TO 
 
 Tl/lY 7j
 
 33 f/
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY 
 
 BY 
 
 a 
 
 Author of " A Squire of Low Degree. 
 
 He that feeds men serveth few; 
 He serves all who dares be true. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MERRILL & BAKER 
 
 74 5th
 
 COPYRIGHTED 1893. 
 
 LILY A. LONG.
 
 23 
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 By LILY A. LONG. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE clock on the mantel struck eleven in a subdued 
 tone, discharging an official duty as unobstrusively as 
 possible. Joyce Mabie looked up absently, glanced at the 
 waiting breakfast-table where a silver lamp with a tiny 
 flame was keeping a cup of chocolate warm, and theii 
 lapsed back into her magazine. A heap of newspapers 
 and journals lay beside her upon the floor and from time 
 to time she interrupted her reading to make extracts in a 
 methodical way. It was not mere young lady notetak- 
 ing. She was reading for a purpose, and the extracts 
 which she made were carefully arranged on sheets for the 
 printer. 
 
 The clock ticked on, mentioning deprecatingly that the 
 seconds were running into long minutes, though really it 
 didn t matter in the least, but Joyce did not move again 
 until a side door opened and her father, girding his dress 
 ing-gown with a silken cord, came into the room. Then 
 she dropped her papers to lean back and look at him, 
 silently, with a quizzical smile. 
 
 "Yes, I know," he said gaily. "The eleventh hour. 
 That is rather characteristic of me, I am afraid, in more 
 matters than breakfasts."
 
 4 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " What objection is there to the eleventh hour, ab 
 stractly considered ? " she asked meditatively. She rose 
 as she spoke and crossed the room to the waiting table. 
 " It is just as long as any other and just as good, for 
 breakfasts or anything else." 
 
 " You re a good girl not to scold, but you d be a better 
 housewife if you did," her father retorted. 
 
 He stopped before an easel, and pulled his gray mous 
 tache impatiently while he scrutinized a painting in oils 
 that still stood as when he had stopped working at it yes 
 terday. There had been people in the world so sternly 
 virtuous as to doubt whether a moustache so ostenta 
 tiously handsome could ever admit a man to heaven. 
 Perhaps this doubt was offset by the devout faith held, if 
 not confessed, by certain others, that heaven would be a 
 dreary waste without it. But all this pertained to the 
 days when the drooping moustache was brown instead of 
 gray, and the lips it shaded did not know how a tall 
 daughter s kiss differs from any other. His daughter, 
 who had poured his chocolate and heaped a plate with 
 early strawberries for him, came to his side now, and 
 looked at the head with him. It was a " Spartan Boy," 
 and Joyce had been his model. But she was thinking of 
 him, in a desultory way, rather than of the picture. She 
 wondered what the decisive circumstance had been that 
 turned him to the career of an artist. If chance, it was 
 a lucky one, for there would have been a woful waste of 
 his most characteristic qualities if he had elected, as he 
 easily might, being an American, to go into business 
 instead. 
 
 He had picked up a brush and was doing some rapid 
 and nervous work upon the head before him, but when he 
 spoke it was with a gentle deliberation and a soft avoid 
 ance of all final r s that conveyed an indefinable sugges 
 tion of habitual indolence.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 5 
 
 " That remark of yours about the eleventh hour being 
 all right shows a freedom from prejudice and a breadth 
 of thought that I am rather proud of," he said, without 
 looking at her. " Most women are slaves of tradi 
 tion." 
 
 " Oh, I m not sure that is so," she said quickly. 
 
 " Yes, it is. Come, when I declare you an exception 
 you ought to be sufficiently placated to let me say what I 
 please about the rest of them. Women generally don t 
 invent opinions. They don t even revise them. Some 
 body, some man, who had an east bedroom and no 
 curtains, must have started the theory that to rise early is 
 an act of virtue. The women of his household accepted 
 the dictum, in time it was transformed into a traditipn, 
 and now it requires a bold and original mind to discern 
 that one hour is intrinsically as good as another." 
 
 " In Bohemia, perhaps. But it is just as well that 
 landladies and railroad conductors aren t Bohemians. 
 Do you know that your chocolate is getting cold ? " 
 
 He threw down his brush, frowned at his work for a 
 moment, and then sat down to the little table where the 
 dainty service for one was spread. 
 
 " You have breakfasted ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I ll sit here, so that you won t have to bear 
 the full penalty of your tardiness." 
 
 " Ah, that is nice." He leaned back and surveyed her 
 as he had looked at the picture. " But I wish you had 
 done your hair higher ! " 
 
 " Oh dear, I thought I had it right this time," she 
 exclaimed, twisting her head to get a glimpse of herself 
 in the mirror over the mantel. The picture would have 
 been satisfactory enough to most observers. 
 
 " Don t you see it is too square ? A touch, so. That 
 reminds me, Joyce, I saw something down the street yes 
 terday that I want you to have a gown of. It was an
 
 6 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 exquisite thing, a sort of silk tissue, loose, with threads 
 like dull gold 
 
 " Nonsense, papa, don t think of such extravagance," 
 she interrupted quickly. " I have quantities of things 
 now, and I wouldn t have the least use for a gown of 
 tissue of gold." 
 
 " Oh, well, just as you please," he answered somewhat 
 petulantly. The protest in her voice and manner irri 
 tated him. "I only thought it would bring out that occa 
 sional gleam of color in your hair. It isn t that I care 
 the least bit for you, you ungrateful wretch. I ll have it 
 for a curtain instead." 
 
 "As you please, dear papa. I shan t feel personally 
 responsible for your spendthrift ways, then." 
 
 " Spendthrift ways, indeed," he retorted. " For whose 
 sake have I run myself hopelessly in debt, I d like to 
 know ? " 
 
 " For mine," she said contritely. " Because you wanted 
 to make me believe I was a princess of Bohemia, when I 
 left school. And the royal exchequer didn t correspond 
 with the royal taste in matters of furnishing." 
 
 " It never has, worse luck," he said gloomily. " I wish 
 I hadn t told you the things weren t paid for. You ve 
 never half enjoyed them since." 
 
 He looked as though he hoped she would deny this, 
 but she had turned away to look at the arrangement of 
 the room, perhaps to avoid the necessity of replying. 
 It was a pretty room, exceedingly pretty, with a curious 
 mingling of splendor and carelessness. There were rugs 
 that would have been befitting in a palace, curtains of a 
 texture and color that would have filled the heart cf an 
 oriental, and odd bits of furniture that only an artist or 
 a woman could have discovered. A dozen sketches, 
 mostly caricatures and cartoons, and all signed "Tom 
 Garner," were pinned against the walls, and a portfolio
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. J 
 
 that had fallen and spilled its contents upon the floor 
 betrayed the work of the same vigorous hand. There 
 was a warmth and color about it all well calculated to 
 charm an impressionable young girl, such as Joyce was, 
 but she did not look charmed. Her eyelids drooped with 
 the same shadowy constraint that had already betrayed 
 itself once or twice in her manner. 
 
 " Oh, well, this is only an interlude," her father said 
 rather sharply, as though she had spoken. " Pretty soon 
 the Humorist will discover that it doesn t want any more 
 of Tom Garner s illustrations for its jokes, and then we 
 will go to some cheap boarding-house, with horse-hair 
 upholstery and beef-and-cabbage dinners, and try to 
 impress our new friends by tales of our former splendor 
 when we had the swellest suite of apartments in the 
 Transitu." 
 
 " A plain garret would be better, if it came to that, papa." 
 
 " Garrets might, in one sense, be out of reach," he haz 
 arded. 
 
 " One of your old, delightful studios, then." 
 
 He let his eyes rest upon her. 
 
 " They were spacious enough for me, but my daughter 
 has grown too tall for their doors. We must consider 
 something else." 
 
 "Why, are you considering it, seriously ? " 
 
 He was so long in answering that she jumped up and 
 went to him, and took his face in her hands. 
 
 " Papa, are you ? " 
 
 " My dear, there never was a man to whom the unex 
 pected was surer to happen than to me. It has always 
 been so, from the time my father discovered my first 
 attempts at caricature on the blank pages of the family 
 Bible to the time when your other grandfather refused, 
 contrary to all precedent, to forgive me for eloping with 
 his daughter. So you must be prepared to take your
 
 8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 chances as long as you persist in preferring me to any 
 other man." 
 
 The girl s face had softened suddenly at the latter part 
 of this speech, and now she bent to kiss him before she 
 released his face. 
 
 " I like you best," she said softly. 
 
 Then she slipped away from him and set to work gath 
 ering up the papers on the floor. His eyes lingered upon 
 her. She did not lapse into the fervor of kisses as often 
 nowadays as she had a year ago when she first came back 
 to him from the boarding-school which had practically 
 been her home through her growing years. He half 
 resented her habitual composure. It indicated a change 
 in her and possibly a change in her estimate of him and 
 of their life. Wasn t she happy ? Didn t she have every 
 reason to be happy, with a father who indulged her every 
 whim and was proud of her ? For he was proud of her. 
 She was a credit to him artistically, and she pleased him. 
 He vaguely objected to the phase of seriousness which 
 she had lately developed, perhaps seeing in it a protest 
 against his own non-serious aims and methods, yet he 
 was "keenly conscious of the elusive charm which it had 
 brought into her young eyes. It had awakened her from 
 the vapid stage of girlishness in which pretty features 
 are an unlit lamp. If he wasn t altogether sure that he 
 liked the form which the awakening had taken, at least 
 he was too much impressed by it to attempt coercion. 
 But for the matter of that, Thomas Garner Mabie had 
 never been remarkable for his success in bending things 
 to his will. 
 
