Florida Alexander 
 
 A KENTUCKY GIRL 
 
 BY 
 
 ELEANOR TALBOT KINKEAD 
 
 AUTHOR OF " GAINST WIND AND TIDE," " YOUNG GREEK 
 OF KENTUCKY," ETC. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 
 1898
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 BY A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 A. D., 1898
 
 "To Elizabeth" 
 
 9990^1 9 
 
 AJ/C.<A^ \j\JJLf*
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 i 
 
 Upon the fragrant April morning a 
 voice rang out the voice of a woman 
 singing in French a tender, pensive little 
 strain, but throwing into the song a 
 fervor, a profound sadness of interpreta 
 tion such as the simple words and music 
 were never intended to evoke. 
 
 And such a voice ! A warm contralto, 
 sonorous as the tones of a violoncello; 
 a voice to stir the blood and rouse into 
 instant quickening old memories that 
 have slept so long one almost fancies they 
 will never wake ; a voice to tease, and 
 startle, and bewilder, until the brain 
 seems all a-whirl, and the world grows 
 dim and distant and lost in a mist of 
 tears. But though it had been artistic- 
 7
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ally trained, it possessed only drawing- 
 room capabilities, after all is said ; and, 
 in a way, St. John had often heard far 
 better singers, even among amateurs, and 
 forgotten their very names. Yet some 
 thing in that passionate protest caught his 
 ear, just as the ear is always caught at 
 the first signs of genuine emotion. Is it 
 because of a vague but ever-present con 
 sciousness of the universal heritage of 
 sorrow that the heart so quickly responds 
 to a cry of pain? He paused involun 
 tarily beside the iron railing and looked 
 intently toward the stately, white-pillared 
 mansion beyond. 
 
 It was one of the houses he was accus 
 tomed to pass daily on the way to his 
 collegiate duties. Being contemplative, 
 he was inclined to make the most of his 
 opportunities to observe the beautiful 
 things of life, and he needed the oppor 
 tunity only to perceive what a great 
 many other people are apt to overlook. 
 To go down that street, under the 
 maples, implied nothing circuitous, but 
 8
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 he would have been willing to take a con 
 siderable number of extra steps, on the 
 days when he was not especially pressed 
 for time, merely for the sake of the gen 
 erous sense of latitude afforded by the 
 sight of the picturesque old domicile, and 
 for the pleasure of passing the wide, well- 
 kept lawn, whereon the bluegrass flour 
 ished in such luxuriant growth. For 
 this same bluegrass, as well as the deni 
 zens of the famous region of its perfec 
 tion, had become a subject of interesting 
 study to the young Bostonian during his 
 eight months sojourn in Kentucky; and 
 he had found that there was no bluegrass, 
 nor any person, more worthy of regard 
 than the sward his eyes now rested upon 
 and the gentleman to whom it belonged. 
 He appeared a reserved, polished 
 young man of studious aspect and courte 
 ous but formal bearing. Of mere phys 
 ical good looks he possessed, perhaps, 
 rather more than most ; but the charm of 
 his countenance was not revealed until he 
 smiled or spoke. Then his face took on 
 9
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 a certain brilliancy in the flash of white, 
 even teeth against the swart but clear 
 tone of his complexion. Slenderly and 
 athletically built, he was tall, even among 
 Kentuckians; and there was an agree 
 able contrast between his very black hair 
 and deep blue eyes fringed with thick 
 lashes. They were intensely earnest 
 eyes, holding a rare purity in their 
 depths. Perhaps there was about him 
 a hint of austerity also. Above all, 
 added to the marks of a more than 
 ordinarily vigorous mentality, he bore 
 the look of a man that holds always a 
 firm grasp upon himself, the higher 
 ideals of life being kept constantly in 
 view. 
 
 It was the moral significance of this 
 selfmastery, joined with a superior scholar 
 ship, that so strongly recommended him 
 to the trustees of the State College 
 at Lexington, who had offered him the 
 chair of English Literature. Further 
 more, it was thought that he would con 
 fer additional luster upon their institution,
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 seeing that he had already attained con 
 siderable reputation as an author. And 
 the professorship had been accepted ; for 
 Mr. Edward Winthrop St. John was one 
 of that number who have found the writ 
 ing of verse to be, at best, only a staff, 
 and never at any time a crutch that may 
 be relied on. However, he had discov 
 ered that life in this locality was not 
 without interest, especially in the way of 
 affording material for future literary 
 work. 
 
 He had thoroughly familiarized him 
 self with the romantic history of the 
 State ; had thrilled in reading the stories 
 of the hardy pioneers, and longed for the 
 Border Minstrel s pen that he might de 
 scribe their fierce warfare while they 
 wrested the land from the hostile bands 
 that claimed it as their happy hunting 
 ground. Even further than to the Scot 
 tish annals, his imagination had been 
 drawn backward to the old Homeric leg 
 ends, to the heroes of ancient Greece; 
 and in the Nibelungenlied, in Siegfried s
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 adventures with bear and wolf and elk 
 and buffalo, he found a counterpart of 
 their perils with the savage beasts of the 
 dark, untried forests. 
 
 With quickening pulse he had followed 
 them, those brave men and braver wom 
 en, as they fought their way through 
 the wilderness, encountering every hard 
 ship and danger, but holding always to 
 that dearest wish of the Anglo-Saxon 
 heart, the founding of the home. Prov 
 ing them loyal, intrepid, uncorrupted to 
 the last, he had traced the course of this 
 people through the long, heart-wearying 
 struggle for statehood and the dazzling 
 scheme of the Spanish Conspiracy, the rise 
 of the political parties and the Old and 
 the New Court controversy on and on, 
 he had followed them, down to the time 
 of their action in the mournful tragedy of 
 the Civil War, and in it all he had found 
 much to honor and but little to condemn. 
 
 Socially, he had been well received, 
 and no one had offered a more cordial 
 hospitality than Major Ephraim Alexan-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 der, the owner of this delightful old 
 Southern home. But the acquaintance 
 did not include the sorrowful contralto, 
 and for a moment it did not occur to St. 
 John to identify her as a daughter of the 
 house whose return, he knew, was ex 
 pected, and of whom it would have been 
 quite impossible not to hear a great deal. 
 As for that young woman, he had con 
 cluded that she must surely be the pos 
 sessor of a most brilliant and potent per 
 sonality to have impressed herself upon 
 her townspeople in such flattering re 
 membrance. For seldom had he touched 
 upon the rather threadbare theme, the 
 comeliness of Kentucky women, that 
 some one did not instantly exclaim, "Ah, 
 but you have never seen Miss Alexander 
 Florida Alexander; she is beautiful, 
 really beautiful." And it had become 
 with him a matter of interesting consider 
 ation that this unstinted praise so fre 
 quently proceeded from women who, 
 justifiably, as it appeared, might have 
 claimed the golden apple for themselves. 
 13
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Furthermore, occasioned no doubt by 
 the prospect of her return, both her out 
 ward and her inward loveliness had been 
 such a frequent topic of conversation in a 
 certain circle at that time, small wonder 
 it was that the young professor, reason 
 ing logically on the subject, found it dif 
 ficult to reconcile those heart-broken 
 tones with a being whom he had been 
 forced to look upon as altogether blessed. 
 
 However, the question was decided at 
 once. A peevish voice, raised high to 
 drown the singing, cried impatiently in 
 the hall, "Florida, Florida for pity s 
 sake!" There was a break in the music, 
 and then the song came abruptly to an 
 end. 
 
 A moment afterward, a young woman 
 in a green serge gown and small round 
 hat appeared in the doorway. She stood 
 for an instant slowly drawing on her 
 gloves, and looking up the street as if the 
 glory of the bursting buds and blooms 
 had broken newly upon her. 
 
 It was a long, narrow street, with deep, 
 H
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 grassy lawns and houses of varied archi 
 tecture. Maples lined the sidewalk on 
 either side, and these reached forth their 
 arms to each other and formed a cool 
 archway of rustling green through which 
 the sunlight pierced in only occasional 
 rays like the fitful gleam of a spear. 
 There was an odor of locust in the air, 
 and here and there, toward the rear of 
 the buildings, the ground was strewn with 
 a pinkish, feathery fall, when the light 
 wind stirred the fruit-trees. The girl 
 seemed to yield herself to the earth s 
 beauty in a momentary abandonment ; 
 then a preoccupied look crept into her 
 eyes. She came slowly down the long 
 stone pavement, fumbling nervously with 
 the buttons of her glove. 
 
 She was a tall young woman, svelte, 
 but well-rounded in figure, and she 
 walked with a swaying, graceful carriage, 
 a certain proud freedom of step that gave 
 an air of distinction. Beyond this, how 
 ever, St. John thought that there was 
 nothing especially notable in her appear-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ance, in view of all that had been told 
 him. He could see that her face was 
 oval in contour, that she had light brown 
 hair, and dark brown eyes, and a warm 
 glow in her cheeks like the juice of a rip 
 ened pomegranate, her coloring being of 
 the kind that generally attracts ; but for 
 his taste it was a trifle too pronounced. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of the utter un- 
 conventionality of the proceeding and 
 St. John was by no means one prone to 
 disregard the conventionalities he re 
 mained standing just where he had been 
 arrested shortly before by that strange 
 witchery in her voice. Some influence 
 seemed to hold him now against his will. 
 
 But it was not until she had come quite 
 near that he was able to give a name to 
 the odd, unpleasant sensation that pos 
 sessed him, and realized that it was dis 
 appointment vague, shadowy, to be 
 traced to a thin cloud of melancholy, per 
 haps, or regret of something that life, 
 thus far, had never given to him. 
 
 Her face was slightly averted, and it 
 16
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 was evident that she did not see him 
 until her hand had touched the gate. 
 Then, as in a swift bending she leaned 
 above the latch, those bewildering, 
 mournful brown eyes, of which already he 
 had heard so much, were flashed deeply 
 into his, and with a start, a pang of infi 
 nite sadness, he knew why it was that 
 they called her beautiful, and saw that 
 the pathos of her song was also written 
 in her face. 
 
 With a certain grave dignity his hand 
 involuntarily reached toward his hat, and 
 turning, he walked quickly down the 
 quiet, shaded street.
 
 II 
 
 For the most part, the founders of the 
 commonwealth of Kentucky were Pres 
 byterians. 
 
 Of those vigorous Scotch-Irish settlers 
 who, more than a century ago, removed 
 from the Valley of Virginia to the Ken 
 tucky solitudes, none were more honor 
 able than the Alexanders. Shortly after 
 the Revolution, one of the name had 
 penetrated to this land beyond the moun 
 tains, bringing back such accounts of its 
 primeval beauty, the denseness of the 
 magnificent forests, the richness of the 
 soil, and the luxuriance of the vegetation, 
 that, ere long, many of his kinsmen were 
 eager to follow him into this new Para 
 dise, where their desire for landed pos 
 session relic of an older civilization 
 might be gratified to the full. Having 
 18
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 established themselves here, they inter 
 married with other prominent Virginia 
 families, who likewise had been induced 
 to make their homes in this favored re 
 gion. 
 
 The move proved an advantageous one 
 to the Alexanders, for the free life of the 
 wilderness was conducive to health, and 
 their prosperity steadily increased. But, 
 through all the years, their position 
 seemed to rest less upon a certain state- 
 liness, which in time appeared in their 
 surroundings, than upon the solid dignity 
 of a profound religious conviction, the 
 character growing out of an unswerving 
 allegiance to the faith ; so that to-day 
 one could find an excellent example of 
 the courtly graces of the Cavalier com 
 bined with the stern principles of the 
 Scotch-Irish Presbyterian in Major 
 Ephraim Alexander, the oldest, as well 
 as the ablest, representative of this ancient 
 stock. 
 
 At sixty-nine he was a remarkably 
 youthful- looking man. His abundant 
 1 9
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 dark hair, streaked with silver, fell about 
 a brow of singular vigor, and his com 
 manding form was still borne soldierly 
 erect. Something of the fire of other 
 days seemed to lurk in his piercing black 
 eyes; but if one intuitively dreaded the 
 power of his glance when directed against 
 injustice and the evil-worker, this sug 
 gestion of severity was belied by an ex 
 pression of rare sweetness and benevo 
 lence about the sensitive mouth. 
 
 A graduate of old Transylvania Univer 
 sity, and accustomed from his youth to a 
 familiarity with the best literary thought, 
 his early taste for the classics never 
 left him ; and such was his acquaintance 
 with the Greek and the Latin tongues 
 that woe it was to that aspiring young 
 Kentucky orator, fresh from one of the 
 colleges, who dared misquote in his pres 
 ence presuming upon a supposed inac 
 curacy of knowledge regarding the de 
 funct languages on the part of his audi 
 tors. 
 
 Conservative in his judgments, polit-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ically he was a patriot of the order that 
 knows no bias for selfish interests. He 
 had taken an active part in the stirring 
 issues of the Civil War period ; and it is 
 to the deliberation, the wise counsel of 
 such men as he, prior and subsequent to 
 the great contest, rather than to their 
 actual service, that the impartial future 
 historian of Kentucky must give the 
 greater honor. 
 
 But that dark period of internecine 
 strife had long been past. And if cer 
 tain portions of his existence had been 
 tumultuous and wind-swept, he appeared 
 now to have entered the harbor of a se 
 rene and beautiful old age delightful to 
 witness. 
 
 It seemed to Florida that he was 
 strangely unaltered in appearance by the 
 three years. So painful and eventful had 
 been most of that time to her, it was 
 difficult to realize the smooth tranquillity 
 of his even days. How she had longed 
 to see him ! yet always with that touching 
 solicitude that shrinks so pitifully from
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the marks of feebleness and decay upon 
 one beloved. But when, with his old- 
 time courtesy, he rose to greet her on the 
 evening of her return, something some 
 thing in the gentle tones of his voice, 
 perhaps brought back a piercing re 
 minder. The old wound in her heart, 
 which time seemed wholly inadequate to 
 heal, was opened anew. Suddenly the 
 light of her childhood had gathered about 
 her; a mist had sprung into her eyes. 
 
 And again they were living quite alone 
 together in the old house just her father 
 and herself in such companionship as 
 she knew could never more return. She 
 could see herself as she appeared in those 
 days a slender, earnest little creature, 
 with wide, wistful brown eyes, and long, 
 unruly hair falling about her face now 
 flitting restlessly from room to room, 
 now sitting demure and important oppo 
 site her father at table, or climbing up on 
 the rounds of his chair to receive the 
 good-night kiss. And those had been 
 such pleasant days, hallowed as they were
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 by shadowy recollections of the beautiful 
 mother who had faded so strangely out 
 of her life, and of the little dead brothers 
 and sisters whose voices she often seemed 
 to hear calling to her at her play, or when 
 alone in the quiet nursery. Then that 
 crushing, agonizing moment when it first 
 broke upon her childish consciousness 
 that everything was to be changed! 
 There was to be a new mother, whom 
 she was told that she must love. On the 
 night after this announcement they 
 searched for her long and in vain. And 
 when in the murky morning light she re 
 turned, the dank cemetery leaves cling 
 ing to her garments, there was that writ 
 ten in her countenance which never left it 
 in all the years to come. She remem 
 bered that they had said then: "She is 
 so young a mere child ; she will surely 
 get over it." But she alone knew that 
 she never would get over it. 
 
 And so it had come about that her 
 home-coming was always more or less 
 painful, and this last home-coming was 
 23
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 especially painful because of many 
 things. She had lived on a kind of 
 breathless tension for much of the past 
 three years ; and she had deeply suffered 
 as every one must suffer whose existence 
 has been in any degree a yielding to an 
 impulse of nature in indifference to the 
 law of conscience. Life had seemed all 
 at once to break upon her with such 
 overwhelming force. The current had 
 been so swift and strong, at first she had 
 been exhilarated ; then bewildered and 
 baffled and terrified with dread. 
 
 On the morning after her return, 
 Florida sat long in one of the deep chairs 
 in her pretty bedchamber. In some of 
 the rooms her stepmother had seen fit to 
 make certain alterations; but this little 
 nook had been left unchanged. Every 
 thing was startlingly familiar; the same 
 small white bed with its muslin hangings, 
 the same pictures in their old places, the 
 same airy furniture, and cool chintz, and 
 wild roses on the walls. Once it had 
 been her mother s room ; and though 
 24
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Florida could recall only a few incidents 
 to mark the association, in some dim, 
 devotional way she had always felt that 
 here a kindly spirit hovered near the 
 spirit of the long-dead mother of whom 
 the girl thought so often and so tenderly, 
 and of whom in reality she knew so lit 
 tle. But it had been told her that her 
 mother the home of whose people had 
 been in the far South, the family having 
 removed to Kentucky at a much later 
 period than the Alexanders was of 
 French descent. Florida herself seldom 
 spoke the name. There was an exquisite 
 ivory miniature, set in pearls. She rose 
 and took it from its case, and looked for 
 some time upon the lovely features. It 
 was a willful little face, gay and debonair, 
 yet womanly and sweet withal. 
 
 As she returned it to its enclosure and 
 placed it for safe-keeping in a secret 
 drawer in her desk, her eye was caught 
 by a book hid carefully away in the far 
 thest corner. She reached forth a hand 
 to it, and as her glance fell upon the 
 25
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 cover an amused expression crept into 
 her eyes. Her journal! What girlish 
 rhapsodies and high-flown moralizations 
 would she find here? With a flickering 
 smile playing about her lips, she carelessly 
 turned the leaves. The last entry had 
 been made nearly five years before. In 
 a clear, strong hand she had written: 
 
 "A dull day. Leaden skies overhead, 
 a sense of depression within. Why why 
 am I always so sad ? But I scarcely know 
 what I want. I wonder if the desires of 
 other people are any more definite. Or 
 is this restlessness common to all human 
 ity? If only I could shake off the feeling 
 of restraint, of incompleteness, the con 
 sciousness that only one half of me is liv 
 ing, while the other half is being slowly 
 starved. 
 
 "But, oh! the great sorrowful, suffer 
 ing world ! And how despicable to think 
 only of one s own happiness or the want 
 of it, which is putting it far more cor 
 rectly in my case. 
 
 "On Wednesday one of my friends is 
 26
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 to be married actually one of my friends. 
 I passed her house this afternoon ; she 
 was standing at the window, and she 
 beckoned to me to come in. She showed 
 me her wedding-gown, a most royal affair 
 of gleaming satin and rare old lace. I 
 could not speak; yet Marie chatted 
 volubly, and was all the time quite cool 
 and unconcerned. 
 
 "I wonder if I shall ever be married? 
 I think I should rather not. But how 
 strange to go to one s grave and never to 
 have known what to some has meant so 
 much." 
 
 And beneath this she had scribbled in 
 pencil, as if half in derision, some lines 
 from "Maud," which were evidently an 
 afterthought : 
 
 "Let the sweet heavens endure, 
 Not close and darken above me 
 
 Before I am quite, quite sure 
 That there is one to love me; 
 
 Then let come what come may 
 To a life that has been so sad, 
 
 I shall have had my day." 
 
 27
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 The book fell from her grasp; she had 
 grown very pale. The folds of her deli 
 cate pink morning gown trembled as they 
 fell about her; she was quivering in every 
 nerve. Her dark eyes grew thrillingly 
 intense, tragically beautiful. She stood 
 a moment, wrapped in deepest medita 
 tion, her hands clasped behind her head. 
 Then, as if shaking off by a mighty effort 
 the thoughts that had come surging in 
 upon her, she turned, walked quickly 
 from the room and down the long stair, 
 and paused beside the library door. A 
 low, musical voice responded to her knock. 
 
 She found her father alone among his 
 books. 
 
 28
 
 Ill 
 
 Florida stood a moment, irresolute, on 
 the threshold. 
 
 The Major was seated in a carved, 
 high-backed chair near the fire, his Homer 
 open before him and a volume of Sir 
 Walter on the table close at hand. There 
 was a look of keen enjoyment upon his 
 fine patrician features, as in martial pomp 
 the old Grecian and Trojan warriors 
 stalked before his fancy. His rare phys 
 ical beauty seemed heightened by the effect 
 of the room s quaint picturesqueness. 
 
 It was a charming room to read in, or 
 to dream in, as one might feel inclined; 
 and it was especially inviting this moist 
 April morning, for a light rain was begin 
 ning to fall, and the cheerful wood fire on 
 the hearth gave a sense of warmth and 
 comfort not elsewhere to be found. The 
 29
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 polished andirons winked in the ruddy 
 glow. An aged setter dozed upon the 
 rug. The firelight gleamed upon massive 
 book-cases filled with the works of de 
 lightful authors, and upon old silver 
 candelabra and rich brocade hangings. 
 Scattered through the room were many 
 interesting relics suggestive of earlier days ; 
 and on the wall there were a number of 
 dim family portraits portraits, most of 
 them, of distinguished officers in the Rev 
 olutionary and the Colonial wars whose 
 eyes seemed to follow the occupant with 
 such stern, persistent accusation that one 
 felt half-disposed to fall on his knees be 
 fore them and make a clean breast of all 
 his sins and shortcomings, vowing there 
 and then to renounce these one and all 
 forever, if only their countenances would 
 in some small degree relax. It is not 
 recorded that they ever did relax, perhaps 
 for the reason that no one ever actually 
 made the confession. It may be doubted 
 that one ever, even though willing, tells 
 everything. However, something at 
 30
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 least approaching a confession rose, like 
 an offering of incense, before them on 
 this particular morning. Florida was in 
 a strange mood. 
 
 "Do I disturb you, papa?" she asked 
 timidly, drawing back, her whole attitude, 
 nevertheless, expressing an appeal. 
 
 Her father looked up quickly from his 
 book, and the warmth of an especial wel 
 come overspread his face. 
 
 "Is it you, my dear? Come right in 
 come right in!" he cried heartily. 
 "No, no, " seeing that she still hesitated, 
 "you do not disturb me." He carefully 
 placed a mark in the place where he had 
 been reading, and pushing back his spec 
 tacles rose with old-time courtliness. 
 
 Florida sat down in a low chair at his 
 side. Her head sank back a little lan 
 guidly against the silken cushion. The 
 firelight deepened the color of her gown 
 to a rosier tint. "How nice and warm 
 you are here, papa. And the dear old 
 room!" she exclaimed softly. 
 
 Her eyes swept the apartment with a
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 slow, caressing gaze. Presently she 
 leaned toward the book he had just laid 
 aside. "May I see where you were?" 
 she asked, brightening at the sight of the 
 familiar Greek text. Her glance ran 
 swiftly over the page, her face express 
 ing something of the same eager interest 
 one feels in confronting the features of a 
 friend after a long separation. "Ah, 
 the parting of Hector and Andromache. 
 How beautiful it is always beautiful!" 
 
 The Major s face glowed with a kindred 
 enthusiasm. "Do you recall Pope s lines 
 in the translation, my dear? Let me see 
 how do they run? 
 
 Andromache, my soul s far better part, 
 Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart? 
 No hostile hand can antedate my doom 
 Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb." 
 
 And in his gentle, beautifully modu 
 lated voice he recited the stanza, just as 
 Florida had heard him recite it, preceded 
 by precisely the same inquiry and with 
 the same perfect intonation, from the 
 days of her earliest recollection. 
 3 2
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "What a fatalist of the fatalists he was, 
 papa Hector, son of Priam ! But his 
 must have been rather a comfortable doc 
 trine, on the whole, if calculated to make 
 one a trifle incautious. 
 
 No hostile hand can antedate my doom 
 Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb. " 
 
 She repeated the lines thoughtfully, as 
 if weighing their secret meaning. 
 
 The light of a secure and holy faith 
 shone in her father s face; again he was 
 ready with a quotation : 
 
 " Dimly of old in such scenes and suf 
 ferings men saw fate; now they see 
 God, he responded fervently. 
 
 Florida s eyes wandered away to the 
 curling lilac flames on the hearth. She 
 leaned forward on her elbow, growing 
 grave and pensive. 
 
 "It would be beautiful to be able still 
 to see God, even in all the sufferings of 
 the world," she said, at length, dispirit 
 edly, "if we only could, if we only 
 could." A huskiness had crept into 
 
 33
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 her voice, and her erect figure seemed 
 suddenly bowed. "But it has always ap 
 peared to me that most of the suffering 
 we have to bear only comes through our 
 own wrong-doing; we are simply reaping 
 the whirlwind," she added quickly. 
 
 A tremor swept her frame. She threw 
 an uneasy glance over her shoulder, as if 
 shrinking from some haunting presence. 
 She was silent. She sat nervously twist 
 ing her long, white, ringless fingers in an 
 absent fashion. When she next spoke 
 her manner was slightly abrupt and con 
 strained. 
 
 "I came to tell you a little of myself 
 this morning, papa something of the 
 past three years. Letters give so little. 
 I so much feel the need of guidance." 
 
 Her father s face wore an expression of 
 amiable attention, as if he were about to 
 listen to the prattle of a child. 
 
 "There isn t very much to speak of," 
 
 she supplemented with a slight emphasis, 
 
 which, however, his ear did not detect. 
 
 "In the first place, I think an explanation 
 
 34
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 of everything as regards myself may be 
 found in the continual warring of certain 
 inherent elements of my own nature in 
 other words, in the principle of heredity. 
 
 The Major s somewhat reluctant en 
 trance into the shadowy depths of these 
 most uncertain waters passed unnoticed, 
 and she hurried on. 
 
 "To a temperament particularly fervid 
 and self-indulgent, there was added an al 
 truistic sense a sense of awful human re 
 sponsibility. As clearly and as indifferent 
 ly as one might reveal the characteristics 
 of another she presented her analysis. 
 "Then at college I came under certain 
 influences, especially the influence of a 
 sister of one of my friends. This girl 
 woman, rather (she was years older than 
 any of us) was often at our rooms. She 
 was a remarkable person, one of the 
 plainest and, at the same time, most 
 beautiful people I ever saw. Her whole 
 soul seemed absorbed in the college set 
 tlement idea, the work of the city mis 
 sionary, and in other great charitable 
 35
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 plans that have for their object the relief 
 and enlightenment of the poorer classes. 
 Through my acquaintance with her the 
 longing I have always had to be one of 
 the practical workers of the world in 
 creased. There are so many sorrowful, 
 needy ones, my heart so often ached at 
 the thought of them. And at times I 
 felt irresistibly drawn to go forth and give 
 my efforts, whatever money I should 
 have, my entire life, to the cause of 
 mercy. But these moods of exaltation, 
 of self-surrender, were always followed 
 by the dullness of reaction." She broke 
 off suddenly with a hopeless gesture of 
 utter weariness. "If I truly wanted to 
 live for others," she continued sadly, 
 after a moment, "I just as truly wanted 
 something of life for myself. I was 
 strong, I was young still on the very 
 threshold of existence I could not help 
 feeling that somewhere somewhere in the 
 great sad world individual happiness was 
 yet to be found ; and I was not quite 
 able to put all chance of reaching it for- 
 36
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ever out of my grasp. Finally there 
 came a moment when a decision must be 
 made. Aunt Augusta s invitation to 
 come to her in Baltimore after my gradu 
 ation and Ethel Strong s letter from New 
 York asking me to unite with her in her 
 work came to me by the same mail. For 
 weeks I could not sleep. At length I 
 made my choice ; and I chose in favor of 
 self, of the world." Her voice died away 
 in a sob. 
 
 "You were far too young for the work, 
 whatever it was, my dear," the Major in 
 terposed, somewhat mystified and not a 
 little impatient. "It was altogether 
 proper that you should go to your aunt." 
 
 The girl lifted her eyes filled with an 
 inexpressible pathos to his. 
 
 "Papa, can you not see that it was a 
 choice for eternity?" she cried bitterly. 
 "The highest was presented to me, and I 
 I could not take it. It will never be 
 offered again. But I suffered so I suf 
 fered so in trying to find happiness." 
 
 There could be no denial of the ring of 
 37
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 despairing pain in the low, vibrant voice, 
 quivering with emotion. 
 
 In the surprise of a sudden revelation 
 her words broke upon her father s ears, 
 startling him to a recognition of some 
 thing which now for the first time had 
 begun to dawn upon him : the fact of 
 her broadened womanhood, her intense 
 capacity to feel. A sense of inadequacy 
 took possession of him, and he was con 
 scious of a most distressing uncertainty as 
 to the best method to be employed in 
 dealing with her. In helpless confusion 
 his mind ran back to the women of her 
 race, especially to those nearest him, of 
 his own blood. They had all been gen 
 tlewomen in a high meaning of the word. 
 But these had been content to find their 
 duties in the home, dispensing whatever 
 charities they felt inclined to at no far 
 ther distance from the domestic circle 
 than the rear of their own habitations, 
 thus manifesting a modesty which to 
 him appeared not only becoming but en 
 tirely indispensable. This latter-day 
 38
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 young woman, with her restless eagerness 
 to take upon herself the solution of prob 
 lems with which older and far wiser heads 
 have been unable successfully to cope, 
 very ill accorded with his unalterable 
 standards. He was disturbed as well as 
 mortified that, even in what he considered 
 the mere freak of a moment, a child of 
 his should have adopted any of the ad 
 vanced ideas regarding the position of 
 women, views which to him were most 
 improper and distasteful, especially in one 
 so young. 
 
 "What did your Aunt Augusta have 
 to say to you on these subjects?" he 
 asked anxiously, studying the girl s face 
 above his gold-rimmed spectacles. 
 
 "I never discussed them with Aunt 
 Augusta. After I went to her, I was in 
 volved in a perpetual whirl of gayety and 
 travel, and all the shams and mockeries 
 of the society she leads in. Besides, I 
 had made my choice; I was no longer 
 worthy of a place among those earnest, 
 true-hearted women who were laboring to 
 39
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 lighten the burdens of others, and I felt 
 I ought not even to take their names 
 upon my lips." 
 
 Fanciful, wholly fanciful, my dear." 
 
 She drew a little nearer to him, half- 
 crouching at his side. 
 
 "I have been playing with coals of fire, 
 papa, what wonder is it that I got 
 burned?" She quickly put up both of 
 her hands to her eyes, as if to still their 
 dull ache. "But oh, there is always so 
 much needless pain and the blunders, 
 the hopeless, irretrievable blunders!" 
 Then in a perfect passion of self-pity, she 
 broke forth, as she lifted her head: "I 
 was so young I had no mother!" 
 
