purpose and deed, the good of each in the good of 
 all." 
 
 " Mevin," Mr. Landell leaned forward, took his 
 friend's hand and looked deeply into the earnest eyes, 
 " I bestow upon you the noblest praise it is in the 
 power of man to give, it is a simple phrase but vol 
 umes can express no more : 
 
 " You are a good man." 
 
 Agnes had been left behind with a sad heart because 
 she, herself, had closed the door upon this natural 
 meeting with the man she had learned to love. She 
 saw him constantly before her; but always, now, with 
 eternity separating them. Withal, there had come a 
 sense of release that no marriage vows to another 
 prevented her from thinking of him and loving him
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 377 
 
 in the secret places of her heart, apart from the knowl 
 edge of mankind. 
 
 Left to her thoughts, she plunged into the woods. 
 At first, Ross Mevin's name recurred tantalizingly to 
 her mind, its rhythm syncopating with the rhythm of 
 her step. After a while the sense of unity that always 
 came to her through the pines and hemlocks, the satin- 
 barked beeches, the sky and the water and the imma 
 nence of God, made her feel as if she were riding a 
 sea of truth into ports of high desire. Alternating 
 with this happy elevation, her feelings ebbed toward 
 the shoals on which she, perhaps, had irrevocably 
 stranded her life the idea of mistaken and ineffectual 
 sacrifice. No, it was not irrevocable. She had been 
 borne away from the shoals on the outgoing tides of 
 her soul's intelligence. Again she became tranquil. 
 Her prayer synchronized with her step and the song 
 in her heart of Ross Mevin's name. 
 
 " Agnes ! " Tom hailed her as she returned to the 
 house, " I want to show you a letter from Ross Mevin. 
 He wants me to undertake, for the children in Lodes- 
 minster who need it, something like what we are doing 
 for Hi-Timmy. I am thinking of it and I want to 
 plan to marry in the spring. It looks as if my life were 
 set too firmly in the cement of mediocrity ever to have 
 experiences," he laughed happily. " I do want at 
 least one ; but I've made my bed of eiderdown and must 
 lie in it, I suppose. Good-bye, I'm off to Cousin Ma 
 tilda's. Her servants are to go to town early this even 
 ing, to open her house there, and I shall see her off in 
 the morning. Then I'll close the house and stick a 
 piece of paper over every single, and double window 
 there, even to the fourth generation, I mean, story; 
 that is her method of house closing, you know. You 
 won't be nervous, will you, all alone in the house, 
 as far as family goes, I'm sorry it so happens; but
 
 378 The House of Landell 
 
 you know Cousin Matilda is nothing if not inoppor 
 tune. Would you like to have Hi-Timmy come up 
 from the Burtons' ? He was to be down there, to 
 night, for he is going fishing and an early start will 
 be easier from there." 
 
 " I thank you, I shall be quite at ease," smiled Agnes. 
 
 She watched him out of sight. Then she turned 
 toward the garden Hi-Timmy was strolling about, 
 looking lonesome. For the first time, the change that 
 for months had been stealing into his face arrested her 
 attention. 
 
 " Whatever the appearance of Hi-Timmy Tid- 
 mouse," she said to herself, " he is re-forming himself, 
 which is greater than taking big cities. He has in 
 herent in him the name of Alexander. Alexander it 
 shall be, henceforth, as far as I am concerned. Alex 
 ander ! " she called. 
 
 Hi-Timmy started a little at this unusual manner of 
 address. 
 
 " Would you like to go to a concert with me this 
 afternoon? " 
 
 Hi-Timmy's lips did not always respond to over 
 tures ; but his eyes did. Now, they fairly brimmed 
 over their delight. 
 
 " Run down to the Burtons' and ask if Amy may go 
 with us, would you like to ? We will take the twelve 
 o'clock train and look in upon the violin-maker before 
 the concert, which is to begin at two." 
 
 As Hi-Timmy went, there echoed in her heart, like 
 the voice of a sweet and helpful teacher who might, at 
 the moment of speaking, be out of visual range, the 
 words the violin-maker had repeated, " Except ye be 
 come as little children ye cannot enter the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 She sang the quotation over and over to herself. 
 
 " It is truth speaking," she assured herself, " I am
 
 The House of Landell 379 
 
 beginning to distinguish the voice from the calls of 
 doubt and imaginings. Now, to make the correspon 
 dence between my message and my expression that it 
 may be truth in deed! Alexander! " she called after 
 the little figure speeding down the driveway, " tell Amy 
 we will come for her in the cart. Judd has to take 
 Jetty to the blacksmith's and we will stop a few min 
 utes, and watch the horse being shod. You said the 
 other day you had never seen the red-hot iron beaten 
 into shape and then put onto the hoof. We can stay 
 and watch until train time, the shop is so near the 
 station." 
 
 Amy could go and the programme was carried out 
 to the children's delight. Timmy was entranced at 
 the happiness as he called it about the blacksmith's 
 shop. This seemed to have more effect upon him than 
 the excitement of the flying sparks and the reiterant 
 clang of the anvil. It was such a wonderful thing, 
 this happiness, to which, until recently, he had been 
 so pathetically a stranger. 
 
 " Miss Agnes," he said, dreamily, looking past the 
 glow of the fire, " I'd rather be happy and sing happy 
 and make happy than anything I know about. When 
 the violin is mended I'll show you how happy sounds." 
 
 The train came pounding in and the children got 
 on. Alexander forgot to shudder as the great mogul 
 engine came toward them. What he recalled about it 
 now, was, that it had helped him to pay Amy and to 
 see the violin-maker and that it took him there many 
 and many a time and always for something joyful. 
 Now, as Agnes had told him, it was to take him to hear 
 many people send their souls' expression through dif 
 ferent instruments with such keen understanding of 
 one man's idea, and such desire to make that one man's 
 idea plain to all who heard, that each forgot himself 
 in the glory of the whole and everybody was glad be-
 
 380 The House of Landell 
 
 cause the harmony was complete and sounded out in 
 music caught from many and different sources, ex 
 pressed as if it had come, as it really does, from one 
 great soul. 
 
 With divided attention Agnes listened to the chil 
 dren's rather one-sided conversation for it was Amy's 
 voice, principally, that was heard in excited little 
 squeals as the noise of the train lessened for the mo 
 ment on a smooth bit of road. Timmy spoke more 
 with his eyes, though he, too, in the ecstacy of the mo 
 ment was moved to speech that came forth like spas 
 modic cheeps of a young bird and whose very sound 
 frightened him into silence until aroused by some new 
 joy beyond the power of repression. With this har 
 mony of accompaniment, Agnes followed the thought 
 that had been singing through her heart. To become 
 as little children ; to live as they do ; think as they 
 do; to be with them, is to enter the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 She watched Amy, especially, and saw how the 
 worldliness of the grownups about her was already 
 obscuring the idea of the heaven that " lies near us in 
 our infancy," arid how heaven was peeping in and 
 out of the clouds of Hi-Timmy's understanding as he 
 came slowly out of the darkness of his fright-warped 
 condition. Then, irresistibly she found herself ac 
 commodating the song of her heart to the rhythm of 
 Ross Mevin's name. Like an obligato to an accom 
 paniment, it seemed to flow with tender insistence, not 
 yet wholly consonant with the movement of her life, 
 but weaving in and out of discord. Even while bring 
 ing dissonance into harmony, the clashing chord of 
 questioning sounded in the quivering of her heart. 
 What should she do with Philip Herman's problem! 
 
 " Life is for service," she admonished herself. 
 
 "Ross Mevin!"
 
 The House of Landell 381 
 
 The name seemed caught and suspended in the air 
 like a chain of melody from a string of golden bells. 
 
 She bade the children good-bye at the station and 
 turned towards home, her heart still singing so that 
 she did not notice the stillness of the house. The home 
 helpers, who loved her, had prepared an especially 
 dainty repast. They hovered about her until she as 
 sured them she felt no loneliness. Then they left her 
 alone with her sweet soliloquy. 
 
 As night settled down, she lost the serenity she had 
 acquired. Without apparent reason her spirit became 
 strangely turbulent. She turned from the sketch she 
 was penning so completely interwoven with thoughts 
 of Ross to combat an overwhelming paroxysm of 
 sobs. Soul and heart unexplainedly surged and stirred 
 within her, inundating her with terrors which gripped 
 her, not in physical fear, but in contention with forces 
 she could neither escape nor understand. 
 
 " What do you want me to do ! " she sobbed, not 
 knowing whom she addressed. " What do you want 
 me to do ! " Clenching her hands, she paced the floor, 
 striving to pierce the blackness of horror which pos 
 sessed her. Underneath all, from time to time, there 
 came an uplift and a strong sense of spiritual power. 
 
 Again the sickening dread enfolded her. A tremen 
 dous stirring of soul elements mingled with her surg 
 ing emotion. Her body throbbed until she felt its pul 
 sations against the chair. Soundless sobs shook her 
 from head to foot. Subtle powers within were incit 
 ing her to action, and, with seemingly equal strength, 
 contending forces held her back. She was in chaos, 
 torn by the emotional tornado which, the more she 
 tried to repress, the more it possessed her. 
 
 Impelling herself to outward calm, she sought the 
 kitchen, hoping to gain moral support from the homely 
 simple garrulity of the maids; but the evening had
 
 382 The House of Landell 
 
 passed into midnight during this inexplicable up 
 heaval, and the women had retired. Returning to the 
 library, she settled herself in her father's special chair, 
 with an intense desire to gain from it something of his 
 strength and insight. Still the tumult did not abate. 
 This whirlwind of emotions terrified and mystified 
 her. 
 
 She took a book and compelled herself to look at 
 its pages. Reading was impossible. The inward surge 
 swept past her will and blinded her brain to the printed 
 words. 
 
 Steadily, like filings by the magnet, her attention 
 was drawn from the lifted page to the room ad 
 joining that in which she sat. As she saw it, it 
 was all ablaze. She leaped to her feet and ran to 
 the hall. It, too, seemed a mass of flames. Wherever 
 she turned, the same horrible phenomenon assailed 
 her. Everything she looked upon seemed seething in 
 fire. She went through the rooms, and lurid light lay 
 between her and all on which she thought to look. 
 
 As suddenly as this mystery had made itself ap 
 parent, so it vanished. Dense blackness settled over 
 all. Then the fearful obsession possessed her again 
 and threatened to rend her. Still the victim of un 
 reasoning terror she found herself up-stairs in a 
 crumpled heap upon her bed, every aperture of the 
 room closed against the awful flames. The sense of 
 being enclosed oppressed her, and she flung open the 
 door. As it swung back, she stood transfixed. The 
 upper hall was aflame with light and crawling up the 
 staircase, anguish in every feature, crept a dark figure 
 whose personality she knew, but, in her turbulence of 
 mind, could not establish. 
 
 With sensibilities keenly alert, but too terrified to 
 move, she sat as one paralyzed, gazing into the black 
 ness that now supplanted this horrible vision. Time
 
 The House of Landell 383 
 
 lived not, to her. Whether minutes or hours, it mat 
 tered not. Still she sat, eyes gazing, unseeing, and 
 mind crisping with horror at the blaze of light it still 
 could vividly discern. 
 
 The night wore on. The cool damps of early dawn 
 invaded the house. Still the clutch of horror held her 
 rigid. 
 
 Into the tenseness of her stillness, finally there crept 
 a slight release. She moved. A fluttering breath 
 quivered its way through her lungs and started the sus 
 pended circulation. Her blood gave a swift bound 
 and she almost swooned with the suddenness of action 
 after the inhibition of her forces. Then, little by little, 
 it assumed its usual, normal course, and the breath 
 came longer now, less quivering, more sustained. 
 
 "'God is forever still.' Then what moves? Let 
 me be still, just a moment, dear God, not reasoning, 
 not questing, but still, just still." 
 
 Minutes passed. The stillness grew. It calmed the 
 turbulence of her mentality, whose constant movement 
 had prevented her from clearly discerning the great 
 vision. With the strength of a purpose, not wholly 
 within her knowledge, but within her power to fulfil, 
 she sprang to her feet, seized her heavy cloak, and ran 
 from the house. 
 
 The silence made weird calls to her but she heeded 
 them not. With the unerring tread of one who knows 
 the way she turned from the private drive and down 
 the silent street. 
 
 Even the cry, " Why did I not go before! " which 
 threatened to stifle her, was held in abeyance before 
 the determination to make up, as best she could, for 
 her delay and to be there in time, in time! 
 
 On she sped until, at the farther end of the village, 
 Cousin Matilda's house loomed darkly before her. 
 Making no attempt, by ringing or knocking, to rouse
 
 384 The House of Landell 
 
 her brother, she ran to one of the old-fashioned French 
 windows, broke a pane, and, entering the room, went 
 at once to the electric button and pressed it. There was 
 no response. 
 
 As she moved towards the kitchen in search of 
 matches and a lamp, her foot struck an unyielding 
 something. Stooping, she touched it. Her fingers fell 
 upon something cold, unresponsive a nose, eyes, a 
 human face. It did not move as her fingers traveled 
 over the immobile surface and through the house 
 there was no sound. 
 
 A wonderful power upheld her as she stood over the 
 form and prayed. In the dense blackness of the 
 shaded, blinded room, she could not tell which way 
 to turn, or who or what it might be, a burglar who 
 had fallen before her brother, or Tom ! her hand 
 touched a woman's dress. She traced it down an arm 
 to a hand. Upon the fingers were the old-fashioned 
 rings her Cousin Matilda always wore, but the face 
 moved not. 
 
 Roused, now, to the fact that she must find her 
 brother, and with no thought of fleeing until she had 
 thoroughly made the quest, she stood, outreaching 
 from a centre of assurance that, even in the darkness, 
 God is Light. Fear fell from her as a loosed garment. 
 Only the knowledge that she was sent to save infilled 
 her. About her, there radiated a soft, sweet luminence. 
 Through it and in it she distinguished articles in the 
 room. There was something else she had vaguely 
 noted it before but had passed it by amid the horrors 
 that had urged themselves upon her attention. It was 
 the odor of smoke. It grew more perceptible as she 
 advanced towards the kitchen, and, as she stepped 
 over the threshold, something else halted her. Again 
 she stooped, this time, with unerring direction, plac-
 
 The House of Landell 385 
 
 ing her hand upon a brow a finely chiselled forehead, 
 with a little fall of wavy hair the brow of Tom! 
 
 She knelt beside him in the dark, the light of her 
 own trust in Infinity giving her a supernal, rather than 
 a supernatural light. 
 
 This face was warm, and in a moment there came 
 a whisper from parted lips, formed with panting 
 breath, and words with Tom's dear, whimsical grasp 
 on humor and on fact. 
 
 " I have what I asked for, an experience ! I have 
 been calling for you all night." 
 
 " Oh, Tom, I almost did not come ! " 
 
 " I could not blame you. I have been begging you 
 to cut such demands out of your life. Fool ! All night 
 I have seen father's face as it looked when I said what 
 I did." 
 
 " Can't you move? " 
 
 " No. Perhaps my back is broken." 
 
 Agnes groaned. 
 
 " And perhaps not. It may be worse than it is, 
 what a bull ! " his old humor twinkling in the words. 
 
 " I will telephone, " 
 
 " Matilda had it and the electricity cut off." 
 
 " I smell smoke." 
 
 " She hid some silver in the woodpile instead of 
 sending it to the bank, decided not to leave it there 
 upset a lamp in the middle of a lot of kin 
 dling His strength was ebbing fast but he strug 
 gled on. 
 
 " She fell into the blaze. I got her out she must 
 have breathed the flame died as I was carrying her 
 up-stairs, found her heavier heavi then dead all 
 in the dark dark Agnes! " his voice trailed away 
 into unconsciousness. 
 
 Agnes never knew what followed how she ob 
 tained aid ; how they got Tom home into his own cool
 
 386 The House of Landell 
 
 bed; the return of the father and mother; the laying 
 away of Cousin Matilda it was all a dream. What, 
 in thankfulness of heart, she did know was, that she 
 had saved Tom for the life-blood had been flowing 
 as he lay there and in another hour help would have 
 been too late. 
 
 There was over a year of plaster casts and tender 
 care. There were realms of revelation as he lay there 
 apart from the things that are seen and heard and done 
 and in communion with the things that are unseen, 
 eternal in the heavens. 
 
 To Agnes, also, came a revelation of what she had 
 called the tragedy of love, as she studied the meanings 
 of the Great Teacher's life through the close analysis 
 of their own.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 " 'Love tannot with impunity be liberated from 
 the sacred order of life" 
 
 "BETTERS from the South!" said Agnes. "A 
 budget from Tom and one from Mattee Sue, Mother, 
 for you ! " 
 
 As she spoke, with eyes bright with interest and 
 cheeks glowing with the exhilaration of her swift walk 
 to the mail box, she entered the library and deposited 
 her letters in Mrs. Landell's lap, then seated herself 
 by the snapping fire of driftwood. Watching the 
 vivid colorings of copperas and brine-steeped nails and 
 seasoned ship wreckage flash and flame the histories 
 they could not speak in words, she awaited the news. 
 
 "Which shall we open first?" said Mrs. Landell. 
 
 " I am always wondering which is the best way to 
 attack a lot of mail, whether to choose the most desired 
 first or last," laughed Agnes. 
 
 " Let's climax the process, then," joined in Mr. 
 Landell. " Take Mattee Sue's first and Tom's second." 
 
 " That won't leave much but the personality of 
 Tom's letter, then, for the woman always tells the 
 news. Go on, mother, here's for Mattee Sue's!" 
 
 Mrs. Landell, smiling, opened the pretty envelope, 
 dashed and flecked with a very characteristic writing, 
 and began, 
 
 "'Dear People All, Your big son came buzzing down here 
 like a great June bug months ago, buzzed so incessantly for a 
 fortnight that he absolutely succeeded in wooing from me the 
 
 387
 
 388 [The House of Landell 
 
 promise of marrying him after a while. Now for a second 
 time he has come down here, buzzing just the same but seeming 
 more doleful because a June bug near Thanksgiving time is 
 out of place and, like clothes out of season, seems pitiful. Be 
 sides that, he looks so meek, so very manageable (which he did 
 not before) since that dreadful accident and he has told me, 
 Agnes, how very wonderful you were, that I don't know but 
 that it would be very wise for me to agree to his wish to 
 marry me at once. You must know, dear Mamma Landell, 
 that it is a wise plan for me to take the reins of government 
 while he is manageable. Don't you fully agree with me ! 
 