 "What is the news to-day?" he asked as she folded up 
 the morning paper. " It is the proper thing to take the 
 news with one s breakfast, isn t it ? " 
 
 "And you always endeavor to do the proper thing, 
 don t you, dear papa ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. Q 
 
 "Of course I do, Miss Impertinence, though my efforts 
 don t seem to meet with the recognition that they de 
 serve." 
 
 " Perhaps the recognition is measured by their success." 
 
 He leaned back to smile at her appreciatively. 
 
 " Oh, well ! You are my only daughter ! " 
 
 " Will you have the political situation ? " she asked, 
 opening the paper and glancing, with a feminine desire 
 to do her duty, at the big headlines. 
 
 He returned to his strawberries. " No. What do 
 political situations amount to ? The king marches down 
 hill and then marches up again. Awfully stupid." 
 
 " Here is an account of a workingman s league " 
 
 " Skip that, or save it for Karl Bahrdt and his Jus 
 tice. By the way, aren t you beginning to be a little tired 
 of that Justice work? " He glanced at her careful pile 
 of manuscript with a smile of amusement which he took 
 little pains to conceal. 
 
 " I like it," she said quickly, lifting her eyes with an 
 air of being at once on the defensive. 
 
 " As much as ever ? " 
 
 " More than ever, as I know more about it." 
 
 " Has Karl made you managing editor yet? " 
 
 The color had come into her face and she found it hard 
 to keep perfect composure under his teasing questions, 
 but she made a brave feint. 
 
 Justice isn t big enough for more than one editor at a 
 time, and Mr. Bahrdt hasn t intimated that he thinks of 
 giving it up." 
 
 He watched her with an amused air, understanding her 
 restiveness perfectly and enjoying it. 
 
 " Well, isn t Karl s position a good deal of a sinecure ? 
 I am sure if all your effusions are printed, it must be 
 easy work to fill in the fraction of a page left for editorial 
 comment."
 
 IO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Oh, my work doesn t amount to much after it is put 
 into type." 
 
 "Doesn t amount to much in quantity? Or quality?" 
 
 " I was thinking of quantity, as it happened. The 
 work itself is worth doing, even if I don t do much. It 
 is making selections from other papers, mostly, and keep 
 ing track of what is going on." 
 
 " Is it all scissors and paste ? I thought you occasion 
 ally let your imagination loose on labor statistics, and 
 things of that sort." 
 
 " If I happen to know anything about the subject, I 
 sometimes do," she admitted half defiantly. " But of 
 course it all goes to Mr. Bahrdt." 
 
 "Bahrdt is all right, and his ideas make no man so un 
 comfortable as himself. He is a child of the generation. 
 But don t take his theories too seriously, Joyce. What s 
 the use of it all ?" 
 
 Joyce looked up with argument in every feature, but in 
 a moment she changed her mind about the advisability of 
 pursuing the subject and fell back upon the paper. 
 
 " Here is a big bank failure, "she suggested tentatively. 
 
 " That doesn t concern us, because we never had any 
 money to put in a bank in all our improvident lives," he 
 responded cheerfully. " That points out one of the dis 
 advantages of hoarding wealth, my child. Take warning 
 in time. What next ? " 
 
 " Mr. Richardson has returned to the city," she went on, 
 with her eyes upon the paper. 
 
 But he had dropped his napkin and exclaimed " What ? " 
 with a face so startled that she looked up in surprise, 
 and then she laughed. 
 
 " Ah, that s what comes of having an uneasy con 
 science ! " she cried with a merry malice that was like a 
 gleam of sunlight over a shadowy lake. " You re afraid 
 he ll find you out, you audacious, bribing, unscrupulous
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 1 1 
 
 man ! Do you think that as soon as he enters his picture 
 gallery he will begin to sniff the air suspiciously and hurry 
 at once to his precious Daubigny in the corner and 
 cry out, Who s been making a copy of my Daubigny, 
 without leave or license ? Who s bribed the janitor to let 
 him in while he made the copy ? Do you really think he 
 will, dear ? Could you possibly have left a smudge of 
 paint somewhere about? Or dropped a color-tube, with 
 your initials on it, for instance ? " 
 
 " My dear Joyce, I wish you would be more careful," he 
 exclaimed impatiently. " If any word should get about 
 
 "I am not likely to tell tales," she said proudly. 
 " Though it wasn t a capital crime, at the worst ! He 
 would have let you in, if he had been here, and when he 
 finds out about it he will only say, Well, if that isn t like 
 Tom Garner ! 
 
 " Have you exhausted the subject ? " he asked 
 drily. 
 
 The color flashed into her face. It was not often he 
 took that tone with her. It might have indicated to her 
 that he was more deeply disturbed than her mischievous 
 teasing alone would account for, but a school-girl s suf 
 focating shame under reproof swept away all power of 
 reasoning, and her only thought was to hold the paper so 
 that he could not see her crimson cheeks and to keep her 
 voice as cool as possible. At least he shouldn t know that 
 she minded so much ! 
 
 " Here is another Mysterious Disappearance," she said 
 in a moment with forced animation. " Where do you sup 
 pose the people go to who mysteriously disappear every 
 now and then ? They are like the pins." 
 
 " Oh, it is easy enough." 
 
 " But can you imagine what would make a man want to 
 lose his identity ? Think of dropping one s hold on
 
 12 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 everything familiar and standing, shivering, in a new 
 world ! " 
 
 " He doesn t think of it in that dramatic way. He gen 
 erally disappears because something more familiar -than 
 pleasant, with a blue coat and a truncheon, wants to get 
 a hold upon him. I have sometimes been tempted to dis 
 appear myself, just to escape being everlastingly dunned." 
 
 She dropped her paper and followed him with a dis 
 turbed look as he rose impatiently from the table and 
 went back to stare at his picture with that same uncertain 
 frown. She did not answer, but her thoughts ran on rap 
 idly enough. This question of money seemed to trail a 
 blight over everything. She was young, with a capacity 
 for deep enthusiasm and strenuous ideals. She thought 
 she had begun to see, during the last few months, what 
 life might be made to mean, if one took it up seriously, as 
 Karl Bahrdt did, for instance, and she chafed at the 
 thought that the actuality into which she was drawn was 
 cheap and unideal. Since she had learned, half by acci 
 dent, that they were in debt withal, she had been stung 
 with a sense of actual shame. She, who aspired to a 
 higher standard of living, was forced even below the aver 
 age in the simple matter of honesty ! The slender salary 
 that she drew for her work on Karl Bahrdt s " Justice " was 
 at times the only thing that kept her self-respect from 
 collapsing. Slender though it was, it was real. 
 
 There was a tap at the door, which interrupted her 
 thoughts. Mabie answered it alertly. 
 
 " Oh, it is you, Bahrdt ! I m precious glad. I ve just 
 been wanting a severe and uncomfortable critic to tell 
 me what s the matter with this Spartan Boy of mine. It 
 started off well, but, confound it, I m on the verge of hat 
 ing it now. Something is wrong, and I can t help it." 
 
 Bahrdt had come into the room and submitted to being 
 led to a stand before the picture. He nodded to Joyce,
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 13 
 
 and a whimsical smile of intelligence curved his lips at 
 Mabie s concluding confession, but it was characteristic 
 of him that he should bend his attention upon the picture 
 without waste of preliminary words. He could speak 
 when there was need, but there was meaning in his silence 
 as well. 
 
 There were people to whom Karl Bahrdt was simply a 
 newspaper man, with rather a scathing pen and an aggres 
 sive independence, and a habit, sometimes amusing, 
 sometimes annoying, of going below the surface of mat 
 ters that other people were content to take at their cur 
 rent value. He was forced to keep this tendency under 
 check in his professional work, for the papers which gave 
 him assignments and accepted his space-writing did not 
 care to print anything that would startle a good, conserv 
 ative constituency. But he was a valuable man, for all 
 that, with unusual stores of abstruse information, and 
 when he could be induced to twice-water his ideas the 
 result would be a stimulating article that gave tone to the 
 morning paper and was worth paying for. The little 
 paper, " Justice," was his dissipation. He had established 
 it himself and carried it on for the pleasure of being able 
 to express himself freely and in his own way; and for the 
 sake of its monthly opportunity he was content to write 
 reports of conventions and " features " and reviews for 
 the big dailies of the city. " Justice," had come to be 
 looked upon in some quarters as a " labor organ," and its 
 sentiments were quoted as authority by many an exponent 
 of the doctrine of unionism, but Bahrdt himself was not 
 in the Councils of Labor. Overtures to bring him in had 
 not been lacking, but he did not easily submit to manage 
 ment. He was a free lance, by instinct and habit. So 
 long as he might be allowed to discourse of the Rights of 
 Man, and keep to the philosophical and economic bearing 
 of the question, he was ready to fight to the last gasp for
 
 14 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 that portion of humanity which he beheld oppressed by 
 fate or custom, but when it came to organizing him or his 
 speeches he broke away. He would not trim his opinions 
 to fit a machine, even if the machine bore the same motto 
 that his own pennant floated. So while the many, who 
 take their views of life with as little revision as their 
 fashions, called him a communist and would hardly give 
 him credit for the ordinary Christian virtues because he 
 was understood vaguely to be a leader of heterodox move 
 ments to subvert the existing order of things in general, 
 the leaders who represented the Federation of Labor 
 and other organized leagues of workingmen were care 
 ful to make it clear that Bahrdt spoke for himself 
 alone. 
 