 Involuntarily and unconsciously the 
 words from Browning s great tragedy had 
 come to her lips words of which Dickens 
 once wrote, "I know nothing that is so 
 affecting, nothing in any book I have 
 ever read." 
 
 There were hot tears on her cheeks ; 
 she turned away her face. 
 
 The Major rose, and began to move 
 4 o
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 slowly up and down the room, his hands 
 clasped behind him, his brows knit in dis 
 quieting thoughts. 
 
 But when he finally resumed his seat 
 his countenance had cleared. A remedy 
 was beginning to unfold itself. Un 
 doubtedly, in his opinion, the cause of 
 the girl s morbid and untranquil state of 
 mind was to be traced to the effect of the 
 light, unsound literaturefloodingthecoun- 
 try on every hand. Much that the critics 
 of the day held in high estimate he 
 regarded as sensational if not positively 
 pernicious in its tendency. He was 
 grieved to discover that he had allowed 
 her to be away from his influence long 
 enough, possibly, for her youthful tastes 
 to be somewhat contaminated. But, for 
 tunately, it was not too late to mend 
 this error. He laid his hand with a mild 
 firmness upon her shoulder. 
 
 "From now on you must begin and 
 read good books," he said, his custom 
 ary benign repose having wholly returned. 
 "Imbue your thoughts with the lofty 
 4 1
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 conceptions of those grand old authors 
 that immortalized themselves in the past. 
 Most of this modern writing is mere 
 worthless stuff, unfit for you to read. 
 The right plan is to begin the day with 
 an hour or two devoted to Scriptural 
 reading. As Dr. Watts expressed it 
 
 The testimonies of thy grace 
 
 I set before mine eyes, 
 There I derive my daily strength, 
 And there my comfort lies. 
 
 "You might review your Greek and 
 Latin," he continued, "reciting to me, 
 including also a series of metaphysical 
 studies which I will map out for you. 
 Then, for lighter reading, take up Macau- 
 lay s essays, and Addison, allowing your 
 self occasional glimpses, at my direction, 
 into the Noctes Ambrosianae. These, 
 with Shakespeare, Milton, Southey, 
 Pope, Coleridge, Goldsmith, Burns and 
 Wordsworth, together with the novels 
 of Sir Walter Scott and Miss Edgeworth, 
 will bring about a total change of ideas, 
 developing in you, furthermore, certain 
 42
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 delightful conversational powers which 
 you should strive to cultivate, and which 
 the young women of the present genera 
 tion appear to me sadly to lack." 
 
 At this rather alarming distribution of 
 her time and labors, Florida experienced 
 one of those -swift changes of mood the 
 capacity for which constituted her 
 subtlest charm. A gleam of merriment 
 shot from under her downcast lids. 
 
 "I have read them all, papa, again and 
 again the very last one of them; but, 
 at your suggestion, I will begin with 
 them again, and see what they can do in 
 the way of restoring a perverted mind to 
 a more healthful condition." 
 
 She sprang lightly to her feet, a half- 
 serious, half-comic expression flitting 
 across her features. She stood a moment 
 resting her arms, with their ruffles of filmy 
 lace, upon the carved back of his antique 
 chair. "Do you remember your old term 
 to describe me?" she asked, bending 
 caressingly above him. " Fantastic it 
 was, wasn t it, papa? I used to think it 
 43
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 rather applicable. I could even see the 
 appropriateness myself. And the hair- 
 brained, sentimental trace, do you still 
 find that, too, papa? I had thought I 
 must have lost it in the weariness of the 
 years." 
 
 Her father s indulgent -smile was a 
 relief, after the high tension. 
 
 "You have not lost it yet," answered 
 the Major, slowly shaking his head. Be 
 assured, you have not lost it yet." 
 
 44
 
 IV 
 
 Among the Arabs there is an old prov 
 erb which tersely mentions three things 
 that never come back : the word that has 
 been spoken, the arrow that has been sent, 
 and the opportunity that has been lost. 
 Shortly after he came to Kentucky, St. 
 John experienced a melancholy realiza 
 tion of the truth of the last clause of this 
 apothegm on the occasion when he first 
 met Mrs. Alexander. 
 
 From what he had heard concerning 
 her, he half-expected, as he was ushered 
 into her presence, to find her reclining in 
 white on a silken divan, arrayed in a blue 
 gauze scarf, and reading aloud from one 
 of her manuscripts to an admiring coterie, 
 after the fashion of Delphine Gay. As 
 a matter of fact, however, he discovered 
 little in the appearance of the majestic, 
 45
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 dark-haired matron of fifty, whose glances 
 coldly swept his face, suggestive of the 
 portraitures that have come down to us of 
 the ethereal goddess of the salon, who 
 was wont to assume unto herself the im 
 perious designation of "Muse of the Na 
 tion." For whatever marks of mental 
 similarity might possibly exist, it was 
 evident that physically Mrs. Alexander s 
 distinction rested upon claims of a far 
 more munificent if less airy description. 
 Although there still remained traces of 
 that rare perfection of feature which, a 
 quarter of a century before, had caused 
 her to stand out preeminent in a re 
 nowned galaxy of Louisville beauties, at 
 most these traces were now only the 
 vaguest hints that threatened soon to be 
 entirely lost in a robustness fatal to 
 classic proportion. In the meanwhile, 
 she was, nevertheless, a notably hand 
 some woman; and St. John saw at once 
 that she was something more than a 
 handsome woman in short, a personage 
 by no means to be overlooked. Further- 
 4 6
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 more, he recognized that it was due 
 entirely to his own denseness in this mem 
 orable experience that he failed to grasp 
 the fortune of her favor. 
 
 The occasion was that of one of her 
 brilliant evening receptions, and the god 
 dess, gorgeously attired, and rather daz 
 zling in her splendor, had swept down 
 upon him with especial effect. 
 
 With a magisterial assumption that 
 was wholly sincere, during the course of 
 the next fifteen minutes she plunged with 
 such bold assault into literary topics that, 
 in spite of the compliment implied, St. 
 John, who was apt to be a little con 
 strained on meeting with strangers, was 
 completely routed and silenced. Begin 
 ning with the early Victorian poets, she 
 proceeded rapidly, finally drifting into a 
 tedious dissertation on the subject of the 
 Pre-Raphaelites, and concluding, either 
 through want of breath or further knowl 
 edge in this direction, with a brief survey 
 of William Morris and an enigmatical 
 reference to the "Earthly Paradise." 
 47
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 St. John s worst enemy, if he had 
 one, would have been unable, with any 
 show of truthfulness, to attribute to him 
 the fault of holding himself in too high 
 estimate; but in the course of this re 
 markable monologue, he was conscious of 
 an uncomfortable sensation of growing 
 steadily less, and that with such alarming 
 rapidity it was to be doubted that he 
 could ever, except with the aid of a 
 microscope, succeed in finding himself 
 again. 
 
 That he was, indeed, far from acquit 
 ting him with the brilliancy that would 
 have redounded to his credit was coldly 
 manifest in the expression of his recon 
 dite hostess. After a pause, in which 
 abundant time was given him to soar to 
 the heights she had just been scaling, she 
 turned disgustedly away, never again 
 deigning to bestow her erudition upon 
 him. However, in spite of this lament 
 able failure on his part, she continued to 
 honor him with her invitations, and the 
 young man was thus given an opportun- 
 4 8
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ity, though from afar, for the study of a 
 type which he found peculiarly suggestive. 
 
 He noted that she posed a good deal, 
 and that she had rather a sagacious eye 
 for effects. One picture stood out with a 
 kind of ironic boldness; and he seldom 
 thought of her that she did not in the 
 same instant appear before his mental 
 vision royally seated in her salon, wearing 
 a yellow satin gown, and with her two 
 little girls in white muslin, their piquant, 
 gypsy faces eager with interest in the 
 conversation of their elders, gracefully 
 grouped about her knees. 
 
 Perhaps the hint of maternal devotion, 
 admirably displayed, was somewhat de 
 nied by the lateness of the hour and the 
 unfitness of the topic under discussion 
 for childish ears ; but the impression was 
 one that he long retained. . Moreover, 
 he found that in another line also she 
 was capable of making for herself a good 
 name with apparently as little effort. 
 
 Precisely upon what Mrs. Alexander s 
 reputation as a great authoress was based, 
 49
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 St. John found some difficulty in ascer 
 taining. No one, as far as he could dis 
 cover, when actually brought to the issue, 
 seemed able to point to a single publica 
 tion from her pen ; but that she did enjoy 
 this reputation, somewhat presuming upon 
 it, there could not be the smallest doubt. 
 And the fact that there was a certain 
 mystery attached to her literary proceed 
 ings appeared only to enhance their im 
 portance. It was whispered that for 
 years she had been engaged upon the 
 composition of a work that would surely 
 render her famous, if not immortal; but 
 the nature of the work and the time of 
 its probable appearance were veiled in an 
 obscurity that no one had ever pene 
 trated. 
 
 When St. John wearied of this study 
 in a circle, as he sometimes did, there 
 were other persons scarcely less interesting 
 whom he was accustomed to meet at this 
 hospitable mansion ; beautiful young girls 
 whose soft Southern speech and simple 
 high-breeding delighted him, and cordial, 
 50
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 manly young men whom he found it easy 
 to like, but not always easy to appre 
 hend. Above all, there was always the 
 Major. 
 
 Between this scholarly gentleman of a 
 bygone day, with his lofty scorn of all 
 recent literary methods, and one of the 
 most modern of modern young authors, 
 there had sprung up a rare sympathy and 
 warmth of admiration. Accordingly, on 
 Mrs. Alexander s Monday evenings, some 
 of St. John s pleasantest moments were 
 spent before the Major s library fire, away 
 from the babel of tongues in the drawing- 
 room, while he listened to the mellow 
 tones of a voice that thrilled him like a 
 strain of old-time music. But the draw 
 ing-room was now to have a new attrac 
 tion the attraction of the Major s 
 daughter. 
 
 She had been at home for about a 
 week when St. John received one of Mrs. 
 Alexander s characteristic missives, which 
 always reminded him of a royal mandate. 
 He found the note lying on his desk one 
 5
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 afternoon, on returning rather later than 
 ordinary from his duties at the college. 
 He smiled grimly as he broke the seal. 
 Five hours in the class-room was scarcely 
 a preparation for that agreeable frame of 
 mind with which he could have wished 
 to approach the sacred token of her bid 
 ding; for Mrs. Alexander was evidently 
 of the opinion that genius always ex 
 presses itself in hieroglyphics. 
 
 As he applied himself to the difficult 
 task of deciphering her message, he much 
 regretted that she had not seen fit to imi 
 tate the example of the considerate 
 Frenchman who, in addressing his arch 
 bishop, thus modestly expressed himself: 
 "Out of respect for you, sir, I have writ 
 ten this with my own hand, but to facili 
 tate the reading I send a copy which I 
 have had my amanuensis make." He 
 very much doubted that Mrs. Alexander 
 possessed either a similar modesty or 
 an amanuensis! 
 
 However, he finally made it clear to 
 himself that his presence was desired for 
 52
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the following Monday evening, and that 
 the occasion was to differ somewhat from 
 her usual informal gatherings, being mu 
 sical rather than strictly literary, a depart 
 ure which her mystic pen had dubbed "a 
 hazard of dubious diversion." 
 
 St. John was beginning to reach the 
 age when most men adjust themselves 
 more or less to the inevitable law of com 
 promise. But thus far he had never been 
 able to bring himself to anything ap 
 proaching a compromise in the way of 
 music. 
 
 He had just fashioned in his mind some 
 gracious form of excuse in which he 
 congratulated himself as appearing suffi 
 ciently appreciative not to call down an 
 unrelenting ire, when suddenly he be 
 thought himself of Miss Alexander s 
 voice. He sat a moment, pen in hand, re 
 calling the pathos of those wondrous tones. 
 
 Then, with the exactness which he al 
 ways employed, even in small matters, 
 he carefully wrote an acceptance, send 
 ing the note at once. 
 53
 
 V 
 
 St. John s modest habitation a one- 
 story frame cottage of three or four 
 rooms had been selected on account of 
 its pleasant location on a shady street, 
 remote from the din and traffic of the 
 town. 
 
 Outwardly, it was far from what the 
 young man s artistic taste would have pre 
 ferred, being painted a vivid green, sup 
 plemented with yellow trimmings of a 
 most aggressive order. However, there 
 was a refreshing little grass-plot in front, 
 a spreading elm, as well as two pictur 
 esque apple-trees, now in full bloom and 
 breathing the very essence of promise, 
 the dawn and delicacy of the spring-tide. 
 His poet-nature, especially sensitive to 
 all environment, seemed absolutely to 
 demand some contact, limited though it 
 54
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 might be, with the growing things of 
 earth ; and his earnest reserve rendered an 
 existence in the average boarding-house 
 or hotel wholly insupportable. But his 
 incipient attempts at housekeeping, char 
 acterized by a man s broad but clumsy 
 methods, had been fraught with difficul 
 ties unsuspected in his calculations. 
 
 In the first place, little did he antici 
 pate that an obscure advertisement in one 
 of the daily newspapers expressing a de 
 sire on his part for a competent servant 
 to take charge of his manage, and briefly 
 stating his terms and requirements, etc., 
 would bring down upon him such a plague 
 in the way of colored applicants as was 
 equaled only by the swarm of flies that 
 descended upon Pharaoh and the Egyp 
 tians of old. At all events, for weeks 
 after this notice appeared, in season and 
 out of season, through fair and through 
 stormy weather, he was besieged with a 
 persistence that would have been truly 
 exasperating had there not been a touch 
 of drollery in the experience of an en- 
 55
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 tirely novel order. And it was not until 
 some time after he was comfortably 
 established, and the unfamiliar dialect 
 had ceased to sound continually in his 
 ears that he discovered the blunder he 
 had made. 
 
 Out of the multitudinous throng pre 
 senting a strange dissimilarity as to cos 
 tume, age, and characteristics, his bewil 
 dered faculties had been able finally to 
 select one who he thought would prove 
 best suited to his needs an able-bodied, 
 elderly person of neat appearance, whose 
 twinkling eyes, set in an ebon counte 
 nance, seemed to express an intelligent 
 amiability. 
 
 In answer to his puzzled inquiry one 
 day concerning his first mistake, the wom 
 an stood for a moment with both hands 
 on her broad hips, smilingly regarding 
 him with an air of astuteness as well as 
 of affectionate condescension. 
 
 "Honey," said she, at length, as if 
 volunteering an explanation to a child, 
 "I tell you. You ought never tuh said 
 56
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 nothin bout what you gwine pay. 
 Wait an ax em fust what they been git- 
 tin . That old nigger Abram," breaking 
 into a generous grin at the reminiscence, 
 "that old nigger Abram he seed it in th 
 paper, an th preacher done give it out 
 in meetin , an all them darkies com 
 menced a-chucklin tuh theyse f, thinkin 
 how easy t would be tuh cheat yo ve y 
 eyes out, while you gone long tendin tuh 
 yo bus ness, an they hur eatin they 
 haids off, hangin over th front gate, an 
 gittin bigger wages thin anybody else." 
 
 "Am I really giving better wages than 
 anybody else, Aunt Phyllis?" asked the 
 young man, amused, having readily 
 adopted the usual local method of ad 
 dress when speaking to her. 
 
 The woman dropped her eyes. 
 
 For a moment she appeared a trifle 
 disconcerted, but she was equal to the 
 occasion. With a superb gesture, she 
 raised her powerful form to its full height. 
 
 "Ef you is," she asserted, with stern 
 impressiveness, "all / got tuh say, ef you 
 57
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 is givin better wages, you git tin better 
 work! 
 
 And with the triumphant logic of this 
 rejoinder, it was evident that she consid 
 ered the matter finally dismissed ; for she 
 maintained a proud reticence concerning 
 it in the future that no teasing innuendo 
 was able to disturb. 
 
 Perhaps it was there and then that she 
 fully assumed an authority in his affairs 
 which St. John never afterward dared 
 dispute. In point of fact, she proved 
 herself invaluable in many ways, especially 
 as a toothsome cook of the good old 
 Southern style ; and if occasionally he had 
 reason to suspect her of the fault she was 
 so ready to attribute to others of her race, 
 he displayed a wisdom that older house 
 keepers might do well to imitate : he 
 simply refused to see that anything went 
 amiss. Under this discreet system of 
 management they proceeded most ami 
 cably, and as time went by, her watchful 
 care and attention and her good-natured 
 chidings as well, were among the pleas- 
 58
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 antest things in a life peculiarly isolated 
 and barren of affection. 
 
 He spent most of his evenings in his 
 cheerful little sitting-room among his 
 books. He had succeeded in making the 
 place seem quite attractive in a very sim 
 ple way, with the aid of shaded lamps 
 and rugs and comfortable chairs. There 
 were several good etchings on the walls, 
 and a wide table covered with magazines 
 and papers and materials for writing, 
 which gave a certain tone. But some 
 thing, a mere touch somewhere, per 
 haps, was wanting, and St. John felt it, 
 and lamented it, though scarcely referring 
 his regret to the proper source. 
 
 On the evening of Mrs. Alexander s 
 musical he had been re-reading Marius 
 the Epicurean, especially the story of 
 Cupid and Psyche, the most beautiful, 
 because the most human, of all the old 
 mythological legends, and rendered even 
 more beautifully human by the pure dic 
 tion of Walter Pater. One expression, 
 above all others, remained, like a golden 
 59
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 thread inlaid in ivory and intricately 
 traced, "the hiddenness of perfect 
 things." 
 
 After he had laid the book aside, he 
 leaned far back in his chair, closed his 
 eyes, and gave himself, as was his wont, 
 wholly up to the train of thought into 
 which his imagination drove him. One 
 of the windows was open, and the warm 
 night air, heavy with perfume, stole lan 
 guidly into the room, teasing his senses 
 with a dim suggestion of some far-off, 
 perfect realm an existence, alluring, de 
 lightful, yet never to be attained the 
 ideal life! Unconsciously the moments 
 slipped. 
 
 He was hours past the appointed time 
 when he finally presented himself in Mrs. 
 Alexander s crowded drawing-room. 
 
 The affair was on a more extensive 
 scale than he had anticipated. 
 
 He had just reassured himself that for 
 
 this reason his tardiness could scarcely 
 
 have been considered, when his hostess, 
 
 regal in a ruby-colored velvet gown, and 
 
 60
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 blazing with jewels, bore severely down 
 upon him. 
 
 "I fear I must ask your gracious in 
 dulgence," he began, as he came forward. 
 There was always a formality, a unique 
 picturesqueness in his flawless courtesy. 
 And it was most characteristic of the sim 
 ple sincerity of his nature that he added 
 quickly, in slight embarrassment: 
 
 "I had been reading, and the time 
 passed." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander regarded him abstract 
 edly for a moment with eyes that seemed 
 to see and yet not to see him. 
 
 "You are late," she assented, at 
 length, with thinly veiled displeasure. 
 "However, I believe there is still another 
 number on the programme." She spoke 
 in cold, metallic tones, suggestive of some 
 inward irritation. 
 
 At this moment a group at the far end 
 of the long room parted, and a young 
 woman advanced toward the piano. 
 Florida! Florida, in a quaint white silk 
 gown cut low on the shoulders, and wear- 
 61
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ing a cluster of violets among the coils of 
 her smooth brown hair. Her lids were 
 downcast. She walked slowly, with un 
 studied grace, and she was as self-forget 
 ful as if there had not been an eye to fol 
 low her movements. As it was, however, 
 every glance was riveted upon her, owing 
 to a certain magnetic, compelling power 
 which it was hers always to exert. St. 
 John purposely found a chair near which 
 no one was seated ; a word would have 
 jarred upon him, perhaps broken the 
 spell. 
 
 And it seemed to him that suddenly 
 the room had taken on a strange new bril 
 liancy a touch of mystery, of poetic grace 
 which, an instant before, the scene had 
 wholly lacked. There was that about her 
 which thrilled him like the sight of some 
 perfect, solitary bloom on a sterile 
 mountain height. She was so utterly 
 apart, so different from all the rest, so 
 alone, and so beautiful in her sad isola 
 tion. He longed to speak to her, to 
 reach out both of his hands to her, and in 
 62
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 a rush of tenderness, untinctured by a 
 thought but that of human sympathy, 
 to say: "I, too, have endured it all; I 
 understand." He felt irresistibly drawn 
 to her through the kinship of a like ex 
 perience in pain; for he intuitively knew 
 that upon her, beyond whatever of actual 
 sorrow she had known, the mere pressure 
 of life had heavily weighed. 
 
 He waited with some curiosity for the 
 song she should select. He recalled the 
 capabilities of her voice ; and it was an 
 opportunity. 
 
 Her hands ran aimlessly over the keys. 
 She hesitated a moment, then threw a 
 warm, brief glance across the room to 
 where her father sat with his eyes upon 
 her. 
 
 It was the quietest of quiet little songs 
 that Florida sang, and it was evident to 
 St. John, from the first, that she was 
 singing, entirely regardless of effect 
 and for one. And though they cannot 
 in any way convey the impression that 
 was made, the words may be given here 
 63
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for the sake of their own simple, long- 
 forgotten beauty: 
 
 "On the lake where drooped the willow, 
 
 Long time ago, 
 
 Where the rock threw back the billow 
 Curled liquid snow, 
 
 " Dwelt a maid beloved and cherished 
 
 By high and low; 
 But alas, too soon she perished, 
 Long time ago. 
 
 "Rock and tree and flowing water, 
 
 Long time ago, 
 
 Bird and bee and blossom taught her, 
 Love s spell to know. 
 
 " There we met and loved and parted, 
 
 Long time ago, 
 
 There I lingered, broken-hearted; 
 Tears, let them flow. 
 
 " To her grave they re sadly given, 
 
 Where flow rets blow; 
 She s the star I missed from heaven, 
 Long time ago." 
 
 For some time after the song had 
 ceased, and the hum of conversation had 
 begun, the thrall of that pathetic "long 
 time ago, with all of its far suggestiveness, 
 held him still. St. John felt in no mood 
 6 4
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for conversation, and accordingly he re 
 mained where he was in a recess, 
 shielded by a portiere bending inatten 
 tively, and by way of apology merely, 
 over an illustrated volume on the table 
 at his side. 
 
 Presently he was roused from the mood 
 that possessed him by Mrs. Alexander s 
 impatient voice near by, as she swept 
 hurriedly past. 
 
 "Where did you put them, Florida? 
 Oh, in that cabinet, over there? What 
 was your idea for such careful conceal 
 ment? I want you to take the one giv 
 ing a side view to Judge Overton. He 
 has just been saying that to-day I am the 
 one woman in Kentucky who can boast 
 an absolutely perfect profile, and lament 
 ing the fact that Joel T. Hart no longer 
 lives. He spoke of it just after you had 
 finished singing, my dear. And now 
 that I think of it," she broke off, sud 
 denly lifting her superb head from above 
 the bric-a-brac through which she had 
 been nervously rummaging, "let me ask 
 65
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 what ever possessed you to select that 
 song? so absurdly monotonous. If ever 
 I attempt another musical!" 
 
 At this moment, having found the ob 
 ject of her search a package of her latest 
 photographs she turned suddenly, and 
 espied St. John. 
 
 "Ah!" she exclaimed, with frigidity; 
 "so this is your way of making yourself 
 agreeable, is it, Mr. St. John?" 
 
 The young man s dark face flushed 
 hotly at her tone. He had scarcely heard 
 her words. His eyes were fixed in an 
 eager scrutiny upon the younger woman s 
 changeful countenance. Florida was 
 standing quite at his elbow, and she drew 
 back, a little startled, from his close 
 proximity. 
 
 "Wait a moment, my dear." Mrs. 
 Alexander placed a firm hand upon the 
 girl s wrist. "There is no hurry about 
 the picture. I suppose I must make 
 you two young people acquainted," and 
 she went through the form of introduc- 
 
 66
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 tion as if lending herself to an act alto 
 gether beneath her. 
 
 "Florida, you have probably heard of 
 Mr. St. John," she added with super 
 cilious suavity. "He has written some 
 sweet little verses; you may have seen 
 them in the magazines." 
 
 A look of pained surprise traced itself 
 upon her stepdaughter s features. Flor 
 ida opened her lips to speak, evidently 
 with some intention to try to do away 
 with the effect of a discourtesy offered to 
 one really distinguished, hesitated an 
 instant, and then in silence lifted her 
 eyes impulsively, beseechingly, to his, 
 only to meet his absorbed, half-amused, 
 wholly comprehending gaze. 
 
 67
 
 VI 
 
 " I m sorry she ever came back, that s 
 what I am; aren t you, Ethel?" 
 
 "Are you, Louise? I don t know. 
 Why?" The speaker, a little brown 
 creature with thin, peaked features, 
 pushed back the long hair from about her 
 face, and looked up, meditatively, for a 
 moment, from the fascinations of one of 
 the Duchess novels. "Why are you 
 sorry, Louise?" she repeated vaguely. 
 
 "Oh, because I am, you stupid," re 
 plied the elder girl sharply; "and you d 
 be, too, if you knew all I know," with 
 an air of superiority. "You didn t hear 
 her telling on us to mama, as I did, the 
 other day. I was listening at the key 
 hole, and I heard every word." 
 
 "Oh, Louise! What did she tell?" 
 The child had begun to tremble violently, 
 68
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the recollection of her misdeeds evidently 
 weighing heavily upon her conscience. 
 "Did she say anything about me reading 
 the Duchess?" 
 
 "Yes, she did," returned Louise, 
 slowly shaking her head, and eyeing the 
 culprit with a solemn stare. "She said 
 she thought it was just awful in mama to 
 let you read such things. When I am a 
 young lady I hope I won t be like Flor 
 ida," she declared. "I shan t care for 
 anything but beaux and diamonds," with 
 a simper and toss of the head. "She 
 actually asked mama to let her teach us 
 a little while every day this summer. 
 Now, wasn t that just the meanest thing 
 you ever heard of? How would she like 
 to go to school all winter and summer, 
 too?" 
 
 " What did mama say?" cried Ethel, 
 aghast. The two children were in the 
 garden, seated on a wooden bench under 
 the arbor. 
 
 Louise waited several moments, teas- 
 ingly, before she deigned to reply. 
 69
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Mama said," she began, finding an 
 obvious delight in prolonging the agony 
 of suspense, and holding a grape leaf be 
 fore her eyes to watch the effect of the 
 sunlight upon it, "I wonder if we shall 
 have many grapes this year; I just love 
 grapes, don t you, Ethel?" 
 
 "Oh, Louise, what did mama say?" 
 Tears had gathered in the dark eyes, and 
 the meager little form was quivering with 
 intense anxiety. "Won t Florida ever 
 let us have anything more to eat? And 
 if she teaches us, do you think she will 
 beat us every day?" 
 
 "Mama said," pronouncing the words 
 with slow distinctness, and with a re 
 markable mimicry of voice and manner, 
 "she said, For pity s sake, Florida, leave 
 the children alone. I forbid you, 
 those were mama s own words I must 
 positively forbid you to practice any of 
 your the the theryries upon them." 
 
 "Then you are a hateful, horrid thing 
 to come here bothering me and scaring 
 me half to death," exclaimed Ethel, with 
 70
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 an angry stamp of the foot, as she re 
 turned to her book. "Go away, right 
 this minute; I want to read. He s just 
 going to propose." 
 
 "Propose indeed! What do you know 
 about proposing, a baby like you? How 
 old are you, missy, anyway, I d like 
 to know?" 
 
 The tiny being lifted her eyes in quite 
 serious surprise. "Louise," said she, 
 gravely, "that s a very impolite question; 
 some people don t like to tell their age. 
 Besides, I wish you d go away, you make 
 my head ache." 
 
 Your head ache! You re too young 
 to have the headache," flouted the other, 
 with a curl of the lip. "I ve just begun 
 to have the headache myself," and with 
 this utterly crushing rejoinder she arose 
 with much dignity and marched grandly 
 into the house, pausing, however, when 
 her foot was on the doorstep to throw 
 back a mocking little laugh in the direction 
 of the grape-arbor. "Your head ache! 
 Little bit o thing just ten years old!"
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 This amiable conversation between her 
 two little half-sisters, painfully revealing 
 their disposition toward herself, floated 
 up to Florida where she lay, one warm 
 afternoon, in a hammock on the balcony 
 outside her bedroom. She was wide 
 awake in an instant, stung to the heart 
 by their childish, unpremeditated cruelty. 
 Suddenly she rose and walked quickly to 
 the balustrade, thinking to call the chil 
 dren to her. But she checked the im 
 pulse. She went back and sat down, 
 putting her hand to her head, as if in 
 pain. 
 
 "I ought not oh, I ought never to 
 have come back here!" she said to her 
 self with a sob. "It all seems such a 
 wasted effort. There is no place for 
 me." But in another instant a passion 
 of unselfish regret had swept over her. 
 "Poor little misguided ones," she cried 
 within herself, "and if only I might help 
 them if only she would let me help 
 them!" feeling her woman s nature 
 stirred with a yearning pity and love. 
 7 2
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 And this incident, trivial as ordinarily 
 it might have appeared, contained for her 
 a mournful and impressive meaning. 
 What was it possible for her to make of 
 her life here? Thus the old disturbing 
 questionings as to duty and responsibility 
 were roused anew, and a fuller recogni 
 tion of her soul s great needs was thrust 
 upon her. Wearied of all the world had 
 to offer as far as her own life was con 
 cerned, yet hearing no longer the call to 
 go and work among the unfortunate ones 
 of the earth, she had come back at last 
 to this that she called her home, asking 
 only for the meagerest share in its daily 
 hopes and interests, and ready to give 
 her all in return ; but she had felt herself 
 so strangely apart, so inharmonious an 
 element that it seemed wholly impossi 
 ble to make herself understood. 
 