 '' ' Of course, having that idea, nothing would do but that the 
 ceremony must be performed instantly. You know men I am 
 sure you do ! They are a dreadfully long time making up their 
 minds to a thing but, having reached that point, the next train 
 isn't a sufficiently rapid vehicle to accomplish the desired end. 
 
 " ' Of course, I wouldn't hear of doing this without letting 
 you know and having you see me. Are you willing to take the 
 next train South and behold your son put off his garment of 
 assurance and come under the yoke of my dominion? Would 
 it make you tremble too much to witness such capitulation on 
 his part! We will wait till we hear from you before setting 
 the date when he will hand me his sword and sign his name to 
 our treaty of cooperation. Come quickly, all, for we don't want 
 any one to know about this and want to get out oi town as 
 quickly and quietly as possible. No one wants to worry about 
 a trousseau when the weather is adorable for traveling and the 
 man you love has been snatched from the jaws of death so 
 very recently, and wants you to help him back to his old self 
 with splendid additions. 
 
 " ' Your daughter and sister soon-to-be, 
 
 " ' MATTEE SUE LANDELL.' " 
 
 " She must be a sweet child," said Mr. Landell, 
 thoughtfully and tenderly ; " but Helen, those children 
 don't want us to go down there and advertise the secret 
 they are striving to hide. Write them at once to go 
 on with their very sensible plan of doing the thing 
 quietly. It's better, too, for Tom, than all those stag-
 
 The House of Landell 389 
 
 dinners and wind-ups preceding a fashionable wedding, 
 don't you think so, Agnes ! " 
 
 " Now for Tom's," returned Agnes, the love-light 
 deepening in her eyes. 
 
 " ' Dear Mother, Father and Agnes, Isn't Mattee Sue fine to 
 accede to what she sees is my preference to get out of the 
 turmoil of a big wedding. I know it is a sacrifice on her part, 
 but she refuses to admit it she's that sort. I am glad, for 
 I don't feel very fit for that sort of thing, and to come home 
 without my rhetoric queen well, it seems as if I couldn't, that's 
 all. Are you going to let me bring her to the roof tree where 
 my loved ones dwell that has harbored me and nourished the 
 ideals you have born within me? Then, we will travel for a 
 month and be home in time to give the Southern Jessamine a 
 northern Christmas with a yule log in the big fireplace in the 
 dining-room. 
 
 " ' Just the same as ever, I am, 
 
 " ' YOUR TOM.' " 
 
 There was silence after the mother had finished read 
 ing this. The driftwood sputtered and threw forth 
 vari-colors and the flames seized a rusty nail and sang 
 about it as it translated, in terms of light and expres 
 sion, the inertia of its seeming uselessness. Then the 
 mother rose. 
 
 " I will go and answer these at once," she said gently. 
 " Of course the boy and the little bride shall come home 
 to us, Daniel ? " 
 
 " Of course," Mr. Landell threw more driftwood 
 on the fire. 
 
 After the mother had left the room, Agnes and her 
 father sat silent for a long time; then, unshed tears 
 softening the light in her beautiful eyes, she went to 
 his side. 
 
 " Father, explain life to me, I don't know how to 
 grasp it or how to use it. It uses me. Is that right? 
 Tell me."
 
 39 The House of Landell 
 
 " The same little child and seer of years ago," and 
 he smiled tenderly as he caressed her broad smooth 
 brow. " You always will be babe and seer, for of the 
 child is born the seer and the seer lives in the child's 
 heart. What do you want to know that you think I 
 can tell you? " 
 
 " Everything, father. I know that great distances 
 are opening to me. Last night I had such a strange 
 experience inwardly, you know to others it would 
 seem I was resting on the sofa. Fully conscious of my 
 going, I was led into spaces I never before had tra 
 versed. There was no withdrawing on my part from 
 the test, as there has been before. I went willingly and 
 intelligently, I felt so sure. As I went consciously to 
 ward what was given me to know, I said, ' God, hold 
 my hand.' When I rose from the sofa, I still had not 
 let go God's hand. Do you suppose the experience was 
 like St. Paul's when he was caught up into the third 
 heaven and saw things ' not lawful to utter'? I feel 
 as if it were an initiation." 
 
 " With the true initiation there is nothing spectacu 
 lar or phenomenal, my little child." 
 
 " There was not in this. Not even light. I knew, 
 father, knew ! " 
 
 Her father looked at her tenderly. 
 
 " I am sure God held your hand, and always will, 
 for you have come forth, not disintegrant, but whole. 
 Because you feared not, you have passed through un 
 scathed. Continue to build on your foundation of 
 Truth and Grace and you will be a blessing to many. 
 Trust to your spiritual insight to teach you to recognize 
 the new type of humanity. Our fathers and mothers 
 are not our only heritage. We are the sons and daugh 
 ters of intelligent conception, intelligent manifestation 
 and conscious reality. Cease striving, little one. ' As 
 soon as striving ceases, the fruition of trust begins.'
 
 The House of Landell 391 
 
 Each moves in his own orbit. There is no limit to 
 the love and wisdom he may radiate. A very sad part 
 of this truth, dear, is, that the more expressed it is, 
 the more probable that we ourselves are unaware of 
 the wonderful radiation from us. We must be con 
 tent not to know it and realize that if we allow sorrow, 
 distrust or discontent to dim our infinite trust and 
 faith that it is so whether we realize it or not, the 
 radiation is by so much obscured. Neither is life spec 
 tacular. It is as simple and as natural as the dawn." 
 
 She was silent a long time. Her father could see 
 the dawn of which he spoke, coming to the day, radiat 
 ing from her very being as she sat there still, and as he 
 waited for what he knew would come. 
 
 " So often you speak of loving impersonally," she 
 said at length, aloud, " but there is something intensely 
 personal in your words." 
 
 " Love always is personal in a sense. It is a state 
 of feeling and always related to physical states of 
 consciousness." 
 
 " I am sure there is something above love. Why 
 does it evade and elude me ? " 
 
 " You have tried to leap a natural sequence in the 
 unfoldment of soul expression. Do not crush or scorn 
 any expression. Imbue it with the concentrated power 
 of the Great Eternal. Do not crush your will or stifle 
 your affections. These are given us as teachers and as 
 lovers. Dangerous, indeed, it is to strive to express 
 truth in terms beyond our growth, as dangerous as to 
 place St. Mark's dome on a foundation of a woodman's 
 hut. Do not crush love. In the first place, you can 
 not do it. Let it be energized by ' That Which Is Be 
 hind.' Do not love less, love more. Let it be great 
 and eternal. Do not crush personality. Let it be 
 larger and more superb than ever, until it reaches the 
 heights of the Impersonal. Then, emotions, instead of
 
 392 The House of Landell 
 
 being agitators and disturbers of our peace, will be 
 invested with the moving, growing spirit of the mes 
 sengers from heart to heart of this great creation. I 
 do not wonder you doubt and fear the word love, for 
 many confound it with cellular attraction, which, as 
 basis for marriage, is as a ' rag, a bone and a hank 
 of hair/ Neither love nor marriage are synonymous 
 with only the cellular attraction called sex affinity. Sex 
 is one of the youngest phases the beginnings of un- 
 foldment. Marriage is the divine symbol portraying 
 the union of the personal with its ideal; the specific 
 with the universal; the revelation of unity. This is 
 the mystery of love, the ideal of marriage the un- 
 foldment of the states of consciousness of the individ 
 ual to ever widening and enlightening ideals through 
 the union of lives and aspirations." 
 
 " Father," she whispered, moving closer to him, " I 
 don't know what to do." 
 
 He understood and answered softly, 
 
 " ' But when they are joined together, the two, to 
 gether, appear as only one body, and it is so. And all 
 the universe is in a state of happiness because all things 
 receive blessedness from their perfect body. And this 
 is an arcanum/ ' 
 
 " I have been afraid to love any one, love has 
 brought me so much sadness." 
 
 He held her close. 
 
 " Not love ; but too little of the true sort. Like chil 
 dren, studying the earth by a ball, to us is revealed 
 the great love through relationships, each with its 
 specific lesson the affection of father, mother, brother, 
 lover, husband, until life's lessons, through detachment 
 from former relations, lead us into larger understand 
 ing of each relation or into new relations. This is 
 the larger sense taught by Jesus, who expressed per 
 sonality in every breath he drew and dealt with indi-
 
 Jhe House of Landell 393 
 
 viduals even more than with masses. Such love as 
 perses no motives, feels no slights; knows no differ 
 ence. Instead of being obscured by the mask of shape, 
 communion will exist in added clarity and strength. 
 Thus the personal becomes the impersonal and the 
 personal again, in sense as much greater as the ocean 
 transcends the single wave. At first it will seem that 
 the personal element is annihilated; instead, you will 
 find happiness enhanced, friendships hallowed and 
 made more internally close, and your understanding of 
 love grown more broad, true and deep. Lift your face 
 to the sun and drink in happiness; it is your birthright. 
 Know that love of the individual is not limited by any 
 restrictions of personality, and that every soul to whom 
 you give a spiritually personal love is yours forever in 
 the orbits of understanding." 
 
 " Why am I crucified at what others receive with 
 childlike confidence? " 
 
 " You are in the throes of creation into the Christ 
 type of man. On the crosses of revelation and conse 
 quent knowledge are we crucified, and remain like one 
 asleep until the Christ Principle germinates and be 
 comes manifest within us. Jesus of Nazareth, in his 
 deity-manifestation, stands before us supreme in 
 strength, a personal saviour, not only because He has 
 awakened us to the knowledge of our anointing by 
 Holy Spirit, for service to humanity, through Himself 
 who lived years ago; but because He still lives ex 
 pressed through the personality of every individual. 
 You have discriminated ; been disgusted and have hated 
 what you have discriminated against. You have con 
 trolled this disgust ; you have tolerated ; endured. With 
 faith, where you could not see, you are approaching 
 balance, where mediumship gives way to adeptship. It 
 is the door to spiritual initiation. You are right. Your 
 experience was an initiation. With faith, trust and
 
 394 The House of Landell 
 
 balance, you entered in, and came out whole. Take, 
 now, the next step. Enter into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 "Joy, Father?" 
 
 " Yes, spiritual joy." 
 
 He waited a moment, then spoke again. 
 
 " All life is an arcanum. Holy mysteries unfold 
 within us. As we learn the uses and the blessedness of 
 our varied experiences we vitalize with acting force. 
 Through this most wonderful arcanum of life, the 
 interrelation and interaction of man and woman, the 
 Great Light calls you to declare Him ; through the com 
 prehension of your bi-une forces, through the making 
 of your seed, to perpetuate His idea, to become regen 
 erate in marriage." 
 
 He stood beside her a moment, then laid his hand 
 gently upon her forehead and went away. 
 
 Agnes sat in silence for some time, then went up 
 stairs. Love accompanied her. It spoke from the 
 winter's landscape seen through the windows as she 
 mounted to her room. It spoke through the articles 
 in her chamber, into which she had breathed her de 
 sires, her fears. Before this, her love had been a 
 tigerish grip, lest she lose her loved ones as heretofore 
 she felt had been her fate, or else, a dull, apathetic 
 abnegation of what she had failed to hold. 
 
 To-day, the fear was gone. She knew that nothing 
 could take from her the love of those who inherently 
 belonged to her, neither death nor any other creature. 
 She realized, at last, that love to man is love to God; 
 that it never dies, and that, " Twain blending into one, 
 sets forth the spiritual possibilities of man." 
 
 " Then comes the statelier Eden back to man ; 
 Then reigns the world's great bridals, chaste and calm; 
 Then springs the crowning race of human kind." 
 
 The rooms were readv for the return of Tom with
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 395 
 
 the little bride. No one knew just when they were 
 coming. They were to walk in as if they had always 
 lived there, said Tom and Mattee Sue, only a hint 
 that it would be just about now, Mattee Sue had 
 added in her whimsical fashion. 
 
 There had been a heavy fall of snow. Putting on 
 her snowshoes Agnes went into the forest to seek 
 there the benediction that always, winter and summer, 
 she found in its heart. 
 
 The air was like elixir. The great trees were clothed 
 in snow. Now and then a twig snapped or branch 
 fell. The lake, plainly visible beyond, lay, an unbroken 
 sheet of snow and ice, the sun, shining on the dazzling 
 surface, won to view little clouds of vapor, here and 
 there. Men were cutting ice not far from the further 
 shore. Other than this, the woods were silent, and 
 she felt herself alone. 
 
 " Side by side with the willing is the letting," she 
 quoted, as she walked, attuning the words to her move 
 ment. She thought upon this as she made her way 
 to the long drive that led from the lower end of the 
 estate and that had been leveled for sleighing. She 
 wanted to see the king beech of the forest and his 
 court in emeralds and ermine. 
 
 " Harmony is not coerced into being, it always 
 exists. It is the liberty of God ! " 
 
 She was approaching the road from a hilltop when 
 her eyes caught the flash of color in the distance like 
 the flicker of a red-bird's wing in the sunshine. She 
 recalled the witching bit of folksong she had often 
 heard Tom sing about his beloved, 
 " O swan of slenderness, 
 Dove of tenderness, 
 
 Jewel of joys, arise! 
 The little red lark 
 Like a soaring spark 
 
 Of song, to his sunburst flies.
 
 396 The House of Landell 
 
 "But till thou'rt risen, 
 Earth is a prison 
 
 Full of lonesome sighs. 
 Then awake and discover 
 To thy fond lover 
 
 The morn of thy matchless eyes." 
 
 Again the red flashed in the sunshine, heralding 
 a reality of girlish beauty with rich furs and swaying 
 skirts blowing about her, a woman, supple and full 
 of grace, in company with a familiar masculine figure, 
 appearing and disappearing among the snow-clad hem 
 locks that towered to heaven and swept the ground. 
 
 Agnes focussed her gaze, using her hands as tele 
 scope. In clear contralto, she sent through the icy air 
 the refrain of the sweet folksong in greeting to the 
 advancing two, the mischief in their merry eyes spark 
 ling over the spaces as they espied her. 
 
 ' Tom, it is your very self! and, of course, the little 
 red lark beside you, is Mattee Sue." 
 
 Bubbling with merriment, the two skated nearer 
 shore to Agnes. 
 
 " What a way to bring a Southern bride home to 
 the Northland certainly it is introducing her into the 
 midst of things but can you, a Southern girl, trans 
 form yourself into a naiad of the ice as well as of the 
 air that you come to us, first on the perfume of a 
 flower, then on the rune of the singing skate ! " 
 
 " Oh-w-er-w-y," laughed the girl, holding a hand to 
 Agnes, " Tom, catch me, with all my success at mak 
 ing a stunning debut, I am safe only w'en on the move. 
 Take these things off ! " 
 
 In an instant Tom was kneeling before his divin 
 ity, while Mattee Sue sang gaily on, 
 
 " Oh-w-er-y, of co'se you are surprised that I can 
 skate ; but a winter in Montreal is responsible for that. 
 W'en I returned home, I was so delighted with the
 
 The House of Landell 397 
 
 accomplishment that I got one of the icemen to start 
 an arena, like your big Boston skating place we've just 
 been testing. I told him he would make the fortune of 
 his life and that I would be personally responsible for 
 having the rink filled with skaters winter and summer, 
 especially summer if he would see that the ice was 
 properly frozen and in order. He fitted up the tiniest 
 bit of a rink you ever saw, but a few couples managed 
 to have a perfectly beautiful time catch me, Tom 
 till one day the men didn't get the ice frozen hard 
 enough to hold us and six of us got an ice bath. It 
 made every one but me mad but w'at's the use! 
 Anyway, it stopped our fun, for no one would trust 
 the slippery deceiver any more. 
 
 " I simply had to have something startling to tell 
 mauma about my first experiences Bostonward I 
 knew your house was too well ordered to have anything 
 funny to write about, and if I don't have funny things 
 to tell, papa mopes and thinks he hasn't his righteous 
 dues and begins to dramatize his emotions an easy 
 thing to do w'en his little girl has gone away forever 
 and he can't kiss her good night, and scold her for 
 teasing him. There. Now Tom has taken off my 
 skates and I can stand on my feet, may I kiss you? 
 I didn't attempt it before, because though I thought 
 you might not mind theoretically having me rest on 
 your bosom in a sisterly fashion, I don't think you 
 would care to sustain my entire weight on your shoul 
 ders." 
 
 Agnes held out her arms to the radiant creature who 
 stepped from the ice, and greeted her in a manner that 
 gave Tom intense delight. 
 
 Mattee Sue carolled musically on 
 
 " It was so nice of you not to mind our being mar 
 ried without a lot of fuss and feathers after the dear 
 boy had had that dreadful tragedy he told me how
 
 398 The House of Landell 
 
 very wonderful you were," giving her a tender look 
 from out her lustrous eyes. 
 
 " You have to stand up to be fitted for clothes w'en 
 you want to be " 
 
 " With your best fellow," Tom completed the sen 
 tence as the three turned towards the path from which 
 Agnes had approached them. 
 
 ' Tell me about your marriage." 
 
 " It was such fun. We were married early, then 
 took automobiles for Rosenderry, three miles away, 
 and would have caught the train for the North without 
 anyone's catching us, but for a meditative cow which 
 refused to get off the track." 
 
 "Did no one suspect?" Agnes asked the question 
 with a fascination it made Tom happy to see, as she 
 became imbued with the charm of Mattee Sue's vary 
 ing expression of face and manner, and winsome inflec 
 tions of voice. 
 
 " W-er-w-er-y, some people simply smell news be 
 fore it is baked ; so, of course, six automobiles caught 
 up with us and we almost received full punishment for 
 running away, didn't we, Tom ! " 
 
 Tom squeezed the red-lark's wing for reply, as she 
 hopped over a fallen hemlock trunk. 
 
 " Pray how far have you walked, you bride of yes 
 terday?" 
 
 " I saw the Charles River crowded with skaters as 
 we came through Boston and nothing would do but 
 that Tom buy me some skates, and then, after we had 
 had a try on the river, he suggested that we walk from 
 the station and cut across the lake and slip in on you 
 all, and so we did 
 
 " You are romantic to lead her to your hearth 
 stone through the aisles of Nature's temples benisoned 
 with the incense of heaven's day." 
 