 But whatever he had accomplished, it was impossi 
 ble to be with him long without feeling that the man 
 transcended his performance, and without wondering 
 what the occasion was to be that would measure his 
 strength. He was at this time of less than middle age, 
 though one would hardly have stopped to calculate his 
 years, unless to remark how poor a standard of measure 
 they are. His face was sensitive, though its responsive 
 ness was more shown in the readiness with which it 
 expressed his own waves of feeling than in the yieldings 
 of sympathy. His dark blue eyes, though luminous on 
 occasion, were generally sombre in effect. The tenant 
 behind saw more injustice in the world than altruism, 
 more reason for protest and fighting than for compla 
 cency. An ineffectual protest and a losing fight, he 
 would have said himself first of all ; nevertheless he was 
 bound to make it. It was ordained, his shadowy eyes 
 affirmed ; and equally was it ordained that he should suf 
 fer in the struggle, his lips might have declared to one 
 who could read their lines. 
 
 Mabie watched him while he bent his scrutiny upon the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. I 5 
 
 picture. As an artist he invited criticism, but as a man 
 he always shivered under it. 
 
 " Well ? " he queried at last, unable to wait longer for 
 the verdict. 
 
 " It is bad art, because it is bad morals," Bahrdt said 
 abruptly. " He was a thief, that Spartan Boy of yours, 
 and that is a bad back-ground to set off courage." 
 
 " Fiddledeedee ! " cried Mabie, with indignant aston 
 ishment. "You are a regular Puritan when you get on 
 that tack, Karl." 
 
 " That is my opinion, whatever it may be worth. Any 
 system that admits of dishonesty without condemning it, 
 whether it be in art or in government, is bad, and the 
 sooner it is crushed into oblivion the better." 
 
 He spoke with an ease and accuracy that would shame 
 many to the language born, yet with a distinctly German 
 intonation. It consisted more in the lingering tones and 
 shaded articulation than in any definable violation of 
 rules. Rarely it was emphasized by a misplaced accent 
 or a translated idiom. But it set him apart in some way, 
 and gave a tinge of foreignness to his character, though 
 he would have tolerated an acknowledgment of this but 
 impatiently. 
 
 " I want to see you a moment, Tom," he added. 
 
 The artist was regarding his picture with compassion 
 ate indignation, but his was a forgiving spirit. 
 
 " Come to my room. Joyce will be glad to be rid of 
 us," he said promptly, and he turned to smile at his 
 daughter as he spoke. 
 
 Bahrdt turned toward her, too, but he did not smile. 
 Instead, something like a look of pity deepened ifi his 
 eyes as he followed his friend to the adjoining room.
 
 II. 
 
 " Have a cigar ? " asked Mabie when the two men were 
 alone. 
 
 Bahrdt declined with a gesture, and instead of taking 
 the easy chair which the artist pushed forward he crossed 
 the room with evident embarrassment and stood leaning 
 his shoulder against the window casement. 
 
 "Well?" said Mabie genially. 
 
 Bahrdt lifted his eyes for a sharp look, and then he 
 dropped them. 
 
 " You may think I am unnecessarily meddlesome," he 
 said in a constrained voice, " but you won t need to give 
 me more than one hint to stop. In my hunt for news for 
 the papers I am all the time running across other matters, 
 and when a friend is concerned I can t entirely ignore it." 
 
 Mabie had taken his cigar from his lips and was staring 
 at -the speaker with a startled look. His almond eyes 
 contracted and then widened suddenly and his sensitive 
 lips quivered apart for a moment but he made no motion 
 to speak. 
 
 " It is about Vroom & Co. They have ordered suit. 
 I got it from their attorney." 
 
 " Vroom & Co ? Vroom ? " Mabie repeated with a 
 bewildered air. " What do they know ? " 
 
 "Know?" 
 
 " You mean the furniture men ? " 
 
 " Yes. Haven t they an account against you ? " 
 
 " To be sure." Mabie laughed and restored his cigar 
 to his lips. " And they are going to sue me for it, you 
 say. Is that it ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 17 
 
 " Unless the bill is settled at once." 
 
 " I begin to catch your drift. Why were you so myste 
 rious about it ? " 
 
 " I wasn t mysterious," retorted Bahrdt with a fast- 
 growing impatience. When a man undertakes a disagree 
 able office for a friend he wants at least to have the 
 satisfaction of seeing his friend as uncomfortable as him 
 self, and Mabie was most unsympathetically at ease. " I 
 thought I might possibly be of some assistance, but if it 
 is a mistake " 
 
 " Oh, no, no mistake about it. But when you began in 
 that dark manner about having found me out " 
 
 " I didn t say anything of the sort." 
 
 " I didn t know what you might have discovered, and 
 was waiting in a cold sweat to learn whether I was to be 
 charged with murder or with having stolen my last joke 
 from Hudibras. But suits, Lord, I m used to them." 
 
 " I m sorry to have made myself a nuisance 
 
 " Now, don t be offish. I m glad enough to have you 
 here to talk the matter over. It was only that I didn t 
 understand you at first." He began rummaging among 
 the numerous odds and ends upon his table. " They sent 
 me a letter about that account the other day, I had it 
 here somewhere, but I can never tell where the mischief 
 my_ things go to. Never mind. It was the regulation 
 thing. They wanted me to call and settle. I didn t see 
 any use in answering when I didn t have anything to set 
 tle with. I never was so hard up in my life, and I ve had 
 more experience in that direction than most people." 
 
 " Can I do any good by seeing them for you ? " 
 
 " I m afraid not, dear boy. You couldn t bring yourself 
 to swear, with your hand on the ledger, that I will pay 
 within thirty days. If you did, you would betray that 
 you didn t believe it yourself. You haven t had practice 
 enough to lie with a convincing air."
 
 1 8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " I m afraid I couldn t say, either, that you have lost 
 any sleep over the matter." 
 
 " Why should I ? If you are condemned to starve, you 
 don t gain anything by fretting yourself to death at the 
 prospect." 
 
 " What is the amount ? " 
 
 " Vroom s bill ? I don t remember exactly. Six or 
 seven hundred. He fitted up these rooms for me when 
 Joyce was coming home, and my paternal pride wrecked 
 me. Then you know the way these fellows have when 
 they want to sell. Everything your own way and pay 
 when you like, and, bless you, you can t say anything that 
 they won t smile at and agree to. But when the bill 
 comes due you find that the house doesn t have enough 
 men of the smiling sort to go around, so it has pooled 
 them in the sales department and left the collections in 
 the hands of the other variety who make you wish you 
 were dead, or that they were." 
 
 " Or, better still, that they had been paid." 
 
 " Oh, of course. But that s out of the question. They 
 may sue if they like. They will get judgment against me 
 and that is all they will get. There are more judgments 
 hanging over me now than I can ever pay, unless some 
 one will give me a commission to paint a whole art gal 
 lery and no questions asked." 
 
 There was nothing in this statement to surprise Bahrdt, 
 for Tom Garner s financial condition was too well known 
 to excite comment. It was a standing puzzle to his 
 friends how a man who so notoriously avoided the pay 
 ment of his debts could manage to get pretty much what 
 he wanted, as he did. He used the money he did spend 
 to advantage, and it must be said that he spent generously. 
 But Bahrdt cared too much to laugh at it, as others did. 
 
 " Do you mean that there are other and older debts 
 still unsettled ? " he asked.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 19 
 
 " Other debts ? You tempt me to drop into slang. I 
 don t even know how many, so how can I be expected to 
 pay them ? When a man s finances run short he must 
 live by financiering." 
 
 " Such financiering does not do you credit, Tom," said 
 Bahrdt quickly. 
 
 Mabie s cheek flushed slowly and his eye sought the 
 floor, but he answered with great composure : 
 
 " It is very easy for you to lay down your little moral 
 maxims and win the applause of all well-regulated minds. 
 But what should I have done ? Tell me, dabbler that you 
 are in sociology and economics. The survival of the fit 
 test, that is the phrase people conjure with nowadays. 
 Now listen." 
 
 He tossed away his cigar, pushed his chair back, and 
 faced Bahrdt with a nervous energy in voice and manner 
 that was unusual with him. 
 
 " When I took my life into my own hands and an 
 nounced that I was going to be an artist, my family 
 threw me over. It wasn t a prosperous calling, wasn t 
 even wholly respectable, in their eyes. Well, it was my 
 life, and there are some matters in which a man has no 
 choice. I have never been sorry that I persisted, but the 
 result was that I half starved the first five years. If I 
 had been a great artist, of course I could have com 
 manded fortune. That is what one likes to dream of. 
 But I wasn t. I was only enough of an artist to make it 
 impossible for me to live in any other way and not enough 
 of one to ensure my living at all in that way. I was a 
 weakling. Your law of survival would condemn me to be 
 swept out as unfit, but I objected. If my lightness could 
 save me, in default of strength, who shall say I was not 
 justified in using it ? If I prove my ability to survive, 
 you must admit my right. So I have carried an easy 
 mind and light luggage, and have preyed upon my fellow
 
 20 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 beings no more than was necessary to keep myself from 
 going under in the struggle. I don t mean by that that I 
 have lived by sharp practice, either, though probably I 
 have been kept from it more by an instinctive shrinking 
 from such things than from any good reason you could 
 urge against them. I ve had to pit my opinion against 
 the world s pretty steadily. It has got even with me, 
 perhaps, for though it may be all wrong it has brute 
 strength on its side. Oh, I know what it says of me. A 
 broken-winged bird, a. ne er-do-weel, a failure. Of 
 late years it has been oftenest A dead-beat. " 
 
 He turned abruptly and walked to the window, and 
 stood looking out with his head thrown proudly back to 
 deny a quick heave of the shoulders. Bahrdt watched 
 him with an awkward feeling of compassion. 
 