 She lay for some moments in her ham 
 mock, flushed and ill at ease. Instead of 
 the dumb apathy that had been over her 
 of late, all her former restlessness was 
 revived, but modified in its effect, since 
 73
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 there appeared to be before her only the 
 prospect of a weary waste of years ; and 
 feeling the absolute necessity for move 
 ment, activity in any form, she realized 
 that she was caged, bound hand and 
 foot. The golden afternoon was no 
 longer beautiful to her, the flower-scented 
 air was sickening and oppressive. She 
 rose and went into her bedchamber, and 
 removing the thin, airy garment she wore, 
 dressed herself in an outdoor costume. 
 
 A few minutes afterward she was out 
 of the house, walking, with no particu 
 lar destination in view, up the shaded 
 street. 
 
 Not too far away, in this direction, and 
 just outside of the town, there was a dim 
 old woods where she had spent many 
 afternoons since her return. She had 
 just decided that she would go there for 
 an hour s quiet, taking the electric car at 
 the corner, and walking the remainder of 
 the way, when her sensitive ear caught 
 the sound of a voice far away in the dis 
 tance a voice so sweet and musical and 
 74
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 wholesome that she involuntarily paused 
 and waited for it to come nearer. 
 
 It proved to be the voice of a boy of 
 ten or eleven years, as ragged and un 
 kempt an urchin as one is likely to see ; 
 but a "bonnie laddie" he was withal, she 
 saw as he approached, for there was a 
 gleam of gold in the curling brown hair 
 and a wistful look in the violet eyes that 
 went straight to the heart. He was sing 
 ing a cheap little air caught up from the 
 streets, yet in such delicious tune, in such 
 spontaneous overflow of joy as was simply 
 irresistible. 
 
 Under one arm he carried a small 
 bundle of newspapers, having disposed 
 of all but three. At the sight of Florida 
 and the intimation of a possible pur 
 chaser, he suddenly broke off in his sing 
 ing, the clear, ringing voice calling forth 
 in the most business-like and matter-of- 
 fact tones. 
 
 Couritf/ Journal Inquire Commer- 
 sliul! All about the fight ! Big railroad 
 
 75
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 wreck ! Five lives lost ! Fourteen crip 
 pled 
 
 "Will you sell them all to me?" asked 
 Florida, cutting short the deafening 
 appeal, and motioning in the direction of 
 the papers. 
 
 The boy came to an abrupt stand-still. 
 He regarded her a trifle suspiciously for 
 a moment, and then replied, laconically, 
 and with an air of indifference: 
 
 "Sell em to you ef you wants em." 
 
 "I do want them," answered Miss 
 Alexander, sweetly, opening her purse 
 and watching the saucy little face with 
 interest. "I think I shall be glad to buy 
 one from you every day if you will be 
 so good as to give me the opportunity. 
 But you will have to tell me your name, 
 so that in the future I shall be able to 
 distinguish you from others of your pro 
 fession. Would you object to telling me 
 your name?" 
 
 "Named Tim," was the brief response. 
 
 "Ah, Tim, is it?" exclaimed Florida, 
 
 76
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 bestowing a radiant smile upon the little 
 fellow. "Do you know, Tim, I have al 
 ways thought that a very sweet name? I 
 can t recall that I have ever known any 
 one whose name was Tim before," reflec 
 tively; "but I do like it, very much in 
 deed." 
 
 The youngster made no reply. He 
 seated himself upon the curbstone, evi 
 dently feeling that his work of the day 
 was over, having disposed of the last of 
 his papers, and taking from his pocket a 
 large, red, juicy apple, he proceeded to 
 devour it with avidity, manifesting about 
 as much recognition of his interrogator s 
 presence as a Hindu idol is in the habit 
 of bestowing upon its votaries. 
 
 "Is Tim the only name you have?" 
 inquired Miss Alexander, presently. She 
 was leaning against one of the maples 
 that lined the sidewalk, and there was a 
 half-playful, half-serious look in her eyes. 
 "Is Tim your only name?" she asked 
 persuasively. 
 
 "Twine," was the oracular response. 
 77
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Miss Alexander nodded. "Timothy 
 Twine it is, then, in full," said she, smil 
 ing still. "And do you know, Mr. Tim 
 othy Twine, you have one of the most 
 beautiful voices that was ever heard? 
 How should you like " She hesitated 
 a moment before making the proposition, 
 seeming in the next instant to arrive at a 
 quick decision; "how should you like to 
 come to me for a short while every after 
 noon for a little study in music and and 
 other things? I should so much like to 
 have you. Will you come?" 
 
 "Dunno." Then after a pause in 
 which the young gentleman had well-nigh 
 choked himself into a fit from a too-boun 
 tiful bite of apple, he slowly turned his 
 eyes toward her. "You better lookin ," 
 he admitted, after a prolonged scrutiny, 
 "than t other one." 
 
 "T other one?" suggested Miss Alex 
 ander gravely. 
 
 "The long-nosed one." 
 
 "Oh," Florida hastened to declare, "I 
 should hope so. I never did like long- 
 78
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 nosed people myself; Tim, I m like you 
 in that. Do you know, I think we are 
 going to be very good friends, indeed. 
 Tell me now, what is your chief objection 
 to long-nosed people?" 
 
 "They s too meddlesome." 
 
 Miss Alexander winced a little under 
 this rather pointed thrust. 
 
 "And was that the fault of t other 
 one ? Was she inclined to be meddle 
 some also?" 
 
 "You bet! Gcewhilikins, wuzn t she 
 er stunner!" He swallowed the last 
 piece of his apple, core and seeds and 
 stem and all, and straightening himself 
 up with an expression of deep inward 
 satisfaction, he philosophically resigned 
 himself to the enforced conversation. 
 
 "She had right smart pimples on her 
 face," he volunteered, "an her hair wuz 
 kinder black an kinky. She wuz a sight 
 taller n you air. She wore specs." 
 
 "Did she, Tim?" inquired Florida, 
 with sympathetic interest. "But you 
 know she should not be judged too harshly 
 79
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for that ; she may have had weak eyes. 
 As for her nose I can t help holding 
 her just a little responsible for her nose, 
 if it s all you say of it; I resent it as a 
 personal affront. But what did she do 
 to you?" 
 
 "She tuk me down to er church, an 
 they put er long white shut on me, an 
 had me a-singin in the choir long with 
 the rest, an - 
 
 "Oh, I understand. But my plans for 
 you were of a different and much less pious 
 description. I am not in any way connect 
 ed with choir boys myself, so you see the 
 lady with the long nose and pimply coun 
 tenance was a far more serious and worthy 
 individual, after all. I merely thought 
 to give you a little musical training that 
 would be helpful to you in the years to 
 come ; for you are going to be one of the 
 great singers of the world, Tim, there 
 cannot be the smallest doubt of that, and 
 I felt a selfish longing to go down to fame 
 on the hem of your garments, so to 
 speak as Sir Joshua Reynolds remarked 
 80
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 after he had painted the portrait of Mrs. 
 Siddons." 
 
 Unable to appreciate more than a word 
 or two of this airy flight, Tim s glance 
 again took on the look of mistrust it had 
 worn when she had insisted upon pur 
 chasing all of his papers. 
 
 "And I thought," she continued, 
 "that you might not find it altogether 
 tiresome to make me this little visit every 
 day, on account of the cherries, and the 
 strawberries and the peaches and the 
 grapes that grow at the place where I live. 
 You may have just as much of everything 
 as you possibly can eat, Tim, for the 
 sake of that lovely voice of yours." 
 
 The boy s eyes seemed starting out of 
 his head. "Who you be?" he finally 
 blurted out, in a kind of reverential awe. 
 
 An expression of deep sadness traced 
 itself upon Miss Alexander s features. 
 "I don t know, Tim," she replied, very 
 humbly. "I don t think I m anybody 
 when it comes to that. Sometimes I 
 think there is just one word to describe 
 81
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 me; but it is not a very pretty word, and 
 it is failure. Perhaps, if you will come, 
 by and by there will be some other word 
 a better and more hopeful word for me. 
 At all events, I assure you I have not 
 misrepresented things in the least ; the 
 cherries and the strawberries and the 
 peaches and the grapes are all there, or 
 will be there, and they are waiting for 
 you." 
 
 The rapture that beamed from the 
 small, eager face was a joy to see. And 
 even now she seemed to experience a 
 foretaste of the warmth that was to come 
 into her heart through contact with the 
 life of a trustful little child; for there 
 crept a sweet, gentle look into her eyes, 
 and she dropped the slightly bantering 
 and bewildering tone in her speech. 
 
 "Then you will come, Tim?" she said, 
 softly. 
 
 "I ll have to ask pap fust. Gimini! 
 don t I hope he ll lemme!" 
 
 "Let s go and ask him now. Is it 
 very far away?" 
 
 82
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 " Tain t fur. Right round yender on 
 Georgetown street, next doo to the sa 
 loon." 
 
 "But won t he be at work at this hour 
 of the day?" 
 
 "Pap don t do no work," replied the 
 child, loftily. "Leastways, he don t do 
 much, ceptin drivin a dump-cart oncet 
 in a while, when he gits ready." 
 
 It was obvious that Mr. Timothy 
 Twine the elder was the gentleman of 
 elegant leisure that his son had described, 
 for he was found seated upon the wooden 
 doorstep of his ramshackle abode adjoin 
 ing the corner grocery, smoking a pipe of 
 peace, his bland countenance unruffled by 
 a care. He stumbled awkwardly to his 
 feet, being somewhat afflicted with rheu 
 matism, as Miss Alexander and his boy 
 approached. A sly twinkle shone in his 
 eye. 
 
 "Mr. Twine," said the young lady, 
 quite simply, "I have come to ask you 
 to lend me Tim for a little while every 
 afternoon; I want to teach him some-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 thing of music. And I shall consider it 
 a kindness if you will let him come. He 
 is very eager for your permission." 
 
 Mr. Twine s broad countenance relaxed 
 still further in a grin of fond, paternal 
 pride. 
 
 "Tim s powerful pop lar, " he declared, 
 with a wink; powerful pop lar. There 
 wuz another un here after him no more n 
 six weeks ago." 
 
 "So he has told me," assented Miss 
 Alexander. "He has really a most beau 
 tiful voice, and it should be managed 
 with the utmost care. For the present, 
 I had thought of giving him lessons on 
 the piano, if you have no objection to 
 the plan." 
 
 Mr. Twine seemed unable to grapple 
 with so important a question standing, so 
 he again seated himself upon the door 
 step. He appeared to be slowly revolv 
 ing the idea in his mind. Presently he 
 looked up. "The jews -harp makes 
 mighty prutty music," he remarked, con 
 fidentially, at length; "mighty prutty
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 music. Ef I could afford it, I d have 
 one all the time." 
 
 At the suggestion of such reckless ex 
 penditure, Miss Alexander kept an em 
 barrassed silence. 
 
 "Then Tim may begin his lessons to 
 morrow afternoon?" she said finally. "I 
 thank you very much for allowing him to 
 come. I live not very far from here. I 
 am Miss Alexander Major Alexander s 
 daughter; you may know the name." 
 
 "Know the name? Bless my soul! 
 The ole Major s darter, did ye say? Bless 
 my soul! Well, I jes reckon I do know 
 the ole Major fin st ole gentleman in the 
 State o Kentucky, or anywheres else, fur 
 the matter o that. The ole Major! Why 
 he can t be beat by nobody," said Mr. 
 Twine, waxing more and more eloquent as 
 he went along, after the fashion of Ken 
 tucky orators. "Me an him s great 
 friends. Been friends nigh onto twenty 
 year. Time an agin, when he s seen me 
 a-reelin long kinder off like, Miss, he s 
 put his han on my shoulder right firm 
 85
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 like, an he sez: Tim, sez he, you will 
 kill yourself ef you don t leave off a-fre- 
 quentin of the dram-shop, ez you air 
 a-doin , sezhe. But Lord, Miss, twan t 
 nothin but beer. The ole Major s ez 
 innercent ez a lam ; he wuz thinkin of 
 ole Bourbon; but twan t nothin but 
 beer." 
 
 Not feeling herself capable of doing 
 full justice to this distinction, Florida 
 wisely brought the interview to an end. 
 
 And so, with little Tim, there had come 
 a new element into her life, and existence 
 seemed no longer an altogether empty 
 thing. 
 
 86
 
 VII 
 
 And May had come at last ! 
 
 All the long winter in his wanderings 
 through the brown woods St. John had 
 found himself looking forward to the com 
 ing of spring under the soft Kentucky 
 skies with especial anticipation. On 
 many portions of the globe he had waited 
 for her return, stretching forth the eager 
 arms of a lover to receive her, and feeling 
 his heart warm and thrill in her presence 
 with profoundest joy. But something 
 had caused him to believe that this time 
 her advent would be different from any 
 other. For miles around he knew the 
 country with the precision that comes 
 from the habit of close and studious ob 
 servation, the exactness of the trained eye 
 and ear of the practiced writer. And his 
 reward had been to hear the first song of the 
 87
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 bluebird and the robin, and one day clown 
 by the willows to catch an early "halcyon 
 note" above the cold gurgle of the stream 
 as the kingfisher, like a cerulean flash, 
 darted across the brook. "Now surely, 
 we shall have fine weather!" he had said 
 to himself in almost boyish glee, recalling 
 the pretty old legend of the bird. But 
 the winter had been bleak for Kentucky, 
 and March had been even more boister 
 ous than March generally is, and April of 
 most uncertain mood ; so that it was not 
 until May had been fully ushered in that 
 he felt safe in abandoning himself to a 
 secure delight. However, one learns to 
 wait. 
 
 One brilliant morning near the middle 
 of the month he came and stood in his 
 doorway, looking out upon a street rus 
 tling in cool, green silken garments and 
 vocal with the singing of birds and the 
 shouts of happy children at play. 
 
 Opposite, what promised to be a some 
 what imposing structure was in process of 
 erection. The workmen called cheerily
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 to each other as they went about their al 
 lotted tasks. One, standing on a long 
 ladder high above the heads of all the 
 rest, broke forth, from time to time, into 
 snatches of a song, yet never pausing an 
 instant in his work. 
 
 "I look away across the sea 
 Where mansions are prepared for me," 
 
 sang the man in a voice quavering and 
 broken, but with now and then a note of 
 rare sweetness, just as an old worn-out 
 instrument will sometimes emit pleasant 
 sounds solely because of the music that 
 is in the heart of the player. 
 
 With a touching significance the voice 
 floated down to St. John where he stood 
 idly surveying a display of energies which 
 he felt in no way disposed to emulate. 
 
 The street, which was long and well- 
 shaded throughout, was regarded as an 
 attractive drive, and this morning it was 
 thronged with coupes, carts, victorias 
 vehicles of every kind. Their occupants 
 basked in the genial sunshine, and lent an 
 air of festivity to the scene by their crisp, 
 89
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 fresh toilets, being suggestive of huge 
 nosegays borne gayly past. All Lexing 
 ton appeared to be on wheels, and to be 
 moving by his door. Now and again 
 from beneath a gauzy parasol or wide, 
 flower-bedecked hat there was a smile and 
 gracious bow in his direction. No one 
 seemed to be going anywhere, he ob 
 served, or to have the smallest object in 
 view beyond a sensuous indulgence in the 
 mere joys of living. And some of their 
 charming irresponsibility must have com 
 municated itself to him, also, with demor 
 alizing effect ; for while he was debating 
 as to how he should best employ his time, 
 it being a Saturday morning, suddenly 
 there awoke in him a spirit of revolt, and 
 he decided at once, and with emphasis, 
 that as for him, he, too, would do no 
 more work that day of any kind no, not 
 so much as the writing down of a single 
 line of verse, simply because the sun 
 shone so and the whole earth seemed so 
 glad. 
 
 Presently, with the expression of one 
 90
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 about to yield to temptation, he let his 
 glance wander far down the street in the 
 direction of the Alexander mansion. Its 
 tall, white columns were barely to be 
 discerned through the trees. Since the 
 musical he had called repeatedly. He 
 was, therefore, at some difficulty to per 
 suade himself that it was highly proper 
 he should present himself there again on 
 this particular morning; yet he did very 
 much wish to go. 
 
 From the first he had been ready to 
 admit that he found Miss Alexander 
 something more than interesting. Many 
 people were that ; she was more. He 
 could have wished at times that she 
 would meet him a little less frankly with 
 an occasional dash of coquetry or self- 
 consciousness, perhaps; but she was 
 never self-conscious with him in the least. 
 
 He had hoped that they might be 
 friends, picturing to himself the future 
 delights of such companionship he who 
 lent himself so sparingly to association 
 with his fellow-beings, less perhaps on 
 9*
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 account of a lack in warmth of nature than 
 because of a constitutional constraint. 
 
 Always most cordial, most kind, when 
 she turned her great sad eyes upon him, 
 he felt as if she were looking at him from 
 a long way off, and without recognition. 
 And though, with infinite tact never 
 however, having actually dwelt upon the 
 subject of his work she had caused him 
 to feel that she respected what he had 
 done, yet to him as the individual aside 
 from the author he could not flatter him 
 self into believing that she had given the 
 briefest thought. 
 
 But the passionate reserve of his own 
 nature respected the proud reticence of 
 hers, and the strange isolation in which 
 she chose to veil herself rendered her pe 
 culiarly alluring; for Mystery is always 
 twin-sister to Charm, if they be not one 
 and the same. 
 
 In temperament they were totally un 
 like ; with him repression was inherent ; 
 with her it had been developed through 
 circumstances. But she was not without 
 92
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 occasional swift, daring impulses which 
 sometimes thrust all barriers aside, giving 
 her imprisoned soul the wing; and she 
 was far from being habitually triste. On 
 the contrary, he noted that she had 
 moods of impetuous expression, when 
 her speech was brilliant and her counte 
 nance illumined with the flash of unre 
 strained thought; furthermore, she pos 
 sessed a rare sense of humor, lending 
 herself to mirth with a gayety, feverish 
 and spasmodic it is true, but in a manner 
 irresistible. It was only when her face was 
 in repose and she had withdrawn again 
 into herself that one recognized upon her 
 features the imprint of a sadness unspeak 
 able, as of some fatal, haunting remem 
 brance. 
 
 It suddenly came to St. John, looking 
 longingly in the direction of her abode, 
 that he still retained several rare old vol 
 umes of early Kentucky history kindly 
 lent him by the Major, and he decided 
 that this was a most fitting occasion to 
 return unto that gentleman his own. He 
 93
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 accordingly departed with alacrity into 
 the house, appearing a few moments 
 afterward with half a dozen time-worn 
 volumes(which, however, he guarded most 
 carefully, knowing well their priceless 
 value) under his arm. 
 
 He would ask for the Major, he de 
 cided, as he proceeded down the street^ 
 no one else, adding that he had come to 
 return some books. And Fortune might 
 be kind ; at all events, he would present 
 himself as a humble suppliant for her 
 favor. 
 
 He found the Major in his library, 
 standing with his back to the door, and 
 just about to take a beloved volume from 
 one of the bookshelves. 
 
 The aged colored man that announced 
 St. John coughed behind his hand in re 
 spectful hesitation, being evidently of the 
 opinion that the call was inopportune ; 
 nevertheless, desirous of maintaining the 
 hospitable record of the house, he threw 
 wide the heavy oaken door, ushering 
 in the visitor with especial stateliness 
 94
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 as a mark of his own private considera 
 tion. 
 
 "Eh?" inquired the Major, absently, 
 without lifting his head from his book, 
 the pages of which he was slowly scan 
 ning in search of a favorite passage. 
 "Eh? What is it, Abram?" 
 
 "Pardon the interruption, Major," said 
 St. John, advancing in some embarrass 
 ment; "I " 
 
 The Major, slightly bewildered, turned, 
 adjusted his spectacles, and perceiving 
 St. John, came forward with outstretched 
 hand. 
 
 "Ah, is it you, my young friend?" he 
 exclaimed, heartily. "This is kind, very 
 kind. Have that chair," indicating the 
 one in which he himself was accustomed 
 to sit. 
 
 "I will sit here, thank you, Major," re 
 plied St. John, taking the nearest seat. 
 "I can remain only for a moment. I 
 came to return these books, and I am 
 afraid that I have rather trespassed upon 
 your kindness in keeping them so long." 
 95
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 The Major waved his hand. "My 
 library is always at your disposal, sir. 
 Never hesitate to make use of it as if it 
 were your own." 
 
 "I have found the study of the early 
 history of the State as presented by these 
 authorities delightfully entertaining," St. 
 John began, having expressed his grateful 
 appreciation of this courtesy. "There 
 can be no question that the first settlers 
 were a most remarkable people." 
 
 The Major s countenance glowed with 
 the pride of a true Kentuckiari. 
 
 "Ah, Mr. St. John," he said, "if I 
 mistake not, as you continue your studies 
 you will find ample justification of the 
 praises that have been bestowed upon this 
 people. But how few are the names that 
 are imperishable! New leaders will ap 
 pear to dim the remembrance of Ken 
 tucky s abler sons, and in the great party 
 strifes our children s children will raise 
 new idols, and cavil where their sires 
 adored. He spoke under the stress of 
 a profound emotion. 
 96
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 St. John was silent for a moment, and 
 then said, very gently: "I feel that I 
 have never been able to express to you 
 my gratitude for the aid you have given 
 me through our conversations on these 
 subjects. There are a number of things 
 in connection with the pioneer period, es 
 pecially, upon which I should like to 
 have your opinions," he continued. 
 "And some time when you are in the 
 mood for imparting them, I should be 
 glad to have your views in regard to the 
 mounds of this section," adding, by way 
 of throwing off the discussion for the 
 time, "That is an interesting suggestion 
 offered by some that this town is built 
 upon the site of an ancient walled city." 
 
 A merry twinkle crept into the Major s 
 eyes, and the corners of his mouth 
 twitched. 
 
 "I think," said he, at length, with a 
 quiet smile, "that some of my ancestors 
 would have felt disposed to answer those 
 learned gentlemen you speak of somewhat 
 in the fashion of old Edie Ochiltree s 
 97
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 reply to the Antiquary. The latter was 
 eloquently disclosing to young Lovel his 
 discovery of the exact local situation of 
 the final conflict between Agricolaand the 
 Caledonians, pointing out the site of the 
 Praetorium of the Roman camp. Prae 
 torian here, Praetorian there, said old 
 Edie, who had suddenly appeared upon 
 the scene. I mind the bigging o t. 
 
 It was evident, for that day at least, 
 that the Major was not disposed to treat 
 the matter seriously, and fearing that he 
 had already stayed too long, St. John 
 arose a few moments afterward to take 
 his departure, the Major insisting that he 
 should remain, yet unable, however, to 
 restrain a covert glance from time to time 
 in the direction of "The Excursion," ly 
 ing temptingly near on the table. 
 
 But just as he was leaving, unexpect 
 edly, the opportunity St. John had hoped 
 for was bestowed. The Major crossed 
 the room, and throwing open a glass door 
 leading by a flight of steps into the gar 
 den, said pleasantly:
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "You will find my daughter out there 
 among the roses. If an old man cannot 
 interest you this bright day 
 
 And so quite easily it had come about 
 that St. John found himself an instant 
 afterward walking down the long gravel 
 path precisely in the direction he desired, 
 his heart-beats quickening with every 
 step, and the breath of myriad flowers 
 rousing his senses to a tumultuous fancy. 
 
 She was seated under a wide-spreading 
 elm almost as large as that described as 
 having furnished a council hall for the 
 "Colony of Transylvania in America," 
 the first legislative body ever assembled 
 west of the Alleghanies. 
 
 Saturated as he was with the old stories 
 in the romantic history of the State, al 
 ready he had begun to invest her with 
 something of their remote picturesque- 
 ness, while the author in him presented 
 her vigorous young womanhood as a fit 
 ting type for a poetic narration of those 
 by-gone days. Throwing his thoughts 
 backward a hundred years and more, and 
 99
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 with many a delicate touch of form and 
 color, in his imagination he conceived of 
 her as one of that band of heroic women 
 at Bryan s Station, who, in order to ren 
 der it possible to resist the siege, 
 marched valiantly to the spring for water 
 within the rifle shot of six hundred Indian 
 warriors. Or, might she not, under sim 
 ilar circumstances, have been capable of 
 some such daring deed as that of that lov 
 ing one who unbarred the gate of the fort 
 for the wounded young hunter pursued 
 by savages, only to receive her lover dead 
 in her embrace? He could readily pic 
 ture her as one of the wives or sisters or 
 sweethearts of those days, molding the 
 bullets for the rifles of the men, caring 
 for their wounds, sharing their every peril 
 and hardship perhaps as one of the 
 widows mourning the hideous slaughter of 
 the Blue Licks, and yet laying aside her 
 grief to buckle on the armor of her aveng 
 ing friends. 
 
 Some lines of one of the early poets in
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the State began to sing to him as he drew 
 nearer: 
 
 "The mothers of our forest land 
 
 Their bosoms pillowed men; 
 And proud were they by such to stand 
 
 In hammock, fort, or glen, 
 To load the sure old rifle, 
 
 To run the leaden ball, 
 To watch a battling husband s place, 
 
 And fill it, should he fall. " 
 
 And as he looked at her now, the fin 
 ished product of an advanced civilization, 
 manifesting in her bearing the self-poise 
 of the college-bred woman and the ac 
 complished grace that comes of a luxuri 
 ous living, he realized that much of her 
 romantic attraction for him lay in the 
 knowledge that there flowed in her veins 
 the blood of such women ; and he intui 
 tively felt that she must be all the braver 
 and sweeter and truer because they had 
 lived and loved and suffered and died so 
 many long years before. 
 
 Not a detail in her appearance escaped 
 him to-day, and he saw that she was 
 charming in a white lawn gown, a black 
 
 101
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Gainsborough hat with plumes, and a 
 light silk shawl of a bird s-egg blue 
 thrown loosely about hei shoulders. She 
 was reading, apparently with absorbing 
 interest, a book which she thrust a little 
 hurriedly aside when she looked up sud 
 denly to find him standing within a few 
 yards of her. 
 
 "Ah you?" she cried, a trifle discon 
 certed for an instant, yet flashing a 
 warm, welcoming smile upon him. "You 
 must have borrowed Siegfried s cloud- 
 cloak." 
 
 He noted that the pomegranate glow 
 in her cheeks was heightened, and that 
 there was a sparkle in her eyes as if the 
 glory over the earth had thrilled her to a 
 passionate forgetfulness of self. Never 
 had he seen her in precisely such a mood. 
 He came forward with an eagerness that 
 contrasted strangely with his customary 
 formality. 
 
 "Did he get tired of you?" Florida 
 asked, gayly, as she rose, holding out her 
 hand in quite friendly greeting.
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "I am very much afraid that he did," 
 answered St. John, meekly, taking the 
 rustic chair she offered. 
 
 "But you should appreciate the dis 
 crimination he makes in your favor. Per 
 haps you do not know that you belong 
 to a most despised guild?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," he replied, "I do know. I 
 have known it for some time." 
 
 "Then you have been made to realize 
 that it is no light matter to answer to the 
 offense of being a modern author. How 
 ever, he seems ready to allow you a spe 
 cial dispensation." 
 
 With seeming carelessness her hand 
 sought the book she had been reading, 
 thrusting it more securely out of sight 
 among the folds of her shawl, which had 
 dropped from her shoulders. 
 
 "I am never quite able to decide," 
 continued she, "which he holds in the 
 greater contempt, the writers of most of 
 our recent literature, or the readers ; and 
 to read, therefore, what is written is ac 
 cording to him to become a particeps 
 103
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 criminis, without even the poor excuse 
 in one s favor of winning a livelihood 
 thereby. 
 
 "Oh, as to the livelihood put in 
 
 St. John, with a laugh and a shrug of his 
 shoulders. 
 
 But she went on in the same light tone, 
 throwing a playful, lustrous glance to 
 ward him, and lending herself in a kind 
 of reckless abandon to the first subject 
 that offered: 
 
 "In our efforts to extricate a thought 
 out of much that is written, he says that 
 we remind him of a lot of hungry dogs 
 snatching at a bone withheld always by a 
 teasing hand ; and that, if by especial 
 dexterity one of us succeeds, or thinks 
 he succeeds, in grasping the thought 
 that is, the bone we generally find to 
 our mortification on closer scrutiny that 
 it is not really a bone after all, but only a 
 pithless piece of painted chalk." 
 
 St. John s smiling appreciation of this 
 was a base disloyalty to the "despised 
 guild" and to his own convictions. 
 104
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "We should at least be grateful for our 
 illusions," he said, unable to conceal in 
 his expression the delight that her pres 
 ence afforded. 
 
 The wind stirred the tendrils of polished 
 brown hair drawn smoothly back from her 
 low brow. What a picture she was! all 
 grace and fire and womanliness, with that 
 touch of airy raillery to-day that had here 
 tofore been lacking. He was grateful for 
 that ; it made him feel as if they were be 
 coming a little better acquainted, as if one 
 tiny corner of the veil had been lifted and 
 she was peering out at him with amused 
 interest. 
 
 "He may be quite right about it," the 
 rich voice persisted, in evident enjoyment 
 of the subject, "so far as regards fiction, 
 that is," with a mocking little smile and 
 a nod, "that old romantic school of his 
 is certainly delightful. And there is so 
 much in this modern realism that revolts. 
 It is difficult to say just wherein our 
 artists blunder." 
 
 "I think," replied St. John, quite seri-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ously, the teacher habit asserting itself 
 for the moment, with a certain inherent 
 force that usually characterized his speech, 
 "I think the blunder comes mainly from 
 the fact that so many novelists fail to 
 recognize, or refuse to recognize, one 
 thing: simply that the ideal is the real." 
 
 She smiled a little at his unconsciously 
 didactic tone, her thoughts wandering 
 away to his own pure verse a lofty, 
 impassioned tribute to the Ideal, as 
 expressed in nature and in humanity, 
 before whose shrine he continually wor 
 shiped. 
 
 "It is necessary to keep this before one 
 always," he insisted, "as well as that 
 other truth that a perfect art must in 
 volve a perfect morality." 
 
 The breeze swept some rose leaves to 
 her from a near trellis. She smoothed 
 the delicate petals against her pink palm 
 for a moment reflectively. When she 
 lifted her head her manner was subdued, 
 totally altered. 
 
 "But those works that exercise the 
 106
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 greatest influence over our subsequent 
 actions are usually such as we feel no dis 
 position to analyze. They may or may 
 not reach the true standard, and seem to 
 come as by a mere accident into our 
 lives, like a flower wafted to the feet." 
 