 Mattee Sue broke in impulsively,
 
 The House of Landell 399 
 
 'Twine, twine and intertwine, 
 Breath of oak and breath of pine, 
 Till the inner life, of God, 
 Incense sends from sky to sod. 
 
 Twine, twine and intertwine, 
 
 Soul of you with soul of mine, 
 
 Till the longings of my heart, 
 
 Root in strength thy powers impart.'" 
 
 Agnes' heart gave a leap. The stanzas were hers, 
 sent off, shyly, on a journey to the world of literature, 
 and given space in a magazine. 
 
 " Doesn't that just express it! " said Mattee Sue. 
 
 " That sounds familiar," meditated Tom. " Where 
 did you get it, O lark with the red, red wing on your 
 hat! Jupiter, didn't you write that, Agnes? " 
 
 " Yes," returned Agnes. 
 
 "How perfectly lovely!" said Mattee Sue, enthu 
 siastically. " And to think that before I ever had met 
 you face to face, I had found you out in spirit, through 
 your lovely, lovely thoughts ! " 
 
 Mattee Sue's triumph was complete. Tom could see 
 that! The slight tension, which, despite his courage, 
 he had felt, relaxed. He was himself once more. He 
 had been sure of his father and mother, and, in a way, 
 of Agnes but it was all right, now, anyway. He 
 heaved a sigh of deep relief. 
 
 Mattee Sue heard the sigh, looked at him compre- 
 hendingly, and twinkled. Then she turned her atten 
 tion to the grand old trees and the wonderful land 
 scape of the splendid parks, admiring and exclaiming 
 with her delicious little portamentos and crescendoes 
 of speech, until Agnes was captured wholly beyond re 
 treat. 
 
 The long stretch of driveway was reached, and the 
 dear old home rose before them. Mattee Sue stopped
 
 400 The House of Landell 
 
 suddenly, pausing, alert, like a bird ready for flight, 
 her rich furs trailing the snow and the red wing 
 gleaming in the sunshine. 
 
 " Your home! " she said softly, floating the thought 
 into melody of sound, " Your home ! " 
 
 Agnes walked on, feeling the sacredness of the little 
 sister's entrance into a new life, but with a sense of 
 great loss engulfing her. Personal love ! What should 
 she do without the old-time nearness of her brother 
 her second self! But Mattee Sue caught her arm. 
 
 " No, never ! " she said emphatically, " Never ! I 
 want to go in with you, Agnes, with you and Tom 
 the dear souls, whose love, my love shall cement the 
 stronger ! We will go in together! " 
 
 So, with the flash of the red-bird's wing, Mattee Sue, 
 with the " morn of her matchless eyes," entered her 
 heart's abode.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 " He liveth best who loveth best." 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
 AGNES grew, at once, enthusiastically fond of her 
 sister, who, in her winsome way, nestled into the heart 
 of Agnes' ideals, listening intently where she could not 
 follow, and loving, always. With gentle insistence, 
 the newcomer made her pull out stacks of nearly for 
 gotten manuscript, and revelled in the love stories, and 
 raved over the poems, generously seeing no fault 
 therein, and refusing to permit any unkindly criticisms 
 from the author. 
 
 " You must stop saying horrid things of my sister, 
 Agnes Landell," she would say prettily, stopping her 
 ears, "Please, please don't spoil these beautiful things 
 for me by being cruel to them ! " 
 
 This comradeship was an unutterable delight to 
 Tom. The one regret in the joy of his marriage with 
 his bird of the red, red wing, had been the fear of sad 
 dening his beloved sister, who, though surrounded by 
 so much, seemed, in some inexplicable manner, to be 
 closed away from life's joyousness. To find, that, in 
 stead of loss, he had brought her gain was delight to 
 his soul. 
 
 Still, as days went on, there reappeared in her, a 
 pensiveness the monotone of unrest. 
 
 " Ross Mevin is in love with her and she doesn't 
 know it," said Mrs. Landell, one day, when sounds 
 from the organ penetrated the room where she and 
 her husband were waiting to see Tom and Mattee Sue 
 
 401
 
 4O2 The House of Landell 
 
 off on a skating trip, " I certainly shall have to ask 
 her to stop playing. It is like the wail of a lost soul." 
 
 " ' He restoreth her soul/ Helen," said Mr. Landell, 
 happily. 
 
 "Do you have a Bible text for every occasion?" 
 Tom looked at his father, reverently. 
 
 " There is one there to fill every need, laddie ! " 
 
 " I did not agree with you about Ross." As usual, 
 Mrs. Landell drew her husband from the universal to 
 the personal aspect of the case in hand. " But after I 
 saw him at Lodesminster, I felt sure of it. Do you 
 know, I believe that what agitated Agnes the morning 
 we received his invitations was that she believed they 
 were his wedding invitations, what are you laughing 
 at ! You knew it all the time ! If you knew so much, 
 why did you not urge her to go with us ? " 
 
 " It is best as it is. She must waken herself." 
 
 " Can't there be any more Kathleen Mavourneens in 
 this new idea of unfoldment?" asked Tom, with a 
 twinkle in his eyes. " Then I am ail-gloriously glad I 
 got in my nineteenth century love-making before the 
 twentieth grew old enough to prevent it," and he 
 beamed over at Mattee Sue who just then entered the 
 room, skates in hand. It took but a moment for Tom 
 to acquire his, and the two soon disappeared among 
 the pines. 
 
 In a short time they were at the lake. Tom had 
 strapped on their skates and the two were flashing here 
 and there over the silver ice, now dancing, now poising 
 like birds for flight, now racing with each other, 
 Mattee Sue entranced with the novel exercise, until, 
 exhilarated with the wonder of it, they burst into 
 joyous laughter. 
 
 " Isn't it splendid ! " exclaimed Tom rapturously. 
 " And isn't it fortunate the dear little Southern girl
 
 The House of Landell 403 
 
 knows how to skate ! Did you ever believe love could 
 be so wonderful ! " 
 
 " W'y, of co'se," parried Mattee Sue. " You don't 
 suppose I ever would limit myself! I expand, my 
 dear, expand ! " 
 
 " Indeed, you do, you darling ! You make me ex 
 pand, too ! So much so, that I burst a button off my 
 coat the other day when I went to fasten it; and I 
 burnt up a lot of theses I wrote before I married you, 
 and had intended using this winter." 
 
 " Has marriage made you so wise ! " teased Mattee 
 Sue. "If you will permit me to say so, it should have 
 made you realize how little you know about love! 
 First place, it mustn't inspire you to destroy old theses, 
 but to keep them, in order to study them in new lights. 
 Calling Agnes' love affairs, negative slumps, as you 
 did this afternoon, and then, contrary to all your pro 
 fessional theories, worrying over her as well. W'y ! 
 Any fourteen-year-old girl in Gustaga could have told 
 you long ago w'at ails her, and w'y she is thinking of 
 some impossible man to match up with, as you say she 
 is to your terror, and would know that that wail on 
 the organ is the recitative before the dramatic en 
 trance of the doctor who arrives to sing the aria as to 
 w'ether the symptoms are caused by terrapin or crab 
 out of season. If I knew your sea about here, I could 
 quickly pick out the identical fish that is causing the 
 spasm." 
 
 " What a mixture of metaphors! " 
 
 " I don't care ! I prefer to ! It's like that salad we 
 had yesterday, ice cream, mayonnaise, dinner and 
 desert all at once." 
 
 " Here comes one of them, now," said Tom, as, just 
 then, Mr. Herman was seen skirting the side of the 
 lake near which they were slowly skating.
 
 404 The House of Landell 
 
 Mattee Sue poised and studied the approaching 
 figure intently. 
 
 " W'y ! It's my minister I have grown to love be 
 cause he understands all that may be going on under 
 the sunshine of you, to make it warm and life-giving 
 instead of burning and killing, the pain, the sorrow, 
 the life rain, you know! What a beautiful face he 
 has! Oh! But he has been through a lot! He is 
 coming out of it, though ! " Her voice had an awe 
 struck quality. His life is being glorified by what 
 has come into it. A shadow rests upon it still; but it 
 will be gone soon, and his face reminds me of the deep 
 long shadows the purple ones, that are purple because 
 the blood-red of the sun coming up from under the 
 hills in the day dawn, is behind it. I love to hear him, 
 Tom. I never knew anything so wonderful as those 
 noon services w'en you go 'into the church, with never 
 a soul to speak to you, and think of Father Ryan's 
 
 " ' I walk down the valley of silence, 
 
 Down the dim, mystic valley, alone, 
 And the hush of my heart is as holy 
 As hovers where angels have flown.' 
 
 " Then ' without sound of trumpets,' a voice steals 
 into your consciousness, speaking with the clearness 
 and simplicity of a child, and with a heart-touch in it, 
 not put on but the sort that makes you sure he 
 knows w'at your heartache means to you, because he 
 has one all the time; but that you may take cheer, be 
 cause his is teaching him, and yours may teach you, 
 till, bye and bye, though the pain never goes, you will 
 glory in it, because it teaches you so much! " 
 
 They skated on silently, love strengthening its power 
 between them as they moved side by side. Mr. Her 
 man still walked along the side of the lake unknowing 
 of their presence and the light fell upon him with a
 
 The House of Landell 405 
 
 peculiar urging power as if to awake in him that which 
 slept. Mattee Sue went tenderly on, 
 
 " Then you go out with no human hand or voice 
 coming in between you and the thought that you are 
 one with the Great Eternal. I was I must confess 
 just as homesick as I could be the other day, and I 
 went in there. Wen I came out, I felt as if I was in 
 heaven and heaven was in me. A woman sat in front 
 of me. She had stolen in with a traveling bag in her 
 hand looked as if she might have skipped a train to 
 go to the service. She was crying; but w'en she came 
 out she was in peace. Then, there was a splendid look 
 ing man. He seemed desperate w'en he sat down ; but 
 w'en he went out, he walked like a king. It is beauti 
 ful the true idea, I think Mr. Herman wasn't made 
 to marry, though. Some people aren't, you know, 
 with a pretty air of wisdom. " Poor things, they 
 go through life like a bird born with a broken wing 
 and don't know they are missing anything because they 
 never have known w'at it is to fly." 
 
 " You darling ! " murmured Tom. 
 
 " I suppose the dear Lord makes it up to them, some 
 how, though though I'm awfully sorry for them." 
 
 As the minister turned away from the lake shore 
 and passed from sight, Tom moved closer to her. 
 
 " It is so lovely to know you are some one's onty- 
 donty, and he is yours, and that if he flies, he needs 
 you for the little pin feathers that keep him still in 
 the air, doing nothing, seemingly, like our wonderful 
 buzzards with the big wings that show, and the mil 
 lions of little air balloons underneath them that don't 
 look as if they would amount to anything but mean 
 so much." 
 
 Tom came closer, and captured her arm. 
 
 " That's w'y we women talk all the time, maybe, 
 though I've never known any good reason for it before.
 
 406 The House of Landell 
 
 No, no, Mr. Herman isn't the one for Agnes. As a 
 man, he will pass out of her life, I can tell you that! 
 As a person, he has nothing to do with her heart. Per 
 haps something about him, has, though." 
 
 Tom stopped still in astonishment. 
 
 " Mattee Sue, you little wizard! You are perfectly 
 right ! How did you know ! " 
 
 " I don't know w'at you know I know ; but I know 
 it ! " retorted Mattee Sue in her usual succinct manner. 
 
 "I will tell you! She has been believing, " and 
 Tom sketched the history of Agnes' soul-questioning, 
 as he understood it. 
 
 " Marry a man for an idea of something else ! Tom, 
 it is very strange w'at little common sense some very 
 superior persons have! W'y! Even I would know 
 better than that! Do you suppose I ever would have 
 married you because you didn't like it that I answered 
 your letters? I might come to love skulls and degen 
 erates because of you; but never you, because I pre 
 ferred skulls and degenerates." 
 
 " That is a very sweet compliment and I'm awfully 
 glad I got you." 
 
 He looked adoringly at the winsome creature who 
 became more and more radiant as the sharp air vital 
 ized her and her thoughts sang through her being. 
 
 " You are unutterably adorable ! But how can one 
 help Agnes?" 
 
 " We will have to show her how absolutely necessary 
 it is for the right woman to marry the right man in 
 order to make something of him. To begin her instruc 
 tion, you must do positively everything I say and let 
 her see w'at six months with a wise woman can make 
 of you!" 
 
 " What's the matter with me now ! " said Tom, a 
 trifle nettled, for fine and well-balanced as he was, even 
 he would have his wife find him perfect.
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 407 
 
 " Well, for one thing, you are very bossy ! " skating 
 close to him and removing an imaginary speck of dust 
 from the lapel of his coat, while her face came into 
 proximity to his own, and the inevitable ensued. 
 
 " Now after this ocular and osculatory exhibition in 
 full view of the highway, we certainly should be able to 
 combine to help this sister of yours," and Mattee Sue 
 finally disengaged herself and adjusted her hat. " You 
 see, she is wandering down strange and untrodden 
 paths. I suppose she never has flirted in all of her 
 little life, and, if she attempted it, it would be with 
 elephantine dignity over the saving of souls instead of 
 attending to her business of making two souls perfectly 
 happy, and incidentally, throwing arms about any 
 others who come within her reach. You wouldn't ex 
 pect to be able to construct a skeleton, would you, if 
 you didn't know bones ? " 
 
 " No, I suppose Emerson is right when he says the 
 village boy selects his wife without the risk that Milton 
 deplores as incident to the selection of scholars and 
 geniuses." 
 
 " You didn't have to go to Emerson for that, did 
 you ! " cooed Mattee Sue, her tones and manner mak 
 ing her banter delicious, " I felt all a-quiver with mod 
 esty w'en I came up here, I thought you Yankees were 
 so wise; but you all seem patterned after your family 
 doctor excepting your blessed father. I see your 
 -<?Esculapius making his trips in the village with a bag 
 full of big volumes. I suppose he sits by the bedside 
 of his patient and proves his diagnosis by the case 
 some one else has had under totally different circum 
 stances." 
 
 " That's not fair ! " flamed Tom hotly. 
 
 " Oh, yes it is," Mattee Sue was unperturbed. " Lots 
 of you don't dare to praise an art exhibition until 
 you've read the Boston Transcript! "
 
 408 The House of Landell 
 
 Tom, who, with Agnes, generally attempted to carry 
 arguments to a finish, stopped and giggled like a boy 
 as he gently twitched Mattee Sue's stole into place, tak 
 ing care to let his finger trail lightly across the exquisite 
 outline of her chin as if it were a necessary part of the 
 adjustment. 
 
 Meanwhile, Agnes had wandered away from the 
 organ and an hour later found herself near the green 
 houses. 
 
 Hi-Timmy, who was spending some days at the Lan- 
 dells', had been set to repotting some palms for the 
 house. Agnes saw him, now, in a violent rage at his 
 inability to make one of them stand in its tub as he 
 wished it to. Tom and Mattee Sue, skates over 
 shoulders, were standing near him. 
 
 " Pouf, Hi-Timmy, you are growing old too fast 
 and not in the right way," Tom was saying. " Just 
 look at that wrinkled-up face of yours ! Did you know 
 that every time you are angry, you form for your body 
 something that stiffens you all up? Your skin will 
 wrinkle up like a monkey's; you will grow stiff and 
 dry as if you had rheumatism and your perspiration 
 will smell like a brimstone factory. Chemicalize your 
 self with the right sort of feeling. Learn to do what 
 you want to with yourself and you will have no trouble 
 in making plants, or anything else, stand up to time." 
 
 Agnes stood by silent. Her face had been wrinkled 
 and she had been on the point of assisting Hi-Timmy. 
 She had refrained from helping with her hands 
 though all the while striving to inoculate him through 
 her mind, with will- forcing methods, though for 
 months she had been realizing that the real way to help 
 is to open avenues of self-help. Why, she was aching 
 as if wrenches were being applied to her body! Was 
 she so poor a chemist of embodiment as that, to en 
 case her soul in a poor frail body instead of a glad and
 
 The House of Landell 409 
 
 healthy one? Right here there came to her another 
 link in the chain of her understanding in relation to 
 her living the life, that wholly upon the coordination 
 existing between each muscle and the brain centre con 
 trolling it, depends the expression of thought which 
 is, at once, the thread of continuity and the fibre of 
 the instrument. She began to realize the internal 
 meaning of Tom's words, spoken to her long ago, 
 " You abhor nothing that you do not fear," and saw 
 that to doubt, for one minute, one's right to possess the 
 most beautiful in daily life, to the outermost periphery, 
 is to lose sight of the God that thrills in us and through 
 us. " If we can perceive beauty in everything of God's 
 doings, we may argue that we have reached the true 
 perception of universal law." 
 
 In that moment was revealed to her that what had 
 seemed vicarious suffering was but the expression of 
 kinship. As in a flash, the picture of Jesus in the 
 temple, with his earnest speaking face, came before her, 
 and she could hear him say, " Don't you understand 
 now why I came into the world? " 
 
 Watching Hi-Timmy in his crudity grow out of his 
 passion and his face become serene and noble through 
 the aspiration of right doing, there sang in her heart 
 the words that she had loved, as a little child, before 
 her mind was enshrouded in the world's strained ideas 
 of monstrous brutality towards the Liver of the Life 
 and the Redeemer through example, 
 
 "I think, when I read that sweet story of old, 
 
 When Jesus walked among men, 
 How he called little children as lambs to his fold, 
 I should like to have been with him then."
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 " I lift my cap to beauty, 
 
 I lift my cap to love; 
 I bow before my duty, 
 
 And know that God's above! 
 My heart, through shining arches 
 
 Of leaf and blossom goes; 
 My soul, triumphant, marches, 
 
 Through life to life's repose. 
 r And I, through all this glory 
 
 Nor know nor fear my fate, 
 The great things are so simple, 
 
 The simple are so great." 
 
 Fred G. Bowles. 
 
 "ToM, I am absolutely obliged to have some men 
 about me." Mattee Sue pulled out a big box of neck 
 ties and proceeded to tie one under her husband's un 
 willing chin. 
 
 " I don't like that one," he writhed, " I will not wear 
 it. Besides, I have my dinner coat on." 
 