 " I dropped the last part of my name," the artist con 
 tinued after a moment, with a recovery of his mocking 
 manner, " in order that I might not drag the ancestral 
 Thomas Mabie through the mire. I have been Tom Gar 
 ner to my friends as well as to the public, and there are 
 few people who know that I don t sign it to my legal doc 
 uments. I suppose I had some idiotic notion that under 
 this modest shield I would achieve fame and fortune and 
 make my family rather proud of explaining the relation 
 ship. As for fame, well, I make pictures to fit the 
 ready-made jokes of the Humorist. That ought to sat 
 isfy any man s ambition. The fortune is a little hazy to 
 be sure, and the family has taken me at my word very 
 energetically and let me disappear. A fruitful life, isn t 
 it ? And a hopeful one ! " 
 
 " There is Joyce," suggested Bahrdt. 
 
 Mabie threw himself down by the table again, sat silent 
 a moment, and then dropped his head upon his arms. 
 Bahrdt waited with a heavy frown between his eyes and 
 back of it a pity which he often gave to classes but sel-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 21 
 
 dom to individuals. How these helpless human fledg 
 lings did bruise and maim themselves ! Was it their 
 fault ? Life was to blame, and the scheme of things 
 which involved living. It was only pointing the bitter 
 thought that pressed always closest to his heart, the 
 wreckage of human lives and the pity of it. He was 
 thinking less of Mabie, the one man before him, than of 
 all the men forced by the world s methods to drop a 
 shamed head and confess themselves failures. Perhaps 
 the man who dreamed the story of Prometheus knew the 
 feeling as well as any. 
 
 But when he spoke it was the common-sense of the 
 street that found expression. 
 
 " About this matter of Vroom s. Can t you get them to 
 take back the things ? I don t suppose you are anxious to 
 be sued, however familiar the operation may be, and if they 
 understand the situation they will probably be willing to 
 settle by getting back their goods and saving court costs." 
 
 " I suppose that is sensible and practical. It is too 
 unpleasant not to be." 
 
 " Then what will you do next ? " 
 
 " Buy a ticket at the corner drug-store for the land 
 where there is no dunning or getting in debt." 
 
 " That is nonsense, you know." 
 
 " I don t know what I may do. That is the charac 
 teristic of my warfare. I never make plans, so I never 
 run the risk of having them upset. The other people 
 may have the fun of planning." 
 
 " You can hardly involve your daughter in that sort of 
 a campaign." 
 
 Tom Garner frowned and gave his "chair an impatient 
 jerk. Then his face cleared suddenly. 
 
 "Oh, she is going away. I forgot that, in your con 
 founded news. She is going to spend the summer with 
 an old school-friend."
 
 22 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "So much the better. Then you will have a chance to 
 get matters into some sort of order before she comes 
 back." 
 
 " Yes." Tom Garner was staring absently into space. 
 " Come to think of it, I don t see that it will be necessary 
 to tell her anything about this complication. Can t you 
 see those people for me and get them to keep quiet until 
 she is off ? It won t do any good for her to know, and it 
 will be particularly unpleasant." 
 
 Bahrdt s eyebrows contracted. 
 
 " Better tell her," he said sharply. " She isn t the sort 
 of girl that can be kept in ignorance, so you might as well 
 accept the situation and tell the truth. Under compul 
 sion, you know." 
 
 " Well," said Mabie acquiescingly. He seemed entirely 
 oblivious of the sting in Bahrdt s words, but as Bahrdt s 
 words were rather apt to carry a sting perhaps the force 
 of it was lost. " I wonder by the way whether I have 
 money enough to get her off." 
 
 He emptied his purse upon the table and the coins fell 
 in a little jingling heap of gold and silver. 
 
 " Pretty, isn t it ? " he said, leaning back to look at it 
 quizzically. " A beautiful witch that blinds men s eyes 
 with the gleam of her golden hair and leads them over 
 bogs and quicksands and through Dismal Swamps where 
 snakes and bats and ghosts do dwell. You are all under 
 her thrall, you, Karl, as much as any of them." 
 
 " I ? " echoed Bahrdt with indignant surprise. " I have 
 made it the work of my life to denounce capital." 
 
 " Exactly, because you conceive her to be a very im 
 portant personage. If she cannot make you love her, she 
 will sting you into hating her, but in one way or another 
 she will make you feel her power. While for me, Beauty 
 is my mistress, and I wear no other livery. Our golden 
 goddess may hurl her thunderbolts, and, to do her jus-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2$ 
 
 tice, she has a fairly good aim, but it is one of the rules 
 of the game that her shafts have power to overthrow only 
 her own devotees." 
 
 " Yet you have not escaped being overthrown." 
 
 Mabie lifted his shoulders the merest trifle. 
 
 " Who thinks so ? You, and the majority. Who thinks 
 not ? I. Who knows best ? I m modest, so I won t 
 say." He ran the money smilingly through his fingers 
 till he came to the last coin, when he frowned. 
 
 " There isn t enough. There never is enough." 
 
 " Sell your Spartan Boy. " 
 
 "Will you find me a purchaser?" 
 
 " Has that dealer, Hamon, isn t that his name ? has 
 he seen it ?" 
 
 Mabie pushed back his chair suddenly and violently. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I thought he handled such things for you." 
 
 " He doesn t." 
 
 Bahrdt looked surprised and expectant, but no explana 
 tion was forthcoming. It went through his mind that 
 Mabie was probably already in Hamon s debt and that 
 consequently their relations were strained. "Perhaps I 
 can find a man who will take it," he said. " I have a 
 good friend, just come to town. He shall see it." 
 
 " You are not afraid that its bad moral standard " 
 
 Bahrdt smiled and shook his head. 
 
 " Paul will never perceive it." 
 
 " Then there is some chance that he may understand 
 art. Come, let s go and tell Joyce and have it over 
 with." 
 
 He rose as he spoke, swept the money back into his 
 purse, and after an almost imperceptible pause, led the 
 way to the outer room. As Bahrdt followed he wondered 
 whether it was so clear, after all, that the Spartan Boy 
 deserved no credit for his courage because the laws of
 
 24 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 other nations named him a thief. His own protected him, 
 and at least he was true to them. 
 
 There was a delicate aloofness about Joyce Mabie that 
 made people instinctively pause and consider what wares 
 they were about to offer her. This characteristic struck 
 Bahrdt sharply, when, upon their entrance, she lifted an 
 absent, luminous look to greet them. It had nothing in 
 common with that story of weak subterfuge and shifty 
 methods. He turned abruptly to Mabie. 
 
 " Shall I see them for you and make that proposition 
 for settlement ? " 
 
 " I wish you would. Thanks, old fellow." 
 
 " I ll drop in again as soon as possible and report." 
 
 Then he departed hastily and tramped impatiently 
 down the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. 
 
 " And yet she will have to know," he said to himself de 
 fiantly. " That is what life is, for the majority, mean 
 and poor and a thing to blush for. If she is of finer sort 
 she must use her fineness to help the average. She has 
 no right to remain ignorant." 
 
 Yet it all annoyed him so deeply that he was particu 
 larly fierce when he came to interview Vroom s attorney, 
 and in consequence he practically had matters his own 
 way about the settlement.
 
 III. 
 
 IT suddenly came over Tom Garner, when he was left 
 alone with Joyce, what an extremely disagreeable feature 
 of a disagreeable affair the telling her was going to be. It 
 would be expecting too much to hope that she might dis 
 approve and hide the expression of that fact. He had 
 come to know her too well, this year they had lived to 
 gether, to count upon that. She was too crude, he said 
 to himself impatiently, and he felt it rather a hardship 
 that he should have to meet that particular and most un 
 pardonable fault in a daughter. Was his Nemesis going 
 to overtake him in this way ? He had always had a 
 lurking suspicion that somehow or other the offended pro 
 prieties whom he had defied would try to get even with 
 him. If they armed the hand of his own daughter against 
 him, it would be particularly unpleasant. He was getting 
 too old to keep up the gay fight, he said to himself, and 
 sighed a little. 
 
 That made Joyce look up, inquiringly. 
 
 " What did you think of Karl s criticism ?" he asked, 
 putting off the inevitable subject for another minute. 
 
 " It was what might be expected," she said lightly. 
 " You don t mind that, surely ? " 
 
 " No," he said slowly. " No." He came and sat down 
 near her and absently turned the pages of the magazine 
 she had laid down. " I told Karl you were going off on a 
 visit to Mrs. Hamill." 
 
 "And I have just made up my mind not to go ! " 
 
 " I thought you wanted to go."
 
 26 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 " And I thought you didn t want me to." 
 
 They looked at each other and laughed. 
 
 " It is a dangerous thing to be too considerate of other 
 people," he said with a quick recovery of his gay temper. 
 " We shall be defeating each other s pet projects with the 
 best intentions in the world. We might as well be selfish 
 and comfortable. You re fond of Mrs. Hamill, aren t 
 you ? " 
 
 " Of course. We were the closest of friends all the 
 time she was at the school." 
 