 "Ah, that is undoubtedly true," he 
 assented, with comprehension. 
 
 "And the mood, the peculiar state of 
 mind, that means so much." 
 
 "So much." 
 
 Her expression had returned to its old 
 sadness, and it was evident that through 
 the trend of ideas some deep undercurrent 
 of feeling had been stirred. Her voice 
 sank lower, faltered, broke. She seemed 
 suddenly to have become wearied and 
 cold; but she did not draw her shawl 
 about her. When she spoke again, it 
 was as if, swept on by an impetuous im 
 pulse, she was allowing him to know her 
 inmost thoughts in a kind of sub-con 
 sciousness of his presence. 
 
 "Once a book came into my hands, by 
 chance, as I then thought," she said, in 
 107
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 low, hurried tones. "It was at a time in 
 my life of responsibility and uncertainty 
 and sleepless pain. One day I entered 
 a shop in New York, and of the new 
 books that were handed out to me I 
 bought one at random, yet feeling in some 
 vague way that it would contain a mes 
 sage for me. But having taken it home, 
 the mood to read passed. For weeks it 
 lay on my table, inviting me to open it, 
 until I finally grew nervous under its 
 silent entreaty. One especially dark day 
 I took it up. I read on and on for hours. 
 The thoughts in it burned into my brain 
 and heart. They seemed to hold out the 
 possibility of an existence purer and more 
 spiritual, through a higher consecration 
 to truth, than I had ever dreamed of. 
 Long passages, entire pages even, clung 
 to me, until my whole being was steeped 
 in the delicate subtleties of the ideal inter 
 pretation the interpretation of the poet, 
 it is true, yet of the man also, cognizant 
 of all human weakness and resisting it 
 with his utmost strength. There was 
 108
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 something god-like in that clear flute- 
 note. And there came a time when the 
 exalted standard that had been offered 
 seemed beckoning to me always. I was 
 no longer tempted. The way was plain. 
 I thought I thought I did what was 
 right. Who can ever know? The book 
 decided my destiny for me, that is all." 
 
 A convulsive shudder swept over her, 
 and a smoldering fire burned in the dark 
 eyes. She added quickly: "At no 
 other moment of my life could this book 
 have made anything approaching the im 
 pression that it did. Perhaps it was all a 
 mere superstitious fancy. But when I 
 went abroad I took it with me ; I had 
 been reading it again this morning when 
 you came." 
 
 St. John s eyes wandered involuntarily 
 in the direction of where the book lay 
 concealed. He was silent, mystified, 
 saddened. He looked instantly away 
 again, beyond the roses and fruit-trees 
 and flowering shrubs, to where a fountain 
 splashed in the sunlight. Presently she 
 109
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 turned her face to him, pale, but per 
 fectly controlled. Her lips parted in a 
 conventional smile. 
 
 "You must like it here this pretty 
 old-time garden," she said, rather for 
 mally. "I am so glad that you should 
 have seen it on such a day." 
 
 He looked at her thoughtfully for a 
 moment. "It is beautiful very beauti 
 ful," he replied, gravely. 
 
 She shrank a little from the pitying 
 tenderness in his eyes. 
 
 "I am like Walther von der Vogel- 
 weide," she said. "Do you not hate 
 it, too, the long winter? I love him for 
 all the hard things he has said of it for 
 the birds and me." 
 
 "But even Walther forgave one winter 
 of his life the winter of his happiness. 
 I can understand that." 
 
 "Walther was a mediaeval poet." 
 
 "Every man is a poet that loves a 
 woman." 
 
 He had risen, and was looking down 
 upon her where she sat, his face lighted
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 with a sudden flame, and transformed with 
 a new and sacred beauty. She reached 
 nervously backward for her shawl, avoid 
 ing his glance, and in so doing the book 
 she had been reading, being entangled, 
 fell heavily to the ground, as suddenly 
 she rose. 
 
 He leaned down to restore it, and she 
 uttered a cry of protest, putting forth a 
 swift, restraining hand. But she was too 
 late. She drew back, white and trem 
 bling, something like terror creeping into 
 her expression, while in a kind of trance- 
 like, fascinated gaze she watched his alert 
 movement. 
 
 As his glance fell upon the cover, he 
 started, caught in his breath, and a hot 
 flush mounted to his brow. He turned 
 quickly toward her, and their eyes met 
 hers baffled and confused, his savagely 
 triumphant. 
 
 The book was a copy of his own verse.
 
 VIII 
 
 With a zeal that was highly commend 
 able, if somewhat inconvenient, to his fu 
 ture instructress, Tim early presented 
 himself on the afternoon that was to 
 mark a strange turning in the existence 
 of this hitherto neglected little savage. 
 He was fully three-quarters of an hour in 
 advance of the time that had been agreed 
 upon, and Miss Alexander, who had been 
 roused from her nap by the reverberating 
 peal of his impetuous pull upon the door 
 bell, was compelled to keep him waiting 
 some little while before she was able to 
 appear. 
 
 In sympathetic comprehension of the 
 child nature, she proceeded to array her 
 self at once in one of her prettiest cos 
 tumes for the occasion, a tea-gown of 
 peach-blossom colored China silk; and
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 she stood for a moment smiling gleefully 
 back at her reflection in the long mirror 
 of her bedroom after she was dressed. 
 
 When she finally went below, she found 
 a small young person in the far end of 
 the room looking decidedly abashed and 
 uncomfortable. He was seated stiffly 
 upon one of the gilt chairs, and his little 
 bare legs were twisting and untwisting 
 themselves about the rounds in a manner 
 calculated to arouse a sensation of ner 
 vousness in the most phlegmatic. All his 
 pertness of expression had disappeared, 
 and a look of wide-eyed seriousness had 
 so transformed the piquant countenance 
 that for a moment Florida stood amazed. 
 She was furthermore touched by the 
 child s pathetic efforts at adornment as 
 displayed in a cheap crimson necktie, 
 long past its pristine freshness, and a 
 dilapidated straw hat, many times too 
 large, set rakishly back on the pretty curly 
 head. Perhaps she would have felt the 
 appeal even more had she known, which 
 she did not, that to obtain at second hand 
 "3
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 these polite adjuncts to his toilet he had 
 found it necessary to sacrifice three agates, 
 a kite and his well-beloved knife. Above 
 all, his face and hands were so alarmingly 
 clean, it was impossible not to experience 
 a certain uneasiness on witnessing such a 
 sudden and complete reform. 
 
 "Tim," she exclaimed, heartily, "I am 
 delighted to see you," taking the chair 
 at the boy s side, and bestowing one of 
 her slow, beautiful smiles upon him, a 
 smile that seemed to suggest the sunshine 
 and fruit and . flowers and all lovely 
 things to the little fellow, for he gazed 
 dumbly into her face in a kind of rapt, 
 bewildered intoxication. "Did you have 
 any trouble in finding the place?" she 
 asked. "There is another house some 
 thing like this farther down the street." 
 
 Tim appeared to be slowly recovering 
 the power of speech. He suddenly 
 straightened himself in his chair, gave an 
 odd little jerk to his shoulders, and broke 
 forth with the air of one about to relate 
 some thrilling and daring experience. 
 u 4
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Never had no trouble tall," he de 
 clared, breathlessly. "Jest corned right 
 along, an walked up all them steps, an 
 rung the doo -bell hard ez I could, an 
 that gentleman he corned an let me in, 
 an I jest walked right in an sot down in 
 one them gold chairs, an - 
 
 "A gentleman, Tim?" inquired Miss 
 Alexander, rather puzzled. 
 
 "Colored gentleman," remarked Tim, 
 with a nod, thus incontestably proving 
 that the blood of no slave-holding ances 
 tor flowed in his veins. 
 
 "Oh, I see," replied Miss Alexander, 
 amused. "It was Uncle Abram. And 
 now I am so glad that we have made a 
 beginning. Tim, dear, there is so much 
 in making a beginning. I hope I am 
 going to make you see that quite clearly, 
 as well as so many other things. But I 
 don t think I shall try to teach you very 
 much to-day. We will just talk a little 
 together and get acquainted. And in 
 the first place I want to ask you what do 
 you think is the reason why I so much 
 "5
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 wish you to study music, and have 
 brought you here?" 
 
 Tim s face grew thoughtful. He leaned 
 his elbows on his knees, and rested his 
 chin in his hands. He seemed to be of 
 the opinion that much depended upon 
 the answer he should make. 
 
 "Give it up," he said at length, deject 
 edly, raising his head. 
 
 "Tim, I will tell you," Miss Alexander 
 resumed, touching one of the crisp brown 
 curls with a caressing movement and smil 
 ing still, in a kind of playful earnestness. 
 "It is because you are one of those rare 
 beings that help to flood this strange old 
 world with light in other words, you are 
 a genius, Tim, and in my humble way I 
 should like to fire the torch and assist in 
 feeding the sacred flame. O Timothy," 
 twisting the shining band of hair about 
 her finger, "little dost thou dream what 
 the gods shall yet require of thee." 
 
 Being as indifferent as one could be 
 to the gift and nature of genius, and find 
 ing the new possession rather uncomfort- 
 116
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 able on the whole, Tim maintained an 
 embarrassed silence. There was one 
 and only one part of the remark that 
 had the smallest interest or meaning for 
 him ; as his ear caught the word feed, he 
 looked quickly up with a wink of appre 
 ciation, and Florida went on : 
 
 "It is the people that sing as you will 
 one day, dear, that bear a most beautiful 
 message to others. And I had the feel 
 ing, Tim, that as I have failed so sadly to 
 do many of the kind and helpful things 
 I had meant to do, perhaps some time 
 after a great while you would speak for 
 me, and so in this way that I would be 
 no longer altogether dumb." 
 
 Tim s eyes began to wander about the 
 room with eager curiosity. At this mo 
 ment a servant entered and deposited a 
 salver laden with eatables on a table 
 near by. Miss Alexander rose. "Here 
 are strawberries and buttered biscuits for 
 you, Tim," she cried, bending above the 
 tray. "Do you like strawberries and 
 buttered biscuits?" 
 
 117
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Tim was speechless with anticipation. 
 
 "And while you are eating them," she 
 went on, gayly, "I will tell you a story 
 of the time that is to come when you 
 shall be a grown man, and the people will 
 gather from far and near to hear you sing, 
 and you will sing in the great operas, and 
 perhaps you will be the mighty Siegfried 
 himself, the far-renowned knight ; and I 
 think I will tell you the story of Siegfried 
 while you are eating your strawberries. 
 But when you sing in the great opera the 
 story will not be precisely as I tell it to 
 you now; it will be something like it." 
 
 "Huccum t won t?" inquired Tim, in 
 one of his lapses into the negro dialect, 
 arresting himself in the act of devouring 
 an enormous strawberry, and slowly turn 
 ing his eyes toward her. 
 
 "Oh, because it won t, Tim; never 
 mind about that. Now, I m going to 
 begin. Long, long ago, far away over 
 the seas, in a beautiful castle on the Rhine, 
 there lived a mighty prince whose name 
 was Siegfried. And this Siegfried was 
 118
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 so strong, so very, very strong, there was 
 no one in all the whole wide world that 
 was a match for him, nor were there any 
 wild beasts in the dark forests that he 
 was afraid of in the least. And one day 
 alone on the mountain he killed the ter 
 rible dragon, and bathed himself in the 
 blood, and 
 
 Tim suddenly interrupted the narrative. 
 Raising his small form with a gesture of 
 infinite pride, he announced with flushed 
 cheeks and flashing eyes: 
 
 I ain t afeard o nobody, an I ain t 
 afeard o nothin* ." 
 
 Florida caught herself up with a start, 
 realizing the drift of the story. 
 
 "No, Tim, no, of course not; of course 
 you are not afraid," she said, rather ner 
 vously and hastily. "But you see the 
 days in which the Prince Siegfried lived 
 were very different days from our days, 
 and what was courage in him might not be 
 courage in one of us at all." 
 
 "Can t never let no nother boy jump 
 on me." 
 
 119
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "But for us it is courage not to fight 
 for us Kentuckians," Florida insisted, 
 feeling that she had been rather unfortun 
 ate in her selection. 
 
 "Can t never let no nother boy jump 
 on me," Tim stoutly maintained, by no 
 means converted. 
 
 Miss Alexander looked disturbed ; then 
 a whimsical smile broke over her face, 
 and she let her hands fall helplessly into 
 her lap. 
 
 "Oh, Tim, Tim!" she exclaimed, with 
 a laugh; "what a true son of Kentucky 
 you are!" 
 
 But all at once her manner grew grave 
 and sweet. 
 
 "Tim, dear," she said at length, "how 
 am I ever going to make you see certain 
 things, when your elders and your betters 
 set you the example that they do?" 
 
 Her glance wandered away from the 
 child, through the open window, far into 
 the distance, until it reached the place 
 out on the lawn where she and St. John 
 had sat the day before. She was think-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ing of the explanation he had once offered 
 of the fiery disposition of the Kentuckians. 
 This he traced back to certain hereditary 
 influences, holding that the spirit of re 
 sistance, essential to their forefathers 
 shut in as were the latter by the great 
 wall of mountains on the one side and the 
 waters on the other while they struggled 
 with the infuriated savages, had been 
 transmitted, and that, naturally, a people 
 accustomed to long years of such warfare 
 would grow to look with less horror upon 
 bloodshed than would others the condi 
 tions of whose development had been of 
 a more peaceful character. 
 
 She recalled his manner, earnest, 
 thoughtful, judicial, kindly the varying 
 expression in his deep blue eyes. She 
 had thought them rather remarkable eyes. 
 The entire impression came back to her, 
 especially the feeling she had had once 
 while he was speaking: the vivid realiza 
 tion that he unconsciously gave her of his 
 own intense self-mastery, of his grasp 
 upon the thought that the true fight is
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 within. And in sharp contradistinction 
 there flashed now, as then, before her 
 mind s eye, another face, a bold, reckless, 
 handsome face, startling her by the force 
 of the antithesis. Launcelot and Galahad ! 
 Half- forgetful of the boy s presence, she 
 went softly over the lines that had begun 
 to hold a certain association in her 
 thoughts: 
 
 " My good blade carves the casques of men, 
 
 My tough lance thrusteth sure, 
 My strength is as the strength of ten, 
 Because my heart is pure." 
 
 Her eyes, presently traveling slowly 
 back to her well-contented little guest, 
 rested upon an empty plate; there was 
 absolutely not a crumb left, and she had 
 ordered, she thought, an absurdly bounti 
 ful supply. 
 
 "Were you really so hungry, Tim?" 
 she asked, gently. 
 
 "Was right smart hongry," was the 
 reply. 
 
 "Do you think you could eat anything 
 more?" she hinted, not without some
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 inward misgivings as to the advisability 
 of the proposition. 
 
 Tim hesitated. "Ef I wuz to stan up 
 an go right slow I think I mought," he 
 finally confessed. 
 
 "I dare not, Tim, I dare not," Miss 
 Alexander hastened to protest. "You 
 surely would be ill. How long has it 
 been since you had anything to eat?" 
 
 "Sence las night." 
 
 "Last night! Are you often hungry 
 hungry as you were to-day?" Her 
 face had grown very pitiful as she bent 
 above him. 
 
 "Offen nough," he answered, briefly, 
 drawing back a little from her caress. 
 Presently he fixed his eyes intently upon 
 her. "How many people could you 
 feed?" he demanded most seriously. 
 
 "How many? Oh, I don t know, 
 Tim; I never thought of it. Why do 
 you ask?" 
 
 "Could you feed five thousand?" sug 
 gested Tim. 
 
 "Five thousand, Tim? I should never 
 123
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 think of attempting such a thing. The 
 idea is quite appalling. What do you 
 mean?" 
 
 Tim was silent a moment, and then 
 proceeded with much impressiveness. 
 
 "I hearn that somebody did oncet," he 
 declared. "With five loaves an an 
 speaking with careful precision with 
 five loaves an tivo small fishes." 
 
 "Oh, but that was a miracle, Tim," 
 responded Florida, reverently. "I did 
 not understand at first what you meant." 
 
 Tim s eyes were still fixed in a solemn 
 interrogation upon her face. After a 
 long pause, with the same soberness of 
 demeanor, "That never could ha been," 
 he asserted positively. 
 
 "It is all quite true, Tim," Florida 
 answered with equal firmness. "It is 
 none the less true because you cannot 
 understand." 
 
 Tim regarded her with the regretful 
 look of one who sees his idol about to 
 crumble at his feet. He was evidently 
 
 124
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 finding it rather difficult to comprehend 
 that there could be such a thing as a sim 
 ilarity of teaching between the despised 
 "long-nosed one," and this beautiful, re 
 splendent creature who thrilled his little 
 pagan heart with something nearer akin 
 to a feeling of worship than he had ever 
 known. 
 
 "All I got to say then," he said, at 
 length, weakening in some small degree 
 in his position, "they must ha had a 
 mighty little bit." 
 
 Florida reached forth an arm and drew 
 the child closer to her. A great wave of 
 tenderness, of compassion, of she scarce 
 knew what, seemed to sweep over her, 
 and to lend to her words a simple, direct 
 beauty. In a low voice she began, 
 smoothing with gentle touch the small 
 brown head resting at her side as she told 
 in language that he could understand 
 the meaning of the heavenly bread, the 
 mystery of the "meat which endureth 
 unto everlasting life. And as she spoke, 
 
 125
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the shadows on the lawn grew deeper, 
 and the sweet flower-laden air stole in 
 through the windows, and the drowsy 
 hum of insects kept up a pleasant mono 
 tone, until the little fellow felt a strange 
 new sense of peace, his violet eyes open 
 ing and closing in a pretty, dreamy sort 
 of way. 
 
 "And so, dear," she said, at last, and 
 there was the throb of some inward pain 
 in the quiet voice, "there are two things 
 for us never to forget: to keep our own 
 hearts pure, so that we may not choose 
 the low things of the earth, and thus bring 
 sorrow upon ourselves for all our days ; and 
 to try to be ready to give the true bread 
 to others. There will be always many 
 hungry ones. And though we cannot see 
 the Kind Shepherd, as did the five thou 
 sand, and sometimes in our grief and 
 blindness we may doubt His goodness 
 even it is so hard to see the dear God s 
 face through our tears we know that as 
 He was sorry for them, He is sorry now 
 for us, and does not wish that there 
 126
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 should be any hungry ones, or discour 
 aged, or sad." 
 
 The child suddenly raised himself and 
 looked her long in the face. "You looks 
 jest like er angel when you talks like 
 that," he cried. 
 
 127
 
 IX 
 
 On the outskirts of the town, not far 
 from the line of the street railway, there 
 was a dim old wood, almost as mysteri 
 ous and as beautiful and as wildly som 
 ber as were the first Kentucky forests that 
 broke upon the enraptured gaze of the 
 pioneers. The place bore an air of neg 
 lect, but a neglect altogether delightful in 
 its picturesqueness, being enclosed by a 
 vine-covered wall, crumbling here and 
 there, and affording to the wearied trav 
 eler of the roadside such delicious glimpses 
 of cool retreats, such revelations in the 
 way of light and shade, undulation and 
 color as to send him on his way refreshed, 
 the redolence of the rank vegetation 
 steeping his senses into happy forgetful- 
 ness of heat and dust and blinding path. 
 St. John particularly delighted in the 
 128
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 spot, and when the warm June days cut 
 short his longer rambles into the country, 
 almost every afternoon found him here, 
 sometimes with notebook and pencil, as 
 often without, giving himself wholly up 
 to a profound and intimate communion, 
 which, when he afterward went to his 
 work, seemed in effect to breathe itself 
 into his writings, lending to them some 
 thing of the uplifting power of nature 
 itself. 
 
 But recently his thoughts and the ex 
 pression of them had taken an unaccus 
 tomed turn ; there had crept into his 
 verses a more distinctly human note, as if 
 his heart, hitherto closed to one feature 
 of the emotions in an intensity of reserve, 
 were now expanding under a sudden 
 warmth. It was with a quaint simplicity 
 that he yielded himself to the new influ 
 ence. Self-centered, perhaps, because 
 of an over-zealous vigilance, loyal to 
 others, because true first to himself, 
 through this sway his nature seemed 
 likely to attain an elasticity which for- 
 129
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 merly it had lacked ; for it is in experi 
 ence and fulfillment that such a tempera 
 ment reaches its height of development. 
 And the difficult standard toward which 
 he continually strove, the stature of the 
 ideal man, had been complemented al 
 ways by another standard poetic, allur 
 ing, passionately pure the stature of the 
 ideal woman, before whose shadowy im 
 age he worshiped with something of the 
 same fierce and enduring tenderness which 
 of old Arthur enjoined upon his knights. 
 
 Two weeks had passed since that morn 
 ing among the flowers, when he had felt 
 that a new day was dawning for him. 
 Though he had called repeatedly since 
 that time he had not seen Miss Alexander 
 once. It was characteristic of him that 
 he did not attribute this circumstance to 
 any impulse of coquetry in her, but con 
 tinued to wait in calm trustfulness and 
 patience for what he none the less ar 
 dently desired, though outwardly the 
 longing was repressed. 
 
 When he did see her again, he came 
 130
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 upon her suddenly and quite by accident, 
 finding her one afternoon in the depths 
 of his favorite woods. She was seated 
 on an old moss-covered log, and she 
 wore a green wool gown and green straw 
 hat, the colors melting so harmoniously 
 into those about her that he was not con 
 scious of her presence until he had drawn 
 quite near. However, she recognized 
 him some moments before he saw her. 
 He was walking slowly, absorbed in 
 thought, for to-day there had come a dis 
 turbing echo from the outside world; but 
 at sight of her he uttered an exclamation 
 of joyful surprise. 
 
 "Ah, what an unexpected pleasure to 
 find you here!" he cried, coming quickly 
 to her, a swift gleam lighting his dark 
 face. 
 
 She returned his gaze in silence, smil 
 ing up at him in quiet greeting. For a 
 moment there was a responsive flash in 
 her eyes, but it changed instantly into an 
 expression of merely friendly inquiry. 
 With an air of proprietorship in her sur-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 roundings which he found rather amus 
 ing in view of what he considered his own 
 claims of possession, she made a place for 
 him at her side. 
 
 "You cant know how glad I am to find 
 you here!" he repeated, warmly. 
 
 She slowly turned her face toward him, 
 and smiled again, this time in a rather 
 uncertain fashion. 
 
 "I am often here, when at home at 
 this time of the year," she replied. "But 
 I come generally in the morning, quite 
 early." She smoothed her glove, reflec 
 tively, between her fingers. "It is beau 
 tiful here at all times, but it is especially 
 beautiful in the morning, quite early," 
 she said. 
 
 "At this moment it is perfect," an 
 swered St. John, simply and fervently, 
 adding with an effort at lightness : Here, 
 I am among my friends; in June, with 
 Lowell, I am always ready to count a 
 tree among my far progenitors. 
 
 "Are you, too, often in these woods?" 
 inquired Florida. 
 
 132
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Very often. I doubt if the man that 
 owns them does really own them after all. 
 Some time I should like to compare notes 
 and find out whether his pastures have 
 ever yielded him as much as they have 
 yielded me." 
 
 "You will have to ask her, not him; 
 the land is owned by a woman, and if you 
 ask her, and she is truthful, she will cer 
 tainly answer no." 
 
 "Why do you make so sure of that?" 
 
 "Because I accept Plato s definition of 
 a poet as a light and winged and holy 
 thing; the woman that owns this land is 
 not a poet." She looked away, in the 
 direction of the large red-brick structure 
 in the distance, with a dreamy, intent ex 
 pression in her eyes. 
 
 "The place has quite an ancient and 
 historic suggestion," he said, following 
 her glance. "But in Kentucky one 
 never knows when he is upon sacred soil. 
 Did I ever tell you of my Boonesborough 
 experience?" 
 
 There was a ring in his voice of such 
 i33
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 genuine joy in her presence, she avoided 
 meeting his eyes. She shook her head, 
 and he went on : 
 
 "In some way I had an incorrect idea; 
 I was under the impression that Bcones- 
 borough was a large and thriving town. 
 I especially wished to see the site of the 
 old fort. One day last summer, when in 
 my boat on the Kentucky River, knowing 
 that I was somewhere in the neighbor 
 hood of the place, I called to a man who 
 was ploughing on the hillside, and asked 
 him to tell me how far I was from Boones- 
 borough. The man regarded me stolidly 
 for a moment, and then said : 
 
 ; Stranger, ef ye ll git out o thet 
 thar boat, an roll up them thar pants, 
 ye ll be knee-deep in Boonesborough 
 now. 
 
 Florida laughed. "At present you are 
 knee-deep in nothing more notable than 
 the far-famed bluegrass," she responded. 
 "The house is not very old." Then she 
 supplemented in a softened voice: "It 
 was my mother s girlhood home. From 
 134
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 a child I have haunted the spot. Did 
 not the birds tell you?" 
 
 He turned and looked her quickly in 
 the eyes. 
 
 "I can well believe now that they 
 did," he said, quite earnestly, at length. 
 
 She flushed a little under his serious 
 gaze, and hurried on. "The place has 
 been for six months without a tenant, but 
 I shall rent it again in the autumn, I 
 think. I so much dislike the idea of any 
 one living in it, and it is only stern neces 
 sity that ever drives me to consider it. I 
 have always a feeling that whatever of 
 work and change existence may hold 
 for me, some time I myself shall surely 
 live in it ; and I find my thoughts contin 
 ually traveling onward to the time when, 
 at the end of life, I shall come back here 
 and take up my abode with only my 
 silent companions the ghosts of other 
 days." 
 
 He was still looking steadily at her, 
 touched not so much by her words, which 
 were spoken lightly enough, but by that 
 35
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 undercurrent of pain which so often crept 
 into her voice, and which her careless 
 speech could not conceal. Her swift 
 perception must have made her conscious 
 of his pity, for in the next moment she 
 strove to direct the conversation from 
 herself. 
 
 "Were you composing a sonnet when 
 you discovered me?" she inquired, cheer 
 fully. 
 
 His expression underwent a sudden 
 change. His face clouded, and he passed 
 his hand wearily across his brow, as if re 
 calling a disturbing thought, which, for 
 the time, had been expelled by a happy 
 interruption. 
 
 "No no it was not a sonnet," he 
 answered, absently. "The fact is, I was 
 not thinking of my work." He was 
 silent a moment, and then all at once he 
 turned abruptly toward her. "It might 
 surely have been a dirge," he said. 
 "Could you bear to have me tell you a 
 little of myself, of the life before I came 
 to this place?" he asked. "But it is not 
 136
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 so much of my own life as of the life of 
 some one who, for many years, was every 
 thing to me that I should like to speak, if 
 you would care to listen." 
 
 His manner was very quiet, but he was 
 evidently stirred to the utmost depths of 
 his nature by some thrilling recollection. 
 His eyes were gravely earnest and he 
 was paler than ordinarily. He waited for 
 her reply. 
 
 She caught in her breath quickly, when 
 she slowly lifted her eyes to his face. "If 
 it is hard for you," she began, shrinking 
 sensitively from she scarce knew what, 
 "if it is hard " 
 
 "Since my friend s death I have never 
 been able to mention his name to any 
 one; but it is not hard to speak of him to 
 you," he said, with a profound sincerity 
 in the words. "And to-day all my 
 thoughts have been turned backward by 
 a notice in one of the Eastern papers 
 stating the death through consumption of 
 the young girl to whom he had been en 
 gaged. It was of my friend I had been
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 thinking when I came upon you." The 
 hand that again swept across his brow 
 shook a little as he continued. 
 
 "We had been intimate since boyhood; 
 but it would be impossible to conceive of 
 two people more unlike. My life has 
 always been solitary ; his was spent con 
 tinually out in the world. Ardent, pleas 
 ure-loving, wholly irresponsible, often 
 impulsively wrong, seldom deliberately 
 so, his was an organism in which, if there 
 was no pronounced tendency for good, 
 there was also no pronounced tendency 
 for evil ; and in thinking of him, and of 
 the things he was led to do, it has always 
 been something to me to hold fast to the 
 thought that had he been less powerfully 
 tempted than he was he might some day 
 have become strong." 
 
 She was leaning passively against the 
 bole of the massive oak at her back. Her 
 eyes were downcast, and her hands were 
 clasped rather tightly in her lap. She 
 appeared to be listening intently. Sud 
 denly she half rose from her seat, and he 
 38
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 was startled by the sharp cry that escaped 
 her. But in the next instant he perceived 
 the cause of it ; a rabbit had run across 
 the path. 
 
 "Pardon me," said Florida, quickly, 
 in a low voice. "I I am not often so 
 foolishly superstitious." A faint smile 
 played about her lips. "Please go 
 on," she insisted; her great brown eyes 
 seemed filled with sympathetic interest. 
 "You were saying that had your friend 
 been less powerfully tempted than he 
 was " 
 
 "I had aways had the belief," resumed 
 St. John, "that through the love of some 
 good woman he might be made to see 
 many things to which formerly he had 
 been morally blind. But when one day 
 he told me he was engaged to be married 
 to a young woman I knew, I felt my 
 heart sink with apprehension. The girl 
 was pretty, but weak, wholly incapable 
 of exercising the influence for which I 
 hoped. My fears were only too soon 
 realized ; in less than three months I saw
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 that he was growing cold in his feeling 
 toward her." 
 
 He was looking steadily away now, and 
 he proceeded in a changed voice. 
 
 "But I did not fully realize the situa 
 tion until the summer, when I knew that 
 she had gone to Newport, and saw that 
 he failed to follow her; and I do not 
 think that he realized the situation at all. 
 She wrote to him frequently light, gos 
 sipy letters they must have been. He 
 sometimes mentioned to me certain inci 
 dents of which she had written ; we were 
 very intimate. In her letters she made 
 repeated, veiled references, withholding 
 the name, to a beautiful young woman 
 from the South, I think who must have 
 been as magnetic and as alluring as she 
 was beautiful; and it happened that the 
 fanciful description caught his attention. 
 As by accident, he carelessly touched 
 upon the subject, from time to time, with 
 me, and always there was something in 
 his constrained, laughing tone to betray 
 that he was strangely interested. It was 
 140
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 scarcely a surprise to me when he finally 
 announced his intention of going to New 
 port. He wrote to me one letter during 
 the six weeks he spent there the letter of 
 a man blind, infatuated, utterly swept off 
 his feet. Had this woman, who proved 
 to be his destiny, been a good woman 
 instead of the woman she was " 
 
 She interrupted him with a sudden, 
 sharp gesture. "What right have you 
 how can you dare to lay all the blame 
 upon her upon this woman whoever 
 she may be?" she cried. Her eyes were 
 wide and staring, and her face was quiv 
 ering with an intensity of feeling. 
 