 " W-oh-er-w-y, that doesn't matter, dear, it is simply 
 a part of the plan to straighten Agnes out," returned 
 Mattee Sue, wickedly. " She knows you despise this 
 tie, for you told me so before her, the day I brought it 
 home from town and gave it to you. If you can make 
 her see that a woman a man loves can even induce him 
 to wear a necktie he doesn't like, and no doubt she has 
 heard that that is a stupendous piece of diplomacy, if 
 she sees that, I don't see how she can possibly fail, 
 though unconsciously, to wish to emulate like proceed 
 ings on a subject especially her own. So now, dear, as 
 
 410
 
 The House of Landell 411 
 
 you really don't look half bad, I am sure, that, for 
 Agnes' sake, you will keep it on! " 
 
 Tom tugged inanely at the tie for a second, then 
 weakened and laughed. 
 
 " I declare, Red-bird, you are making a perfect softy 
 out of me/' For an instant there was a sweet silence 
 from which Mattee Sue emerged rapturously happy, 
 remarking critically, 
 
 " Your mouth grows better looking every day. The 
 lips were held too close together before I married you, 
 as if one would have to saw through steel gates to 
 change your will. You see, the position of your mouth 
 in the act of osculation, rounds it, and 
 
 " Here goes for more improvement! " The process 
 was repeated. " Yes, Red-bird, you surely are mak 
 ing me soft! " 
 
 " Oh, no, Tom, I have not even begun on you yet," 
 giving a little final twitch to her radiant scarlet gown. 
 " And now about the men, dear! " 
 
 " Mattee Sue, you're crazy ! " 
 
 " No, indeed ! It's just a part of this plan of mine, 
 for Agnes' sake, to teach her how to objectify, you 
 know ! Just get a good lot of samples for me and I 
 will test them out before her just as I am showing you 
 these." She spread a lot of dress samples before his 
 puzzled gaze. 
 
 " What do you mean ! " jealously " I hope, 
 Mattee Sue, you are not finding my company insuffi 
 cient," 
 
 " Tush and Bimmy Bimkins, you treasure ! " Mat- 
 tee Sue hugged him. " Get me the men and we will see. 
 Agnes is like a child I knew, who found the picture of 
 a donkey in her primer, and when finally she saw a 
 real one, vigorously and with mighty squalls, de 
 nounced it as no donkey, because it didn't seem to her 
 like the paper one. She writes about men, and, in
 
 412 The House of Landell 
 
 manuscript they do as she pleases. Of course, that 
 pleases a woman very much, to have them do just 
 what she wants them to. You don't always get that in 
 real life, except from such darlings as you! " 
 
 Delicately, she adjusted the ugly necktie, hiding the 
 flash of merriment by lowering her radiant eyes to his 
 coat collar. " So, w'en it takes so much trouble and 
 it really does, you know, to find out w'ether real men 
 are good for anything or not, she grows tired of them 
 and goes back to paper dolls. She can shut her paper 
 heroes up in a desk w'en she gets puzzled over their 
 methods. You can't do that to real men. They make 
 such an awful fuss you can't even get the cover down. 
 They are sure to pop up just as you think you are turn 
 ing the key on them. Now if she can see me with them 
 and take them in hand and put them, every one, just 
 w'ere they belong, it will be a very great help." 
 
 " She can gain plenty of information watching us." 
 Again Tom tugged faintly at his necktie, but again re 
 lented. 
 
 " W-oh-w-er-y, possibly so," coolly, " but you don't 
 care, so we save Agnes." 
 
 " Save Agnes, you little tyrant." He hugged Mattee 
 Sue, this time so enthusiastically that her hair tumbled 
 down and she had to do it up again before sparkling 
 into the dining-room with her plumage of the semi- 
 tropical clime adding charm and vitality to the sedate- 
 ness of the somewhat stately household, and leading 
 Tom, with a vivid four-in-hand streaming down the 
 white shirt front of his evening dress. 
 
 " The proverbial monkey on a stick, father," he said 
 grimly, as his entrance was hailed with laughter. " Did 
 mother put you through the tricks and stunts of initia 
 tion when you were first married? " 
 
 " Yes, laddie," laughed Mr. Landell, " and forever 
 since."
 
 The House of Landell 413 
 
 Mattee Sue drew down her father-in-law's head and 
 kissed its silvered crown as she passed to her place. 
 
 " Oh, crown of glory," she whispered softly. " Isn't 
 it, mother!" 
 
 Affectionately she squeezed Mrs. Landell's hand be 
 fore she took her seat. 
 
 " What do you say, mother, to my bringing Dick 
 Brentford to dinner to-morrow night? I saw him the 
 other day in town. He is conducting some experiments 
 that have brought him East for awhile." 
 
 " I wish you would. I miss the young people you 
 and Agnes used to bring about us. Agnes has been 
 altogether too quiet since Alicia is no longer here to 
 give her the zest of companionship. I hope you will 
 inspire her, little bride." 
 
 " I thank you, mother," said Tom with a stiffness 
 Mattee Sue covered by her enthusiastic response. " We 
 must make cotton while the sun shines," she concluded, 
 " for no one knows how soon we shall flit over to 
 Lodesminster to nest." 
 
 Agnes' heart gave a quick throb, followed by sense 
 of darkness and loss. 
 
 " Are you really going away, my little Mattee Sue? " 
 she said sadly. " How I love to speak your name. It 
 fascinated me the first time I saw it in the old brown 
 rhetoric. I shall miss calling it through the halls, for 
 since you have come to us, it seems as if you had 
 always been with us, Mattee Sue ! " 
 
 Mattee Sue laughed gaily. 
 
 " I am ever so much obliged to you for the compli 
 ment and I am glad some one likes that dreadful up- 
 country fashion of fastening two names together. I 
 confess, I don't. It is the bore of my existence. The 
 coast people laugh at us for doing it, though it is con 
 sidered wholly Southern instead of being just a local 
 ism. I want to be called Elizabeth. I love that name ! "
 
 414 The House of Landell 
 
 "My Mona Lise. Isn't that near enough?" said 
 Tom. 
 
 " You will have to dignify me by some other name 
 than that tit-tat-two, if I am to ta'ke any standing as 
 the wife of a scientist! -But really. Agnes, it is not at 
 all settled about our going to Lodesminster. Dr. "\Yehr 
 thinks it will dissociate the children from old associa 
 tions, and be far more to their advantage to have the 
 school here.'' 
 
 " Why not send for Mevin to make us a visit and 
 thrash out the question?" said Mr. Landell. 
 
 Agnes rose quickly and preceded the family to the 
 library, a sweet radiance illumining her face. Mattee 
 Sue, walking on behind her, with her husband, grabbed 
 him by the coat sleeve and, with an excited little gurgle, 
 whispered, 
 
 " I've caught the terrapin for Agnes' stew." 
 
 Then, with a merry attempt at doggerel, she com 
 pleted the sentence softly, in rhyme, 
 
 " And before she knows it, she shall eat it, too."
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 " He who would climb the high white peaks of peace 
 Must first have plumbed pain's nethermost abyss." 
 
 THE look Mattee Sue had discerned on Philip Her 
 man's face was still more noticeable the next evening 
 as, after service, he went into the grove adjoining the 
 house where he and his mother lived. 
 
 Struggling back to life and its actualities, he had 
 descended from the lonely mountain cottage to teach 
 the realities of life to the people of Beneby. With 
 each succeeding moon, the phoenix that rose from the 
 spiritual fire which burned that memorable night at 
 the old church had grown; but he himself felt like a 
 dead thing. He never had been alive since that day 
 he now was recalling for the thousandth time the day 
 when a bit of paper had heralded to him. as it had to 
 the world, his entrance into the ranks of paupers. 
 
 That dreadful day! He remembered lying motion 
 less for hours, while the gnomes of darkness stole over 
 the quiet house, and his mother's eyes flashed from out 
 the gloom like burning coals of fire. He heard the 
 wind rise and fall in the chimney, and a fox scream, 
 as, frightened, it ran near the house on its way to 
 its forest coverts. Clouds scudded across the sky, and 
 with an increasing horror at the thought of facing life 
 with the brand of the beggar on his brow, he watched 
 the ' gray fingers of the dawn clutching at the morning 
 stars.' He could not forget! Nay, he never intended 
 to forget. 
 
 This evening he was living it all again and the 
 grove was his garden of Gethsemane. 
 
 415
 
 4i 6 The House of Landell 
 
 For a thousandth time he recalled himself a fair- 
 haired boy in a home of affluence, of which intelligence 
 was the guiding star; then the years of intense emo 
 tionalism at college when he was laved in a sea of sug 
 gestion. He remembered kneeling for hours in his 
 chamber, contemplating, as the ultimate of spiritual 
 power, the limited conceptions of a man-made spirit. 
 He had dreamed of drawing all men to him, not a 
 few fishermen, but scholars and statesmen. When he 
 had felt himself prepared and equipped with what he 
 considered incontrovertible proofs of truth, he entered 
 the ministry without having gained one glimpse of 
 reality, encompassed with hot imaginings of the brain 
 which he had mistaken oh the pity of it ! for spirit 
 ual vision. 
 
 With a rude awakening, he found himself involved 
 in commercialism less dignified than that of the mar 
 ket. At the meeting places of ministers, white-faced 
 men had plucked him by the sleeve to say with voices 
 quivering with hunger and fear, 
 
 " Speak a word for me, brother, and get me a chance 
 to supply this week. My wife is sick and I have no 
 bread." 
 
 " A travesty on the name," he had exclaimed im 
 patiently as he turned from these hawkers in the temple, 
 believing himself their superior. 
 
 Meanwhile disgust was growing into wrath that the 
 ology and Christ-teaching should be so widely divergent 
 that those speaking the one language could scarce un 
 derstand the other. 
 
 As the money, which to him was but a bauble, had 
 misted away, for the first time he had made a definite 
 move toward the clerical business, as he had come, sar 
 castically, to name it. To his surprise, he had found 
 himself, also, in the group of white-faced men who 
 wait and fear and starve.
 
 The House of Landell 417 
 
 As his dollars had dwindled, his spiritual perceptions 
 became more and more awakened, but still rooted in 
 disgust. As he had looked into the black ooze he 
 thought the grave of his faith, he had found life 
 therein. Stirring toward the light were the seeds of 
 pure religion striking root deep into his experience. 
 Their stems shot up, straight and strong, through tra 
 ditional misconception. He saw their leaves lie full 
 and fair, like lily pads, upon the bosom of research and 
 watched the flowers open to the light. 
 
 The more he thought upon this wonderful creation 
 emerging slowly from human interpretation, the more 
 he withheld himself from any promises that compelled 
 fixation of outward expression of action or of speech. 
 
 So he lived these days, too nearly alert to sink again 
 into his bed of ooze but, for the time, too inhibited by 
 this new revealment to bring flower to fruit within 
 himself. 
 
 When less than a hundred dollars lay between them 
 and absolute penury, he had fallen ill, and when into 
 the infinite spaces his mother called for help, and, 
 out of the infinite spaces, help came, he had re 
 sented it, and had insulted her for summoning it. Even 
 now, the horror of the call stood between them. Every 
 thing heralded his shame, and nothing could stifle the 
 clarion call that he was a pauper. 
 
 Then came Agnes ! Mingled with a fierce hatred of 
 her, was a dumb adoration that, although with crude 
 methods, mayhap, still she had saved him from him 
 self; forced him to the expression of the best within 
 him; urged the correspondence of his noblest thought 
 with his noblest deed, instead of permitting him to 
 check his growth in the nursery of his despair. Yet, 
 even as he thought of her, hatred surged through him, 
 and, silhouetted against the darkening shadows of 
 his mind, venomous spectres moved, pointing their
 
 4i 8 The House of Landell 
 
 poisoned shafts against her, or holding forth robes of 
 influence wherewith to enwrap her with their folds, 
 or suffocating her with the chloroforming anaesthesia 
 of his unkind thought. The panorama of his mind 
 rolled before him as never before. He stood appalled 
 as he saw the forces of his resentment, marshalling like 
 troops, sweeping over a field of battle from out the 
 ambush of his own unkindness, striving to turn into 
 shambles of remorse and heartache and consequent 
 depletion of health and courage the life of the one who 
 had been, whether wise in her methods or not, a sav 
 iour unto him. 
 
 Breathless, he stood before this revelation of what 
 resentment, whether directed or undirected, may mean 
 to the object upon which it falls ! 
 
 He had forced his way on, through mud and ooze, 
 growing towards the light. He had done his best to 
 speak without hypocrisy and give spiritual food to 
 starving hearts. He had lived truth as he knew it, and 
 had refused to quibble with it. But as he saw his mind 
 this night, he was convinced that if a larger revelation 
 did not come to him now, discouragement and shame 
 would kill his message and that he must die with it. 
 
 Strains of Mendelssohn's aria were wafted through 
 the open window of the room where his mother was 
 singing. The exquisite motif, "If with all your hearts 
 ye truly seek him," caught in the meshes of his mind, 
 as a floating gossamer catches on the hair of him who 
 strolls the forest on an autumn day, nor would it 
 disentangle itself. 
 
 " There must be light ! " he said to himself. " I must 
 clear my mind and free my soul from this horrible 
 suffocation of spirit ! " 
 
 The rising breeze stirred the bare branches ; the silver 
 moonlight played into the garden and fell upon his 
 hand like a caress. He noted it vaguely, but as it 
 lingered there insistently, it enmeshed itself in his mind
 
 The House of Landell 419 
 
 as the melody had done. It moved upon his hand, 
 flecked by the undulating boughs. A honey-combed 
 shadow wove its message into that of his mother's voice 
 and recalled her one-time words 
 
 " Not as a steward dispensing food and drink, is the 
 God your consciousness should cherish. He is the 
 Father of your energy; the Unit of your manifesta 
 tion; the Mother of your potency, brooding over the 
 chaos that is being loved and cherished into the mani 
 fested you. Know that your every cell is life. Be 
 still and Know that I Am God." 
 
 " Every cell of my being," he mused, watching the 
 cell-shaped shadow move and change shape upon his 
 hand, " brooding over the chaos which is being born 
 into me, inseparable from all my brothers. Through 
 this Me, shall I learn to deal understandingly with all 
 expressions of life. 7 may be the way, the truth, the 
 life to others if I understand. As I am led, so may 
 I lead others out of disgust and hatred into control, 
 tolerance, endurance and into faith in what they can 
 not, as yet, see. Moment by moment the personal 
 falls away, and I realize that I stand upon eternal 
 verities. External assumption is always disintegrated 
 by the power of internal possession. I have cavilled, 
 repudiated, scorned meekness as lack of assertion ex 
 pressing in paucity and poverty. Instead, it is the 
 strength of unity. The God I have been proclaiming 
 is an effigy of myself ; the liberty I have heralded is the 
 bondage of slaves. From independence I have been 
 thrown into the chains of dependence to be brought 
 into my birthright of interdependence. My evil cir 
 cumstances were created in the chaos of my own un 
 conscious selection; but conscious choice is my inheri 
 tance and henceforth shall be involved in my crea 
 tions. As blood and lungs and heart and life, so are 
 we inseparable God and I. My life has lacked ger-
 
 42O The House of Landell 
 
 minating power, for never, till now, has the soul of my 
 desire expressed above the mental or the emotional. 
 Philip Herman, declare the man you truly are ! " 
 
 With illumination now, he looked upon the little 
 cell-shaped shadow, still moving on his hand. Then 
 he closed his eyes tightly against the rush of burning 
 pain that pierced his eyeballs. 
 
 " Every cell, God ! My Mother ! " He went into 
 the house. 
 
 Mrs. Herman was placing Gaul's " Holy City " upon 
 the piano rack. Philip crossed the room and stood be 
 side her. 
 
 " My Mother ! " he said, after a silence, slowly and 
 with tender reverence, " My Mother ! " 
 
 Mrs. Herman did not speak. She looked at him 
 with love-illumined eyes. 
 
 Philip gathered his mail and left the house. 
 Through the open window, his mother's voice followed 
 him, 
 
 " Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has 
 it entered into the heart of man, the things prepared 
 for them that love Him." 
 
 He strode along the well-trodden footpath of the 
 village common to the railroad station, whose lights 
 twinkled some quarter of a mile away. He held his 
 mail firmly in a hand whose arm swung easily, after 
 the manner of a man seeking thorough exercise. Here 
 tofore, any happiness he experienced had partaken of 
 blind ecstasy. Now it was the heavenly contemplation 
 of one who sees. His pace was rhythmic, instead of 
 unexpectedly swinging out of balance as his mind was 
 swayed by waves of depression or exaltation. The 
 triumph of spirit pervaded his being and his hand 
 kept time to the music of his heart's release. 
 
 Suddenly a peculiar p'st was heard, and the paper 
 extending farthest from his hand was jarred. Look-
 
 The House of Landell 421 
 
 ing down, he saw that its extreme edge had been 
 pierced by a bullet. At the same time he heard boyish 
 giggles behind him. 
 
 " Gee ! " One of the boys approached him as he 
 turned. " I didn't think he could do it ! I've lost five 
 sticks of gum by that shot of his! I bet the wrong 
 way, you see ! " 
 
 " How do you do! " Good-naturedly Mr. Herman 
 greeted the newcomers, aged, respectively, from ten to 
 fourteen. " What is that ? Slingshot? Halloo, Hi- 
 Timmy, you here, too ! " 
 
 Hi-Timmy Tidmouse, even with his months and 
 years of tender training, was a seclusive little mortal, 
 and was seldom, of his own choice, with other boys. 
 He did not reply; but his silence passed unnoticed in 
 the chattering of the other two who proudly displayed 
 new parlor rifles. 
 
 Taking one of the weapons, Philip examined it with 
 interest, the boys anxiously awaiting his approval of 
 their newly-acquired treasures. 
 
 " They are fine weapons," he continued, " so fine 
 they are capable of doing a great deal of harm. Which 
 of you made so accurate a shot, Roger, you ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, and I twig lots of robins, too, and almost 
 always get them." 
 
 " You must like to work in your father's garden 
 picking bugs from the vegetables. Probably you 
 wouldn't have to do that, if you boys would let the 
 birds alone." 
 
 " I didn't know that ! " Roger tried to catch step 
 with Philip, while the other two little fellows trotted 
 comfortably along on the other side. " I won't kill 
 any more of them, then." 
 
 " Here we are at the station. I'm glad you caught 
 up with me and very glad that you spared me my hand.
 