 " And you made vows that you d e er be true, and then 
 she basely went and married a mere man." 
 
 " Oh, I didn t mind, because the man was Professor 
 Hamill, and we girls all adored him because he was so 
 shy and so afraid of us. And then Dru likes him, which 
 is greatly in his favor." 
 
 " Well, you d better go." 
 
 " And leave you here alone ? " 
 
 " Oh, don t flatter yourself that you are so indispensa 
 ble to my existence, young woman. I ll manage to worry 
 along somehow." 
 
 " You say that because you don t want me to feel bound 
 to stay, but when I first told you about her invitation you 
 didn t like it. You said you d miss me, which so flattered 
 me that I ve written Dru I can t come." 
 
 " Have you sent the letter ? " 
 
 "Not yet. But really I shall be happier here than to 
 think of you disconsolately mourning your housekeeper, 
 for even though she is a poor thing, she s your own." 
 
 " That wasn t really the reason I demurred to your 
 going," he said with something of an effort. Bahrdt s 
 advice to tell the truth under compulsion had recurred to 
 him as stray ideas do. Perhaps it might be well to tell 
 part of the truth! "It was only because I have some 
 associations with Hereward that I do not care to have
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2J 
 
 revived, and I would have wished that your friend lived 
 somewhere else." 
 
 " Were you ever there ? I didn t know it." 
 
 " It was long ago." 
 
 " Was mamma there too ? " 
 
 His look wavered as he hastily considered whether to 
 add a little more of the truth or whether it would be dan 
 gerous to concede another fact. 
 
 " Oh, it was when I was a young man. I was ambitious 
 then, and there were some people there who didn t 
 share my confidence. They may be there still, and that 
 was why I didn t care to have you go back just yet. If 
 things had turned out as I once believed they would, 
 but I don t want to give them a chance to crow over their 
 triumph." 
 
 "Are the people particularly Puritanical in Hereward?" 
 
 " They didn t approve of me. Probably they were right. 
 And probably I have been forgotten, anyhow. Unless 
 there is some need to drag me in and apologize for me, 
 don t say that you know anything about a spendthrift 
 artist named Tom Garner. By the way, that was the 
 only name under which I was known in those days, so 
 very likely no one will think of connecting Miss Mabie 
 with the young scapegrace who upset some of their ideas 
 twenty-two years ago. Well, I wish you could be prouder 
 of owning me, Joyce." 
 
 He flung down the magazine with his quick impatience 
 and went back to his easel with a frown between his eyes. 
 Joyce had leaned back, with her hands clasped in her lap 
 and her eyes fixed rather disconsolately on the tree-tops 
 that waved across the window-space. She did not say 
 anything in answer to his last words, because it did not 
 occur to her that he was waiting for her protestations. 
 But he glanced askance at her and her irresponsive face 
 irritated him. No matter if it was true and if he said it
 
 28 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 himself, it was her place to believe in him, he thought. 
 He of all men should not have a daughter who was clear 
 sighted rather than femininely blind and loving after the 
 traditions. He felt a sudden hardening toward her, and 
 it was easier to say what he had to. 
 
 " While you are gone, I shall try to settle with Vroom 
 about this furniture bill. He will take the things back 
 and then we can go somewhere else in the fall and be as 
 uncomfortable and virtuous as you please." 
 
 She turned toward him quickly with a sudden flushing 
 of tenderness over her face that annoyed him still more, 
 because it was so misplaced. She even sprang up and 
 came to put her arm through his, with a confiding gesture 
 that would have been charming if something else had won 
 it from her. 
 
 " Will you ? Oh, I am glad. The dear old shabby 
 studios that you used to take me to when I came here on 
 my vacations were so charming, papa. Do you know, I 
 never have been really happy here, thinking that the 
 things weren t paid for and that we couldn t pay for 
 them ? " 
 
 "You have shown it plainly enough." 
 
 " Have I been tiresome ? " she asked remorsefully. 
 " Well, I had it on my mind that it was all on account of 
 me you did it, and as I am not much of a factor in the 
 income problem, just yet, it worried me to feel that 1 
 should figure so largely in the outlay. It was a selfish 
 feeling, after all ! But now you shall see how really 
 grown-up and sensible I am going to be. And helpful ! 
 My work for Mr. Bahrdt doesn t amount to very much of 
 course, why do you always smile that way about it, as 
 though it were child s play ? It isn t ! And perhaps some 
 day I shall blossom into a full-fledged journalist 
 
 "Your figures of speech would entitle you to a position 
 at once."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 29 
 
 She pinched his arm. 
 
 " But won t it be a relief to you to have this horrid debt 
 cleared away ? Then we shall be square with the world." 
 
 "Oh, shall we ?" 
 
 " Shan t we ? " she asked with a startled look. " Are 
 there any more debts ? " 
 
 " You might as well understand the situation," he said 
 irritably. " Sit down, then, and listen to the stupidest of 
 stories." 
 
 They sat down and he went over the ground, while she 
 listened and tried to understand. The more he explained, 
 the more she doubted her own powers of comprehension, 
 but for that, unfortunately, there was no good reason. 
 
 As a child she had naturally accepted the condition of 
 things in which she found herself without question or con 
 sideration. She remembered, first of all, spending her 
 vacations in the boarding-school, when the other girls 
 went home. That was because her mother had died long 
 ago. It was a tearful and lonesome season, but she bore 
 up on the promise that when she grew older she should 
 spend those vacations with her father. If there had been 
 any way of cheating time out of a year or two, it is doubt 
 ful whether her moral nature would have been able to 
 withstand the temptation at that age. But she reached 
 the goal at last by the regular route, and after her tenth 
 birthday she spent all the holidays in the calendar, and 
 some not there set down, with the most delightful father 
 in the world. On that idea of him her early theory of 
 life was founded. The first addition to it was the corre 
 sponding idea that life, outside of a school-room, was made 
 up of the most fascinating variety. Sometimes the chance 
 meant a room in the best hotel, with an avalanche of 
 finery and bonbons, and daily drives in a pony-cart that 
 it broke her heart to part with when the tragic school- 
 season returned. The next time it might be an extern-
 
 3O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 porized bed behind a screen in the corner of a shabby 
 studio, where artists came to smoke with her father, and 
 to make pictures of her as a water nixie with a curious, 
 elusive jubilance in her quaint little face, or as a babe in 
 the wood, with a look of questioning wonder that caught 
 your heart with a sudden pity. It was all equally good 
 fun, for she had enough of her father s spirit to think 
 more of the flowers of life than of the soil from which they 
 grew, and the accidents of fortune mattered little so long 
 as she shared them with him and was free to dream after 
 her own sweet will. When, as sometimes happened, he 
 playfully denied some extravagant request upon the plea 
 that he could not afford it, she would acquiesce with a 
 serious joy in sharing a burden with him that was very 
 sweet and amusing. She had never got beyond that 
 point in knowledge of her father s financial relations with 
 the world until the school-days ended and she came to 
 live with him. It wasn t a subject he talked much about, 
 or thought much about, for that matter. But when they 
 set up their system of light and airy housekeeping, the jar 
 began. It must be confessed that the experiment of living 
 together was a disappointment to both. She had outgrown 
 the stage of sympathy with his aimless gayety, and he re 
 sented this fact. She found herself taking daily more and 
 more of a critical attitude, and it was a more dangerous 
 attitude for a young woman of her temperament than she 
 had any reason for knowing. It had not been helped by 
 the influence of Karl Bahrdt. He certainly had made no 
 attempt to influence her, so far as that went. He had 
 an inherited contempt, for the feminine mind and for 
 feminine methods which would have piqued a coquette to 
 declare war, but of which Joyce was supremely disregard- 
 ful. She had found him established as her father s 
 intimate friend, and whatever else her coming had done, 
 it had not disturbed that relation. He still came and
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 31 
 
 smoked and talked while Mabie painted, and his earnest 
 ness about abstract questions and the rights of humanity, 
 his burning denunciations of vested forms of injustice, the 
 books he brought and the work he did, awoke in her an 
 enthusiasm that eventually he could not but recognize 
 with leniency. She was not a pupil to be despised, even 
 if she was only a women. He gave her books and 
 demanded hard reading of them, which she gave with the 
 eagerness of a disciple. And when he discovered that 
 she possessed more than the average school-girl ability in 
 composition and had vague aspirations toward journalism, 
 he engaged her to do some minor work on the little 
 paper, " Justice," in which he fought out his convictions 
 and carried on his propaganda. All through this she had 
 been growing farther and farther away from her father s 
 easy view of life, however. How far, she had not realized 
 until this morning s conference revealed it. She learned 
 that all his life he had practically disregarded the conven 
 tionality of paying for what he wanted, unless he couldn t 
 help himself. She learned that they were banked about 
 with debts which no one tried to collect because they 
 knew it was useless. To her mind, sharply strung by her 
 recent thought on the abstract moral questions of society, 
 it was a startling discovery. Tom Garner told the story 
 with picturesque vividness, and heaped disdainful epithets 
 upon the clumsy world with which he had been running 
 a-tilt, but Joyce s heart sank lower and lower, and as it 
 sank her manner grew chiller and chiller. 
 
 He pulled himself up at last, with a frown. 
 
 " Well, you look solemn enough over it, in all con 
 science. Why don t you say something ? " 
 
 "It is so surprising I hardly understand, " she fal 
 tered with averted eyes. 
 