 He turned toward her. 
 
 "It seems to me that there cannot be 
 two opinions in the matter," he said, 
 coldly. "She understood the situation 
 perfectly, knew that his highest allegiance 
 was due another woman, a woman who 
 was her friend, and knowing it, she pro 
 ceeded to inflict the bitterest humiliation 
 that one person can inflict upon another, 
 and in the most public way. There is 
 HI
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 no limitation to the vanity of such a 
 woman." 
 
 She put up her hand to her throat and 
 held it there for a moment. 
 
 "Have you no mercy?" she implored. 
 A shiver seemed to sweep over her. 
 "May she not have been powerfully 
 tempted, too?" The words broke from 
 her at last in a despairing appeal. 
 
 He looked at her with admiration in 
 his eyes. "It is very beautiful that you 
 should plead for her," he answered 
 warmly; "but you are so far incapable of 
 such an act as hers as to be wholly unable 
 to understand all that it implies." 
 
 She drew back as if there had been 
 that in his praise that stung. 
 
 "No; I have never been able to find 
 the smallest excuse for her," he said, 
 sternly, at length, "for if at any time 
 there was an excuse, her subsequent con 
 duct left small room for doubt of her 
 heartlessness. Having wrought all the 
 mischief she could in the way of a broken 
 engagement, and I may truly say a 
 142
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 broken heart as well for the death of the 
 young girl to whom he had proved faith 
 less really dated from that time she 
 seemed to take refuge in a cheap re 
 morse. Refusing steadfastly to see him 
 ever again, she went abroad, I think, and 
 managed to hide herself from him for a 
 time. He succeeded in finding her at 
 length, however, and she informed him 
 that she had somewhat misunderstood the 
 nature of her feeling for him, imploring 
 him to go back to the woman he had de 
 serted. In a spirit of pique he did go 
 back, and shortly afterward it was an 
 nounced that the marriage would take 
 place." He paused a moment, and then 
 added: "Two weeks before the day fixed 
 for the wedding he was drowned mysteri 
 ously off the coast " 
 
 She turned wildly upon him. "It 
 was an accident, " she whispered, husk 
 ily, "surely it was that. I mean," 
 suddenly checking herself, "what you 
 imply is too hideous to be true. It 
 must have been an accident," breath-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 lessly. "Why why do you speak as if 
 it were not?" 
 
 The corners of his mouth were com 
 pressed ; evidently it was costing him a 
 good deal to tell the story, even to her. 
 
 "It was not an accident," said St. 
 John, slowly, at length. "He swam 
 better than any one I ever saw; it is im 
 possible that he could have been drowned, 
 the circumstances being what they were. 
 Moreover, I had proof." 
 
 He paused a moment and looked 
 quickly about him. The woods had be 
 come darkened, and there was now and 
 again a low, angry, rumbling sound, like 
 the rage of a savage beast hungrily seek 
 ing its prey. The odor of the dank 
 grasses was oppressive and the air was 
 stifling. But Florida s eyes were still 
 fixed upon his face in a kind of strained, 
 breathless intentness. The supple figure 
 had become rigid ; her parted lips were 
 dry and parched. Her eyes seemed to 
 compel him to go on. 
 
 "A few moments before his death he 
 i 44
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 wrote a letter to me. It was the letter 
 of a madman. There can be no question 
 that, driven to desperation, he took his 
 own life," he concluded, hoarsely. 
 "Ballinger " 
 
 Like a blade, a sudden, terrific flash of 
 lightning cut off the unintentional men 
 tion of the name, and with a shriek Flor 
 ida sprang trembling to her feet, as there 
 followed a deafening, reverberating peal 
 that seemed to shake the forest to its ut 
 most depths. 
 
 He rose alarmed. With incredible 
 rapidity the clouds had gathered. As 
 frequently happens in Kentucky in the 
 month of June, there had been but little 
 warning, and it appeared now that the 
 storm was about to break upon them in 
 great fury. 
 
 He gave her a swift glance of uneasi 
 ness. She was still trembling, and very 
 pale. The giant oak above them groaned 
 and swayed. She stood as one stunned. 
 "Come," he said, quickly, "we have not 
 an instant to lose; come." 
 MS
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 But she remained motionless, bewil 
 dered, her eyes still searching his face. 
 "Come," he insisted again; but she 
 seemed to shrink from him. 
 
 Presently he reached down and caught 
 her arm, placing it authoritatively in his, 
 and thus hurried her out of the woods. 
 They could barely hear each other speak. 
 
 "Don t be so frightened," he cried, 
 disturbed at her pallor, as he almost 
 dragged her along. I think there is still 
 time enough for us to reach the car, if 
 fortunately one should appear. Ah 
 don t tremble so!" 
 
 Once out of the forest, her strength 
 seemed to return. She broke away from 
 him and ran swiftly down the road. The 
 dusty pike was dimpled here and there 
 with great moist splashes. He was up 
 with her again in a moment, and this 
 time her arm was placed more firmly in 
 his. 
 
 "You will make yourself ill," cried St. 
 John, remorsefully; "I have been to 
 blame. If only we can reach some place 
 146
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 of shelter! I shall never forgive myself 
 if I let you get wet!" 
 
 "That seems oh, it seems such a little 
 thing," answered Florida, wearily and in 
 coherently. Then she added hurriedly, 
 "I I am aways frightened in a storm; I 
 like it, though." 
 
 She lifted her head, and a wan little 
 smile broke over her face. They walked 
 for some moments in silence. All at 
 once she paused and looked intently down 
 the road. 
 
 "The car! the car!" she cried. 
 
 "Yes, it is the car," he answered. "I 
 am so glad ; I should never have forgiven 
 myself if I had let you get wet." 
 
 His glance sank deep, deeper into hers. 
 
 Suddenly with a low, bitter little laugh 
 she turned away. 
 
 The car had stopped, and she sprang 
 into it, avoiding his aid. 
 
 47
 
 X 
 
 When Mrs. Pemberton Jerome decided 
 to make her home in the charming little 
 capital of the Bluegrass Region with the 
 ambitious intention of becoming a social 
 magnate, she ignorantly overlooked in 
 her calculations certain difficulties which 
 did not fail to confront her from the very 
 outset of her career. To her surprise 
 and discomfiture, she did not receive the 
 cordial welcome she had anticipated, the 
 hospitality for which the locality has long 
 been famed being conspicuously wanting. 
 
 In spite of a considerable amount of 
 travel and experience in later years, the 
 pretty young widow, whose early youth 
 had been spent in an obscure Western 
 town, had yet to know many things. 
 Among these was the very obvious truth 
 that he who would run with safety must 
 148
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 first learn to walk. It had been Mrs. 
 Jerome s great blunder in the beginning 
 that she had startled the inhabitants of 
 this quiet and somewhat exclusive little 
 city by a gait rather too rapid to be sus 
 tained with impunity, especially by one 
 so recently arrived in their midst. 
 
 The old and well-established Lexing- 
 tonian is apt to look askance on all new 
 comers. In the case of Mrs. Pemberton 
 Jerome, the old and well-established Lex- 
 ingtonian generally refused to look at all. 
 And as it was the unswerving purpose 
 of this audacious but shrewd little person 
 age to obtain for herself a footing neither 
 slippery nor insecure, she prudently pro 
 ceeded to slacken her pace. 
 
 In the first place, her costumes, which 
 had given offense by their gaudiness and 
 exaggerated adherence to the latest fash 
 ions, grew more subdued. If formerly, 
 with her plumes and laces and flounces, 
 she had presented an altogether too 
 gay and costly appearance as she swept 
 through the streets of the old town in 
 149
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 her showy equipages, she now affected, 
 with a chameleon-like adaptability, the 
 quiet and more elegant attire of the 
 well-bred people she was accustomed to 
 pass, the result being as propitious, so 
 far as her hopes for future recognition 
 were concerned, as it was softening to her 
 pronounced style of beauty. 
 
 She was a strikingly pretty woman, of 
 the plump and dimpled order, with skin 
 like a pearl and an abundance of curling 
 auburn hair, which she wore parted above 
 a very low brow. And when she spoke, 
 it was with a soft, infantile little lisp, 
 and when she laughed, which was quite 
 often, there were two lovely indentations 
 in either cheek; and it was odd but true 
 that, in spite of all this, there was yet a 
 look of hardness about the small face, 
 which must have afforded Mrs. Alexan 
 der excuse for persistently regarding her 
 as an adventuress long after she had be 
 gun to be received. 
 
 It was not Mrs. Alexander s intention 
 ever to receive her at any time. The old 
 150
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 aristocracy could not be too wary, she 
 affirmed. There was one point concern 
 ing which she felt more strongly than any 
 other: the subject of family prestige. 
 But how was it possible to maintain this, 
 if the best people opened their doors to 
 every unknown individual who chanced to 
 be attracted to the place? And she said 
 as much to her stepdaughter one June 
 afternoon when the two were driving out 
 on one of the lovely country roads and 
 happened to meet Mrs. Pemberton Je 
 rome. 
 
 The latter, faultlessly dressed in a 
 cream-colored cloth gown, was indolently 
 reclining in her pretty victoria with an air 
 of assurance which Mrs. Alexander found 
 most irritating. Perhaps her resentment 
 was heightened by the consciousness that 
 her ancient and highly respectable coach 
 with Uncle Abram on the box bore the 
 contrast but sadly with Mrs. Jerome s 
 liveried coachman and spick and span 
 turnout. Of course one might take ref 
 uge in the thought that it was infinitely
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 more in accord with Kentucky ways (and 
 therefore the more desirable) to make 
 use of the carnage owned by one s hus 
 band almost since the days of the war, 
 and to be driven by an aged colored serv 
 ant that had been his former slave; but 
 Mrs. Jerome s newness was none the less 
 an affront, and Mrs. Alexander mani 
 fested her disapproval by a haughty gaze 
 into space, when the two vehicles passed 
 each other, which was intended to crush, 
 if not to annihilate. 
 
 She sat for a moment with lowered 
 brow, and then suddenly brought herself 
 bolt-upright in her seat. 
 
 "Florida," she said, sharply, "your 
 views are so very eccentric upon many 
 subjects, it is impossible to conjecture 
 what your conduct is likely to be in any 
 case ; but I particularly wish to know 
 what you propose to do in regard to 
 this young woman. I consider the ad 
 vent of such a person in our midst as a 
 crisis in our social life." 
 
 They were driving through a delightful
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 stretch of country leading out from one 
 of the broad thoroughfares. Now and 
 then, under the azure sky, one caught 
 glimpses of substantial old homesteads 
 half hidden in the forests about them, the 
 soft, undulating landscape seeming to 
 melt away into mountains or seas of 
 green, according as there appeared in the 
 distance the dim outline of towering 
 trees, or sunny, waving fields of grain. 
 And on all sides there was an exuberance 
 of nature, a luxuriant rioting of vegetable 
 life that gave one a sense of wholesome 
 satisfaction in the thought that here at 
 least perfection was to be found. 
 
 Florida reluctantly withdrew her eyes 
 from the plot of pink clover they were at 
 that moment passing. Her face wore a 
 look of surprise. "In regard to whom?" 
 she inquired vaguely, her thoughts having 
 evidently been far away. 
 
 "In regard to this most objectionable 
 person this Mrs. Pemberton Jerome, as 
 she calls herself, I believe," the elder 
 woman explained, impatiently.
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "But why should she not call herself 
 that if it happens to be her name?" A 
 playful smile flitted across the girl s face, 
 and her stepmother turned upon her with 
 severity. 
 
 "You would not surely you would 
 not consider the question of calling upon 
 her?" she demanded, her cold, black eyes 
 fired with indignation. 
 
 "I have not considered it," replied 
 Florida, indifferently. 
 
 In the brief glances she had occasion 
 ally given the "objectionable person" as 
 she passed her from time to time in the 
 streets, she had thought her a pretty, 
 underbred, but entirely harmless-looking 
 individual. 
 
 "It is disgraceful," Mrs. Alexander 
 resumed, with an arrogant little sniff, 
 "that a dignified old town like this should 
 open its doors to a person of whom abso 
 lutely nothing is known, merely because 
 she has bought one of the handsomest 
 homes in the place (I always particularly 
 admired that house opposite the park) 
 154
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 and entertains with a lavishness which, 
 from a stranger, is grossly out of taste. 
 A stranger should not entertain at all. It 
 is shocking shocking. Quite a number 
 have called upon her, would you believe 
 it?" 
 
 "I can readily believe it," said Flor 
 ida, with a laugh. Her glance stole 
 away to the blossoms and lovely green 
 things by the roadside. She was think 
 ing a little wearily of how utterly impos 
 sible it would be for her now to take up 
 the life in this place ever again. The idle 
 gossip and comment to which she was 
 constantly forced to become an unwilling 
 listener were growing unbearable. "It is 
 not the provincialism," she sometimes 
 said in feverish rebellion to herself; "the 
 place is not really provincial; it is simply 
 stifling." And as her stepmother contin 
 ued, there came crowding into her mind 
 recollections of the old college days, of 
 the broad purpose that had been before 
 her once, and of the abrupt, melancholy 
 ending to her high thoughts for useful-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ness, just as if there had been a paralysis 
 of all her powers. 
 
 "She has daring great daring," Mrs. 
 Alexander resumed, keeping a strong 
 grasp upon the topic in spite of Florida s 
 very palpable lack of interest. "And she 
 has evidently not the smallest desire for 
 mental improvement. When asked to 
 join the Progressive Woman s Club, I 
 am told that she leaned back in her chair 
 with that audacious little air she well 
 assumes, and nonchalantly said: My 
 dear, a club is an excellent place for a 
 disappointed old maid or an unhappy 
 married woman; I am neither. 
 
 "Perhaps she is growing careless of 
 feminine approval," suggested Florida. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander nodded. "I hear she 
 has the devoted attention of Colonel 
 Rufus Henry and young Robert Vance," 
 she remarked. There was that in her 
 fretful, metallic voice to-day that irresist 
 ibly put one in mind of a parrot. 
 
 "Perhaps she finds them all-sufficient," 
 
 156
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 replied Florida in cheerful dismissal of the 
 subject. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander darted a sharp glance 
 toward her stepdaughter s indifferent 
 countenance, and a malicious smile curled 
 her lips. 
 
 "No; she does not find them all-suffi 
 cient. I am told that recently a new 
 knight has been added to her list your 
 Mr. St. John," she said. 
 
 Without the flicker of an eyelash or the 
 most faintly perceptible change of color, 
 Florida quietly turned and met her step 
 mother s gaze. Her cool, unconcerned 
 reception of the thrust was an annoying 
 surprise. Mrs. Alexander grew some 
 what embarrassed, but she stoutly held to 
 her position. 
 
 "I hear that he is with her constantly 
 constantly," she declared. 
 
 "Then plainly he does not share your 
 opinion in regard to the importance of 
 guarding against her entrance into good 
 society. Not being a Lexingtonian him-
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 self, he probably feels less responsibility 
 in the matter." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander bit her lips. 
 
 "Florida," said she, bluntly, at length, 
 "I think I need not point out to a woman 
 with your knowledge of the world the ad 
 vantages of matrimony to one situated 
 as you are. Before many years have 
 gone by, the little girls will be ready to 
 be presented to society, and with the 
 wide difference in your ages, your atti 
 tude will be anything but comfortable. 
 As for this Mr. St. John, I am free to 
 say I never fancied him myself; I 
 thought him ordinary, quite ordinary. 
 But any one can see that he rather ad 
 mires you, and I think the match would 
 be satisfactory to your father." 
 
 A shadowy smile flickered across Flor 
 ida s face. "I am sorry, very sorry in 
 deed," she said, "to have to tell you 
 that in spite of the advantages of matri 
 mony to one situated as I am, I shall, not 
 withstanding, never be any man s wife." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander wheeled herself ab- 
 158
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ruptly about in the carriage, and peered 
 penetratingly into the girl s face. 
 
 "What nonsense, what absurd school 
 girl s nonsense is this you are talking?" 
 she demanded, severely. 
 
 Florida was silent. Her lightly spoken 
 words had left a startling echo in her 
 own. heart. 
 
 "No doubt you have had some unfor 
 tunate love affair 
 
 A swift crimson dyed the girl s throat 
 and cheek and brow. 
 
 "And for that reason you think you 
 are done with all such matters forever. 
 But at your age it is hardly wise to let 
 this opportunity slip. A designing 
 woman like this Mrs. Jerome can ac 
 complish a great deal. Moreover, the 
 woman is pretty, decidedly pretty in her 
 way. My taste is for a more classic style 
 of beauty, to be sure," carefully turning 
 her face to the precise position at which 
 her profile was to be seen at its best; 
 "but it is just such a little plump sort of 
 being as she that two-thirds of the men in
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the world would prefer; not that any one 
 could call you homely, my dear, though 
 your features are far from perfect." 
 
 Florida broke into a low, spontaneous 
 laugh, and Mrs. Alexander regarded her a 
 trifle suspiciously. 
 
 "A wise woman never underrates her 
 rival s strength," she asserted ominously, 
 adjusting more comfortably the airy lit 
 tle structure, composed of artificial violets 
 and lavender ribbon, she was wearing 
 upon her head. "And there is such a 
 thing as holding one s own charm in too 
 high estimate." 
 
 The carriage had stopped before their 
 house. Florida sprang gayly out ; a rosy 
 radiance suddenly overspread her face. 
 
 "So you are warning me against Mrs. 
 Pemberton Jerome?" she said, smiling, 
 as she leaned carelessly upon the door for 
 an instant. 
 
 "Forewarned is forearmed," the other 
 retorted, dryly, gathering up her lace 
 cape with an impatient shrug, and pre 
 paring to descend from the coach. 
 1 60
 
 XI 
 
 If, judging by appearances, Mrs. Alex 
 ander had proved herself unable to pro 
 voke the remotest dread or even a mo 
 mentary curiosity on the part of her step 
 daughter touching the attractions of Mrs. 
 Pemberton Jerome, it is equally true 
 that the young widow regarded the girl 
 not only as an acquaintance to be desired, 
 but as a rival to be feared. Furthermore, 
 she was beginning to find the situation 
 somewhat irritating, and was disturbed 
 on being constantly forced to confess 
 that, thus far, the Alexanders had failed 
 to acknowledge her presence in their 
 midst. 
 
 They had interested her greatly, the 
 more, perhaps, for the reason that they 
 were quite unattainable. It was, there 
 fore, with a secret satisfaction that she 
 161
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 grasped an opportunity afforded only a 
 few evenings after that last encounter on 
 the drive. 
 
 There was to be a moonlight fete on 
 rather an extensive scale at one of the 
 beautiful country-homes, and Mrs. Je 
 rome had had the rare fortune to receive 
 an invitation to this, along with most of 
 the prominent members of that circle into 
 which, with a perseverance worthy of a 
 nobler cause, she ceaselessly strove to 
 enter. 
 
 On account of certain things in har 
 mony with her well-considered scheme of 
 action, Mrs. Jerome looked upon this 
 event as one of more than ordinary pur 
 port. She accordingly adorned herself on 
 the all-important evening with especial 
 care, selecting a black tulle gown, span 
 gled with silver, which, falling loosely 
 from her ivory shoulders contrasted strik 
 ingly with her fair complexion, and 
 brought out the tints of her auburn hair. 
 The consciousness that her costume was 
 both effective and becoming fully atoned 
 162
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for its inappropriateness and the fact that 
 the gown would probably be sacrificed in 
 the damp night air. Mrs. Jerome pro 
 posed to spend a considerable amount of 
 time in the damp night air; but the sac 
 rifice was to be for a most desired end. 
 She arrived early. 
 
 Establishing herself in a large blue satin 
 chair in a conspicuous position in the 
 drawing-room where the guests were be 
 ing received, she was soon surrounded. 
 Her plans, however, on this occasion, 
 were laid for one. 
 
 After the significance of the throng 
 about her had been fully perceived, she 
 adroitly proceeded to diminish the ranks. 
 Finally, only two remained : a young 
 man with a bold, smooth-shaved face, 
 and a stout, blonde, military-looking indi 
 vidual of about sixty, with an excessively 
 pompous manner, who was evidently at 
 tempting to monopolize the pretty widow, 
 regardless of the presence of her more 
 youthful admirer. 
 
 "Colonel Henry," said she at length, 
 163
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 smiling coquettishly up at her elderly 
 suitor, as she languidly waved her fan of 
 black ostrich tips to and fro, "since I 
 heard that you came originally from Vir 
 ginia, I have so many times wished to 
 ask if you are at all related to the man 
 who said, Give me liberty, or give me 
 death. " 
 
 "Yes, madam," replied the Colonel, in 
 his deep bass voice, with elaborate gal 
 lantry, "I believe there is a distant rela 
 tionship between my family and that of 
 Patrick Henry," swelling with impor 
 tance, and thus deigning to own the Vir 
 ginian Demosthenes. "But you will al 
 low me to say," with an insinuating ogle, 
 and another profound bow, "that I cannot 
 entirely accept the sentiment of my dis 
 tinguished relative as expressed in the 
 words you have just quoted; under one 
 condition I should prefer death to lib 
 erty." 
 
 "When I was last at the White Sul 
 phur," continued Mrs. Jerome, "there 
 was a Mr, Henry who had previously 
 164
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 been there, of whom I heard a great 
 deal. He stayed six weeks, and in that 
 time it was said that he courted six 
 women very charming young persons, 
 indeed, and each reported to be very 
 wealthy." 
 
 The man s fat, flabby countenance grew 
 suddenly alarmingly ruddy. 
 
 "He left just before I came. I was so 
 very sorry; I am not very wealthy, but I 
 might have been the seventh woman," 
 sweetly remarked Mrs. Jerome. 
 
 "Madam," said the irate Colonel, with 
 a low growl, as he turned on his heel, "it 
 is my opinion that a damn sight of you 
 women think yourselves courted when 
 you re not!" 
 
 The widow s sparkling eyes followed 
 the wrathful, retreating figure. Then, 
 stifling a yawn, she broke into a short, 
 bubbling laugh as she turned to her com 
 panion. 
 
 "Mr. Vance," she asked, "is Colonel 
 Henry a friend of yours?" 
 
 The young man looked amused. "With 
 165
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 a limitation, Mrs. Jerome," he replied. 
 "However, we are on quite pleasant 
 enough terms." 
 
 Mrs. Jerome s manner became eager, 
 even intense. 
 
 "Then please tell him, do tell him, the 
 first opportunity you have, how destruc 
 tive anger is to the complexion," she im 
 plored. 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Alexander and 
 Florida entered the room, and Mrs. Je 
 rome turned a slow, insolent, scrutinizing 
 gaze upon them, her eyes finally resting 
 upon the younger woman with a certain 
 inward misgiving. 
 
 The girl s high-bred style of beauty 
 seemed to derive a special distinction 
 from the severe simplicity of her white 
 mull gown, which was cut only a little 
 low and shirred about the neck without 
 lace or trimming. Her arms were 
 bare below the elbow. Her polished 
 brown hair was drawn lightly back from 
 the broad, low brow, and piled high on 
 the well-poised head in a picturesque in- 
 166
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 dividuality of style. Three or four old- 
 fashioned cinnamon roses were thrust 
 carelessly into her belt. 
 
 Mrs. Jerome did not remove her eyes. 
 
 "So I behold the paragon of whom I 
 have heard so much!" she exclaimed, at 
 length, in a sarcastic undertone. "That 
 is Miss Alexander, is it not?" 
 
 "That is Miss Alexander," young 
 Vance affirmed. His cool, calculating 
 countenance bore a look of admiration, 
 as his glance followed the girl s move 
 ment across the room. 
 
 The widow sank back into her chair 
 with an air of being bored. 
 
 "Do you think her as beautiful as some 
 of the other people here?" she inquired, 
 carelessly. 
 
 "I think her most beautiful," replied 
 the young man, rather absently. 
 
 "Do you consider her the most beau 
 tiful woman in the State?" 
 
 "Perhaps." 
 
 She laughed a little in a nervous, em 
 barrassed sort of way, and then leaned 
 167
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 alluringly forward, keeping her eyes play 
 fully on his face. 
 
 "Do you consider her more beautiful 
 than well, than myself, for instance, for 
 want of a better comparison?" 
 
 "I should never think of comparing 
 you with Miss Alexander," he answered, 
 smiling, as his glance returned to the 
 plump little creature at his side. He 
 met her gaze with a certain boldness in 
 the look. 
 
 "That is a doubtful compliment," she 
 pouted. 
 
 "No." 
 
 Would you not? For what reason, 
 or reasons, may I ask?" 
 
 "For the very obvious one that you 
 are totally unlike her in every respect. 
 The fact is," speaking quite seriously, 
 "I don t know exactly whom I could 
 compare with her, when it comes to that ; 
 there is something so sympathetic and 
 broad about her a fellow hesitates to put 
 her on the plane with other people, some 
 how." 
 
 1 68
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "You are highly flattering." 
 
 The young man caught himself up with 
 a start. 
 
 "I mean simply," he began, rather 
 hurriedly, "that she never that is, that 
 she could not oh, hang it! what I want 
 to say is that she would hate like the 
 mischief to hurt the feelings of of a 
 tramp, even, and that 
 
 "And that she would be incapable of 
 resorting to the means I have just em 
 ployed of getting rid of a tiresome ac 
 quaintance?" 
 
 It was apparent that he was undergoing 
 a certain struggle within himself. 
 
 "I believe she would be incapable of 
 that," he answered at length, in a firm, 
 quiet voice. 
 
 Mrs. Jerome was silent. Presently she 
 looked up, and tapped him lightly on the 
 arm with her fan. The hard look that 
 Mrs. Alexander had commented upon 
 seemed especially in evidence. 
 
 "My friend," she said, coldly, "I have 
 found you rather more entertaining than 
 169
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 some of the people I have met thus far; 
 but you have yet to learn one great and 
 important truth : and that is, a wise man 
 never seeks to please one woman by an 
 exaggerated compliment bestowed upon 
 another." 
 
 And having delivered this sage remark, 
 she abruptly turned her shoulder upon 
 him, and fixed her eyes upon some one 
 standing within a few yards of her, and 
 making his bow to his hostess. It was 
 St. John. 
 
 The cold indifference upon Mrs. Je 
 rome s countenance instantly thawed into 
 an expression animated, glowing, beguil 
 ing. Her fan continued to wave in a 
 slow, measured movement ; but her 
 dainty black satin slipper tapped the floor 
 in a kind of restless apprehension. St. 
 John was listening with quiet courtesy to 
 the conventional remarks that were being 
 poured into his ear. His usual grave 
 dignity of bearing seemed especially pro 
 nounced as seen in the midst of that bril 
 liant, careless assemblage, and his hand- 
 170
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 some, dark face appeared very earnest and 
 thoughtful. 
 
 Mrs. Jerome s gaze grew intenser, 
 more beseeching. St. John turned and 
 met her look. There was a swift flutter 
 ing of the fan, then a decided gesture. 
 He spoke a few words to his hostess a 
 girlish-looking young matron of a rather 
 striking brunette type and came for 
 ward, an amused, half-indulgent, half- 
 questioning look on his face. As he ap 
 proached, Mrs. Jerome looked up with a 
 charming air of proprietorship, colored 
 slightly, and dropped her eyes. It was 
 her moment of triumph. 
 
 "At last!" she cried, in a low but 
 penetrating tone; "I thought you would 
 never come!" 
 
 Young Vance arose and offered his 
 chair. Then he walked across the room 
 to where several people were standing. 
 
 "Do come with me outside, Miss Alex 
 ander," he said; "it is stifling in these 
 rooms. Please come!" and he bore her 
 off with a certain characteristic audacity, 
 171
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the little group about her reluctantly 
 giving way. 
 
 At the sound of the name St. John 
 looked up quickly. A hot flush mounted 
 to his brow. Until that instant he had 
 been ignorant of her nearness, having 
 had the impression that she would not 
 arrive until later in the evening. The 
 girl s light garments touched him when 
 she passed. He tried to make her meet 
 his eyes. But the proud head did not 
 once turn toward him ; she was talking 
 gayly with her companion, and appar 
 ently in all unconsciousness. The two 
 disappeared in the moving crowd about 
 the doorway. 
 
 There was an unpleasant ring in the 
 laugh which sprang to Mrs. Jerome s lips 
 a moment afterwards. 
 
 "Mr. St. John," she said, "you are 
 supposed to understand all things, more 
 or less; it is your metier. I wish you 
 would tell me one thing." 
 
 St. John lent himself rather constrain 
 edly to the conversation. 
 172
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "You are modest in your request, Mrs. 
 Jerome," he replied, "in view of the un 
 limited knowledge with which you are 
 pleased to endow me." 
 
 The little widow darted a swift glance 
 into his unresponsive eyes. She was 
 quiet a moment. 
 
 " It is in regard to Miss Alexander, she 
 then said, serenely, lifting a sweetly in 
 nocent face to his. "I had heard so much 
 of her before I came to this place, and 
 since I have been here her name seems to 
 be on every one s lips. But the opinions 
 I had already formed from what I had 
 heard concerning her, differ so widely 
 from the opinions of the people here, I am 
 somewhat mystified. Tell me," in most 
 becoming hesitation, as if the exquisite 
 refinement of her nature were suffering 
 acutely because of the question she was 
 about to ask, "do you consider her does 
 she strike you as belonging (to express it 
 mildly) to the flirtatious order of woman? 
 I should so much like to know if you 
 would describe her as flirtatious?"
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "I should not apply the term to Miss 
 Alexander," St. John answered, briefly, 
 and in evident dislike of a continuation of 
 the subject. 
 