 422 The House of Landell 
 
 Be careful with your shooting. I assure you it is un 
 safe. Good night ! " 
 
 He stepped up to the mail car as the green and red 
 signal lights flashed in the frosty air and the train 
 came thundering down the tracks. 
 
 As he stood there, Mr. Landell's car whirled up to 
 the steps, deposited Dr. Brentford, and moved swiftly 
 away. 
 
 " Come on," said the eldest of the boys. " He's 
 awful nice, but I wouldn't believe he'd be such a muff 
 about shooting ! Hi-Timmy, want a try ? It's a shame 
 you haven't one." 
 
 The rifle changed hands, and, in the twinkling of 
 an eye, was primed. 
 
 " I bet you my new football you can't hit the side 
 of that car, oh, gee "-for with the uncanny accuracy 
 often exhibited by the novice, the ball ploughed its way 
 to the bull's-eye, which was the flesh of the man who 
 had just seated himself by an open window of the 
 train. As the train swung round the curve, the boys 
 saw the victim throw up his hands and fall back ; then 
 night concealed the next chapter in the dreadful 
 tragedy. 
 
 "Roger Trowbridge, you've gone and done it!" 
 cried the smallest boy, " You've given your gun to 
 that fellow that don't know how to shoot. He's shot 
 that man and they'll hang us all " 
 
 " Shut up ! " said Roger. The sweat ran from his 
 forehead. " Can't anybody put it on us if you don't 
 peach ! " 
 
 " Us ! I didn't do it ! " sobbed little Jeff Parmelee. 
 
 " We were all together ! " 
 
 " If I'd done it, I'd say so; but I didn't, I didn't, I 
 didn't!" 
 
 "If you tell who did it, you'll get Hi-Timmy hung, 
 then you'll be a murderer, sure enough. They may
 
 The House of Landell 423 
 
 nab us and string us to a telegraph pole. Jeff Parme- 
 lee, you'd better scoot! " and fully as frightened as if 
 the weapon had been in his own hands, Roger Trow- 
 bridge snatched his gun from Hi-Timmy's unresisting 
 hands and ran home. He crept up the back stairs and 
 into bed, where he crouched, under cover, listening with 
 growing horror for the expected mob to burst into the 
 room and drag him to the nearest tree as the papers 
 said it was the custom of mobs to do. 
 
 Jeff Parmelee, being only ten years old, had fled to 
 his mother and was sobbing out the whole terrible 
 story on her loving breast. 
 
 Thus was Hi-Timmy left alone. He had joined the 
 boys, incidentally, on his way to take a tube of paint 
 to Amy Burton. He had earned it that afternoon by 
 blacking Mr. Tom's many pairs of boots, and was 
 taking her a big bag of chocolate drops into the bar 
 gain. Now he stood appalled, crushed in his new 
 found lightness of heart. For an instant, the desire of 
 the wild for flight, almost overpowered him ; then there 
 came the sweet scent of hemlock groves, and Mr. Tom's 
 kind voice as it had said to him long ago, " Stand still, 
 Hi-Timmy, there is a teacher inside of you, that will 
 tell you what to do ! " 
 
 Meanwhile, the car was in an uproar. The train had 
 been stopped and a physician who lived near by sum 
 moned. He hastened to the injured man and bent over 
 him with a professional solicitude which changed into 
 the alarm and distress of a friend, as he saw the face. 
 
 " Dick Brentford ! Old fellow, what does this 
 mean ! " 
 
 " Halloo, Bascombe ! " Brentford looked up through 
 half-shut lids into the eyes of a college chum. Then, 
 in his usual manner, half cynicism, half a cry of 
 searching unto despair, 
 
 " I shall soon know whether changed processes mean
 
 424 The House of Landell 
 
 disintegration with a permanence of idea, or annihila 
 tion " he sank into unconsciousness. 
 
 " This is a quandary ! " mused Bascombe aloud. " It 
 is death to move him far " 
 
 " Our house is across the common. I know my 
 mother would say, ' take him there.' The hospital is 
 too many miles away," said Philip. 
 
 A terrifying thought sped to his mind as he spoke. 
 He recalled the merry little boys so free of evil intent 
 the dare-devil shooting and pictured the desolation 
 of remorse for some heart-broken lad. 
 
 " Yet, where shall blame be placed ! " he sighed. 
 " When human life is held so lightly, and nations call 
 for gold and blood, teaching and compelling men to 
 perpetuate the art of War." 
 
 Mrs. Herman met them at the door. A pallor over 
 spread her face as she saw the man on the litter. 
 
 " Philip, this is the physician who first attended you 
 at Mt. Nodel." 
 
 His attention thus attracted to the past, as in a 
 nebula Philip saw Dick Brentford's face evolving from 
 his mind, creeping slowly, feature by feature from the 
 recesses of a consciousness he would have believed too 
 comatose to register details, but not now received with 
 hatred and disgust as it would have been before the 
 moment of his renunciation. 
 
 " I knew his address once, but it's nickels to nuggets 
 if I can find it," Dr. Bascombe was saying. " It's a 
 fine thing if a man can't sit peaceably in a car without 
 being blown up by fire-eaters ! " 
 
 " Foreign bomb throwers are not the only misdi 
 rected energy abroad," returned Philip thoughtfully. 
 " Much training of well-intentioned human material is 
 necessary before we are safe. I feel sure no evil in 
 tent is back of this accident. While you are attend-
 
 The House of Landell 425 
 
 ing to details here, I will follow up a clue. It will 
 not take me long." 
 
 In a few minutes, his hand upon the door-bell sent a 
 peal of sound into the ears of a frightened lad hidden 
 beneath blankets. Then there came low voices at the 
 foot of the stairs; light footsteps not at all like those 
 of a mob, a gentle tap to which he gave no response, 
 and a reassuring call at the door. A tall figure en 
 tered the room, went to the bed, threw back the clothes, 
 and gathered the terrified and quivering child in kindly 
 arms. 
 
 " Tell me about it, Roger." 
 
 " It's circumstantial evidence, for it's my gun ; but 
 they can't hang me on that, can they? " The boy clung 
 convulsively to Herman, who returned the terrified 
 grip with a comforting embrace. 
 
 " Why circumstantial? Did you fire the shot? " 
 
 "I'll die be fore I'll tell!" 
 
 That was all Philip could win from the frightened 
 lad. 
 
 " I won't peach," he whispered to his pillow, some 
 what soothed, though still in an agony of terror, after 
 Philip had left him in further pursuit of the truth. 
 
 A short time after Dr. Brentford had left the Lan- 
 dells', Tom went to his room. As he entered, he saw 
 what seemed a wad of clothing huddled in a heap upon 
 the floor. It was long since Hi-Timmy had been seen 
 in any such attitude of abasement and at first Tom 
 was nonplussed. As the light was flashed on, the heap 
 moved and a haggard face dissociated itself from the 
 mass. Tom watched it in puzzled silence, until, hav 
 ing reached a standing position, Hi-Timmy spoke. 
 
 " Mr. Tom, you know everything. What is life! ' 
 
 " Life is God moving in us, Timmy." 
 
 " I've killed it ! Tell me what to do ! " 
 
 " You can't kill God. However it may seem to you.
 
 426 The House of Landell 
 
 Sometimes, because our eyes cannot follow the changes 
 we say life has been killed, or that it is dead; but that 
 is not so. Tell me what troubles you. Slowly, now, 
 and I'll help you." 
 
 " If life stays in that man can he die? " 
 
 " What man ? Tell me about it, Timmy ? Whom 
 do you think you have killed? " 
 
 " Tell God that man is alive ! " shivered Timmy in 
 a frenzy. "If God thinks he's alive maybe the man 
 will think so too ! " 
 
 There came a tap at the door. Mr. Herman had 
 come direct from the Trowbridges' to acquaint the 
 Landells of the tragedy. 
 
 Weeks passed. Every day Hi-Timmy went to the 
 Hermans', and stealing into Richard Brentford's cham 
 ber, stood a moment with transfigured face, then softly 
 stole away. 
 
 " It's life there, moving in him because You are in 
 him, God," he said over and over, not in agony of 
 self-condemnation, because Tom had shown him that 
 would avail nothing. The heroism of the child's soul 
 showed luminous against the renunciation of himself 
 and any possible penalty to himself, throughout the 
 whole horrible circumstance. It was the cry of his 
 heart that life should be given to the one against whom, 
 unwittingly, his hand had been directed, life for him, 
 and life more abundantly. 
 
 No one but Tom knew why the boy went daily to 
 the chamber. It was through his kindly offices that 
 the boy went and came unquestioned. Day by day his 
 crude features became refined, the windows of his soul 
 let forth the light that had always been within, ready 
 to enkindle and illumine the manifestation. The 
 thought was thinking through the expression, and a 
 child of beautiful experience was living forth. Study 
 ing the sacredness of life and the right of each soul
 
 The House of Landell 427 
 
 to hold to its chosen embodiment till, of itself, ready 
 to use another, he invoked life in the best form for 
 the man he had injured, and, in so doing, found it more 
 abundantly for himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, for Dr. Bascombe had not put Richard 
 Brentford's name on record, the invalid's personal rela 
 tions to the world remained hidden, and his mentality 
 only now and then peeped sluggishly in and out of its 
 stupor. 
 
 One day, after another fruitless visit to Dr. Bas- 
 combe's office, and a thorough search through the 
 helter-skelter mass of cards the kind-hearted but care 
 less-habited physician threw out for his inspection, 
 Philip returned home. As he entered the sick room, the 
 man on the bed turned heavily and opened unseeing 
 eyes. As they moved vacantly over the room they 
 drifted to Philip's face. A dull light crept into them 
 which grew in intensity until they fixed themselves 
 virulently upon him. 
 
 " Charity ! " he said between his teeth. " There is 
 no such thing! It is every man for himself and anni 
 hilation for us all ! " 
 
 Philip stood looking down at the man who, awak 
 ened to the present, raised himself upon his elbow and 
 continued in tones that seethed with hatred, 
 
 " You priestly hypocrites ! Every trick you teach, 
 pretendedly of the spirit, is wormed out of your desire 
 for personal gain." 
 
 Still Philip looked at him. Not his thought, but his 
 life as to righteousness called to the embittered man 
 to rise from his slough and stand upon his feet. 
 
 " I saw a class of thirty girls, once, with downcast 
 eyes and humility according to book, move sinuously 
 across the room, skirts floppy, like cassocks, and a gas 
 lighter for the Host. They presented the processional 
 to perfection. No train of priests could equal them
 
 428 The House of Landell 
 
 for unctiousness. They looked, every one, like my 
 uncle, even to the raising of their eyes to a heaven 
 (that is not there) on the ictus of the organ stroke 
 and letting them tall with mock humility on the re 
 currence of the rhythm." 
 
 Philip listened silently, but the frenzied man went 
 on, 
 
 " He would deceive St. Peter by his studied sanctity. 
 He has another specialty. He is a thief. What struck 
 me?" 
 
 " A ball from a parlor rifle that a little child was 
 playing with." 
 
 " I bear him only one grudge that he didn't com 
 plete his work. Send for my uncle. He is a scoun 
 drel and I want to tell him so ! " 
 
 The moment of superficial strength had passed. The 
 glaze of unconsciousness stole over his eyes, his head 
 sank to the pillow, and he lay silent; but where to find 
 the uncle, no one knew.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 " We can only obey our own polarity." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 THE horror of the Landells at the accident to their 
 dinner guest and the mystery surrounding his family 
 connections, as well as their sympathy for the Hermans 
 and their liking for the sufferer caused them to keep 
 closely in touch with conditions at the parsonage. 
 
 Meanwhile, Agnes' love for Mevin had become a 
 rare sweet song singing into her life. Although she 
 did not see him and found within herself an almost 
 unsurmountable barrier to forcing or even planning a 
 meeting with him she so often had rebuffed, still, she 
 found comradeship in knowing of his plans, and, in 
 spirit with him, living toward their fruition. In this 
 love, growing in the spirit as rarely as the love of God 
 grows in the heart, she found herself living more 
 largely and more comprehendingly. Where she had 
 seen darkness, he was bringing her light ; where she had 
 felt killing frosts, there was blooming through his love 
 the glory of tropic warmth ; when she looked out to his 
 soul, she found his looking into hers. 
 
 Coming in one day from a walk, filled with vitality 
 and peace, she met Mattee Sue. 
 
 "Have you heard from Dr. Brentford to-day?" 
 asked the little sister. 
 
 " I have not. Do you never forget any one, dear 
 Little Sister ? You carry humanity on your bosom as 
 a wood-nymph bears a daffodil upon her breast, laugh 
 ing as you go, and with an exquisite simplicity that 
 
 429
 
 430 The House of Landell 
 
 makes it seem as if you were but blowing the fluff from 
 the dandelion instead of lifting burdens. Ah, Little 
 Sister, indeed 
 
 ' The great things are so simple 
 The simple are so great ! ' 
 
 and the beauty of it is, with you there are no depres 
 sions in between, 
 
 "Oh, that's because I'm too shallow for life to dig 
 any into me." 
 
 " What is the secret, is it just temperament, or, " 
 Agnes continued. 
 
 " W'y, I just have faith ! " The natural buoyancy 
 of the girlish figure became vitalized with a strength 
 that was splendid. " And if I ever get to a place w'en 
 I don't know w'at to have faith in and can't seem to 
 get to God, I just have faith in faith! I hear Dr. 
 Brentford is worse. If you go there to inquire soon, 
 I'd be so very much obliged if you will take my stylo- 
 graphic pens to the village to be mended. They are 
 out of fix, every one." 
 
 " Out of fix. Red-bird," laughed Tom, entering the 
 room as his wife was speaking, " Out of fix! " 
 
 " W-oh-we-y, I should feel fearfully lonesome in this 
 land of jewelled expression if I couldn't cuddle down 
 into the cradle of some of Maum Kenny's homely say 
 ings," her laughter bubbling bravely through a wave of 
 home-sickness in the midst of the never- failing stateli- 
 ness which surrounded her. 
 
 " I simply couldn't stand it," she whispered to her 
 self, sometimes, " if they didn't show in everything 
 they do that they love me ! " 
 
 " Say it all you please, Red-bird," said Mr. Landell, 
 lovingly. " It's a mighty poor cultivation that makes 
 perfection a bugbear."
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 431 
 
 Mattee Sue jumped from her seat at table and, run 
 ning round to Mr. Landell's place, snuggled her face 
 into his beautiful white hair, as she so often loved 
 to do. 
 
 " Oh, crown of glory," she whispered lovingly. 
 " Not only your wonderful hair, father, but you! 
 Yes," she continued, flitting back to her seat, " I've 
 gummed up every one of those convenient, obstinate 
 pens and had to use a paint brush you left in my room, 
 Agnes, w'en you were working on those gold letters, 
 to write to mauma with. I took your gold stuff and 
 painted ' I love you. Pens all broken but I'm safe! ' 
 on a sheet of paper and sent it. She will be frightened 
 into motion-picture jiggles if she doesn't hear from me 
 every day." 
 
 " Such a message seems far from reassuring," 
 laughed Mrs. Landell, " ' I'm safe! ' Has there been 
 any danger ! " 
 
 " And then telegrams and letters full of impudence, 
 eh, you little bundle of wickedness," interpolated Tom. 
 " Mattee Sue, that letter you sent me is the very worst 
 I ever received ! " 
 
 " I meant it to be! " roguishly, " and w'enever you 
 put X-rays on my proceedings you may expect its 
 brothers and sisters to follow suit! " 
 
 Tom leaned back in his chair despairingly. 
 
 " The king of beasts is no longer monarch in his 
 lair," laughed Mr. Landell, enjoying the repartee, " Lie 
 down, laddie ! " 
 
 "Not I, father!" A bit of choler showed itself 
 through Tom's banter. 
 
 " No, you precious! " Prettily, Mattee Sue tipped 
 her fingers to her lips and whiffed him a kiss across 
 the table. " Father Landell, I shall emulate \\ 'at 
 have seen of this ideal home, and cooperate, father, co 
 operate ! "
 
 432 The House of Landell 
 
 " It's a fearfully bad precedent, leading your par 
 ents to expect to hear from you every day," said Tom, 
 recovering himself. " Now, if they do not hear, they 
 will worry. Make it uncertain from the first, and 
 pretty soon, they won't mind." 
 
 " I shall not adopt that plan with them, as I have be 
 gun the other way." Mattee Sue was indefatigable in 
 finding new material. " But dear, I certainly will re 
 call your advice w'en away from you! " 
 
 " You are the wickedest little witch I ever knew," 
 sighed Tom. " It won't do to give up, for then, surely, 
 I should be the dancing bear led round by the nose; 
 but it takes a lot of will-power not to capitulate a 
 lot of it! Your people don't write to you every day, 
 do they!" 
 
 " W-oh-er-wy, it is not necessary, because they know 
 Sister Agnes has a telescopic eye and can see w'at they 
 are doing. Tell me, Agnes, w'y you haven't been see 
 ing spooks and intelligences since I came. You are 
 certainly disappointing! How do you do it, anyway! 
 I think it is perfectly wonderful, don't you, father ! " 
 Then, insistently, " How do you do it, sister ! " 
 
 " I wish I understood ; then I should never fail." 
 
 " Won't you explain it, father ? You are so very 
 wise, I'm sure you know ! " 
 
 " It is for the same reason that we do not always 
 obtain messages over wireless, Red-bird. Both the 
 sending and receiving stations must be in attune, with 
 no cross currents to interrupt. None can hear who are 
 not attuned. It is very simple, the real unfoldment, 
 the other development is full of doubts and quagmires. 
 It tends to arrest spiritual inspiration; the real holds 
 the organism responsive to what is permanent, within. 
 All things tend for good when directed by the spirit of 
 goodness; but strength, power and ability are imper 
 sonal and, until they have a divine motive behind them,
 
 The House of Landell 433 
 
 they are destructive. In patience one by one the indi 
 vidual gathers up the lines of power until he holds 
 them firmly in his possession." 
 
 " Father," said Tom, " do you not think that clair- 
 audience and clairvoyance are the heritage of the hu 
 man family which in time all will utilize?" 
 