 " And it seems rather disgraceful and quite unpardon 
 able, to your virtuous judgment, I suppose," he said with 
 a short laugh.
 
 32 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 She sat silent. He had said it. It did seem disgrace 
 ful and unpardonable to her, and her stern young soul 
 could measure nothing but the wrong. Should she com 
 promise with sin by treating it lightly? She sat cold 
 and silent, without lifting her eyes. Tenderness is mis 
 takenly considered a characteristic of youth. There is no 
 judge so severe as a child, and a soul like Joyce Mabie s 
 only learns tenderness when long experience of life s hard 
 ness has melted it to pity. But as yet she had no pity in 
 her heart or in her face, and Tom Garner, who was ready 
 enough to call himself names on occasion, rose with a 
 cold anger blazing in his eyes. 
 
 " How long will it take you to pack ? " 
 
 " Not long, a few hours," she answered with an effort. 
 She accepted without further question his decision that 
 she should go. 
 
 "Then there are the books and pictures and things 
 which belong to us unequivocally. I can have some peo 
 ple come and attend to the packing and storing, but I 
 suppose you will have to see that things are done right, 
 if it will not be troubling you too much." 
 
 " But you will want them," she said, rousing herself and 
 trying to be natural. " Where will you stay ? " 
 
 " I don t know," he answered curtly. He knelt down 
 to gather up the scattered contents of the portfolio and 
 would say nothing further. But after a little he added, 
 taking up his hat, " If you will give me Mrs. HamilPs 
 exact address I will telegraph her that you start to-mor 
 row. Will that suit you ? " 
 
 "Yes," Joyce said quietly, and she wrote the address 
 on a card and handed it to him without looking at him. 
 
 But when he went out and she was left with this up 
 turned world about her, she felt most wretchedly de 
 pressed. It was all wrong, somehow. It would have been 
 a relief to throw herself down and cry, but she had a strong
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 33 
 
 woman s more than masculine scorn for that feminine 
 weakness. If she could have talked it over with some 
 one, she thought, reaching out for the same comfort of 
 dependence in another form, not some one who would 
 sympathize with or pet her, but some one who would 
 understand and help her to understand, it would be 
 better. She thought out all she would say to that 
 unknown and wise friend as she sat on the edge of the 
 bed sorting cuffs and collars and ribbons. It wasn t her 
 life, this gay and careless and irresponsible life into which 
 her father had brought her. She had her own life to live 
 and it must deal with very different elements. Nothing, 
 she felt, could fill it but some grand ideal. If she had 
 happened to fall in love as most girls do before they are 
 twenty (whether they care to remember it among their 
 experiences or not), she might now have seen things 
 differently. But she had been too hard a student to 
 dabble much with fancy, and her cold exterior had been a 
 protection to her. When Karl Bahrdt came, with his 
 call to a work for humanity, the emotionalism which 
 might have worked off in the ordinary way if she had 
 ever happened to take a girlish fancy for her music 
 teacher, had suddenly vivified his intellectual abstractions 
 and she had been lifted into new channels of thought and 
 feeling. There was an appeal in his ideal to the ascetic 
 side of her nature, and there is more asceticism in even 
 the average young girl than is ofUn suspected. It is 
 chiefly because the traditions of life direct her in a non- 
 ascetic channel that she learns to content herself with 
 apples of Sodom. 
 
 There was a tap at the outer door and she went out to 
 find Bahrdt waiting, and a stranger with him. 
 
 " Your father is not in ? " he asked. 
 
 " No, but he will be in soon." 
 
 " It is no matter. I wished my friend, Paul Rodman,
 
 34 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 to see that picture of the Spartan Boy. May we look at 
 it ? Miss Mabie, this is my friend, Mr. Rodman." 
 
 " Oh, I am glad to have you see it," said Joyce quickly. 
 She went to the easel and turned it a little toward the 
 light, and then stepped back to let them have a clear view. 
 If he would only like it ! She glanced anxiously at the 
 young stranger Bahrdt had named. 
 
 He had doffed the odd, foreign cap he wore and Joyce 
 was struck first of all with his boyish air. His brown 
 hair fell back from his forehead with a sunny ripple and 
 there was a suggestion of mirthfulness in his blue eyes 
 that made them different from most of the eyes one is apt 
 to encounter in a day s wanderings. The same hint of 
 joyousness made one s gaze linger involuntarily upon his 
 lips when he smiled. They were delicately modeled lips, 
 noticeably sensitive and fine, and he kept them as clean 
 and unshaded as a boy s. Perhaps it was this feature, 
 together with the indefinable air of buoyancy which he 
 radiated, that gave him the peculiarly youthful aspect 
 which amused his friends and occasionally embarrassed 
 himself. 
 
 He had merely bowed to Joyce, and gone, at her indica 
 tion, to the picture, to which he gave long and silent 
 attention. The likeness to Joyce must of course have 
 been the first thing he noticed, but he did not betray it 
 by any glance toward her for verification. Perhaps it 
 meant nothing to him as yet. 
 
 " I know why Mr. Bahrdt thought this picture would 
 appeal to me," he said suddenly, with a smile and a man 
 ner that took her sympathy for granted. "You see, to 
 day is to be my last comfortable day. To-morrow I am 
 to take under my cloak a certain fox which I have no 
 doubt will absorb my interest quite as unpleasantly as the 
 Spartan Boy s did his. I have just become, by inherit 
 ance, the owner of a furniture factory up somewhere in
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 35 
 
 the country, and as Mr. Bahrdt can prove in ten minutes 
 that all property is stolen from people who never had it, 
 the simile is complete. It only remains for me to buy the 
 latest manual on fortitude, and sit up nights studying 
 it." 
 
 There was no particular reason why Joyce should infer 
 that the fact of inheritance indicated the attainment of 
 his majority, unless he looked it, but that was the idea 
 that struck her, and with the feeling of superiority which 
 a girl has toward a boy a few months younger than her 
 self, she said with rather obvious graciousness. 
 
 " People generally think fortitude more needed for the 
 loss of such possessions. At least you must let me con 
 gratulate you upon coming of age." 
 
 Rodman gave her a quick look, and then became so 
 absorbed in admiring contemplation of the picture that 
 he did not answer for a moment. When he did, some 
 thing admiration, perhaps, made his voice a little 
 unsteady. 
 
 "I like your congratulations," he said, "but I mustn t 
 take them on false pretences. I came of age some six 
 years ago." 
 
 " Oh ! " gasped Joyce, and a crimson wave swept over 
 her face and throat and temples. He tried to ignore it 
 for a moment, but they both knew this was a pretence, 
 and when their eyes met the pretence was swept out in 
 a laugh. 
 
 "Isn t it awful to look so young?" he asked confiden 
 tially. " If I were a girl I suppose I would not mind it 
 so much, but you don t know how trying it is to have to 
 insist upon chronology to get any semblance of respect 
 from one s associates. The only thing that reconciles me 
 to my uncle s legacy is the hope that it may plough some 
 wrinkles of care in my brow. I have Karl s word for it 
 that this is not an unreasonable anticipation."
 
 36 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "You have an opportunity to do more than earn wrin 
 kles, if you will," Karl put in with a flash of his restless 
 eyes. 
 
 "You never miss your opportunity, at any rate," Rod 
 man cried gaily. 
 
 " Neither would you, if you realized what it meant. 
 You would not dare to. An opportunity to do something 
 practical for the good of the world, to actually help in 
 solving the problems that thinkers are struggling with and 
 that humanity is dying of, the man who can palter, 
 doubt, hold back, with such a chance before him, is 
 
 " More modest than the average," Rodman put in so 
 suavely that the sharper word on Bahrdt s lips fell sting- 
 less. " Miss Mabie, you don t believe in him, do you ? 
 You don t see any really compelling divine necessity for 
 me to make a furniture manufacturer and wood-carver 
 of myself ? " 
 
 " On the profit-sharing basis ? Is that the experiment 
 he wants you to try ?" she asked quickly. 
 
 " Oh, does he talk to you about such things, too ? 
 Why, yes, I believe that is what he calls it, but as a mat 
 ter of fact, it is my funeral pyre he is anxious to build. 
 Don t say you agree with him." 
 
 " But I do," she cried, lifting her head and flashing her 
 eyes full upon him. "If that is your chance, it is a glori 
 ous one." 
 
 " I wish I might turn it over to you," he retorted. The 
 look on her face had made him glance quickly at the 
 "Spartan Boy" and then back to her. It would not be 
 wholly to please Karl that he would take the picture, 
 after all. 
 
 " But you can t turn it over to anyone else," Karl was 
 insisting. " The duty is yours." 
 
 " Did you ever notice, Miss Mabie," appealed Rodman, 
 " how there is always some one to say that the unpleas-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 17 
 
 ~ / 
 
 ant thing t you particularly hate is a duty ? There is 
 really something curious about the coincidence. And to 
 hold that the part of wisdom is to find that everything in 
 the world is wrong ! " 
 
 "It is," Bahrdt said bluntly. "That is the first thing 
 to learn, that things are wrong. The next is not to mind 
 yourself, and the third is to help other people to bear 
 them." 
 
 " He is talking rank heresy, Miss Mabie," cried Rod 
 man. "You won t believe him, will you? I assure you, 
 he only proves that he is wrong and that we mustn t mind 
 him and that you must try to help me to bear with him." 
 