 Mrs. Jerome regarded him pensively 
 for a time. 
 
 "No?" she said, dubiously. "I am 
 so glad to hear you say that. I had really 
 thought her very lovely, and yet you can 
 understand how sometimes just a word 
 can create a prejudice. A woman s 
 reputation is such a delicate matter al 
 ways. Above all things I detest a flirt. 
 How any woman can degrade herself to 
 such a low plane, I never can under 
 stand. And that is why I asked the 
 question; I hoped so much that the 
 things I heard before I came here one 
 thing in particular could not be true." 
 
 St. John s eyes rested coldly, but with 
 out comment upon her. A slow, fierce, 
 terrible wave of anger was rising within 
 him, but he was able to keep an outward 
 control. Stung to the heart by the ma 
 licious cruelty of her words, and despising 
 174
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 himself that for one instant he should be 
 thus disturbed, he managed to say with 
 quiet positiveness: 
 
 "It is impossible that any one could 
 speak evil of her, and speak the truth." 
 
 "Really? I am so very glad. I have 
 a friend who was one summer at the sea 
 shore where Miss Alexander was making 
 herself somewhat conspicuous by ruth 
 lessly ensnaring all the other girls lovers, 
 and then coolly disdaining the poor men 
 at last. She seemed simply to revel in 
 her power. One case in particular my 
 friend quite dwelt upon," laughed Mrs. 
 Jerome. "A young man, who had come 
 to the place to see his fiancee, happened 
 to meet Miss Alexander at a cotillion. 
 The usual result followed, but with rather 
 a more exciting finale than generally at 
 tended Miss Alexander s conquests. Of 
 course, there may be no truth at all in 
 the story but according to my friend 
 
 St. John arose stiffly ; his face was 
 stern and white with suppressed emotion. 
 
 Pardon me, he said ; my friendship 
 75
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for Miss Alexander is such that I must 
 ask you to excuse me from discussing her 
 further, especially in such a relation. 
 There can be no question that you have 
 confused her in your thoughts with some 
 other person, totally unlike her." 
 
 Mrs. Jerome flushed scarlet. For the 
 first time it had clearly dawned upon her 
 that she had blundered in her eagerness 
 to make a discovery as well as to strike 
 a resentful blow. And the discovery had 
 been complete. The loyalty, the un 
 swerving faith, the high devotion which 
 shone from the man s set face rebuked 
 her to silence, while it awoke within her 
 vague stirrings of reverence for some 
 thing which she could only dimly com 
 prehend. She had played for high 
 stakes, and thus far she had lost. But 
 she was not yet ready to admit that the 
 game was at an end. With the reckless 
 ness of despair, she proceeded to make 
 the most of the resources at her com 
 mand. 
 
 Quickly recovering from her mortifica- 
 176
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 tion, she assumed an expression of guile 
 less unconcern. If it was true that by 
 that audacious stroke she had only more 
 tightly riveted the chains that bound 
 him, perhaps even yet he might be made 
 to recognize her strength. 
 
 Of course I have made a mistake, she 
 admitted, adroitly; "now that I think 
 of it I believe the name was not Alexan 
 der, but something a little like it Allen- 
 der Allison Anderson I quite forget ; 
 some other beautiful Kentucky girl no 
 doubt. There are so many. The fact 
 is, I paid very little attention to the 
 story; that kind of gossip does not at all 
 interest me; chacun a son godt." Mrs. 
 Jerome had not had sufficient opportun 
 ity to know that the adored upper circles 
 no longer make use in their conversation 
 of odious little French phrases execrably 
 pronounced. 
 
 She sprang cheerfully to her feet, giv 
 ing a surprised glance about the room. 
 Every one had gone outside. She lifted 
 a helpless, rueful face to his, and then 
 177
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 broke into a low, gleefully exultant 
 laugh. 
 
 "You see you can t desert me," she 
 cried, as she quietly slipped her arm in 
 his. "Come! I know the loveliest little 
 moonlit arbor, and we can be quite 
 alone." 
 
 178
 
 XII 
 
 It was more than an hour later before 
 he succeeded in making his escape; Mrs. 
 Jerome was not a woman to be easily 
 thwarted in her design, and her design 
 had been as firmly fixed as it was little to 
 be respected. But whatever passed be 
 tween the two upon that occasion must 
 have been sufficient, so far at least as she 
 herself was concerned in the matter, to 
 carry the weight of a salutary conviction ; 
 for she appeared to realize at the last that 
 forever afterward there must remain one 
 man for whom her coquetries could not 
 be displayed. 
 
 In every summer there is one perfect 
 day a day in which Nature, having 
 reached the height of her beneficence, 
 seems to riot in her own excess, and with 
 almost reckless prodigality to exclaim : 
 179
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Here, I give you all." And to the 
 night that follows such a day belongs 
 especially that melancholy touch of mys 
 tery, rapturous, prophetic, which pierces 
 the heart and thrills the senses to such 
 unspeakable things. St. John stood for 
 some moments alone, looking down the 
 dim vistas of the moonlit park. It was 
 an enchanted hour. The leaves of the 
 great elms were throwing tremulous 
 shadows across the sward, and the wind 
 was sighing in the low branches, with 
 now and again a brief, palpitating note 
 of sadness that was yet sweet and insist 
 ent as the whisper of a lover. 
 
 Here and there under the trees gay 
 groups were seated, the garments of the 
 women gleaming softly lustrous in the 
 silvery light. But the laughter that 
 floated to him from time to time was like 
 the laughter we hear in dreams. Some 
 where in the distance a band was playing, 
 and on the platform that had been erected 
 he caught glimpses of figures moving 
 rhythmically to the music; and these, 
 i So
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 too, seemed to take on an element of un 
 reality. There was an odd surging in his 
 brain and a ceaseless hammering against 
 his temples that made it difficult for him 
 to think. 
 
 Faint as was the impression made upon 
 him by the slanderous words to which he 
 had been compelled to listen, yet, in a 
 way totally different from what had been 
 intended, they had roused in him a storm 
 of emotion, which only his mighty self- 
 command had enabled him to conceal. 
 
 Perhaps never until that moment did 
 he fully realize to what extent a man s 
 destiny may rest in the keeping of a 
 woman, and know how powerful was the 
 hold Florida had taken upon his life. 
 
 It had not been bis desire that there 
 should be anything hasty or impulsive in 
 his manner of revealing to her what he 
 felt ; he was not impetuous, and he was 
 by no means sure that their last meeting 
 had brought her any nearer to him. 
 Furthermore, the extreme sensitiveness 
 of his nature caused him to shrink a little 
 181
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 from disclosing, even to her, that inmost 
 holy of holies which he himself could not 
 look upon but with a certain awe and 
 reverence, until there had come to him 
 some assurance that what he offered 
 would not be despised. But since the 
 moment that those hateful words of def 
 amation had rung in his ears, he had 
 never for one instant hesitated as to the 
 course he should pursue. He felt that 
 he must go to her now, this very night, or 
 else be untrue to himself. The deter 
 mination held him in an iron grasp ; he 
 felt it to be the supreme hour of his ex 
 istence. And gradually there stole over 
 his spirit the exalted calm of a high pur 
 pose, and his countenance became trans 
 figured as by some wondrous inward light. 
 Where would he find her? He stood 
 for a time uncertain, then walked quickly 
 down the moon-flecked avenue. But she 
 was not among the dancers, and she was 
 not with any of the people he passed. 
 He searched for her long, in every direc 
 tion, and in vain. Perhaps she had grown 
 182
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 weary and gone. A sudden thought 
 stabbed him and brought him to a halt. 
 Might she not have become disgusted in 
 witnessing the exaggeration of Mrs. Je 
 rome s too familiar welcome? His nature 
 was distinctly simple and sincere; he 
 knew but little of women, but he felt 
 intuitively that the best of women may 
 sometimes be unjust. 
 
 There was but one other place where 
 it was likely she might be. He recalled 
 that in a distant part of the grounds there 
 was a miniature lake overhung by willows 
 a delightful spot. If only he should 
 find her there ! 
 
 But on reaching the place, again he 
 was disappointed. The retreat appeared 
 entirely deserted. A delicate mist had 
 begun to rise. The air was heavy with 
 the dank odors of wild grasses and of 
 the marshy soil. Only the hoarse voices 
 of the frogs mingling with the staccato 
 notes of katydid and cricket broke the 
 stillness. He sat down on a rustic bench 
 not far from a tiny bridge which over- 
 183
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 looked the water. It was evident that 
 she was not to be found. 
 
 He had, however, been here only a 
 short while when there began to steal 
 over him that peculiar sensation which 
 tells one he is not alone the vague con 
 sciousness that suggests the near presence 
 of another human being, invisible yet 
 most vitally real. But when his eyes 
 again searched the obscurity about him, 
 he could find no one. Presently, in rest 
 lessly shifting his position, he saw a shaft 
 of moonlight shoot like a star through the 
 thick trees and fall slanting upon a white, 
 motionless figure, half-concealed by the 
 mist, on the far side of the bridge. 
 
 He rose quickly. His heart stood still 
 for an instant, and then began to throb 
 painfully; the pose was unmistakable. 
 And even in that moment he was sensible 
 of a thrill of satisfaction in the mere out 
 ward perfection, the thorough high-breed 
 ing that could give so marked an individ 
 uality. 
 
 Florida was seated upon the stone steps 
 184
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 of the bridge, her head resting against the 
 slender parapet. Though she appeared 
 to be looking intently in his direction, 
 she did not speak nor stir when St. John 
 started toward her. 
 
 He moved a few steps forward, then 
 paused abruptly. In another moment he 
 was to stand before the woman he loved 
 to offer the highest that was in him, the 
 best that was his to bestow; and as the 
 full meaning of it all rushed upon him, 
 along with the joy of this realization was 
 the gravity of the conviction that whatever 
 her answer might be, life for him hence 
 forth could never, never be as it had been. 
 
 There was an almost religious reverence 
 in his manner when he approached her; 
 and as he stood looking down upon her, 
 for an instant unable to speak, something 
 seemed to reveal to her the nature of the 
 words that were trembling on his lips. 
 She drew back a little into the shadow, 
 shrinking visibly from what his expression 
 told her. There was the look of a star 
 tled deer in her brown eyes. 
 85
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 The moonlight fell upon his face, and 
 she saw the spasm of pain that swept 
 across his features at her silent, involun 
 tary protest. But immediately he had 
 seemed to wrap himself in the stern 
 quietude of one whose purpose is unal 
 terably fixed. 
 
 She recovered herself with an effort ; a 
 smile flickered about her mouth and was 
 gone, leaving the muscles strained and 
 suffering. 
 
 "Have you also become a companion 
 to owls? " she asked, in some constraint. 
 She would not meet his eyes, and again 
 her nervous withdrawal from him pierced 
 him like a spear. 
 
 He did not try to answer; he had not 
 any words. He only moved a little 
 nearer to her; and then the passion that 
 was in him got the better of his long con 
 trol. 
 
 All at once he reached forth his hands 
 and caught both of her own in his, almost 
 crushing them in his strong grasp. 
 
 "Florida! Florida!" he cried, his 
 186
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 whole nature seeming to lend itself to 
 that brief, ungovernable outbreak. But 
 in another moment he went on more 
 calmly : 
 
 "You will hear me you will let me 
 tell you what has been so long in my 
 heart. Ah you must hear me!" 
 
 She had drawn away her hands. They 
 were cold and trembling, and he could 
 hear her heavy sob-like breathing; but 
 there was nothing of resentment, nothing 
 of wounded pride, only a dumb, beseech 
 ing agony in her eyes. He was moved 
 to a swift contrition. 
 
 "Forgive me," he whispered, huskily. 
 "I was too hasty; I should have given 
 you time. But, oh, you cannot know 
 all the things that have driven me to you 
 to-night. I had sought you everywhere, 
 but I felt intuitively that I should find 
 you here. I knew that there could be 
 no peace, no rest for me until you had 
 looked into my heart and read what is 
 there for you. Believe me I have never 
 spoken to any other being as I wish now 
 187
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 to speak to you. I am ready to disclose 
 the inmost recesses of my soul and there 
 is nothing, nothing that I could desire to 
 keep back from you. My life, my fu 
 ture, my work, my every hope all, all 
 are yours to do with as you will." 
 
 He paused a moment, and then added 
 in a low voice : 
 
 "I have dreamed of such love as this 
 the love that I should give to that only 
 one whose nature should be as spotless as 
 your nature has revealed itself to me, and 
 whose capacity for loving should be as 
 boundless as I have always felt was yours. 
 And had you been less perfect than I 
 have found you to be, whatever would 
 have been the feeling that I had given 
 you, it could not have been love. It is 
 the passionate purity " 
 
 She put up her hands quickly to her 
 breast, and he halted suddenly. What 
 was the meaning of that strange look she 
 bent upon him? 
 
 Her lips were slightly parted, and they 
 were dry and parched as if scorched with 
 i S3
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 flame. Her wide eyes were fixed upon 
 his face with an indescribable expression 
 of compassion and entreaty. She sprang 
 to her feet, and ran a little distance up 
 the bank. But he was at her side at once. 
 
 "What would life be to me without 
 you now? Florida oh, my love my 
 very life!" His voice broke with dread 
 and longing. 
 
 The man s white face near her own be 
 trayed the anguish of his suspense. For 
 one instant her eyes met his. 
 
 "God forgive me that I must make you 
 suffer so," she muttered slowly, at last; 
 "I can never forgive myself." 
 
 "But why why need we suffer? both 
 of us as we do?" he cried in savage re 
 bellion. But his heart was a leaden 
 weight within him, and the words rang 
 out hollow and desolate into the darkness. 
 
 She was standing a few feet above him 
 on the rising ground ; and as he looked 
 up into her face, the white mist closing 
 about her and seeming to bear her as on 
 a cloud from his sight, there was that in
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 her manner which wholly confirmed the 
 despair that had entered his soul. 
 
 His arms fell limply to his sides. He 
 half turned away that she might not see 
 the anguish he knew must be written in 
 his face. He was utterly hopeless con 
 vinced that pity was all that she could 
 ever give him. 
 
 "Farewell," she whispered, tremulous 
 ly, the words seeming to breathe them 
 selves upon him like a sigh from the 
 woeful willows. But he could not speak. 
 He stood with bowed head, waiting for 
 her to go. 
 
 About them was the sad mystery of the 
 summer night. From down by the water, 
 like the fateful, recurring note of a bass- 
 viol, came the grave voices of the frogs. 
 
 With a smothered sob, she drew a step 
 nearer. As by an uncontrollable im 
 pulse, her form seemed to sway for an 
 instant toward him; then she bent 
 quickly down, and lightly as falls a rose- 
 leaf to the earth, her lips touched his brow. 
 
 When he lifted his head she was gone. 
 190
 
 XIII 
 
 At the next meeting of the Board of 
 Trustees, which occurred on the follow 
 ing Thursday morning, St. John went 
 before that body and formally tendered 
 his resignation of the professorship he 
 held in the State College at Lexington. 
 
 He stated briefly, in explanation, that 
 certain recent alterations in his affairs 
 would necessitate his living elsewhere in 
 the future; and after expressing a cor 
 dial appreciation of the uniform generos 
 ity he had received from all persons 
 officially connected with the college, 
 asked that he be allowed to offer such aid 
 as was in his power toward the satisfac 
 tory filling of the chair left vacant by his 
 somewhat unseasonable abdication. 
 
 His conscientious manner of discharg 
 ing the duties he had assumed, his high 
 191
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 scholarship and inspiring influence over 
 his pupils had caused his services to be 
 regarded as especially valuable. It was 
 with evidences of genuine regret that his 
 resignation was finally accepted. But 
 something in the quiet dignity of the 
 young man compelled the belief that his 
 action in the matter was unavoidable, and 
 in the few farewell words he forced him 
 self to speak there was the throbbing 
 note of a sorrow so deep and private as 
 to render all further flattering suggestion 
 of a reconsideration of the step wholly 
 out of taste. 
 
 He experienced a grateful sense of re 
 lief when he was at last permitted to 
 withdraw. The outward calm he had 
 manifested from the first was beginning 
 to give way a little under the warmth of 
 the courteous Southern kindness he had 
 just received. Profoundly touched, he 
 stood for some moments in one of the 
 wide doorways looking down, with sad 
 dened eyes, upon the broad campus, and 
 seeming to see his own lonely future 
 192
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 stretching out before him in the far-dis 
 tant horizon. Then he walked slowly 
 down the long flight of steps, pausing 
 again, when he had gone only a few 
 yards from the building. Never had the 
 extensive grounds surrounding the college 
 appeared more beautiful. 
 
 Beneath his feet was the rich velvet of 
 the incomparable bluegrass ; overhead 
 the glowing sapphire of the Kentucky 
 skies. The perfume of many flowers was 
 in the air. There was an almost blind 
 ing splendor in the fall of the happy 
 sunlight. And yet, from on every hand 
 vague antepast of death came that 
 faint, persistent hint of decline which 
 sometimes makes itself felt even in mid 
 summer. To St. John the suggestion 
 was prophetic. He could only believe 
 that for him the summer of life was 
 ended, and that the autumn had now pre 
 maturely begun. 
 
 His eyes wandered away toward the 
 edge of the town and to the plenteous 
 fields and timbered country that lay be- 
 193
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 yond. He had grown strongly attached 
 to the view. Often on clear winter after 
 noons, having been detained until nearly 
 sunset at the college, he had stood looking 
 wistfully out upon that picturesque land 
 scape with blended emotions of loneliness 
 and delight. And in those moments 
 there was often in his heart something of 
 the same warm and tender devotion that 
 the inhabitants of this region give to their 
 soil; for he had soon ceased to think of 
 himself as a sojourner merely. 
 
 Here, in healthful, pleasant work 
 every year bringing to him a broader de 
 velopment of his powers, the securer 
 acquisition of friends he had hoped to 
 spend much of his life. But in the deep 
 melancholy that possessed him now 
 through the contemplation of his broken 
 dreams and interrupted plans there was 
 no bitterness, no reproach. 
 
 Knowing that it was for the last time, 
 
 presently he turned and walked briskly to 
 
 the gate ; and the silken rustle of the 
 
 maples was like a sigh of farewell in his 
 
 194
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ears. But there was only a look of quiet 
 renunciation upon his features, when he 
 set his face steadfastly toward the town. 
 
 There were a number of people whom 
 he wished to see before leaving, and he 
 proceeded to seek these at once. All 
 the morning the necessity of calling at the 
 Alexanders had weighed heavily upon 
 him. But on reaching the house he 
 found no one at home. When he heard 
 the final click of the iron gate behind 
 him, he brought his teeth tightly to 
 gether for an instant ; then, without an 
 other backward glance, he went rapidly 
 up the street. 
 
 He spent the next two or three hours 
 carefully packing his books in order that 
 they might be sent to him without dam 
 age later on. His lease upon the cot 
 tage would not expire for several months, 
 and he decided to leave his belongings 
 where they were, until his plans had be 
 come more definite. For the present, he 
 was possessed of but one wish, and that 
 was to get away as soon as possible, 
 195
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 though he well knew that he could not 
 thus escape the fierce pain with which he 
 had wrestled through all the dark hours 
 of the previous three days and nights. 
 That he would surely carry with him, for 
 he fully realized that with him it could 
 only end with life ; but if he must suffer 
 he was resolved that he would not suffer 
 weakly. In the resistance he was mak 
 ing there was something more than a 
 man s instinctive combativeness. A cer 
 tain sternness was stamped upon his fea 
 tures as he bent above his books. Never 
 once had it occurred to him to abandon 
 the fight. Life for him had been made 
 up of disappointments, small and great, 
 and the last and greatest of disappoint 
 ments must only be endured with the 
 same calmness with which he had shown 
 himself capable of meeting all misfortune. 
 But by means of solitude and study and 
 persistent struggle he was determined to 
 do what he could toward regaining the 
 tranquillity of spirit he had lost ; and by 
 thus retiring into himself he felt assured 
 196
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 that peace would come to him some 
 kind of peace at least. And though he 
 had thought much and knew many things 
 he had yet to learn that love is real, un 
 satisfied though it may be, implies a bless 
 ing by its mere existence, and that not to 
 any man did peace ever come through a 
 stoical endurance of fate. 
 
 For a few days after St. John s depar 
 ture his name was on everybody s lips, 
 and then a lethargic indifference to all 
 matters not of an immediate personal 
 concern settled upon the old town with 
 the coming of the intensely warm 
 weather, and apparently he was forgotten. 
 
 Mrs. Alexander, hearing that he had left 
 abruptly and with but little apology, put 
 her own construction upon the proceed 
 ing. While still steadfastly insisting that 
 for her own part she could see but little in 
 the young man to admire, she manifested 
 her displeasure in his sudden exit by such 
 a cold disapproval of her stepdaughter as 
 would have rendered that young woman 
 most uncomfortable, had Florida not been 
 197
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 sustained through the ordeal by a certain 
 humorous appreciation which often forced 
 the amusing side of a situation upon her 
 in the midst of actual suffering. Fur 
 thermore, there occurred a slight cessa 
 tion of hostilities, through the distrac 
 tions of a preparation; for Mrs. Alexan 
 der had decided that she would take the 
 little girls and go for a month s visit to 
 the seashore. 
 
 "It is such an excellent opportunity, 
 now that you are here to look after your 
 father," she declared, on the morning of 
 her journey, to Florida, who was assist 
 ing in the packing of sundry delicately 
 fine garments, which Mrs. Alexander 
 was unwilling to entrust to a servant. 
 "The children look as if they needed a 
 change, and the place has grown insup- 
 portably dull. Not a ripple of excite 
 ment since the strange departure of that 
 unsatisfactory young man," as she now 
 designated St. John, "until last night s 
 announcement of the engagement of that 
 odious Mrs. Jerome to old Colonel Rufus 
 198
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Henry. It is impossible to understand 
 what attraction he finds in the little 
 creature with her turned-up nose and 
 freckled face." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander drew a step nearer to 
 the mirror, and surveyed her full-length 
 reflection with complacency. She 
 thought the bows of light blue velvet rib 
 bon upon her white silk morning-gown a 
 trifle too far apart. She turned her dark 
 head with its elaborate arrangement of 
 coils and curls slightly to one side. "The 
 fact is," she concluded nonchalantly, "as 
 you may have heard me remark before, I 
 only care for a classic style of beauty." 
 
 "It is much to be preferred," assented 
 Florida, not looking up from the crim 
 son brocade she was carefully folding. 
 
 "It is true the woman is rather rather 
 plump, perhaps. I grant her that. Thin 
 ness is fatal. You really ought to take 
 a tonic, my dear," said Mrs. Alexander. 
 
 "Thank you for the suggestion; but I 
 don t think I need a tonic," replied 
 Florida, quite amiably. 
 199
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "But you are distressingly thin; but 
 for that pink gown you have on you 
 would be ashen, positively ashen," in 
 sisted Mrs. Alexander. "And you have 
 lost much of your vivacity. They say 
 that Wampole s cod liver oil is an excel 
 lent cure for the kind of morbidness that 
 seems to be wearing upon you. Really, 
 if you had been taking Wampole s cod 
 liver oil for the past three months, I am 
 quite sure that that young man would 
 never have been able to tear himself 
 away. However, it is just possible that 
 he may return." 
 
 Florida dropped the waist of the crim 
 son brocade with a comical smile of sur 
 render. At first her shoulders heaved 
 convulsively, as if she were struggling to 
 enchain the merriment that was bubbling 
 up within her, then her laughter broke 
 loose, and peal upon peal echoed through 
 the room in such a quick transition from 
 sadness to mirth that Mrs. Alexander 
 stood amazed. 
 
 "It is your French blood, I suppose,
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 my dear," the elder woman remarked 
 dryly, with a shrug of her ample shoul 
 ders, as soon as she had recovered from 
 her surprise. "But if I may venture to 
 advise, I think it would be well for you 
 to cultivate a greater evenness of manner 
 in the future. Such a hilarious mani 
 festation as you have just indulged in 
 could never be regarded as good form. I 
 must ask your father to keep you re 
 minded during my absence of certain lit 
 tle faults to which you seem especially 
 prone, and which every one should guard 
 against." 
 
 But the Major had no intention of 
 exercising his authority toward the de 
 velopment of an improved decorum on 
 the part of his daughter. He was en 
 tirely satisfied that her breeding was 
 perfect in every particular. But having 
 taken firm grasp upon the idea that her 
 failure to read good books was the whole 
 cause of whatever mental uneasiness he 
 discovered in the girl, for a considerable 
 time he had set himself to work to bring
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 about a reformation in the direction of a 
 higher literary standard. 
 
 Accordingly, he continued to spend 
 hours with her every day, reading aloud 
 from his favorite authors, and calling her 
 especial attention to such passages as he 
 wished to take root in her thoughts. She 
 had proved herself to be an excellent 
 Greek and Latin scholar, even from his 
 exacting standpoint, and he was often 
 astounded by her cleverness of insight as 
 well as her picturesque rendering of the 
 text. 
 
 These morning hours of study were 
 somewhat lengthened now that the old 
 house was so unusually quiet; and Flor 
 ida seemed to yield with ready acquies 
 cence to his plans, her trained powers of 
 concentration thus affording her a brief 
 respite from much that she was trying to 
 forget. But the afternoons she always 
 gave to Tim. Nothing was ever allowed 
 to interfere with the time she had ap 
 pointed for the little fellow s instruction 
 and amusement. And perhaps to no one
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 else did she so unguardedly reveal herself 
 in the long summer days that followed. 
 
 The wild gayety that so often possessed 
 her now seemed to cause the boy a pain 
 ful perplexity at times. His expression 
 would grow grave and wondering, and he 
 would suddenly pause and look search- 
 ingly into her face, startled, mystified, 
 and sorely troubled by something in her 
 manner he was unable to comprehend. 
 The strange brilliancy of her aspect, her 
 laughing speech, which had in it a note 
 of wildness, seemed to give him an odd, 
 creeping sensation that was almost akin 
 to fear. 
 
 One rainy afternoon she had been en 
 tertaining him by explaining the game of 
 battledoor and shuttlecock in the long 
 hall. 
 
 He could scarcely attempt to play, 
 fascinated as he was by the lightness and 
 dexterity of her movements. Now and 
 again, she broke into a spirited jest, chid 
 ing him for his awkwardness, and a gleam 
 like the scintillation of a jewel shone in 
 203
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 her dark eyes. All at once, as she darted 
 past him, her lithe form bending in sinu 
 ous curves, her red lips parted and smil 
 ing, Tim caught her timidly by the skirts. 
 
 "Be you a witch?" he cried, in a be 
 wildered, frightened tone. "I hearn tell 
 o them." 
 
 Florida paused instantly, and her face 
 changed. She stood looking down upon 
 him for a moment in silence, and then 
 slowly, sorrowfully, as if the words were 
 being wrung from her against her will by 
 the child s demanding gaze, she said 
 softly : 
 
 "No, Tim, I am not a witch; I am 
 only the most miserable woman in all this 
 sad, sad world!" 
 
 204
 
 XIV 
 
 Summer had given way so noiselessly to 
 autumn, Florida scarcely realized the vari 
 ation, preoccupied as she had been, until 
 she suddenly awoke to find the Kentucky 
 woodlands touched with a royal splendor 
 and the sumac and golden-rod abloom on 
 the roadsides. 
 
 She had been spending a week at the 
 country-place of a friend, and one serene 
 afternoon she was driving home alone in 
 the lumbering family-coach which had 
 been sent out for her, when, for the first 
 time in months the beauty of the earth 
 seemed to make its old appeal. For the 
 moment, all the lost glory had returned 
 with the lovely light of the mild autumnal 
 haze. 
 
 Uncle Abram shook his head in rueful 
 recollection of his unfinished labors at her 
 repeated insistence that he should slacken 
 205
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 his speed in order that she might enjoy 
 the drive to the utmost. The cool breeze 
 wafted pungent odors of walnuts and 
 wild-grapes through the open carriage 
 windows. Picturesque hay-ricks dotted 
 the landscape, and here and there in the 
 mellow sunshine laborers were cutting the 
 dry corn-stalks and stacking them into 
 conical heaps in the peaceful fields, the 
 voices of the men ringing out blithe and 
 clear upon the frosty air. Sometimes a 
 tuneful negro melody, with its pathetic 
 minor strain sad hint of a former thral 
 dom dumbly endured fell upon the ear. 
 And now and then the eye was caught 
 by the blue smoke of a distant dwelling, 
 and there came the thought of cheerful 
 hearthstones and of those dear human ties 
 which mean the best of our existence here. 
 
 Florida s face was rosy under her 
 broad, black-plumed hat, and there was 
 a healthful sparkle in her eyes wholly un 
 like the fitful gleam which had sometimes 
 startled little Tim. 
 
 All day there had been over her an 
 206
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 unusual sense of anticipation, and she 
 was conscious of an exhilaration of spirits 
 she was at a loss to account for. But 
 often, during the weeks of tremendous 
 agitation that followed, her mind traveled 
 back to that drive in the benign autumn 
 sunlight, and she thought that she un 
 derstood. 
 
 On reaching the gate of her home, her 
 buoyancy was suddenly altered to a sharp 
 foreboding. The children, who had been 
 flattening their noses against the nursery 
 window in evident impatience for her ar 
 rival, ran frantically down the stairs the 
 instant they caught sight of the carriage, 
 and now came hurrying toward her out 
 upon the lawn, their little dark faces seri 
 ous with the importance of a grave com 
 munication. 
 
 If some evil had befallen her father if 
 he should be ill! Florida s heart sank 
 with apprehension. She descended 
 quickly from the carriage, and then stood 
 waiting for the children to approach, un 
 able to move another step. 
 207
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "I bid to tell her, I bid to tell her," 
 shouted the little girls, simultaneously, 
 as they ran. 
 
 "Oh, Florida, the most awfulest thing 
 has happened!" cried Louise, the first to 
 break the news. She rested her meager 
 form against the iron gate, and paused 
 for breath, her shrewd, gipsy-like counte 
 nance betraying a secret satisfaction in 
 the excitement of the moment. 
 
 "I said / was going to tell her," 
 whimpered Ethel, struggling to push her 
 sister aside. "I bid first, you know I 
 did, Louise, while we were coming down 
 the stairs." 
 