 " I do. Where we place those whose vocabularies 
 are insufficient for their needs, we may place the 
 psychic who cannot demonstrate sequentially. I use 
 the word psychic, not in the sense of spiritual, but as 
 on the plane of phenomena and one of the phases of 
 material demonstration. It is a disintegrating phase, 
 for though it seems to extend to the circumference it 
 disturbs the centre, holding to which, an infinitely large 
 circumference is possible." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " questioned Mattee 
 Sue. 
 
 " A psychic or one who depends on psychic 
 methods for unfoldment, constantly extends eyes and 
 ears of mind toward influences other than the Source. 
 During this process will and reason lie inert. The sub 
 ject for soon he is rightly called this becomes ex 
 posed to external forces of all sorts without the in 
 telligence being awake to its power and right of selec 
 tion. Fortunate for him, if his inherent sense of choice 
 protects him from unspeakable horrors! It is like 
 opening your jewel casket on the highway, little Red- 
 bird, and going away, leaving it to be seized upon by 
 any one who passes by." 
 
 "What is that centre, father?" 
 
 " The same Mind which is in Christ Jesus the Lord." 
 
 " How can we find that Centre? " 
 
 " Spiritual power does not force its way. It is to 
 be discerned only through active desire and aspiration 
 thereof. It retires before listenings and visionings 
 gained through controls or possessions or obsessions.
 
 434 The House of Landell 
 
 At no time is the dependent psychic unfoldment an un 
 failingly reliable source of wisdom." 
 
 " Many consider that the psychic state is due to 
 brain discoordination caused by unequal motion of cell 
 tissues," said Tom. 
 
 " Our expression always manifests energy unequally. 
 To my understanding, this explains why the body is 
 left behind in so-called death. We are not consistently 
 conscious throughout our beings. That is, we have not 
 attained to complete consciousness, which is the 
 
 ' Far-off divine event, 
 Towards which the whole creation moves.' " 
 
 " I have noted," said Agnes, " that generally when 
 I have visions not of soul which strengthen but 
 psychic flashes I am depleted." 
 
 " You become a medium and the manifestation uses 
 your forces. The crossing of telephone wires is a trite 
 but good illustration of the way these forces, undi 
 rected by your Self, may act, even to the defeat of pur 
 pose. Other mentalities or messages cutting in ; wires 
 crossed; getting another message are of the same 
 import, whether in telephonic despatch or in other voic- 
 ings of Wisdom. When, depleted, you vision, your 
 will-forcing methods are not aligned with universal 
 intelligence and you are negatively receptive to all 
 kinds of inundations from persons, conditions and in 
 visibles, bad and good. When, in health and wisdom, 
 you see and know and I assure you, physical health is 
 but one expression thereof it is because, as an adept, 
 you are aligned with, and intelligently receptive to, 
 messages of real spiritual power. Revelations from 
 this source are always reliable because an extension, in 
 sequence, of the reason we glorify. The scroll of the 
 law is unrolled into realms beyond the scope of the 
 mentality. The former condition partakes, in no sense,
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 435 
 
 of the spiritual, because it echoes other and generally 
 conflicting mentalities ; the latter is the natural growth 
 of the pure in heart, who, having entered the kingdom 
 of righteousness, become as a little child and see God." 
 
 " I have tried to be that," said Agnes. " Why, then, 
 have I not been able inherently to select my visions 
 wiselier? See how often I catered to Cousin Matilda's 
 whims, and how nearly I failed Tom ! " She turned 
 white. " Oh, that night ! " she shuddered. " When 
 there came the call of something undefinable, as to un 
 derstanding, but reassuring, as to experience; when 
 something in my mind seemed to link hand with reason, 
 as it were an elder sister, and draw it up into knowl 
 edge of its higher possibilities. I analyzed nothing, 
 then. I resisted till I acted. Now, as I regard the ex 
 perience in the light of its fulfilment, I know I was 
 like one on a mountain, motionless before vistas never 
 to be seen from valleys or plateaus below. The still 
 ness of great heights enclosed me, as, having climbed 
 out of the pitch and tar of indecision, I penetrated 
 spaces beyond the closed doors where that figure lay, 
 far beyond it, to the starting point of that journey of 
 thought that was striving to express itself to me a 
 potent petition in a sea of flame ! " 
 
 She trembled and ceased speaking, then began again. 
 
 "Oh, the fallacy of my reasoning, that the light 
 had to have a cause ; therefore, as I saw no cause, there 
 could be no light ! " 
 
 " I was at fault, Agnes ! " Tom's face grew white, 
 too. " I begged you to be guided only by reason- 
 good advice had it not disdained your transcendent 
 powers because, I could not, myself, follow them 
 from premise to conclusion. I was following law ; but 
 to me, the law stopped at the point I did. I scorned the 
 aid of the soul's imagery living instrument of truth. 
 I needed teaching, and I chose to receive my lesson as
 
 436 The House of Landell 
 
 it was sent to me ! I had time to think, that night, and 
 I thought as never before. Go on, father, answer 
 Agnes in your own way." 
 
 " You have been very zealous," Mr. Landell turned 
 to Agnes, " and perhaps not always patient with pro 
 cesses. Through your emotional intensity, and latterly 
 through your emotional repression, you have been 
 drawn insidiously into listening for direction for 
 leadings. Sometimes, only sometimes, dearest, you 
 have allowed your intelligence to drowse. Thus you 
 have become sensitive to all that impinges from with 
 out the undesirable as well as the desirable. You 
 have realized this, and in fierce desire to hold yourself 
 positive, you have held your mentality before your 
 vision and mirrored that instead of the Infinite. Thus 
 has your mentality confused and blurred the image the 
 soul presents." 
 
 " Indeed, we are pattern-makers in the stillness and 
 the invisible, of what we represent in the temporal! 
 Give me more reasons, as to why I am sometimes right 
 and sometimes wrong." 
 
 " The reason, sweet puzzler, is that your loving ser 
 vice has been the cause of your close touch with the 
 unseen ; but indiscriminate service has opened the door 
 for indiscriminate obsessions." 
 
 " What are spirits, Father Landell ? " 
 
 "' After much thought and experience, I have come 
 to feel and it gives me great peace that they, as 
 well as ourselves, are the power of God, in form. 
 When, what we call the physical body, disappears, 
 through death, the line of action of the soul is not 
 necessarily changed. It works on its chosen lines and 
 uncoils a new embodiment, born of its active desires. 
 It may hold the individuality as long as it chooses, and 
 work where it chooses. If individuality no longer 
 seems vital, the soul may return to the bosom of the
 
 The House of Landell 437 
 
 Great Infinite. It is comparatively easy for some re 
 ceptive organisms, here, to follow this uncoiling to 
 the extent of seeing souls, that, though passed out 
 of this body, still are physically bound. It takes the 
 pure living of the life to enable one, still in the mate 
 rial body, to reach beyond the material and psychic 
 stages of consciousness, to meet those who have passed 
 these stages and find it difficult to return to the slow, 
 heavily vibrating denseness of the physical atmos 
 phere, which is a part of the physical coil of the un 
 folding idea. Still, impressions and messages con 
 stantly make their way to us from them, and some 
 times, a vision of the soul." 
 
 " How have I been so mercifully protected from 
 many of the worst phases of subjectives?" put in 
 Agnes. 
 
 The never-failing current of your thought and will 
 has been, God even though unknown and not under 
 stood, still, God. Your unconscious selection fol 
 lows the trend of your conscious training. Our lives 
 are moulded thoughts. Indecision, doubt, restlessness, 
 questioning of methods after well-considered choice has 
 been made lead to valleys of vision, instead of to 
 mountain tops." 
 
 " How may I assure myself of the wisdom of the 
 mountain tops ? " 
 
 " ' Live so absolutely in the present that your under 
 standing of the present is absolutely perfect,' " he 
 quoted. 
 
 " W'y, Father Landell, mustn't one think of 
 heaven ! " burst forth Mattee Sue, astounded. 
 
 " This is the age of the individual. His ideal state 
 is to be clean, alert, sensitive and keen of vision in the 
 unseen realms of his nature, that he may know the 
 kingdom of heaven that is within."
 
 438 The House of Landell 
 
 " How does Agnes get views of distant places and 
 people ? " 
 
 " Messages are transmitted through the nerves. The 
 highest phenomenal manifestation of which we are in 
 formed, is light; but there is a morally spiritual radia 
 tion, ' too fine in nature, and too intimate in action, 
 for the power of any nerve fibre to transmit.' It acts 
 far above any phenomena of light and its centre is 
 Wisdom which is ' more moving than any motion.' 
 In that Light, behind the light, is the power of energy. 
 Behind that God!"
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 " Thou must build upward to a height beyond 
 thyself. But first, I would have thee, thyself, 
 build with a square foundation, body and soul." 
 
 Nietzche. 
 
 SOON after luncheon, Agnes took Mattee Sue's stylo- 
 graphic pens, together with her own, and started for 
 the village. Her heart was singing with the joy of her 
 father's understanding. 
 
 Before going to Mr. Dennett's, she stopped at the 
 Hermans'. Philip was in the garden mulching bulbs, 
 as indications pointed to a cold spell. 
 
 " I can thank you, to-day, for what you have done 
 for me, Miss Landell," he said, advancing to greet her. 
 " Though the elements within struggled mightily with 
 me, in attaining to the liberty of God, I am achiev 
 ing." 
 
 " I am glad." 
 
 Agnes spoke from out of the depths of her soul's 
 tranquillity. The garden grew gradually very still. In 
 the silence, spiritual enlightenment grew. The cross 
 that had hung in every vision, with herself thereon, 
 faded before her entrance into the kingdom opening. 
 
 In a moment, Philip, still in the light of his trans 
 figuration, replied, 
 
 " It is, after all, so very simple ! It is but to become 
 as a little child ! " 
 
 "That is all," said Agnes, softly, with the child 
 face of Jesus before her, " As a little child." 
 
 439
 
 440 The House of Landell 
 
 There was a silence fraught with benediction for 
 them both. 
 
 " Do you recall the day you said to me ' The church 
 has contained the nucleus of truth these thousands of 
 years. It has enfolded the uses of creative power in 
 the most sacred manner known to the growing under 
 standing of its priests and priestesses.' I could not be 
 lieve it then. I know it now. I realize that just to 
 meet together, in the name of God, is to hold the world 
 to that ideal." 
 
 " Even among those groups where form and cere 
 monial have been most observed, in all the centuries of 
 organized worship, the seeds of truth have been held, 
 protected, nurtured, and sometimes revealed ; light fall 
 ing on it, Holy Spirit of Life brooding over it. Every 
 century of this meeting together in search of life more 
 abundant and the best methods of finding and express 
 ing it, has, though often making use of sense methods, 
 tended, through the dynamic power of the Ideal, to 
 counter-impress the impressions made by sense ideals." 
 
 No weird or excessive enthusiasm colored her ex 
 pression as she spoke, but the simple statement was 
 vitalized with the strength that true impersonalism 
 gives when he who loseth his life finds it in increasing 
 beauty and glory. 
 
 " All this time, the same methods have prevailed 
 meditating in one place at specified seasons, for a 
 length of time, with the mind dwelling at least sup 
 posedly on the coming of the Lord, in whatever 
 form seemed in the hearts of the petitioners, best suited 
 to the needs of the world, and actively thoughtful and 
 intent on finding a working basis for the revelation, 
 specified to meet the growth of each communion, and 
 to evolve a finer conception of what Lord, means." 
 
 " So we all work together, we who are directly on 
 the highest conceivable plane denying passing phases,
 
 The House of Landell 441 
 
 and we who, like Dr. Wehr, see that processes of 
 growth are the strait path to heaven." 
 
 " When assent and dissent are silenced in us, per 
 ception awakes; spiritual truths are cognized and ex 
 pressed with spiritual intent," returned Philip. " The 
 foundations of the church are not rotten, as has been 
 said. They are eternal verities reaching toward the 
 light." He paused a moment, thoughtfully. " Will 
 you go in to see my mother? " 
 
 " I thank you, not to-day. I came to inquire about 
 Dr. Brentford." 
 
 " There seems little change. I wish we had a clue 
 to his people." 
 
 The light of seership illumined Agnes' face. 
 
 " We shall know soon, I am sure." 
 
 " Heigh-o ! " called a woman's voice. Looking up, 
 Agnes saw Grace Jenkins hastening down the street, 
 waving her hand vigorously. 
 
 " Let's go on together," she called loudly as she ap 
 proached. 
 
 Agnes' heart gave a sickening thud as she said to 
 herself, " I can't talk with her, she is so inconsequen 
 tial!" 
 
 " Have you been here all season? " asked Grace, ef 
 fusively. 
 
 " Right here," returned Agnes. 
 
 " How can you stick to one spot, so ! You are posi 
 tively abnormal! I couldn't do it, and, as for being 
 alone, it gives me fits ! I was quarantined for twelve 
 hours, once! I had a rash and the doctor couldn't 
 name it! Such an indignity to put on me when it 
 was only oatmeal. Twelve hours alone! Just think 
 of it!" 
 
 " Isn't dread of that more abnormal than wanting 
 to be alone with God, once in a while? 
 
 "Alone with God! I'd be scared to death if I
 
 442 The House of Landell 
 
 thought I was going to be alone with Him! It does 
 very well to hear about it in the pulpit, but the real 
 thing, boo! Where are you going?" 
 
 " To Mr. Dennett's," said Agnes, patiently. " To 
 get some pens mended." 
 
 " Are all those yours ? You always were a lavish 
 creature ! What were you doing at the Hermans' ? 
 Going to marry the Greek god? " 
 
 " I am not! " There was a wave of thankfulness in 
 her heart at the assurance she felt in her reply. 
 
 "You ought to. You saved his life! You ought 
 to give him yours, now, as a sort of return the way 
 people exchange wedding rings. Besides, the whole 
 country expects it! You 'didn't see half I saw in the 
 papers about that affair though I tried to keep you 
 up with it all about your saving his life and support 
 ing him, and getting him this place to preach, and 
 running a new religion, so as to give him prestige in 
 the country as head of a new faith such a lot of stuff! 
 it was rich! and all the headlines making him the 
 high-monkey-monk and you the Richelieu or the 
 Disraeli what's the name of the play, anyway! 
 You've simply got to marry him. You owe it to your 
 character. Don't you care? You look as if it all 
 had nothing to do with you ! " 
 
 " I suppose it really hasn't," Agnes had a sense of 
 apartness from the situation, which interested her, now, 
 merely as it might a spectator. As never before, it 
 seemed as if things were being done for her. A won 
 derful sense of protection enfolded her. She felt as 
 if the ingredients she had provided for that strange 
 comestible called consequences were being mixed with 
 ingredients with which she had nothing to do; that 
 they were being stirred in with the spices and sweets 
 as well as the gluten grown in the experience grounds 
 of other lives, mixed by the implements of coordina-
 
 The House of Landell 443 
 
 tion and changed by the heat of wisdom into some 
 thing far other than the crude commodities that had 
 been present in the stirring bowl of life at the begin 
 ning. She had her part, oh yes; but it was only a 
 part. The responsibility of the whole world was not 
 hers, and he/ moral accountability was a joyous co 
 operation, not an individual burden. 
 
 She thought all this, while Grace was babbling on, 
 puzzled at her lack of success in teasing Agnes, for 
 merly so easy and enjoyable a pastime. 
 
 " I have it ! " she was saying, " You are going to 
 marry Dicky Brentford! That would be a match 
 nice and peppery, like chutney! '' 
 
 " I am complimented that you consider me capable 
 of interesting so many men." 
 
 " Why didn't they send him to the hospital ! It's 
 so old-fashioned, nowadays, to load oneself with other 
 people's miseries. After he was so mean at Mount 
 Model I'd see him in a moving-picture reel, first ! " 
 
 " The hemorrhages made it dangerous to move him 
 so far, and they have loved to do it that is all I 
 can say." 
 
 " Well, to go back to you! It's no use to think you 
 can love the God in everybody. You can't find Him 
 in most people. You've got to love somebody to death, 
 then be a fool and throw him over and live all the 
 rest of your life without him, and make believe you 
 are thrillingly happy, the way I've done, to know what 
 love is or isn't," she broke off suddenly. " A fool 
 can give advice to a saint. I say don't be a fool and 
 bring yourself down on a level with me through be 
 lieving that love and thinking about love are the same 
 thing. Love isn't a patent fixture to be attached to 
 any machine at pleasure. Love mates you with a man, 
 not an idea! My notions are crude enough, perhaps. 
 but I have learned what I am talking about. Like the
 
 444 The House of Landell 
 
 moaning of that steamer's whistle the day I stood face 
 to face with death, there pulses through my heart, 
 Love, thou art in one heart for me! God be merci 
 ful to me, a fool ! " 
 
 She stopped, then began again, 
 
 " Faugh, Agnes, what you call love is like quack 
 medicine equally unadapted for insanity or measles. 
 I'm in the fool stage and don't know any better than 
 to take my medicine in whole doses; but do you take 
 your own prescription and save yourself torture. 
 Why don't Dickey's people take him off the Hermans' 
 hands?" 
 
 " No one seems to know anything about them 
 but we shall find them soon." 
 
 " Are you as queer as ever ? I believe you have 
 wheels in your head." 
 
 " I notice they keep going." 
 
 " Good, you're improving. It's lots more interesting 
 to be scrappy once in a while. What do you suppose 
 makes Dicky so disagreeable ? " 
 
 " I think he is soul sick ! You know he has thought 
 a good deal, " 
 
 " I don't see a bit of sense in it. Why can't people 
 content themselves thinking like everybody else ! " 
 
 Agnes opened her lips to reply; but closed them 
 without speaking. Finally, " He has known so much 
 of the material side of religion 
 
 " What other kind is there, pray ! How you do 
 make people sprain their brains to keep up with you ! " 
 
 " Perhaps you know something about Dr. Brent 
 ford's family? You saw a good deal of him at the 
 hotel?" 
 
 " La ! I did ask about his people, once, and I did 
 step into a hornet's nest. The experiences were simi 
 lar! What are you doing inside yourself! You will 
 be as nice and chatty as possible, then, suddenly, you
 
 The House of Landell 445 
 
 slam the door of your mind and leave those on the 
 outside to make the best of it! Come, stay with me 
 at the hotel, to-night! " she interrupted herself. " It's 
 dreadfully creepy ! I can't go home with you, because 
 Jack is here, he is apt to be ill rheumatism I 
 wouldn't want to take him to your house. Besides, 
 he's here on business that may keep him out late do 
 come ! " 
 
 A tremor crept into her voice. 
 