 Joyce laughed, but she didn t say again that she sided 
 against him. Something else had come into her face, 
 a light and warmth and color very different from the 
 Spartan Boy s look. The light-hearted sound of her own 
 laughter made her wonder a little, it would have seemed 
 impossible to laugh an hour ago ! but it did not occur to 
 her that Paul Rodman had brought the sunshine with 
 him. She looked from him to Bahrdt with amusement in 
 her eyes and nothing more. They were two opposing 
 forces, she saw well enough, but what was that to her ? 
 
 "About this Spartan Boy, " said Rodman, seeing no 
 plausible excuse for extending his inspection. " I like 
 him very much and shall be very proud to become his 
 owner, wouldn t host sound politer? I hardly like to 
 discuss financial questions before him. His superb thiev 
 ery makes one ashamed of paying for things, Karl ! I 
 leave you to take care of that part when you see Mr. 
 Mabie, and I shall consider myself the Boy s guardian, 
 during his minority," he added with a mischievous smile 
 at Joyce. 
 
 " What induced you to buy it ? "
 
 38 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 The beautiful defiant eyes of the Spartan Boy met tne 
 contemptuous gaze bent upon them with a look that might 
 have answered the question, but their language was one 
 in which Stephen Hale was not proficient. The Hoy s 
 new owner sauntered up with a smile and answered the 
 look over his friend s shoulder while he answered his 
 friend in his own vernacular. 
 " It isn t a bad picture." 
 
 "It is just good enough to miss being really good. 
 Therefore it is unpardonable." 
 
 "May all the stars in the horoscope of erring humanity 
 fight against your ever getting on the bench, Steve. You 
 must have taken your code straight from Draco." 
 " But how did you come to buy it ? " 
 "Chiefly because Karl Bahrdt wanted me to." 
 " Who is Karl Bahrdt ? " 
 
 " Ein Bursch von iiber den Rhein. A young German 
 socialist whom I fell in with in Bavaria some two years 
 ago and traveled with for several months. I took a great 
 fancy to him and would have been ready to swear eternal 
 brotherhood after the approved German fashion, only he 
 had lived in America too long to have any of his native 
 sentiment left. Not on the surface at least. It consoled 
 me for many things in Chicago to find him here a week 
 ago. I wish you knew him." 
 
 Hale lifted his eyebrows with an unworded scorn that 
 would have brought out the white lines about Karl 
 Bahrdt s lips. 
 
 "When you say socialist, you say enough." 
 "I wonder what would happen if I were to bring you 
 two together, Law and Order personified, and a hot 
 headed Theorist," Rodman went on. "Would it be a rep 
 etition of the tale of the Kilkenny Cats, or might there 
 be a chance of your finding the mythical golden mean be 
 tween you ?"
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 39 
 
 Hale was wise in many things, but the gift of second 
 sight was not his. 
 
 " Our ways are not likely to run together," said he 
 loftily. " Unless, indeed, he has more pictures to sell ! " 
 
 " Oh, I bought the picture from a friend of his, an 
 other disreputable character according to your code, my 
 legal friend. An improvident artist, irretrievably ad 
 dicted to debt." 
 
 " Quite the sort of man you would like to help, naturally. 
 I suppose you thought he would devote the money you 
 gave him to paying off some of those obligations." 
 
 " No, I m afraid I didn t. I infer that the only use of 
 money that would seem reprehensibly extravagant to him 
 would be the paying off of old debts. I rather hoped he 
 might use it in some way for that daughter of his." 
 
 Hale turned to give him a slow, level look of inquiry 
 which was met with a frankly defiant laugh. 
 
 " So there was a daughter ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes !" 
 
 " Young and pretty ? " 
 
 " I confess it." 
 
 " Would you have bought the picture if she hadn t 
 been ?" 
 
 " Perhaps not, Steve. If she had been old and ugly, I 
 might possibly have remembered that I have no place to 
 store a picture and have noticed that the shoulder is out 
 of drawing. But being, as you say, young and pretty, 
 that fact swallowed up the others, as Moses serpent 
 swallowed up those of the opposition. Who am I, that I 
 should doubt the essential superiority of either, after such 
 a proof ? " 
 
 " Who and what you are is quite apparent. Also what 
 fate is likely to meet your uncle s fortune in your hands." 
 
 " My uncle s fortune won t begin to gnaw my vitals 
 until you turn over the papers to me to-morrow. Then I
 
 4O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 suppose I shall have to go up to Hereward and look at 
 my white elephant, and sell it, if any blind mortal will 
 come to my rescue. But as I was about to explain, it was 
 my money, not my uncle s, that I squandered for that 
 picture, and the only thing that I am curious about is 
 whether the young and pretty daughter is going to get the 
 benefit of it. The Spartan Boy would then be a chromo, 
 not artistically, of course, but commercially." 
 
 Hale shrugged his shoulders, and the subject was 
 dropped. 
 
 It was rather a pity Rodman could not know, consider 
 ing his interest in the question, that a pile of those same 
 coins of his was exchanged a few hours later for a ticket 
 to convey Joyce Mabie to Hereward and that therefore 
 they must inevitably meet again. Destiny is a wise nov 
 elist, who issues her fiction in installments so that no one 
 can turn to the end to see how the story part is coming 
 out.
 
 IV. 
 
 TOM GARNER had gone out to send a telegram, but he 
 did not return all the afternoon. Joyce was at first re 
 lieved, for their last quarter of an hour together had left 
 a constraint that would best wear off in absence. But as 
 it drew toward evening she began to wonder uneasily if 
 he were keeping away from her purposely. To insure 
 peace of mind, one should be cold enough to keep out of 
 quarrels in the first place, or hard enough afterwards to 
 go through them without flinching. Joyce, unfortunately 
 for herself, was neither. She went into them at the bid 
 ding of her head, and then she repented herself with all 
 her heart So, as the afternoon wore away, she thought 
 less and less of justifying her position, and repented more 
 and more the hurt she had given. When a step came 
 down the passage, she started nervously and ran to open 
 the door. It was only Bahrdt. 
 
 " He hasn t come back yet," she said anxiously. 
 
 " So ? Well, you can tell him that I have seen Vroom, 
 and that he will send up some men to-morrow morning to 
 take away the things." 
 
 She flushed quickly. So he knew all about it ! Did 
 everybody ? 
 
 " You are going to the country, I hear. When ? " 
 
 " To-morrow." 
 
 " So soon ? How then about the Justice ? " he asked 
 with a smile. " Shall we have to suspend publica 
 tion ?" 
 
 " Oh, I mean to do that just the same. It won t make
 
 42 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 any difference, my going away, will it ? I can read the 
 proofs there, and send you all the new matter." 
 
 "All right. Only you must leave me your address. I 
 shall use the whole of the next number for a special 
 report, anyhow, so there won t be room for much of your 
 miscellany. But you can prepare it as usual. You know 
 what is wanted. You do it well," he added with imper 
 sonal directness. 
 
 " I like the work," she said quickly. " I shall be glad 
 when I can do more of it." 
 
 " It is the only work in the world worth doing," he 
 answered with a flash of enthusiasm. " It is the fight of 
 the race. Progress, justice, honor, are on one side, and 
 selfishness, greed and tyranny on the other. The man 
 who does not hear the call is deaf. If he hears and 
 holds back, he is a coward, and recreant to his duty. It 
 is such work alone that can bring satisfaction. All other 
 work is a waste of power, a waste on petty and ignoble 
 objects. But it is a cause that will admit of no divided 
 service. You must give yourself wholly and heartily, 
 and never again stop to count the cost." 
 
 Joyce listened with flushing cheek. It would have 
 taken less eloquence than that which his earnestness gave 
 him for the moment, to thrill her. Here was the very 
 demand to which her nature instinctively responded, here 
 were ideals worth sacrificing everything for. 
 
 " What work can I do ? " she asked breathlessly. 
 
 He looked as though he had forgotten her for the 
 moment and had been entrapped in his forgetful- 
 ness. 
 
 "You can write," he said, but not very enthusiastically. 
 " If you are willing to spend and be spent for the sake of 
 helping humanity, there is plenty of work to do." 
 
 " I am ready." 
 
 He bent a questioning look upon her.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 43 
 
 " You can see, you can understand, you can dare, 
 but " 
 
 " But what ? " demanded Joyce. 
 
 " You are a woman still. Love will spoil it all for 
 you." 
 
 Joyce threw back her head with protest in every linea 
 ment. 
 
 " You think not ? " he said cynically. " Well, it may be, 
 and yet But at any rate there is always work for you 
 if you seek it. You will have a chance to do what you 
 are able to do, of that you may be sure. But for the 
 present, study." 
 
 " Study what ? " 
 
 " Life. See what injustice is done on every side. And 
 books. See how the learning of the old world has failed. 
 And study yourself. Learn to keep a thought clear 
 before you, no matter what personal influences are 
 brought to bear upon you. In that women are mostly 
 weak. They will sell their right of thought for a mess of 
 pottage, for a soft word and an easy hour. I do not say 
 it is wrong for women. But if you are to be a worker 
 in the world of thought, you must cease to be a woman. 
 You must be indifferent to praise or blame." 
 
 " Yes," she said. In the glow of her mood that seemed 
 easy enough just then. 
 