 "Shut your mouth, missy; I don t care 
 whether you did or not, I m going to 
 tell her myself," retorted Louise, defi 
 antly. 
 
 Florida caught the elder girl s hands in 
 her own, and held them firmly. "Now, 
 what is it?" she demanded very quietly. 
 She was putting a great control upon her 
 self. "What have you to tell me, Louise? 
 
 Papa " but she could go no further. 
 
 208
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Papa?" echoed Louise, vaguely, ex 
 amining critically a slit which she had 
 just discovered in the sleeve of her dark 
 blue flannel gown. Oh, papa s all right. 
 Did you think it was papa?" raising her 
 head with a look of amused surprise. 
 " Papa never goes hunting. Of course, it 
 could not be papa. It is Mr. St. John." 
 
 "Florida, he came back last week to 
 that funny little house he used to live 
 in," here put in Ethel, "and one morn 
 ing he went out hunting with some men, 
 and his gun went off, or somebody else s 
 gun went off, and I don t know whether 
 mama said it was Mr. St. John s gun or 
 somebody else s gun whose gun was 
 it, Louise?" 
 
 "Oh, go on, if you know so much 
 about it; just go on," replied Louise, 
 with lofty disdain. 
 
 "Louise, you know I heard mama," 
 burst forth the other, reproachfully, 
 goaded to tears. "Mama was in the blue 
 parlor with some ladies, and I heard her, 
 every word. I was hi hiding behind the 
 209
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 so sofa, and I heard her tell telling 
 everything." 
 
 "Yes, and I m going to tell her on 
 you, too, you little cry-baby, you. What 
 did she say she d do to you, if ever she 
 caught you at that trick again?" 
 
 "Oh, but you were there, too!" 
 shrieked the child, in a frenzy of alarm. 
 "I saw you be be behind the curtain 
 all the time." 
 
 Florida stood mute and motionless. 
 Her face had grown very white. 
 
 "Are you telling me that Mr. St. John 
 has been hurt?" she asked, at length. 
 But there was something strange in the 
 sound of her voice, and the two children 
 instantly stopped their wrangling, and 
 looked up, startled, into her face. 
 
 "Oh, Florida!" they both cried to 
 gether, drawing back from her in dismay. 
 Evidently the pleasure they had antici 
 pated in imparting a tragic piece of infor 
 mation had been somewhat overrated. 
 
 "You look just like you were going to 
 die, too," gasped Louise.
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "No no I am not ill," answered 
 Florida, quickly. "Tell me tell me at 
 once everything you know." And then 
 Louise began again, but this time with 
 less animation. 
 
 "He was out hunting, and there was 
 an accident, and they brought him home, 
 and last night he was a heap worser than 
 ever, and when the doctors left him they 
 said he couldn t live, and that he was 
 most dying then, and I think he s dead 
 
 now, and oh, yonder comes the calf. 
 
 How could it have gotten out! Let s 
 chase it, Ethel!" And off they flew, 
 their long hair fluttering like pennants in 
 the wind. 
 
 After they were gone, Florida remained 
 standing for a moment where they had 
 left her, staring blankly in the direction 
 of their retreating figures. Then she 
 pressed her hands to her temples in a 
 puzzled way and leaned heavily against 
 the iron fence. Their voices were still 
 ringing in her ears, but at every instant 
 the words seemed to grow louder and
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 louder until they had become at last only 
 a deafening, unmeaning roar. She was 
 wholly unable to act or think. There 
 was a strange glimmer over the earth. 
 The pavement seemed trying to leap to 
 her. Her eyes were wide and staring, 
 and there was a slight twitching of the 
 muscles about the mouth ; but her fea 
 tures were set almost hard in their pal 
 lor. Presently she began to creep slowly, 
 aimlessly, along the side of the fence, still 
 clinging to the railing. 
 
 But all at once, like a white shaft of 
 light forcing an opening in a black cloud, 
 into the darkness of her brain there 
 pierced an animating thought : she would 
 go to him! And instantly her whole be 
 ing bounded to the single impulse. Con 
 ventions of society, circumstances of the 
 situation, what were they to her now? 
 
 St. John s old colored servant met her 
 at the door. The woman s face was 
 swollen from weeping, and there was a 
 tragic significance in the grave dignity 
 with which she raised her tall form to its
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 full height and stood towering above the 
 quivering, breathless, beautiful young 
 creature on the steps below. 
 
 Florida winced a little under the re 
 proach she thought she saw in the wom 
 an s glance. With lowered lids she 
 waited an instant, white and speechless, 
 a great humility upon her; then she 
 mutely lifted her eyes, beseeching, elo 
 quent in the pathos of a dumb appeal. 
 The expression of the old negress 
 changed. 
 
 "He was outer his haid this mawnin ," 
 she hinted, with a world of meaning in 
 the tones. Not receiving a reply, she 
 drew a step nearer, in order that she 
 might whisper into the girl s ear some 
 thing that was meant for one alone. 
 
 "Honey," she said, softly, "he s been 
 axin fur you all th time; I lowed I 
 gwine fetch you, ef you didn t come 
 long soon." 
 
 The two women looked each other 
 in the eyes, being drawn oddly near to 
 gether in that moment of mutual woe. 
 213
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 It was a gaze of entire comprehension 
 with both. 
 
 With a beckoning nod over her shoul 
 der, and muttering to herself in the low, 
 crooning voice that had lulled many a 
 babe to its slumbers, old Phyllis placed 
 her hand upon a door which opened into 
 the hall. Then she noiselessly turned 
 the knob, at the same time giving the 
 girl a gentle little push forward. "He s 
 sleep," she whispered; "I ll be long 
 bime-by." 
 
 Florida moved a few steps into the 
 room, paused and put up her hands 
 quickly to her breast. A stifled moan 
 broke from her lips, leaving her as one 
 petrified where she stood. A parting 
 ray of sunlight was stealing in at the 
 window, resting upon the coverlet and 
 upon St. John s white, upturned face. 
 That one look had told her that it was 
 death. She could not let her eyes rest 
 upon him again. But there was some 
 thing majestic in the deep tranquillity of 
 his repose, and in the expression of those 
 214
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 still features she found only a message of 
 peace. 
 
 Blinded by remorse and grief, all the 
 suppressed tenderness of her nature 
 touched by the thought of his suffering 
 especially the suffering that had come to 
 him through the concealment that con 
 science had compelled her to practice 
 with a groan she staggered forward. 
 Even in that moment she was conscious 
 of a sense of almost triumph in the reali 
 zation that at last, for this one time, she 
 could tell him what he was to her. Death 
 had given a right which life had denied. 
 The next instant she was on her knees 
 at the bedside, and her arms were about 
 his neck and her tears were wetting his 
 cheek. 
 
 But suddenly she uttered a startled cry 
 and drew back; she had made a mistake. 
 For it was not to lifeless ears, as she sup 
 posed, that thus her long-guarded secret 
 was told. 
 
 215
 
 XV 
 
 The turn for the better in St. John s 
 condition, coming at a time when his life 
 had been almost despaired of by his phy 
 sicians, was variously accounted for on 
 the part of those learned functionaries, 
 each of whom believed that the credit of 
 the possible recovery should be traced to 
 his own skillful suggestions in regard to 
 the management of the case. Be that as 
 it may, it is true that waking in the after 
 glow of a certain October sunset, St. 
 John had opened his eyes upon a world 
 which seemed to reveal to him less of 
 earth than of heaven; and from that hour 
 his fight for life began with a resolution 
 that had been lacking at the first. But 
 it was a hard fight, and more than once 
 it appeared that death would be the vic 
 tor. 
 
 216
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 During those weeks of suspense, Florida 
 had seemed possessed of a strange new 
 dignity a kind of secret exaltation that 
 lent a grave sweetness and reserve to 
 her demeanor. It was as if she had 
 come into a deeper comprehension of a 
 great mystery, and walked always under 
 the rays of a divine effulgence, and with 
 a halo about her head. 
 
 There is little space for calm, clear 
 thinking when a sudden wind of destiny 
 has lifted one to the heights; and the 
 eye of the beholder is apt to be dazed 
 from gazing too long at the sun. Though 
 she would sit alone by the hour, wrapped 
 in a deep quietude, her hands folded on 
 her knees, her thoughts were not toiling 
 with the problems which the future would 
 surely bring in the case of St. John s res 
 toration to health; all her former ques 
 tionings were stilled drowned in a 
 golden sea of rapture, of reciprocated 
 joy. Thus, for a time, the old warfare 
 between that stern, acquired sense, which 
 calmly sees and condemns and that en- 
 217
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 tirely human instinct which is blind and 
 only feels, had ceased. For, though the 
 chances were in his favor, for many days 
 St. John s recovery was not assured, and 
 to-morrow who can think of to-morrow 
 weighted with the stress of to-day? 
 
 But at last the long waiting seemed at 
 an end, and there came a day when the 
 message that went forth was no longer 
 cautious, but positive and final: he would 
 get well. To Florida the news first came 
 through Aunt Phyllis. 
 
 With admirable tact, and the practice 
 of sundry roundabout methods, includ 
 ing frequent visits to the Alexander man 
 sion upon errands readily improvised, the 
 old negress had managed all along to 
 keep the girl informed in regard to the 
 patient s condition. And it was an odd 
 coincidence that Miss Alexander seldom 
 passed the tiny cottage on one of those 
 long walks, which she now daily indulged 
 in, that she did not find this faithful serv 
 itor leaning upon the front gate, serenely 
 committing the very offense which she 
 218
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 had once so heartily condemned to St. 
 John as one of the vices to be discovered 
 among the younger generation of her 
 race. 
 
 Finding her here as usual, as she was 
 returning home in the dusk of a murky 
 November afternoon, Florida paused an 
 instant on reaching the house. A light 
 mist was beginning to fall, and the girl 
 was suddenly reminded to raise her um 
 brella. 
 
 "Will you give him this, Aunt Phyl 
 lis?" she said, taking a rose from the 
 buttonhole of her ulster, and tipping the 
 umbrella a little forward to hide the sud 
 den rush of color in her cheeks. 
 
 A swift sparkle came into the old 
 woman s eyes, and her teeth flashed in a 
 wide, comprehending smile. She placed 
 both hands upon her broad hips, with an 
 air of playful good-humor. 
 
 "He gwine git well," she announced, 
 at length, smiling still, and nodding her 
 head oracularly to and fro. "Honey, he 
 gwine git well!" 
 
 219
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 But all at once she drew herself up 
 with the stately dignity of an offended 
 queen. "You heah what that doctor say 
 this mawnin bout movin him up yon 
 der tuh th liorspittle?" 1 she demanded, 
 sternly, her black eyes wrathful and defi 
 ant at the mere mention of her arch 
 enemy, as she now regarded the physi 
 cian in constant attendance upon St. 
 John. Whatever opinions others might 
 hold in the matter, she at least was con 
 vinced that the young man s convales 
 cence was entirely due to her own minis 
 trations. "Talkin* bout movin him up 
 tuh St. Joseph s horspittle!" she re 
 peated, with infinite scorn. "Ain t I 
 hed eighteen head o chillun, an he 
 come long hur tellin me I don t know 
 mo bout nussin than them ole maids 
 up thar that ain t hed nary one tuh they 
 name!" 
 
 Florida looked up quickly, amused for 
 an instant into a complete forgetfulness 
 of everything save the magnitude of this 
 last statement. Amazed that by any one
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 woman the ancient Hebraic injunction 
 could have been so faithfully fulfilled, she 
 asked feebly: 
 
 "Were there really eighteen, Aunt 
 Phyllis?" opening her eyes very wide. 
 
 The countenance of the old negress ex 
 pressed a slight dejection. 
 
 "Honey, I tell you," she replied, in 
 some confusion. "I lowed th was 
 nineteen, but they counted em up on 
 me an say twa n t but eighteen." 
 
 Miss Alexander appeared suddenly to 
 be deeply interested in the passing of an 
 express-wagon, which at that moment 
 turned the corner of the street. 
 
 "Perhaps the doctors thought the loss 
 of sleep and the steady nursing too much 
 for you, at your age," she said, very 
 gently, after a time. "How have you 
 stood the long strain?" 
 
 "Some days I feels right smart, an 
 some days poo ly; fell down las week 
 an jarred my intrils an got a mis ry in 
 my side. But I gwine hole out!" defi 
 antly. "Ain t I putty nigh got him on
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 his feet? He ll be long down yo way 
 in bout a week." 
 
 In a week! The words were like a 
 sword-thrust in the acuteness of their 
 meaning, and the old woman was not a 
 little bewildered by the white, terror- 
 stricken face that was quickly lifted to hers. 
 
 "In a week?" whispered the girl, in 
 an odd, tense voice. "Is it possible that 
 that he may be out in a week?" She 
 was shivering a little, and she drew the 
 cape of her ulster closer about her. Then 
 she turned abruptly. "You had better 
 go in, Aunt Phyllis," she said; "this 
 dampness won t help you to keep well," 
 and in an instant the slender gray figure 
 was lost in the mist. 
 
 Lights were burning in her pretty bed 
 room when she entered it, and the place 
 offered a cheering contrast to the gloom 
 without. Florida stood for some mo 
 ments on the hearth-rug, gazing absently 
 into the leaping flames. The expression 
 in her eyes had altered, and her momen 
 tary agitation had given way to a preter- 
 
 222
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 natural calm. Mechanically she drew off 
 her gloves; and presently, in the same 
 quiet, preoccupied fashion, she began 
 slowly to remove her hat and ulster. 
 
 As she moved about the room, her eye 
 was accidentally caught by a letter, half- 
 hidden among the writing materials on 
 her desk, which had been that morning 
 received. The envelope was addressed in 
 pencil, and contained one of those brief 
 but thrilling messages that St. John had 
 occasionally managed to send her during 
 his illness. 
 
 In a kind of fascinated stare she stood 
 looking toward it, longing, yet not daring 
 to take it again into her hands. A pite 
 ous trembling had seized her limbs ; she 
 sank into one of the chairs before the 
 fire. Suddenly she leaned forward and 
 bowed her head upon her knees and cov 
 ered her face with her hands. 
 
 About an hour afterward there was a 
 knock at the door, and a servant an 
 nounced dinner. Without looking up, 
 she briefly directed him to say that she 
 223
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 was tired and would not be down. And 
 thus, slowly, monotonously, like the 
 steady dripping of a single drop of water, 
 the heavy moments wore into the night. 
 She had gone far back into the past, 
 and with that clearer retrospection that 
 sometimes comes, her whole previous ex 
 istence seemed to unfold itself in a pano 
 rama before her. Twelve ! One ! Then, 
 ponderously, a clock in a neighboring 
 steeple sounded the hour of two. There 
 had been an intense quietude for a long 
 time; then the echo of the footsteps of 
 some passer-by in the deserted streets 
 came nearer and nearer. She found her 
 self listening vaguely to the sound, roused 
 into a momentary consciousness of things 
 about her by that deep sense of a com 
 mon humanity which was essentially hers 
 and which always seemed to link her 
 sympathetically to all mankind. With 
 what rueful recollection, what anguish of 
 contrition might not this heart, too, be 
 stirred? The man pursued his lonely 
 way, and again the street was still. 
 224
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 She passed on to the time of her ac 
 quaintance with St. John. The fire had 
 burned low, and the room had grown 
 gradually chill, yet all at once the very 
 breath of summer encompassed her. 
 
 Beginning with their first meeting, her 
 thoughts rapidly followed the shifting 
 scenes; but before one picture she lin 
 gered long. 
 
 Her heart was beating wildly. Again 
 the spell of moonlight was upon her; the 
 wailing sweetness of distant music was in 
 her ears and the whisperings of the night 
 wind in the willows blending with the 
 grave voices of the frogs. She even 
 seemed to smell the dank grasses, the 
 perfume of the roses and honeysuckle 
 and elder as there came back to her these 
 low, earnest words: 
 
 "Believe me, I have never spoken to 
 any other woman as I wish now to speak 
 to you. I have dreamed of such love as 
 this the love I should give to that only 
 one whose nature should be as spotless as 
 your nature has revealed itself to me, and 
 225
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 whose capacity for loving should be as 
 boundless as I have always felt was yours. 
 And had you been less perfect than I 
 have found you to be, whatever would 
 have been the feeling I had given you, it 
 could not have been love." 
 
 With a heavy sob, she half rose to her 
 feet. What was that thought that now 
 thrust itself upon her? What terrible 
 temptation was she about to meet? As 
 if shrinking from some evil presence, she 
 crouched down into her chair, quivering 
 in every nerve. 
 
 "Why tell him why tell him any 
 thing?" a voice seemed to say. "How 
 could you ever make him understand? 
 Have you the right to deal less mercifully 
 with yourself than you would deal with 
 another being, human, like yourself? 
 And if you should try, would it be possi 
 ble for you to present the case in such 
 a manner that he would see things as they 
 really were? Surely, it is for yourself, 
 you, just as you are to-day that he cares; 
 what matters it that your truer nature 
 226
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 has come up out of the ashes of a great 
 humiliation?" And then, lost in the 
 sophistry of a disquieted brain, came the 
 subtlest suggestion of all, "Would it be 
 just or kind to him?" 
 
 The first gray streaks of dawn were 
 visible in the eastern sky when a strange 
 resolve took possession of her. Hid away 
 in a secret drawer of an old cabinet and 
 guarded well was the photograph of a 
 man who was dead, but who, living, had 
 loved her beyond his honor and his life. 
 Would those eyes that had so long 
 seemed to accuse her speak forgiveness to 
 her now? Many months had passed since 
 she had dared look upon that pictured 
 face. Her hands shook nervously as she 
 touched the spring and the little jeweled 
 casket flew open. The picture was in 
 her hands. 
 
 It was the face of a young man of 
 about eight and twenty, willful, passion 
 ate and weak, perhaps, but by no means 
 sensual, and withal most genial and 
 kindly a boyish, handsome face, possess- 
 227
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ing a certain winning sweetness and reck 
 less daring of expression. 
 
 A mist came into the girl s eyes. She 
 moved softly to the window and drew 
 back the curtain. The sun was just 
 rising, and a glorifying beam fell full 
 upon the picture. 
 
 Presently delicate as had been the 
 dawning of the new day a faint, flick 
 ering hope traced itself upon her sad fea 
 tures for an instant, leaving her counte 
 nance pure and exalted under the light 
 of a swift transfiguration. Through her 
 tears she seemed to see St. John s face 
 also, near the pictured one, looking earn 
 estly into hers. She dropped the win 
 dow-curtain and turned away. A fixed 
 and holy decision was upon her. Sud 
 denly she bowed her head as if in prayer. 
 
 She would tell him tell him every 
 thing! 
 
 228
 
 XVI 
 
 One mild, gray morning in the latter 
 part of November St. John stood in his 
 open doorway for the first time after his 
 illness. 
 
 He was not greatly altered. Already 
 he had begun to take on the look of re 
 turning health and vigor, and his dark 
 face betrayed the secret of a deep repose 
 the restfulness that comes to those who 
 have waited long and suffered much and 
 found their peace at last. 
 
 Six months before he had stood in that 
 same spot, looking wistfully but hesitat 
 ingly in one direction the direction of a 
 quaint old homestead with clinging rose- 
 vines and tall whitecolumns which gleamed 
 in the sunlight. Then the house had 
 been almost hidden by the dense foliage, 
 but now it was plainly visible through 
 229
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the denuded trees. On that brilliant 
 May morning when all nature had seemed 
 to palpitate with life and promise, there 
 had been but meager hope in his heart ; 
 to-day, looking out upon the unlovely 
 street and watching the hungry little 
 sparrows as they hopped disconsolately 
 among the leafless maples, he felt that 
 for him this truly was the beginning, not 
 the end, and that now he was about to 
 enter upon his spring. Had he had his 
 way, at this moment, the whole earth 
 would suddenly have become beautiful 
 with grass and flowers and musical with 
 the singing of birds and the laughter of 
 soft-flowing waters. Seldom had nature 
 seemed so little in harmony with his 
 mood. 
 
 In answer to his request, Florida had 
 written briefly to say that she would see 
 him at eleven. It was now only half- 
 past ten. How the moments dragged ! 
 
 And it was to be their first meeting. 
 Since that time when he had heard her 
 smothered sobs and felt her tears on his 
 230
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 cheek, and listened to that tenderest of 
 confessions which only the noblest of 
 women can ever make he had not once 
 looked into the face which, through pain 
 or delirium or peaceful dream, had 
 seemed always near to him. It was only 
 by a strong effort of will that he was able 
 to keep back the tumultuous thoughts 
 that now came surging upon him, threat 
 ening to destroy his outward calm. That 
 he did not wish to lose. 
 
 With the cheerful reminiscence with 
 which one recounts the perils he has 
 passed, or recalls the scars won in honor 
 able battle, he found himself reverting 
 to the gloomy day of his return to Ken 
 tucky four or five weeks before, when he 
 had been at considerable pains to per 
 suade himself into the belief that he had 
 come back solely for the purpose of con 
 ferring with the trustees of the college in 
 regard to the chair he was aiding them 
 to fill. It had been a poor deception 
 at best, and this morning he was not 
 ashamed of what he had regarded as a 
 231
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 weakness then. Presently he took out 
 his watch and studied it fixedly. But 
 there was nothing wrong with the watch. 
 
 Only ten minutes out of the thirty had 
 passed. 
 
 But as the time drew nearer his exalta 
 tion of spirit appeared to sink into a 
 gradual depression that vague, melan 
 choly which seems to possess certain 
 natures just as the moment of fulfillment 
 is assured. Is it regret for the past, is 
 it dread for the future that brings the 
 momentary shrinking and reluctance? 
 There was a touch of sadness added to 
 the sober resoluteness of his looks when 
 he slowly started down the street. 
 
 As he approached the house, a sense 
 of punctiliousness brought the Major be 
 fore his mind s eye, and he promptly 
 decided that before another day had 
 passed he would betake himself into the 
 presence of that gentleman and hum 
 bly suggest that he be adopted into the 
 family in the relation of son-in-law at 
 once. 
 
 232
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 In spite of the kindly solicitude and 
 attention bestowed during his illness, St. 
 John found himself looking forward to 
 this interview with a timorousness that 
 was none the less real because tinctured 
 with a quaintly humorous recognition of 
 his own novel and somewhat trying atti 
 tude toward his old friend. The Major s 
 benevolent expression seemed all at once 
 to become changed into something fierce 
 and warlike and forbidding; and in im 
 agination he beheld himself trembling 
 like the veriest craven before an eye like 
 Mars bent superciliously and threaten 
 ingly upon him. However, his thoughts 
 were altogether in the present when he 
 finally entered the wide portal and was 
 ushered into Florida s little reception- 
 room to await her coming. 
 
 It was a low, square room in the wing 
 with tiny window-panes and a deep win 
 dow-seat. It was airily furnished in 
 chintz and muslin, and in the selection 
 and blending of color, the subjects of the 
 several etchings on the walls, the titles 
 233
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 of the stray volumes here and there, 
 there was a subtle hint of the occupant 
 that was at once delicate and urgent and 
 pervasive. 
 
 St. John threw a warm, brief glance 
 about him. There were some red roses 
 roses that he had sent in a bowl on 
 the table. His heart was beating fiercely 
 now. The faint ticking of a clock on 
 the mantel seemed to grow louder and 
 more rapid. 
 
 Soon there was a light, firm step on 
 the stair. The door of the room had 
 been left ajar, and he could hear every 
 click of her dainty heels as she slowly 
 descended the long flight. Her steps 
 drew nearer, paused an instant, and then 
 came steadily on. He rose and stood 
 waiting. 
 
 She had reached the door her hand 
 was on the panel. His breath came 
 quickly, a sudden light leaped into his 
 eyes. 
 
 The two stood face to face. 
 
 She moved a short space into the 
 234
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 room, and came to an abrupt standstill, 
 crimsoning deeply, as if some new shyness 
 had surprised her out of herself. She 
 was smiling and her face was radiant, but 
 with a brilliancy that both enthralled and 
 startled. There was a tremulous sweet 
 ness in her momentary hesitation. 
 
 Presently into her great, glowing eyes 
 there crept a deep and serious question 
 ing. The lids faltered and fell beneath 
 his returning gaze. At each quivering 
 breath the rose at her breast fluttered like 
 a frightened red-bird among the lace and 
 folds of her pale gray gown. 
 
 For a moment he could not speak. 
 
 Never had she appeared more womanly 
 and sincere; never had that mysterious 
 witchery which she alone of all women 
 had power to shed for him been more 
 complete ; and yet never at any time of 
 their acquaintance had she seemed far 
 ther beyond his reach. He was at a loss 
 to comprehend whence came the sharp, 
 poignant thrust that pierced him in that 
 instant. 
 
 235
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Silent, perplexed, he still stood wait 
 ing. A stern impatience was beginning 
 coldly to trace itself upon his features. 
 It seemed as if she would never lift 
 her eyes. But all at once, as if reading 
 his very thoughts, she slowly raised them 
 to his sad, reproachful, but filled to 
 overflowing with that boundless devotion 
 which some women give and in the pres 
 ence of which all men feel a certain awe 
 and inward shame. 
 
 With a low cry he drew her to him : 
 "At last, at last!" and his arms were 
 about her in a kind of savage tenderness 
 and exultation. 
 
 But as his lips touched hers, a burning 
 crimson mounted quite to her brow, and 
 trembling she struggled from his grasp. 
 
 She walked over to the window, and 
 drawing back the curtain stood looking 
 out for a long time. He could see, in 
 spite of her strong efforts for self-repres 
 sion, that she was deeply agitated. But 
 when she finally came back and sat down 
 before the fire in the low chair he placed 
 236
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 for her, her manner was sweet and tran 
 quil and unconstrained. 
 
 He leaned abruptly toward her, his 
 swarthy face lit with a sudden fire. 
 
 "Florida," he said, beseechingly, 
 "won t you say it won t you say it just 
 once?" 
 
 She looked up, smiling in gay abandon. 
 
 "And what is it you wish me to say?" 
 she asked, evasively. 
 
 "You know." 
 
 "No. / have so many things to say." 
 
 "Very well; begin. I m waiting, and 
 I ve been waiting a long time. But I 
 don t propose to wait forever." 
 
 "I don t know where to begin." 
 
 "Begin at the beginning." 
 
 She fumbled nervously with the rose 
 on her breast, loosening it from its place 
 and then refastening it in a preoccupied 
 fashion. He watched her in some un 
 easiness, but still indulgent and willing to 
 humor her, provided she did not carry her 
 caprice too far. He had never before 
 thought her in any degree whimsical, and 
 237
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 a vague feeling of disappointment was 
 beginning to creep over him. 
 
 "Aren t you even willing to say you 
 are glad to see me?" he asked, in a 
 slightly aggrieved tone, after several mo 
 ments. 
 
 "Yes," she replied. But her voice 
 was so low he caught the one word rather 
 from the motion of her lips than from the 
 actual sound. 
 
 "Then you will say it once as if 
 you did really mean it?" 
 
 She lifted her eyes full to his for a 
 moment, and again their dumb reproach, 
 the complete surrender and unveiling of 
 her inmost nature, thrilled him to the very 
 heart s center. They were both silent 
 for a time. A sort of pitying tenderness 
 throbbed in his voice, and there was a 
 directness and total lack of reserve in his 
 next words. 
 
 "I had thought that this moment 
 
 would never come," he said at length, 
 
 very quietly. "All those long days and 
 
 nights that I lay there ill and suffering 
 
 238
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 and exhausted, do you know what was 
 the one maddening feeling that possessed 
 me? The feeling that I had won you 
 only to lose you, and that death was 
 going to separate us at the very moment 
 when we had first begun to live. I did 
 not think it possible I should recover." 
 
 She started a little and looked quickly 
 away. A long quivering sigh shook her 
 from head to foot. 
 
 "Death never separates only life," 
 she said. 
 
 He looked at her curiously for an in 
 stant, and then went on : 
 
 "But after the time of danger was 
 passed, and there came calm, painless 
 hours of contemplation, I thought of 
 many things. I dwelt a great deal upon 
 the circumstances that irresistibly led me 
 to come to Kentucky in the beginning at 
 a time when other and more ambitious 
 opportunities seemed within my grasp. 
 I was not without prejudice in regard to 
 the Kentucky people the Kentucky peo 
 ple of to-day. In the newspapers I had 
 239
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 read of the dark tragedies that were con 
 tinually occurring in their midst; and, in 
 the general way one arrives at conclusions 
 without the aid of experimental knowl 
 edge, I had formed an opinion that was 
 as unfavorable as it was unjust. I need 
 not say how unlike what I had pictured 
 to myself in many ways I have found the 
 true situation to be." 
 
 "I am so glad to hear that you love 
 Kentucky," she answered, archly. St. 
 John broke into a laugh. 
 
 "But it is not of my love of Kentucky 
 that I would like to speak just now," he 
 responded, quickly, and you know that 
 very well. Sometimes as I lay there it 
 seemed that my whole previous existence 
 had been merely a waiting and a prepara 
 tion for this. I thought of everything 
 of you, of myself, of our future; and I 
 was glad, with a certain fierce joy and 
 elation, that the temptations and dissipa 
 tions that appeal to most men had not 
 appealed to me, and that my past life 
 was as clean as it was, so that I might 
 240
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 seem a little more worthy of you and of 
 your perfect love." 
 
 She was looking steadily away from 
 him now, and he could see only the tip 
 of one delicate ear, the sweep of the rich 
 hair against the crimson cushion, the 
 rounded curves of her supple form. 
 There was a dreamy note in his voice 
 when he began again. 
 
 "I think it must have been before me 
 always," he continued, "the belief that 
 the time would come when I should 
 deeply love one woman one and one 
 only. Therefore, those fleeting impres 
 sions that assail the fancy and those far 
 less worthy emotions that work such 
 havoc in men s lives were not for me. 
 From the depths of my soul I pity all 
 those who in trying to snatch some mo 
 mentary joy bring a blight upon their 
 natures that nothing can remove." 
 
 She quickly turned her face toward him. 
 