 " I shan't let him know you are there, but I shall 
 know it and well, it will help me! There is Jack, 
 now! Heigh-o, Jack, take me home. I don't feel 
 like walking. Don't mention Dick Brentford before 
 him," she whispered hurriedly. " He has never seen 
 him, but for some reason it puts him in a perfect fury 
 even to hear his name." 
 
 Jack Jenkins drove to the curbstone. He was years 
 older than Grace. As Agnes met his eye, she ignored 
 Grace's warning, and with an impulse she did not try 
 to control said, directly, 
 
 " Mr. Jenkins, I want the address of Richard Brent 
 ford's people." 
 
 Jenkins turned ghastly. He eyed her piercingly. 
 
 " You must go elsewhere for information, Miss 
 Landell. It seems inhospitable to leave you here on 
 the curbstone, but the trap has seats for two only." 
 
 " I came out for the walk," returned Agnes, grate 
 ful that she was to be left alone and happy in the sense 
 of tranquillity that, instead of perturbation, was en 
 folding her. 
 
 " ' The sons of God are greater than their business, 
 for He hath not put us in the world so much to do a 
 certain work as to be a certain thing,' " she thought 
 as she went her way. " Intuition should no more be 
 shaken in its balance than should reason." 
 
 Soon after dinner, as Grace had requested, she went
 
 446 The House of Landell 
 
 to the hotel. She was singing to herself something 
 Mrs. Bryce had said to her " You seem to be with 
 us, nowadays." Had she not always been with them 
 or had she been far away in the forest of the abstract, 
 hiding from them all in doubt and distrust of herself? 
 
 She bowed her head to inhale the perfume of some 
 roses Marian Fosby had sent her with these words : 
 
 " I am sending you these roses and you are wonder 
 ing why. It is because I feel you should be compen 
 sated ; for wherever I see you, spring, summer, autumn 
 or winter, there is a shower of apple blossoms." 
 
 This thought gave her strength as she urged her 
 self to be with Grace, and turned her attention from 
 the fact that the wind was rising almost to a hurricane. 
 Snugly protected in the cozy limousine, with windows 
 closed, she did not notice, other than with a sense 
 of protection the soughing of the pines always gave 
 her, that they were almost screaming into the night, 
 in their own rare language, warnings and petitionings 
 alike. The darkness of the hotel oppressed her, but 
 bravely, for Grace's sake, she put all sense of gloom 
 aside, though she could but notice how very different 
 its appearance from that of summer when the lake 
 dimpled and danced in the sunshine. Excepting the 
 L, all was dark. Beneby was a residential town, and, 
 from October to May, rarely were there transient hotel 
 visitors. 
 
 As she entered the room assigned her, next the one 
 occupied by Grace, her gown seemed twitched by un 
 seen hands and faint chucklings followed her startled 
 gaze at the moving fabric. Could she remain here, to 
 night, friendship or no friendship ! 
 
 She swept the impression aside, not with hands of 
 flesh, for these could not avail, but with the power of 
 the divine knowledge that sang, within her, God 1 , Thou 
 art the only power, and dost manifest only in good.
 
 The House of Landell 447 
 
 The air was close and she opened a window. The 
 moaning of the trees sent terror through her by their 
 almost human cries. She was about to close it when, 
 from out the tumult of sounds rang forth, in the har 
 monies of the universe, 
 
 " He bringeth the wind out of His treasuries." 
 
 She found herself glorying in its power, as Grace 
 entered the room hastily. 
 
 " Oh, dearie," and she busied herself in shaking out 
 the furs Agnes had removed, " isn't this the dreariest 
 place! Look at this old carpet and that washstand 
 and see that oil cloth tacked before it, and that dread 
 ful honeycomb spread ! There isn't a soul here, except 
 the family and Jack, what's the matter? for 
 Agnes' face had turned crimson. " I hope you're not 
 falling in love with him. You were embarrassed 
 enough when you met him this afternoon! " 
 
 " Grace, don't be vulgar ! " Agnes exclaimed impa 
 tiently, instantly regretting her outburst; but Grace 
 laughed gleefully, always pleased when she succeeded 
 in ruffling her friend's calm. 
 
 " There is a terrible storm coming up," Agnes con 
 tinued, as a gust of wind sent one or two unfastened 
 blinds banging to and fro. For the first time becom 
 ing conscious of the ferocity of the storm, she opened 
 a window on the north side to close the shutters, but 
 the gale blew in sheets of rain, drenching her out 
 stretched arm. She was compelled to leave it noisily 
 swinging, with rhythmic insistence, while constantly 
 increasing blasts dashed the sleet against the glass. 
 Suddenly, she raised her head and listened attentively. 
 
 " What is that dreadful noise ! " 
 
 Grace sprang up, her face aflame. 
 
 " Jack must have come in ill." Running into her 
 own room she shut the door. 
 
 Left alone, the horrors of the night closed in upon
 
 448 The House of Landell 
 
 Agnes with renewed intensity. Scarcely had her 
 friend disappeared, when other blinds burst, simul 
 taneously, from their fastenings, slamming against the 
 long windows in a large, high-ceiled bay that formed 
 an alcove or son-parlor. The impact shivered the glass, 
 while, rain and wind swept the room in gusty fun,-. 
 catching the unusuallv long white curtains and over- 
 
 o 
 
 draperies, whipping them out their entire length. 
 With a spring, she caught them as they were about to 
 settle upon the lighted gas jet, that without a globe, 
 flared and flickered on the side wall. Even in that 
 second, the nraslin had caught fire and the wind was 
 u Minuting with her to sweep it again upon the lighted 
 
 jet- 
 
 \\ ith one arm she held the mass of surging material 
 and, quiddy turning off the gas, beat at the flames, 
 that had crept but slowly along the doth on account 
 of the drenching it had received from the invading 
 sleet She called Grace. The noise of the storm 
 drowned her voice or Grace was too much occupied to 
 respond She had lost her bearings and had no idea 
 where lay the door through which Grace had made her 
 exit She did not continue the summons for she did 
 not desire the presence of a man either maudlin or 
 crazed with drink. She did not know the way to the 
 caretakers' apartment, and long empty spaces extended 
 between her and aid 
 
 She did not know where to find the bell, or if the 
 room was furnished with one, and she had heard 
 enough about their uselessness, even in the halycon 
 days of summer, to cause her to doubt their efficiency 
 as a help-sunnnoDer, on this tempestuous winter night, 
 at half after eleven o'dock, with all the world in bed. 
 She had no matches, and meanwhile, having released 
 the curtains, these were tossing in the gale, far into the 
 spaces of the dark room, stretching out their lengths,
 
 The House of Landell 449 
 
 then falling, to whip out again, lashing the ceiling, the 
 high walls, dragging down with a startling crash some 
 bric-a-brac upon the mantel, and leaping at all that 
 came within their reach with a rolling, wave-like 
 motion that, to her strained ears, seemed like the beat 
 ing of surges on ocean crags, while the downpour on 
 the tin roof of the tower seemed like the cannonading 
 of hostile hosts. The storm beat into the chamber, 
 and the wind screamed, like a living thing, among the 
 electric wires that hung low outside. 
 
 Trying, in vain, to maintain a hold upon the cur 
 tains, three times she felt her way about the room for 
 matches. On the washstand was a match-safe, but it 
 was empty. Still, with unabated fury, the sleet dashed 
 to the furthest corner of the room. At length her 
 hand touched an electric bell : but, if in working order, 
 no one responded. 
 
 Then she thought of dragging the desk up to the 
 broken windows, after a fashion battening down the 
 curtains by its weight, thereby serving as a shield 
 against the elements. The piece proved sufficiently 
 large to cover the worst part of the breakage, for it was 
 an old-fashioned bookcase and desk, combined. For 
 tunately, it was on rollers. To gain a better purchase 
 upon it, she withdrew one of the drawers below the 
 pigeon-holes. It was the work of a moment to dislodge 
 it, for it was wedged in place by a piece of paper. 
 
 She had succeeded in wheeling the heavy article 
 across the room and was about to push it into its new 
 position, when a sound fell on her ear far transcending 
 all the horrors of that awful night Footsteps were 
 stealthily approaching the window, whose wrecked con 
 dition made it useless in repelling an invasion. In a 
 flash, she pictured the situation of the L where she was 
 lodged. There, in the direction of the sound, was 
 the & iron fire-escape, and the footsteps were coming
 
 450 The House of Landell 
 
 nearer. She stood motionless, the envelope she had 
 taken from the drawer held between her hands, which 
 were pressed against her breast. As these helpless 
 hands were crossed over her heart, impotent against a 
 rapidly materializing danger, she faced the window. 
 The long curtains, straightened out suddenly by the 
 wind, caught and enfolded her. Draped, thus, in white, 
 she stood in the middle of the apartment. 
 
 With every added complication, tranquillity had been 
 gaining a steady victory over terror and now held her 
 balanced, brave and serene, though surrounded by the 
 turbulence of the elements. 
 
 Added to the heightening perils of the night, the 
 groaning of the wires made potent appeal to the imag 
 ination. An arc-light that hung outside, beyond the 
 range of her vision, swung forward, and for an in 
 stant its rays fell full upon her, shrouded as she was, 
 in white. Its glare threw into bold relief the figure of 
 a man approaching the window. With wonder that 
 precluded speech or outcry, she recognized the face of 
 Richard Brentford, who was at death's door at the 
 Hermans' more than a mile away. It was framed, for 
 a moment, before the open space, then a scream rent 
 the air, as the lamp swung back beyond her sight. 
 
 " What is it ! " Grace cried, running from the adjoin 
 ing room, while, with sturdy poundings on the door, 
 the manager and his wife sought entrance. 
 
 " What made you shriek so ! It was the most blood 
 curdling cry I ever heard ! " Grace exclaimed, as, hav 
 ing disentangled herself, Agnes admitted the manager 
 and his wife. 
 
 " I made no outcry," said Agnes, steadily. 
 
 " Yes, you did, and a perfectly awful one." 
 
 " I did not scream. The call came from outside." 
 
 Her eye fell upon her hand, still clasping the paper
 
 The House of Landell 451 
 
 taken from the desk. An intent look came into her 
 face. 
 
 "What is that!" 
 
 Impetuously, Grace seized upon the scrap of paper. 
 
 Tom had once said of her, that, if Grace Jenkins 
 had but one value in life, it was to force issues at a 
 time when others would be ashamed to ask questions. 
 Now, inquisitively, she opened the envelope as if it 
 were her own. 
 
 " It is a letter from Dick Brentford to his uncle, 
 Howard Dunburn, Trenton, New Hampshire," she ex 
 claimed. " Why, this is the room Dr. Brentford al 
 ways has when he comes here ! " 
 
 Not answering this volley of words, Agnes turned to 
 the manager. 
 
 " Will you telegraph to this address, that the recip 
 ient is to come at once to Rev. Philip Herman's in the 
 village, where his nephew lies critically ill. As for 
 the events of this night, I tell you I have just seen 
 Richard Brentford's wraith! " 
 
 In a frenzy of terror Grace screamed and clung con 
 vulsively to her friend. 
 
 " I'm terribly frightened," she sobbed. " Mr. Jen 
 kins hasn't come in yet. We thought we heard him, 
 but it was a mistake. Let us go down-stairs with you, 
 Mr. Winship. I am afraid to stay up here. Won't 
 you go out and hunt for him? I am afraid he is 
 frozen. He told me he was going to the barber's for 
 a shave ! All I could say to persuade him to stay home 
 was no good. I knew it was going to be a blizzard. 
 And to take such a night what does he want to shave 
 his vandyke for, anyway ! " 
 
 Talking garrulously, and clinging desperately to 
 Mrs. Winship's arm, she drew Agnes after her to the 
 living-room of the caretaker, starting at every gust of 
 wind and listening for the step that did not come.
 
 452 The House of Landell 
 
 Late dawn found her alternately watching for him and 
 bemoaning his fate. 
 
 As best she could, Agnes ministered to her frantic 
 friend, listening with earnest, reassuring sympathy to 
 the terrified moans and sobs. 
 
 Morning came and, with it, calm from out the tem 
 pest. 
 
 With the milk train, en route for the city, came 
 Richard Brentford's uncle in response to the telegram 
 of the night. 
 
 Without announcement, Philip and the newcomer 
 entered the sick chamber. The heavy lids of the man 
 upon the bed lifted and eyes dull first with despair and 
 then with hate fell upon them. 
 
 "Howard Dunburn! Come into the open! Thief! 
 Coward ! Where is my father's money ! " 
 
 At the moment his denunciations cut the air, the tele 
 phone outside the door rang sharply, and a voice at the 
 further end, audible to every one in the room, spoke 
 
 " This is Beneby House. We have found Richard 
 Brentford dead on the fire-escape, killed by a live 
 electric wire." 
 
 The man on the bed heard the words. Stunned into 
 silence, his vituperations died upon his lips. A far- 
 sighted look dawned in Mrs. Herman's eyes as she 
 heard the call. 
 
 Mr. Dunburn and Philip joined Dr. Bascombe and 
 the coroner, and together went to the hotel. 
 
 The motor sped under crystal arches, for the trees 
 were encased in sleet, and every twig was traced in 
 filmy beauty against the sky. It was bitterly cold. 
 
 They entered the room Agnes had occupied. Out 
 side the broken window stood the linemen, near a long- 
 shaped mound of ice only just now beginning to melt 
 as the sun peeped round the corner of the building and
 
 The House of Landell 453 
 
 set the cold brilliance asparkle with prismatic colors. 
 Above this curious mound, out of which a face pro 
 truded, a broken electric wire was dangling. The end 
 nearer the window pointed to the crystal mass like a 
 finger of fate holding down the proof of uncanny 
 things. 
 
 At the coroner's word, the icy pall was broken and 
 the inert form lifted from the narrow platform and 
 borne into the room. Seemingly, it was Dr. Brentford, 
 lifeless, but undisfigured by the shaft. 
 
 A half-caught revelation struggled in Philip's eyes. 
 Mr. Dunburn, as in the clutches of a nightmare, stood 
 beside him. 
 
 Grace had been left alone, sleeping, in Mrs. Win- 
 ship's sitting-room. After a while she roused, and, 
 still drugged with slumber, staggered out of the room 
 and up-stairs, with a half -delirious, half-dreaming idea 
 that Jack had returned and was awaiting her. 
 
 Along the hall she sped, and in at the open door 
 one of many that lined the walls, and which she had 
 mistaken as one leading to her room. 
 
 Stretched upon the bed she saw a gruesome thing, 
 out of which all semblance of life had gone. 
 
 For an instant, she halted ; then, crazed into unrea 
 soning activity, she seized it and strove to stir it into 
 action. As the dead weight resisted her efforts, an 
 agonized cry of Jack! penetrated the long halls and 
 died quiveringly upon the air as she sank into uncon 
 sciousness. 
 
 Mr. Dunburn's face was tense and white. Philip's 
 still expressed a vague outreaching for an illusive truth. 
 
 Tom had been sent for and, with the permission of 
 the coroner, entered the death chamber. 
 
 An intense look of mystification clouded his eyes 
 as he looked at the corpse.
 
 454 The House of Landell 
 
 " It is Jack Jenkins! " he said, his voice hushed be 
 fore the tragedy confronting him. 
 
 " The man I saw," Agnes' voice was equally 
 hushed but thoroughly assured, " was Richard Brent 
 ford." 
 
 " Let us see if his pockets give up any secrets," said 
 the coroner. 
 
 In a moment a few papers lay in his hands. He un 
 folded one of them. 
 
 " ' I, Luella Herschal, being of sound and disposing 
 mind,' " he read, " And here is another one a copy 
 no, not a copy " He picked up some slips of paper 
 " Some one has been practising reproducing the sig 
 nature is it possible that we have a forgery case in 
 our hands? " 
 
 " Let me look at the papers," said Tom. " Agnes, 
 the matters of your Aunt Luella's will and the one eye 
 in the two wells are explained. This will, leaving the 
 property to him, is a forgery by his own hand! The 
 property is yours, as she promised." 
 
 " The man I saw last night was Richard Brentford," 
 insisted Agnes. 
 
 Mr. Dunburn's strong jaw quivered ; then he spoke. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I recognize in this man Richard Brent 
 ford, senior, the husband of my sister who died years 
 ago, and the father of the Richard Brentford who lies 
 ill at your house, Mr. Herman. He was reported killed 
 in a wreck on the S. and L. railroad years ago. I am 
 sure I have made no mistake." 
 
 While he was speaking, light was growing in Philip's 
 mind and reflecting in his eyes. 
 
 " I see in him, too, the manager of my father's estate, 
 the man who upon his death absconded with 
 large funds and left us penniless." 
 
 Light also was growing in Agnes' mind, as she 
 added her testimony to the chain that was winding
 
 The House of Landell 455 
 
 about the man whom death was not protecting but re 
 vealing. 
 
 " When I spoke to him yesterday, in a way I some 
 times have of seeing, as already consummated, events 
 ' that cast shadows before,' he believed himself dis 
 covered. He shaved his vandyke, preparatory to 
 escape, and tried to reach Grace by way of the fire 
 staircase, to evade those who might see him had he 
 entered by the office door. Without his beard, he and 
 his son look exactly alike. The arc-light defeated his 
 purpose and he is here ! " 
 
 She ceased speaking. There was silence. 
 
 " I know," said Philip's mother as they entered the 
 Herman house, " it is Richard Brentford's father and 
 your father's manager. I recognized the likeness as 
 the son lay unconscious. Other incidents have veri 
 fied the relationship." 
 
 With fierce intensity, and wholly shaken out of the 
 stuporous lethargy of preceding weeks, Dick Brent 
 ford had lain awaiting the return of his uncle from 
 the errand on which he had been called. Hearing 
 voices, he called loudly, 
 
 " Come up here, thief, scoundrel, and give me my 
 father's money." 
 
 Appealingly, Mr. Dunburn looked at Dr. Bascombe. 
 
 " I have kept this from him all his life ! What shall 
 I do ! It will kill him to know ! " 
 
 " It will craze him not to know ! He is inoculated 
 with hatred. Tell him every detail and see if it will 
 not prove the antidote. Compelling faith may save 
 his reason. Dick," he turned to the bed, " your uncle 
 is going to talk with you. I ask you to listen quietly." 
 