 "But are there not some who can only 
 find out poison by tasting every bush?" 
 And then, in an almost breathless eager- 
 241
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ness, she added: You believe you 
 believe in regeneration?" 
 
 "Perhaps not in the way that you un 
 derstand it," he replied. He looked 
 thoughtfully into the fire for some mo 
 ments. 
 
 "There is only one subject upon which 
 I think we shall ever seriously differ in 
 our life together," he said, slowly, at 
 length, "and that is the subject of our 
 religious convictions. Concerning these, 
 I hold that every individual should be 
 allowed to exercise his own right: the 
 right to speak of them with all reverence, 
 and the right to refrain from speaking of 
 them at all if he so desires. For my own 
 part, I have never been able to accept 
 the orthodox creeds of Christianity. The 
 divinity of Christ, the vicarious sacrifice, 
 the atonement " 
 
 Something in her expression caused 
 him instinctively to break off. Her eyes 
 seemed riveted upon his face, and he 
 thought he saw a look of sudden horror 
 and revulsion in their depths. 
 242
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 But she did not speak. It did not seem 
 possible for her even to attempt to make 
 him understand the meaning in her own 
 life of that deep, unquestioning faith that 
 had come down to her through genera 
 tions of believing forefathers, and which, 
 however far she might have appeared at 
 times to depart from it in her practices, 
 had never relaxed its hold upon her. 
 
 All at once, by one of those irrelevant 
 flashes of memory which every one some 
 times experiences, there came vividly be 
 fore her a scene from her early childhood. 
 She had been reprimanded for something 
 she had done which she should not have 
 done, and she had grown at once, as was 
 her wont, rueful, and apologetic, and re 
 pentant. "Oh, papa," she had ex 
 plained between her sobs, "the devil 
 spoke to me and he was so near, and God 
 spoke to me and He was so far away, I 
 heard the devil and I couldn t hear God. 
 
 She could see the quivering, childish 
 form. Tears came into her eyes and she 
 turned her face away. 
 243
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 She rose and began to move softly 
 about the room in an abstracted fashion, 
 as if almost unconscious of his presence. 
 But she suddenly paused, and stood rest 
 ing both arms, in an attitude with which 
 he was familiar, upon the back of a chair 
 near to him. Again, with the same 
 torturing presentiment that had assailed 
 him the moment she entered the room, 
 he felt her slow, searching gaze upon 
 him. 
 
 There were two burning spots in her 
 cheeks, and her lips were parted. Pres 
 ently she leaned a little forward and 
 smiled timid, imploring, absolutely self- 
 forgetful now ; and again there were tears 
 on her lashes. 
 
 All the poetry in him roused by the 
 womanliness of that appeal, inexpressibly 
 touched, he rose and came precipitately 
 toward her. But she motioned him back. 
 
 "No, no please!" she cried. There 
 was genuine pain in her voice. A cold 
 look crept into his eyes. 
 
 "Will you love me in spite of the 
 244
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 thorns and the briars? Will you love me 
 in spite of everything?" she demanded, 
 when he had resumed his seat. His sen 
 sitive ear caught the doubt. 
 
 He met her glance a little formally. 
 There was that in her repeated question 
 ing that contained a stab ; his egoism had 
 received a wound. 
 
 She moved away sorrowfully, and sat 
 down as far from him as the small apart 
 ment would allow. He did not see that 
 she was trembling pitifully in every nerve. 
 
 "Do you remember that you once told 
 me the tragic story of a friend of yours 
 the friend whom you loved above every 
 one else on earth?" she asked, abruptly, 
 after a time. 
 
 "Yes," he replied moodily; "I re 
 member." 
 
 "You said that some woman tempted 
 him to dishonor and then disdained him, 
 and that because of his hopeless love for 
 her and his utter misery that he took his 
 own life; you said that the girl to whom 
 he was engaged to be married, and who 
 , 2 45
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 still loved him though he had been faith 
 less to her, died broken-hearted ; and you 
 said that the woman who was responsible 
 for it all was heartless and cruel and un 
 worthy of a thought ; you said 
 
 "Pardon me," he interrupted coldly, 
 "but the story is sacred to me." 
 
 She was shivering as if an ague were 
 upon her. She sank further back into 
 her chair, keeping her eyes still on his face. 
 
 "I know I know," she responded in 
 a low voice. "But tell me, do moments 
 never come to you when you feel that in 
 some degree you may have wronged her 
 this woman? Do you never think of 
 her?" 
 
 "I do not wish to think of her." 
 
 "But may she not have suffered, too? 
 May she not have gone down into the 
 very depths of anguish and contrition? 
 And if she were not deliberately wicked, 
 only impulsive and swept along by an ir 
 resistible force, was it not natural that 
 she should wish to atone, that she should 
 send him from her, especially after if 
 246
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 the realization had come that their love 
 had not been of the highest and best? 
 Oh, when you think of it, the pain and 
 the sorrow of it all have you no mercy 
 in your heart for her?" 
 
 He rose stiffly and stood looking down 
 upon her. 
 
 "Why need we make her a topic of 
 conversation between us at this of all 
 moments?" he inquired sternly. 
 
 "Because because I wish to speak 
 of her; I often think of her." And then 
 she added huskily: "I knew I knew 
 your friend." 
 
 He turned a startled face upon her. 
 
 You knew him Ballinger ! " he 
 cried in dismay, the name breaking re 
 luctantly from him. "But why he 
 caught himself up with an effort. His 
 face had grown terribly white. "Then 
 possibly you know this woman also for 
 whom you have twice plead so earnestly?" 
 
 "Yes," she faltered. The word was a 
 sob. 
 
 "And knowing her, knowing them 
 247
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 both, may I ask why you refrained from 
 mentioning the fact of your acquaintance 
 why you have never told me of this be 
 fore?" 
 
 "I could not tell you before." 
 
 "Then why do you tell me now?" 
 
 "I must." 
 
 Suddenly she covered her face with her 
 hands. 
 
 "I thought I thought I could spare 
 you this suffering I thought you need 
 never know. I hoped that you would go 
 away. All the time don t you remem 
 ber? I was trying to make you think I 
 did not care. I thought I had forfeited 
 the right to be happy. Oh, wont you 
 understand!" she broke off wildly. 
 "Can t you see that the woman you have 
 condemned and the woman you have 
 loved are the same miserable one?" 
 
 He was still staring blankly down upon 
 her. His face was rigid and pale as 
 death. But there was a look far more 
 appalling than the look of death upon his 
 features. 
 
 248
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 When, after a long time, she took her 
 hands from her face, an involuntary 
 groan broke from her lips at the sight of 
 the awful devastation she had wrought. 
 
 One moment he looked into her eyes, 
 and then turning, he blindly groped his 
 way in silence from the room. 
 
 249
 
 XVII 
 
 If the length of an existence, so far as 
 its significance is concerned, should be 
 reckoned by a reference to deeds, not 
 years, it is equally true that we may find 
 an explanation of character development 
 in those profound and terrible emotions 
 which sometimes sweep over the soul, 
 shaking it to its utmost foundations, 
 rather than in the slow processes of evo 
 lution whereby we are accustomed to 
 consider its growth. And it is not pos 
 sible but that the outcome of these ex 
 periences should be more or less ethical; 
 that there should inevitably follow a 
 moral advancement, or a moral retrogres 
 sion, of a stern and enduring order. 
 
 The effect upon the two people to 
 whom a test the most critical and decisive 
 250
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 had just been offered was widely dissim 
 ilar; to the one it had meant a spiritual 
 enlightenment, to the other it had meant 
 a spiritual eclipse. But all that it had 
 meant to each was something that the 
 other would never know. 
 
 When stricken dumb by the confession 
 to which he had listened, St. John had 
 staggered forth from the presence of the 
 woman whom in flawless supremacy his 
 imagination had placed upon a pedestal 
 in his heart, and whom he had worshiped 
 with all the ideal but self-conscious fervor 
 of his poetic temperament, it was with 
 the feeling that Truth, like a fallen 
 statue, lay broken and crumbling at his 
 feet. 
 
 Three hours later, when he retraced 
 his steps, the marks of that tragic realiza 
 tion seemed branded upon his counte 
 nance. 
 
 He found her sitting precisely where 
 
 he had left her pale and motionless, but 
 
 with an awful quietude upon her. It is 
 
 only the grief that is noiseless which 
 
 251
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 leaves desolation in its track. He paused 
 involuntarily on the threshold, and en 
 tered the room and softly closed the door 
 behind him. 
 
 "Florida," he said, in a low voice, 
 standing before her, "I have come back. 
 Surely you knew that I would come 
 back?" 
 
 She did not lift her eyes. 
 
 "Yes," she responded dully, at length; 
 "I knew that you would come back. I 
 have been waiting for you here." 
 
 But he did not understand the mean 
 ing of the spasm of pain that suddenly 
 shot across her features, nor the flush of 
 utter humiliation that dyed her cheek and 
 neck and brow. That consciousness of 
 a power within herself which, at certain 
 moments of her existence, had thrilled 
 her through and through, had become 
 a scourge to her now. 
 
 "I have come to say what you would 
 not let me say before; I have come to 
 ask you to be my wife," he said very 
 quietly. 
 
 252
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 Her lids were lowered. Her hands lay 
 folded in her lap. Her whole attitude 
 expressed only an unutterable weariness 
 and apathy. She seemed scarcely to 
 heed or even to hear his words. He 
 came nearer and took the chair at her 
 side. 
 
 His sensitive face twitched nervously 
 under the powerful struggle he was mak 
 ing for self-control. But his manner was 
 calm and very deliberate. There was 
 something almost hard in the resoluteness 
 of his looks. 
 
 "Will you hear me?" he asked 
 gravely, after a time. "Will you try to 
 understand what I feel at this moment?" 
 
 Her eyes were resting in a fixed, ab 
 stracted gaze upon the smoldering embers 
 on the hearth. 
 
 "I will try," she answered simply. 
 
 "Then we need not speak of what 
 these last three hours have been." 
 There was a dreamy sadness, a far-off 
 note of self-pity in his voice. 
 
 "No; we need not speak of that." 
 253
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 All at once he leaned forward and 
 looked earnestly into her face. 
 
 "And you will believe that it is not 
 merely a sense of honor that has brought 
 me back to you?" he demanded anx 
 iously. "In spite of this memory, which 
 we both must bear always, to the very 
 end of our days, do not doubt, never 
 doubt, that I have any deeper desire than 
 that you should become my wife." 
 
 "I know," she replied, in the same 
 lifeless, wearied tones; "I know; I have 
 not doubted that." And again the slow, 
 burning crimson mounted to her brow. 
 
 He glanced at her uneasily. His 
 teeth were clinched. 
 
 "We will help each other to forget," 
 he said quickly. 
 
 "No one ever forgets. The very effort 
 to root out a memory only fixes it the 
 more securely in the breast." 
 
 He could not answer, and his silence 
 
 only too surely confirmed his acquiescence. 
 
 An ominous cloud was settling upon his 
 
 dark face. He was breathing hurriedly, 
 
 254
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 and a heavy moisture had gathered on his 
 brow. 
 
 "Death was not strong enough to sep 
 arate us, nothing can come between us 
 now," he exclaimed fiercely. 
 
 A sharp, quivering note of apprehen 
 sion resounded through the room. 
 
 "There is one thing that should 
 separate us always." Then in a voice, 
 firm but almost inaudible: "It is con 
 science," she said. 
 
 And it seemed in that moment that she 
 had climbed to some great height and 
 was looking down upon him in the 
 marshes below. 
 
 He started guiltily, and as if he had 
 been struck. Speechless, he sat staring 
 at her, with that strange, uncomfort 
 able feeling one experiences when he 
 knows his inmost thoughts have been 
 read the thoughts which, of all others, 
 he would guard and cover if he could. 
 
 Presently she rose and walked over to 
 the old-fashioned chimney-piece. She 
 stood with her back toward him for sev- 
 255
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 eral moments. She turned suddenly, and 
 leaned one arm upon the mantel, facing 
 him. She was very pale, but quiet 
 quiet with that calm which always strikes 
 terror in the heart of the beholder and 
 freezes the blood in his veins. 
 
 "Can you not see," she said finally, 
 in low, distinct tones, "that holding the 
 views you do, the very fact of your wil 
 lingness to turn away from the standard 
 you have set up implies a downward step? 
 Can you not see that marriage between 
 us now would be no marriage at all, that 
 it would be hideous an unholy thing?" 
 
 His face had grown ghastly. 
 
 "No," he repied sternly; "not if I 
 wish it not if we both wish it," he cor 
 rected. 
 
 She was silent a long time. 
 
 "But I do not wish it," she said 
 slowly, at length. 
 
 A low, savage cry broke from his lips. 
 There was the flame of thwarted passion 
 in his eyes. He made a swift movement 
 toward her, but she waved him back. 
 256
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 "Whether it be right to love you or 
 wrong to love you, is nothing to me now. 
 I love you," he declared recklessly and 
 vehemently. 
 
 Her wide eyes were fixed upon his face. 
 
 "Oh! do you think it would be pos 
 sible for me to live with you as your wife 
 as your wife," she repeated, in bitter 
 humiliation, "knowing that you did not 
 respect me in your heart?" 
 
 He stood silent before her, unable to 
 speak or to move. 
 
 "Do you think," she continued, with 
 sorrowful solemnity, "that the time 
 would not come, after the infatuation 
 you now feel had died the usual death, 
 when you would realize the blunder you 
 had made, and despise me for allowing 
 you to make it? But it would surely 
 come; and I how could I meet that 
 time? And yet," she suddenly broke 
 off, her rich voice rising and vibrating, 
 thrilling him with the old magical sweet 
 ness, "as I stand before you to-day, 
 broken-hearted and desolate though I 
 257
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 am, trusting no longer in my own 
 strength, feeling even in the anguish of 
 this moment a deeper reverence than ever 
 before for all good and sacred things, I 
 know I know that repentance has 
 made me a better woman than the untried 
 being you have dreamed of, than the 
 woman you have thought me to be." 
 
 There was the ring of triumph in the 
 words, the look of a divine victory on her 
 face. And as she spoke, the distance 
 that had been steadily widening between 
 them seemed all at once to become a 
 great yawning gulf which neither could 
 ever cross. 
 
 "Will you listen to me for one mo 
 ment?" he demanded, curbing the low 
 ground swell of anger within him by a 
 mighty effort. 
 
 She bowed her head. 
 
 "When I returned to my home this 
 morning I found a telegram awaiting me. 
 It stated that the nearest relative I have 
 in the world, and one to whom I owe 
 more than to any other being, lay ill and 
 258
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 probably dying. I shall leave on the first 
 train. Whether I ever return to this 
 place will depend upon the answer you 
 now give me. If you send me away from 
 you now, it will be forever; you should 
 understand this. Once more I ask you 
 to be my wife." 
 
 A look of dumb surprise traced itself 
 upon her features. 
 
 He crossed the room quickly, and 
 caught both of her trembling hands in 
 his, almost crushing them in his grasp. 
 
 But they were cold. And in that in 
 stant something told him intuitively that 
 no fire in his would warm them ever 
 again. His face grew white as marble. 
 
 "It was not love, it could never have 
 been love," he said, with bitter, merci 
 less conviction. 
 
 Her ice-cold hands fell limply from his. 
 He turned abruptly away. 
 
 A moment afterward she heard the 
 sound of his footsteps echoing drearily 
 down the long hall, and knew that he had 
 gone forever out of her life. 
 259
 
 XVIII 
 
 It was five o clock of the same after 
 noon. 
 
 The great baritone bell in a neighbor 
 ing steeple had just sounded the hour 
 sounded it with a serene and majestic in 
 difference to the passing of day and an 
 instant afterward the fragile little time 
 piece on the mantel had chimed in deli 
 cate accord. The echo lingered sadly in 
 the room, then died away with sweet, 
 haunting reluctance. But Florida heard 
 neither the bell in the steeple nor the 
 clock on the mantel. 
 
 There were hurrying vehicles in the 
 streets, the horses hoofs reverberating 
 noisily upon the brick pavements. Peo 
 ple were turning their faces homeward. 
 Children had ceased their play, and were 
 calling farewell to one another across the 
 260
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 grassy lawns. Servants were moving 
 through the house. The preparation for 
 dinner was about to begin, and occasion 
 ally there was a snatch from some weird 
 negro melody or the quaint jargon of an 
 authoritative command. The room was 
 filled with lurking shadows; the fire on 
 the wide hearth had burned low, the air 
 was damp and chill. But the bowed, 
 motionless figure in the low chair ap 
 peared to have lost all power to hear or 
 see or feel. 
 
 Presently, like one wakened rudely out 
 of sleep, she started, half rose from her 
 seat, and looked about her with bewil 
 dered eyes. 
 
 From far down in the town, drawing 
 ever nearer and nearer, came the shrill 
 voices of the newsboys calling the even 
 ing papers. Instantly she was roused. 
 Tim! What could have become of the 
 child? Never before had he failed to put 
 in an appearance at the appointed time. 
 A sudden sickening foreboding began to 
 tug at her heart. The boy had been look- 
 261
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 ing pale and thin in spite of all her watch 
 ful care; and recently she had been 
 conscious of a growing anxiety lest he 
 might have become a trifle too serious 
 through those long, beautiful talks of 
 theirs. 
 
 She glanced uneasily toward the clock. 
 She felt faint and ill. Since morning she 
 had not tasted food, but she managed to 
 drag herself wearily to her room and to 
 get hurriedly into an outdoor costume. 
 In less than five minutes she was on the 
 street. 
 
 The cries of the newsboys were coming 
 nearer. But she listened in vain for that 
 rare, pathetic note which was the peculiar 
 charm of Tim s voice that sweet, re 
 mote, indescribable timbre which one so 
 seldom hears in the voices of the children 
 of our land. 
 
 Suddenly she paused. An ungainly 
 boy of thirteen or fourteen, as unlike her 
 own "bonnie laddie" as could be, brushed 
 roughly past. 
 
 "Here yo evenin papers," he shouted 
 262
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 loudly. "All about the accidint ! Leader! 
 Argonaut! All about Tim Twine killed 
 by the lectric cars. All about the acci 
 dint!" 
 
 Florida turned a white, terrified face 
 upon the boy, reeled a little, and put 
 forth a detaining hand. "Give me one 
 of the papers, please," she gasped. Her 
 teeth were chattering. The boy regarded 
 her with brutal unconcern as he dived 
 down in his pocket for the change which 
 she seemed not to see when he handed 
 it to her, and which was straightway re 
 turned to the place from whence it came. 
 
 She took the paper and tried to read. 
 But her hands shook so at first she could 
 see only the headlines: 
 
 Horrible accident at the junction of Broadway 
 and High streets! Little Timothy Twine, a news 
 boy, killed by an electric car while heroically 
 rescuing a three-year-old Italian child who had 
 wandered upon the track. 
 
 Her eyes ran with frantic but careful 
 
 eagerness down the column, an irrational 
 
 clinging to hope causing her to scan 
 
 closely every sentence; she was still too 
 
 263
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 stunned to grasp fully the pitiful truth as 
 truth. But presently her glance fell upon 
 these words, and her face blanched to the 
 lips: 
 
 As the electric car reached the brow of the hill 
 and started down the steep incline, the motorman 
 noticed a small child running in the street between 
 the car-tracks and directly toward the front of the 
 car. He saw at a glance that unless the child 
 could be stopped death was inevitable. He called 
 to her at the top of his voice, and applied the 
 brakes with all his strength. But the little girl, 
 hearing the cry, stopped between the tracks and 
 crouched down to the bricks, helpless with fright. 
 At this moment, little Timothy Twine, a newsboy 
 known to many of our citizens as a sprightly lad 
 and as the possessor of a marvelous voice, turned 
 the corner of Broadway. Laying aside his bundle 
 of papers, in a flash the boy was in the street. In 
 another instant he was on the car-track and had 
 caught the terrified child in his arms. But just as 
 the car bore relentlessly down upon them, the little 
 fellow s foot slipped on the icy pavement, and he 
 fell. With one last supreme effort, he managed to 
 shove the little girl forward beyond the track, and 
 thus to save her life. The motorman leaned over 
 the front of the car in a desperate effort to catch 
 the boy. He touched but could not grasp him. 
 The grinding wheels went over the body of the 
 noble child, crushing him to death. 
 
 264
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 It was almost night when Florida en 
 tered the dreary side street not far from 
 her home. The forlorn abode, which had 
 been Tim s only habitation since his baby 
 eyes had opened upon the world, seemed 
 to have taken on new dignity in conse 
 quence of the flimsy piece of white crape 
 which now floated from the doorknob. 
 While yet a long way off, Florida could 
 discern this waving signal of death, and 
 it served as a guide to her in the gather 
 ing darkness. At the first sight of it she 
 caught in her breath with a tearless sob, 
 then hurried on. 
 
 Now and then, as the slender figure 
 made its way past a grocery-store or 
 beer saloon or miserable dwelling, a curi 
 ous, comprehending glance was thrown 
 upon her. Her face was startling in its 
 pallor, but her eyes were dry. 
 
 There was a crowd about the door, 
 but when she approached, all drew 
 back respectfully. She climbed with 
 a tread that was almost firm up the 
 low, rickety flight of wooden steps, and 
 265
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 knocked softly. The door was opened 
 at once. 
 
 Florida moved gropingly into the 
 dimly-lighted room. Three women were 
 shivering around the fireless grate, talk 
 ing in subdued tones, and something 
 white and still lay on the bed in the cor 
 ner. Even in that moment she felt a 
 throb of thankfulness that the beautiful 
 little face had not been marred. 
 
 The woman who opened the door to 
 her, apparently the youngest of the four 
 watchers, stood studying her intently, 
 with eyes that rested in a covetous scru 
 tiny upon the girl s rich furs and well- 
 fitting garments. 
 
 "Will you leave me with him alone 
 for a little while?" said Florida in a low 
 voice. She addressed herself to the 
 woman who had opened the door, but in 
 cluded the others in her glance. At her 
 request, the three lugubrious women sit 
 ting with their backs toward her rose and 
 filed slowly out of the room, but the 
 
 266
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 fourth remained an instant with her hand 
 on the knob. 
 
 "I will not stay long," the girl added 
 imploringly, seeing that the woman did 
 not go. "I some one may have told 
 you I was his friend." 
 
 "Lord, miss," replied the woman, 
 with chattering volubility, "we all knows 
 how kind you ve been, an what a little 
 man you made o Tim. Why, tain t 
 no more n three days sence he was settin 
 on my doo -steps, an preachin a reg lar 
 sermon to them boys o mine him that 
 useter be the terror of the whole street 
 hisself. The big one had been fightin 
 the little one, an Tim he jest laid down 
 the law bout doin to t other as you d 
 have t other do to you, an all the time 
 he was jest as frolicksome as a young 
 colt, though them big eyes did grow 
 mighty soft and shiny when he talked 
 bout the things you tole him. I declare, 
 I didn t know whether to laugh or to cry. 
 I jest said to myself, If Tim ain t a 
 
 miricle o grace 
 
 267
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 All at once she stopped. Something 
 in the tragic face of the girl as it bent 
 above the dead child awed and amazed 
 her. The woman s ready flow of con 
 versation had ceased. Her eyes grew 
 full of wonder and incredulity. "Well, 
 I declare!" she muttered to herself as she 
 softly closed the door and disappeared 
 into the room beyond. 
 
 Florida stood looking down upon the 
 little white face that would never again 
 be lifted to hers in the old trustful, ador 
 ing fashion that would never again grow 
 warm and grateful for her smiles, nor 
 roguish at her jests; and as she stood 
 thus, gradually a strange idea began to 
 steal into her benumbed and harassed 
 brain : that she was gazing not upon the 
 lifeless body of the child she had loved 
 and befriended, but upon all the dead 
 hopes of her own existence, which must 
 now be buried forever out of her sight. 
 
 The kerosene lamp on the table threw 
 mournful shadows about the bare, white 
 washed walls of the comfortless room, and 
 268
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 brought into bold relief the two almost 
 equally quiet figures, which appeared to 
 take on the emphasis of an emblematic 
 significance. A hardness had traced 
 itself upon the features of the girl, whose 
 eyes were fixed stonily upon the prostrate 
 form before her. Something seemed to 
 have dried up all the fountains of emotion 
 within her. She could not weep; she 
 could no longer feel. 
 
 Presently she drew nearer to the dead 
 child, and then for the first time a com 
 plete realization was borne in upon her of 
 the manner of his death, of the beauty and 
 the heroism of the sacrifice he had made. 
 
 A long, quivering sigh rose as from the 
 very depths of her being. She sank 
 upon her knees; her frozen lips moved, 
 trembled and tears, the first that she 
 had shed in all that agonizing day, gushed 
 into her eyes. 
 
 Three hours later the Major, dozing 
 over "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" before 
 269
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 his library fire, looked up startled from 
 his book at the expression he saw upon 
 his daughter s face. The girl had come 
 in very quietly, forgetting to knock, and 
 she had been standing near him for sev 
 eral seconds before he became conscious 
 of her presence. He checked an involun 
 tary exclamation of dismay when their 
 eyes met. But, though the signs of 
 some recent mental conflict were traced 
 upon her features, her manner was now 
 so calm and decided, so tenderly implor 
 ing, that the Major was both alarmed and 
 touched. She remained standing a mo 
 ment, looking silently down upon him 
 with a yearning devotion and pity in her 
 eyes. Then she sat down beside the fire 
 in the small chair in which she used often 
 to sit when a child, and her gaze wan 
 dered away to the quaint mantel, and 
 rested thoughtfully upon the blazing logs 
 on the hearth, as if the words with which 
 she would tell him were forming them 
 selves slowly and with difficulty in her 
 mind. 
 
 270
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 He could never afterward recall what 
 were the arguments she had used, if in 
 deed there had been any arguments at 
 all, whereby she had won from him a re 
 luctant consent; for the strength of her 
 appeal was in its profound spiritual sin 
 cerity. She spoke briefly of the call that 
 had sounded for her several years before, 
 and which had never been wholly silenced, 
 to a life among the poor and the helpless 
 and the unenlightened of the earth; of 
 the strong wave of Christian Socialism un 
 der the influence of which she had to 
 some extent come; of the plan and pur 
 pose of the College Settlements in the 
 great cities; and lastly, of a recent let 
 ter from a friend she had met at college 
 who was permanently connected with one 
 of these settlements a young woman of 
 whom she had made mention to him 
 before, and to whom, with a passionate 
 pleading, she now besought that she be 
 allowed to go. And in the end she had 
 her way. 
 
 Only once did her voice falter, and 
 271
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 that was when she touched upon their 
 parting, the pain she must inflict upon 
 him while she went forth in obedience to 
 that summons which again had seemed to 
 come to her with the authority of a divine 
 command. 
 
 But when she spoke of the desire that 
 her mission of love and duty should lead 
 her more especially into work among 
 children, tears gathered in her father s 
 eyes. 
 
 He rose and laid his hand with a be 
 seeching tenderness upon her head as he 
 bent over her. "I had hoped," he said 
 brokenly, "I had hoped that I might 
 live to see your own children in your 
 arms, my child." 
 
 A flush mounted hotly to her brow, 
 and then left her pale and passionless, and 
 beautiful as marble. But the memory of 
 the look he had called into her eyes was 
 something that he would bear with him 
 to the grave. 
 
 272
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 It was a cool, sunshiny afternoon in 
 the late autumn, with just an invigorat 
 ing hint of winter in the air. The day of 
 her departure! All the morning she had 
 been busily occupied ; but now her trunks 
 were packed, the carriage was at the 
 door, and her father was waiting to go 
 with her to the station. She could hear 
 him moving restlessly about the room 
 below, and, as was his wont when sad or 
 lonely, singing softly to himself singing 
 one of Dr. Watts hymns. She sat down 
 helplessly on the side of the couch, and 
 threw a hesitating glance about the little 
 bed-chamber in which she had suf 
 fered such unspeakable things. She had 
 fully twenty minutes yet ; even now she 
 could alter her decision it was not too 
 late. 
 
 How still the old house was! Her 
 stepmother had bidden her a somewhat 
 impatient adieu, and had hurried off, 
 with characteristic unconcern, to a recep 
 tion. The children also were away. She 
 had bestowed her gifts upon the servants, 
 273
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 and made a little farewell speech to each. 
 She had absolutely nothing left to do. 
 The moments were flying. The voice in 
 the room below had ceased. 
 
 Suddenly two great tears welled into 
 her eyes and fell with a moist splash upon 
 her clasped hands. 
 
 Everything grew dark and uncertain 
 before her; an awful blindness seemed 
 closing in upon her; she stretched forth 
 her hands with a feeble, frightened cry 
 like the bleat of a timid lamb on a 
 lonely mountain side. 
 
 Then, all at once, the great sun burst 
 from behind a cloud ; she felt the strength 
 of a mighty Arm about her, and in her 
 ears a Voice was whispering words of 
 peace. 
 
 When she entered the library she 
 found him asleep in his chair. His Bible 
 lay open on the table at his side, and she 
 knew that, as always in the midst of 
 every strife, he had been seeking the safe 
 274
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 stronghold of his faith, and that the smile 
 still resting upon his features was a bene 
 diction for her. 
 
 And seeing him thus serene and rest 
 ful, the afternoon sun shedding a soft ra 
 diance in the room and making a glory 
 about the beloved head, she felt that she 
 could not rouse him to that awakening of 
 pain. She stood thoughtful for a mo 
 ment, trying to decide upon some means 
 whereby she might leave a message, so 
 that he should know that she had gone 
 forth, not in a miserable, cowardly fashion, 
 but bravely and cheerfully, to her great 
 life-work that it was to be with her truly 
 the victory of vanquishment, and that 
 there had been given her "the garment 
 of praise for the spirit of heaviness." 
 
 A happy thought came to her. She 
 moved behind his chair and softly turned 
 the pages of the Book. Then she drew 
 a line delicately in pencil beneath the 
 passage she wished him to read, and 
 placed a flower upon it. And these are 
 the words which caught his eyes as he 
 275
 
 Florida Alexander 
 
 woke nearly an hour later in the sunlit 
 room: 
 
 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into 
 dancing; thou hast put off my sackcloth and 
 girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory 
 may sing praise to thee and not be silent. 
 
 THE END 
 
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