 Simply the uncle told of the day when Richard 
 Brentford, the elder, had taken advantage of his re 
 ported death to escape conviction for crime; how he 
 had left mother and baby boy absolutely penniless and
 
 456 The House of Landell 
 
 unprovided for; how he the uncle had assumed the 
 responsibility and, though with meagre salary, had 
 lavished love and luxury upon the two he loved, him 
 self giving up the dream and love of a lifetime because 
 he could not support a wife and this sister and nephew 
 thrown upon his mercies; how the mother had died 
 and the nephew had viewed him with a virulent hatred 
 he would not attempt to explain away because it would 
 necessitate confession to the son of the father's ill- 
 doing. How now, circumstance had proven stronger 
 than his love and not only the son, but the world must 
 know the dead man as he really was. 
 
 " A lifetime of venom visited on such a man," gasped 
 Brentford. Tears welled up where the white heat of 
 passion had burned, and cooled the crazed brain that 
 had been hate-sick for many years. 
 
 He put out his hand like a little child, groping for 
 his uncle's. 
 
 " Charity ! The world is full of it, but because I 
 had none in me, I could not recognize it anywhere. 
 The very breath I draw, I owe to it. The blood still 
 flows in my veins because of it. Let me die! Bury 
 me with my father a worthy pair in a single grave." 
 
 " Love makes men to live and not to die, and Dick, 
 I love you." 
 
 Alexander Steny had come in for his daily moment 
 of loving and heard Mr. Dunburn's words. His violin, 
 mended by his own exertions, was in his hand. 
 
 " Mr. Dick is getting well, Mr. Tom," he whispered 
 happily, his own face refined to the texture befitting a 
 living soul. " I know, for I've sounded love about him. 
 The violin-maker keeps saying that love shapes you 
 into music that you sing into your life, and music holds 
 you together in God. He explains it to me by sounding 
 notes and gets beautiful shapes of flowers and things 
 and that helps me to understand how God holds my
 
 The House of Landell 
 
 457 
 
 life together and how I can sound the right notes and 
 make a song of what I do, instead of a jumble of 
 noises. Mr. Tom," he looked confidingly into his 
 big friend's face as the two left the house together and 
 he trudged along beside Tom on the slippery road, 
 happily hugging his violin, " I'd never have known, 
 without the awful fright of thinking I had killed Dr. 
 Brentford, and what I've learned to know, through 
 helping to love him back, what loving means. Why, 
 Mr. Tom, I'd have been split to pieces if it hadn't been 
 for you and Dr. Wehr and the rest, loving me into 
 holding together and living." 
 
 Tom left Hi-Timmy at the turn of the road to go 
 back to the hotel where Agnes still remained with 
 Grace. She had refused to go to the Landells' and had 
 fallen into a heavy slumber. 
 
 The brother and sister went into the chamber where 
 the body lay. 
 
 As they stood there, Agnes' face gave strong reply 
 to some unseen demand upon her. 
 
 "No, Jack Jenkins," she said with kindly decision, 
 " You must cease calling upon mine or any other or 
 ganism than your own, for the perpetration of your 
 actions. Construct and use your own embodiment for 
 what you will to do." 
 
 Tom watched his sister, their minds, as never be 
 fore, coming together in the only real meeting place, 
 the presence of the Most High. Agnes felt peace and 
 knowledge; but she did not speak. She looked at the 
 keen intellectual face of her brother. It was trans 
 figured with a quality never before apparent. A soft 
 white light glowed between them. 
 
 " What is it ? " she whispered finally, knowing the 
 answer before he spoke. 
 
 Tom raised his head. Spiritual insight lay in the 
 manger of his eyes.
 
 458 The House of Landell 
 
 " The heavens are opening to me." The deepening 
 sense of his perception sounded through his tones. 
 " In Conscious Reality, I am seeing the unseen. I 
 find pure souls, Alicia and the others, leading him, 
 'who would obsess you, away from you to his own 
 place, there to learn the lesson of the individual."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Events pass; but the quality of joy is in you and 
 remains with you. 
 
 ALL this beautiful morning, Agnes had been busy 
 with her manuscript, formulating for her heroine, 
 Sophia, the revelation that was coming to her her 
 soul's conviction of the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 The next afternoon, with a sense of breadth she 
 never before had experienced, she went for a long 
 walk. In her was no quality of struggle. Within her 
 sang the thought, " As soon as striving ceases, the 
 fruition of trust begins." 
 
 Meanwhile, Mattee Sue was in excited conclave with 
 Tom. 
 
 " This is all tush and Biffy Bimkins," she was say 
 ing in her prettily emphatic way, " I saw Agnes go 
 down the street just now, as if she were Simon Sty- 
 lites." 
 
 " He sat on a post, according to my recollection. 
 Agnes was walking. Trace the resemblance for me, 
 that's right, say W-oh-w-er-y, or whatever it is you say 
 it is never exactly the same twice. The girls North 
 fill in the pauses with an oh-er all the dif, in softly 
 insinuating, fascinating witchery, between the first 
 automobile and a Nineteen Eighteen model." 
 
 " None of you seem to have the slightest idea how 
 to tow a man within ten leagues of her, and she is as 
 stationary as the rest of you. Every time Mr. Mevin 
 says he is coming out here, you take it for granted he 
 wants to talk about your abnormal children instead of 
 
 459
 
 460 The House of Landell 
 
 seeing that blessed sister of yours. You always say 
 you will go up there! If he says he can come here 
 better, you say you will be running through New York 
 and save him the trouble. I never saw such stupid 
 self-centredness! Don't you know he is dying to get 
 down here and finds it difficult after so long a time to 
 rush here fust so and you keep choking him off ! " 
 
 " Jupiter ! " said Tom, astounded. " Is that the way 
 you play us ! It didn't need any one to tow me to you. 
 When I got good and ready, I just went! " 
 
 Mattee Sue pulled his necktie into place with a fasci 
 natingly mock-serious air. 
 
 " Is that possible ! Did you ever hear of the flounder 
 and how it is born with eyes on each side of its head, 
 w'ere eyes are supposed to be, and how, when half 
 grown, the eye near the bottom follows the light, until, 
 when it becomes an old lady or gentleman, one, it 
 has two eyes on the top w'ere they are needed? It is 
 to be hoped your second eye will be on top after a 
 while." 
 
 " What do you mean, impudence ! " 
 
 " You came w'en you were good and ready, did you ! 
 Never thought, I suppose, that but for Agnes' love 
 for you, and blessed Tommy Tompkins, ' who sat 
 right beside me,' we might still have been discussing 
 bones and colored charts on paper! Not towed! My 
 precious lamb ! Most of you men are towed, and the 
 smartest tower is the one who best conceals the tow- 
 line and makes lammie think he has trotted w'ere he 
 pleases. I may mix my animals sometimes it is a 
 mule on the end of the towline but I did not wish to 
 sound personal ! " 
 
 " Why don't you sound your medial H's instead? " 
 retaliated Tom, much amused and somewhat enlight 
 ened. 
 
 " To feed Yankee curiosity," she returned spicily.
 
 The House of Landell 461 
 
 " Can one ever get ahead of you ? " sighed Tom. " I 
 don't recall that the rest of your family drop them 
 oh, yes, your father." 
 
 " It gives me more time and strength to push on 
 Agnes' love affairs. It takes a great deal of strength 
 to blow out a big w'istle of breath in the middle of a 
 word. I couldn't say half so much if I stopped to 
 smile and bow at every H I met. We all need lots 
 of help, don't we, sweetheart! Think w'at-ooh what! 
 wouldn't have become of us, but for the weird ways 
 of Genung's Rhetoric! " 
 
 Tom laughed, hugged his rhetoric queen, and went 
 whistling down the road. In a short time, Mattee Sue 
 stole from the room and slyly dropped a letter into the 
 mail box at the gate, returning with the expression of 
 a victorious cupid. 
 
 Meanwhile, Agnes had reached the pine- fringed ave 
 nue leading to the hotel. She swung easily up the steep 
 ascent, singing in her heart. 
 
 " I have faith that in the beginning, 
 
 When life was given us all, 
 It was planned that sooner or later, 
 
 Our hearts should answer the call, 
 That prescient voice of the spirit, 
 
 That, spite of sea or zone, 
 Sometime, across the silence, 
 
 Gives to us, each, our own." 
 
 She lingered to peel a bit of black birch from the 
 tree that had stood there since she was a little girl. 
 Everything filled her with sweet refreshment as she 
 felt as never before that things were being done for 
 her and there flowed " through her restlessness, His 
 
 rest." 
 
 Clouds were piling up, black and ragged, and the sun 
 was setting the edges of the masses aflame with light.
 
 462 The House of Landell 
 
 As she watched the scene, there flashed from one of the 
 darkest clouds a cross of lightning. It poised, for an 
 instant, then disappeared. 
 
 Her face was radiant as she absorbed the beauty. 
 
 " Never, anywhere, have I beheld such cloud effects 
 as about this little New England lake. That cross of 
 St. Constantine's is a rare sight, I am told as rare, 
 perhaps, as is the translation of its message to the 
 human heart. Self-sacrifice," she mused, " in the sense 
 of breaking our integrity on the cross-breedings of 
 ignorance; crucifixion, in the sense of nailing our 
 selves with the beliefs of sex-intelligence, or of emotive 
 feelings of low order, because those about us may com 
 prehend no other kind; the nails of sentimentalism, 
 race and ancestor worship, tradition I am beginning 
 to see that self-sacrifice is not this. It is holy doing. I 
 am learning to see through the medium of manifested 
 things, not to rest in it." 
 
 Sweet-toned and perfectly-tuned chimes rang out 
 from the tower of a church near-by. Her heart re 
 sponded to the call. Walking down the street, she 
 entered the building. 
 
 The cool, deep recesses stirred her strangely. The 
 afternoon sun caused shadows of the waving ivy to 
 move in delicate tracery upon the walls and floor. The 
 air wafted in the sweetness of flowers and the singing 
 of birds. Not more than twenty were present. She 
 felt alone, and, bowing her head, 
 
 " I thank Thee for thy gift of Wisdom, dear God," 
 she whispered. 
 
 She raised her head. 
 
 The deep tones of the organ were wakened by a 
 tender hand. The strains of the processional sounded 
 in the distant precincts; the surpliced choristers swept 
 up the aisle in swaying waves of black and white. 
 
 The music ceased. The service proceeded. Yet no
 
 The House of Landell 463 
 
 message other than of abstract good had come to her. 
 Within her heart she registered a vow. 
 
 " Like Jacob I will wrestle with Thee, Oh God. I 
 will not let Thee go! In the first words read I shall 
 find my guidance! " 
 
 The rector stepped into the desk. Over Agnes' heart 
 came a deep calm. Through the silence, mingling its 
 music with the songs of birds, the whispering of leaves, 
 and the changing shadows of the waning Sunday af 
 ternoon, his voice came to her attentive, willing heart, 
 clear, definite and strong, 
 
 " For marriage is honorable unto the Lord." 
 
 A feeling of astounclment swept through her a 
 question as to how to reach the fulfilment she had 
 declared. 
 
 " Go on in steady assurance," sounded through her 
 being, " ' Make this forenoon sublime, this afternoon 
 a psalm, this night a prayer.' ' 
 
 The sunset grew intensely red. The atmosphere 
 changed. Evening had come on. The peace grew 
 upon her. Contending voices ceased. She heard no 
 argument, no answer, no phenomenon, no symbol. She 
 knew she was in Light. 
 
 " And give you peace, Amen," closed the bene 
 diction, and Agnes passed into the crimson-heralded 
 night with the new moon set as a beacon in the sky.
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 " / saw God in His Glory passing near me, 
 And bowed my head in worship." 
 
 Ross MEVIN sat in his study, his eyes on the clouds, 
 his heart on Agnes. Never had he attempted or even 
 desired to hasten the unfolding of her love. He knew 
 that when it blossomed, as he always had been sure 
 it would, it would be a flower of eternal blooming. 
 He had felt it opening toward the sun of his desire, 
 and to-day was internally assured there was no longer 
 need for waiting. Constantly, during these past days, 
 he had felt the support of her inspiration accompanying 
 his executive toward accomplishment. Already they 
 had become one in ideals, one in appreciation, one in 
 faith, and one in understanding. No longer should 
 she deny him the right of wooing or herself of being 
 wooed. Love is an abstract quality in the hurtling 
 world ; but it is no abstract thing between one man and 
 one woman! It is life! It lives anew in every pres 
 sure of the hand, every kiss upon rose-leaf lips, the 
 touch of an escaping lock of hair! He and she had 
 found the same tongue. They could commune in soul ! 
 
 A figure formed in the fleecy clouds. He dreamed 
 that it was Agnes, standing waiting, poised against the 
 blue. Another bit of fleece detached from the mass of 
 cloud and joined the first. In his happy reverie he 
 saw this as himself, and together they floated away in 
 the path of the sun, across the blue, into the sweet 
 spring night, with the new moon set as a beacon in the 
 sky. 
 
 464
 
 The House of Landell 465 
 
 On the wings of twilight, a special delivery letter 
 was brought to his door. He opened it in the violet 
 gloaming and read, 
 
 "My dear Mr. Mevin, I am becoming secretary, for the mo 
 ment, for Mr. Landell. A personal conference will be so very 
 much more satisfactory than letters, and as plans include me, 
 would it be very much trouble for you to come to us at your 
 convenience, to-morrow ? " 
 
 MATTIK SUK LANDEI.L. 
 
 An instant, and his hand was on the receiver of the 
 telephone. 
 
 (< Will you send a telegram to this address," he 
 called, " I shall reach Beneby by the twelve M. train. 
 Ross Mevin." 
 
 " I declare, Agnes," said Mattee Sue, late the next 
 forenoon, with an excited little tremor in her voice, 
 " I didn't give the dressmaker any sample for my 
 velvet. Would you be such a dear as to drive to the 
 station with it ? She goes to town on the twelve train 
 the one that comes down from Worcester at that 
 time. I would thank you so very, very much. The 
 trap and Jetty are right there at the door, I see, and 
 you can just catch the train, if you hurry." 
 
 Agnes acquiesced. Patting her favorite horse, to 
 which she clung affectionately, 'despite the fascinations 
 of motor-cars, she drove away, while Mattee Sue 
 squeezed a tear from her eyes and turned and hugged 
 Tom, who, just then, came up the steps. 
 
 " Oh, Tom," she whispered, cuddling close to him, 
 " I prayed so hard, and so long, that I nearly let her 
 lose the train after all ! " 
 
 " What are you talking about, you wonderful little 
 wood-thrush singing sweetness into everybody's life? " 
 and Tom hugged her three times in response to her 
 once.
 
 466 The House of Landell 
 
 " I never meant to tell ! Wait, just a very few min 
 utes and you will see!" 
 
 So it was that Agnes met Mevin at the station. He 
 came toward her and took his seat beside her. 
 
 Agnes gave a sign to the fleet horse that sent her 
 trotting down the road. Plainly pulsing through the 
 rein, Jetty could feel the joy of her mistress' heart, as 
 she realized that the love she had persistently ignored 
 was near her, breathing its holy ecstasy upon her. The 
 assurance of the love she had repelled came to her now 
 in the light of a benison an untwining of meshes she 
 had feared, a leading out of mazes in which she had 
 been losing her way out into the open of the liberty 
 of God. 
 
 Every turn of the carriage wheels brought to her, 
 as an undercurrent of accompaniment, 
 
 " That prescient voice of the spirit, 
 
 That, spite of sea or zone, 
 Sometime, across the silence, 
 Brings to us, each, our own." 
 
 The speed of their going was not conducive to 
 speech, and neither wished to interrupt, by words, the 
 singing in their hearts. 
 
 Agnes' spirit radiated till the aura of her joy was 
 as tangible as that of a rose petal freshly unfolded 
 from the heart of the mother rose. Her atmosphere 
 was that belonging only to those who recognize in their 
 every moment, in the visible sense world, the invisible 
 life of the larger real whose power is supremacy of 
 the soul. Her eyes sparkled. The glow of health, 
 having come, daily, more permanently and actually 
 into her cheeks, flushed her clear skin. The poise of 
 her body was balanced before the great glad truth that 
 the liberty of God, as well as through silence and
 
 The House of Landell 467 
 
 solitude, comes through human loves and companion 
 ships, and, through the inherent right of individual 
 choice and selection, brings to each his own. 
 
 Mevin, too, his soul with hers, saw the sparkle of the 
 eye, the freshness of the exquisite skin, the touch of 
 the virile hand upon the reins; realized the growing 
 health and balance of this woman beside him; recog 
 nized the beauty of the temple as he recognized the 
 supremacy of the soul that interpenetrated it, and faced 
 this supreme moment of his life, not with the hysterical 
 adoration of sense feeling the world so often knows as 
 all there is of love, and which, a while ago, would 
 have been his own limited conception. At this moment 
 of his initiation, there was with him a deep rest, se 
 renity, and power. It was as if the desires of his 
 senses, far from being repressed or killed, had unfolded 
 into something so infinitely more wonderful that he 
 felt as if he had entered upon a world of potent proba 
 bilities in which her soul was winging her way with 
 his in the accomplishment of something ineffable and 
 never-ending. 
 
 Agnes did not drive to the main entrance of the 
 house, but turned, instead, into what was called the 
 lower road an avenue some mile and a half in length, 
 reaching the house through the park drive that homed 
 great hemlocks by the hundreds with here and there a 
 colony of beeches. 
 
 Until then, there had been no sound save the click, 
 click, of Jetty's feet upon the roadway, and the throb, 
 throb, of the spirit of life in all about. 
 
 As she turned in at the entrance, the steady impact 
 of the little steel-shod hoofs changed the quality of 
 their rhythmic sound, and fell hushed upon the fir 
 needles. 
 
 The great woods had the attitude of listening; the 
 world was full of the stillness that pervades when
 
 468 The House of Landell 
 
 nature poises, awaiting the coming of some great event. 
 
 Then, Agnes released her touch upon the rein and 
 looked at Mevin. There was no coyness, no flickering 
 of the lash. It was the straight look where soul meets 
 soul. 
 
 " Out of the loneliness and waiting I have come into 
 the companionship of your love, Agnes, my own," he 
 whispered, and clasped her in his arms. 
 
 THE END
 
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