 After Bahrdt had left, two or three people came to ask 
 for Tom Garner. To her fancy, they were all probable 
 creditors. An errand-boy left a letter for him, and later 
 a man came with a penciled order from him for the pict 
 ure. Joyce watched it go off, and that set her to won 
 dering about its new owner. He wasn t like her father 
 and he wasn t like Karl Bahrdt. He didn t seem to 
 belong altogether in the same universe that she was in, 
 he who could laugh so easily. Yet strangely she could 
 not feel that he should be condemned, either. After that
 
 44 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 she waited on with an uneasy conscience for her sole 
 companion, for she knew well enough by this time that 
 her father s prolonged absence was a mark of his displeas 
 ure. She ceased to think at all of how it had come about 
 and only wondered anxiously how she could coax away 
 the black mood before they parted. So much, as yet, 
 for Bahrdt s requirement that she should be superior to all 
 personal influences ! 
 
 When he came at last, after the gas had flickered dis 
 mally over her unread book for hours, the letter on the 
 table caught his eye at once. He tore it open and read it 
 while she sat waiting, and she was dismayed to see the 
 dark look with which he had entered deepen into an 
 angry frown as he read. He held it over the gas-jet and 
 dropped the blazing paper upon a brazier where it curled 
 up into ashes. 
 
 " What was it, papa ?" cried Joyce. 
 
 "Oh, nothing, an impudent letter," he said, shrugging 
 his shoulders. 
 
 She reflected that the messenger had come from 
 Hamon, the picture dealer, but that meant nothing in 
 particular. 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt came in twice to see you." 
 
 He had gone toward his room, but he stopped with his 
 hand on the door. 
 
 " Yes, I met him down the street. He has sold the 
 Spartan Boy for me." 
 
 " And there were other people. I couldn t tell them 
 where you were." 
 
 " Who else ?" he asked quickly. 
 
 She named them. " What kept you so long ? " she 
 asked at last. 
 
 " Oh, various things." He pushed the door open and 
 shut himself in without further words. 
 
 The next morning the workmen appeared to clear the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 45 
 
 room at an hour so unconscionably early (for Bohemia) 
 that there was no opportunity for a tete-a-tete even at 
 breakfast. They at once recognized in Joyce the respon 
 sible head of the house, and she, consequently, soon 
 found herself too much occupied with little things to 
 give heed to the higher demands of sentiment. It re 
 quires leisure to attend to the aesthetics of life. Tom 
 Garner hovered about for awhile, getting into the way, ill 
 at ease, and failing utterly to extricate himself with his 
 usual skill. He appealed to Joyce finally. 
 
 " Is there anything I can do to help you ?" 
 
 " I don t think there is." 
 
 " Then I ll go away. I m at a disadvantage when 
 pitted against material facts, and the facts know it and 
 use their power unfairly. I m not myself here. I need 
 an environment just as much as a jelly-fish does. Throw 
 him upon the sand and he is as limp as I am when thrown 
 upon these noisy and dusty commonplaces. I m going to 
 saunter down the street and pretend that I m doing it for 
 no useful purpose in the world, and in that way I may be 
 able to get your ticket and engage a man to come for 
 your trunks without getting into a tangle." 
 
 She smiled with rather a pathetic gratitude for this re 
 turn to his ordinary mood and manner. 
 
 " When will you be back ? " 
 
 " Oh, as soon as I think these people have raised the 
 siege, I ll come and take you out to lunch." 
 
 " That will be pleasant. Then we can have a little- 
 good-bye chat. I hardly believe I am going, it has all 
 been so hurried." 
 
 " So much the better. I hate long-drawn agonies. Do 
 a thing and have it over with." 
 
 He went out carelessly, and Joyce tried to fix -her mind 
 on the questions of the hour. To a novice in housekeep 
 ing these were sufficiently absorbing to put everything
 
 46 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 else in the background for the time being, and while pro 
 tecting the bric-a-brac and the books she was obliged to 
 suspend judgment on the graver questions of life. 
 
 It was nearly two o clock when the last furniture van 
 went away, and the last cover was fastened down. The 
 trunks and boxes stood in a row in the dismantled rooms, 
 and Joyce, very tired and very nervous, had arrayed her 
 self in her traveling dress and stood waiting for her 
 father. She did not perceive the- relation of cause and 
 effect between her weariness and her mood, but she was 
 in. the state of mind that goes with strained nerves and 
 spent muscles, and ready, in consequence, to be an easy 
 prey to the reproaches of a remorseful conscience. Her 
 thoughts sprang back to her father as soon as the imme 
 diate pressure was removed. It seemed an enormity that 
 this frost, this bar, should have come between them on 
 the eve of parting. It was all her fault. She had known 
 of old that he could not bear criticism. That there could 
 be something else on his mind, which had given her words 
 more than their own force of criticism, never occurred to 
 her. She only wondered feverishly what she should say 
 or do to re-establish in some way the old feeling of com 
 radeship before she left him. 
 
 Then she heard him coming, and sprang* to open the 
 door. Bahrdt was with him. 
 
 " Desolation ! " he cried dramatically, coining in and 
 looldng about the room. " Doesn t it look forlorn ? Let s 
 get out of here at once and go somewhere for a cheerful 
 lunch." 
 
 " I don t want anything," said Joyce instinctively. She 
 was ready to cry because he had spoiled all chance of in 
 timacy between them by bringing Bahrdt ; she had a sus 
 picion than he had done it for that very purpose. 
 
 " Poor little girl ! You are tired to death. And clever 
 little girl, to have everything done, and in order ! You or
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 47 
 
 I couldn t have done it, Karl. We would have injured 
 our fingers and our chances of salvation and have come 
 out after all with a lot of loose ends untied, instead of 
 being on time with nothing to betray us but an interesting 
 pallor. The advantage women have over men in looking 
 pretty under the most trying circumstances puts any dis 
 advantage in the way of voting way out of sight. Put on 
 your bonnet, my child. You women will never master the 
 world until you take a hint from us and learn to ack 
 nowledge the consolatory influences of something to 
 eat." 
 
 " Are we coming back ? " she asked, yielding unenthusi- 
 astic obedience. 
 
 He looked at his watch. " No, we shall just have time 
 to take things comfortably and catch the train. The man 
 for the trunks is waiting down-stairs now." He met her 
 eyes as he spoke and returned her appealing look with 
 one so politely and distantly courteous that her heart 
 sank. Evidently he was not disposed to be forgiving. 
 " I haven t known him and he hasn t known me," she 
 thought miserably. 
 
 Bahrdt had been a silent but observant watcher of the 
 scene. His somber eyes generally saw more than they 
 revealed. It did not occur to him to offer to take her 
 wraps, but he noted that she went out of the room 
 with never a backward glance of farewell. They had to 
 wait a few minutes in the hall below while Mabie gave di 
 rections to the man who had come for the trunks, and 
 then for the first time he spoke. 
 
 " Is it hard, this search for reality ? " he asked in a low 
 tone, regarding her with grave eyes as he leant with his 
 shoulder against the door-post. 
 
 She tried to smile in answer, but it quivered away into 
 nothing. 
 
 " Yet it is the quest for the Holy Grail," he added.
 
 48 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Mabie came back to them a minute later, determinedly 
 unconcerned as ever. 
 
 " What a thing it is to be a child of poverty," he said 
 lightly, as they went down the street together. " We 
 have no ancestral halls to appeal to our emotions when 
 we leave them, no retainers to dispose of, no hampering 
 circle of social connections. We are tourists of the world. 
 We have the freedom of the land and none of its obliga 
 tions, and when we take our departure our hearts are in 
 tact and we don t even sentimentalize unless we want to, 
 and then we can regulate the depth of our feelings with 
 nicety. We have reduced living to a fine art." 
 
 He kept the conversation in the same key all through 
 the lunch, and skilfully managed to convey the general 
 impression that they were having a very gay and festive 
 time and were in high spirits, all of them. But it was a 
 restless hour for Joyce. She listened to him, watched 
 him, wondered over him, scorned and pitied and loved 
 him by turn, but the love welled up ever stronger and 
 stronger as the minutes went by. But if he knew that 
 her eyes hardly left his face, he took no heed. He told 
 story after story with a graceful monopoly of the discourse 
 that took no heed of Karl s silence or Joyce s fever and 
 managed to keep things in his own hands until they 
 reached the waiting-room at the railway station. The 
 newsboys were running through the room, calling the dif 
 ferent papers, and Mabie beckoned to one of them. 
 
 "Did you get that for me ?" Joyce asked playfully. 
 
 " I ll see," he answered with a smile as he unfolded it. 
 
 He had a very tell-tale face, and now, as he ran his eye 
 down one column after another, Joyce saw him suddenly 
 blench and shrink as though he had been threatened. She 
 questioned him with her eyes, but he would not look at her. 
 
 "I ll get you something better," he said, thrusting the 
 paper into his pocket, and he went to the news-counter 
 for a magazine.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 49 
 
 "Where are you going now?" she asked wistfully, 
 clinging to his arm. Bahrdt had sauntered to the door to 
 watch the incoming train. 
 
 " Karl wants me to take a room with him. I don t 
 know. I may go out of town myself." 
 
 "You will write?" 
 
 " Oh, yes." 
 
 "And if you want me home sooner " 
 
 " Home ? " he said with a bitter laugh. " Our home is 
 anywhere and nowhere ! " 
 
 " Well so long as you are there ! " 
 
 But he frowned as though some thought hurt him, and 
 then the train was called and he took her to her place. 
 
 " You are sure you are not sorry to have me go ? 
 
 He almost groaned. " No, child ! " 
 
 And then the train pulled out and she leaned forward 
 to see him as long as possible, standing on the platform 
 with Karl Bahrdt beside him. 
 
 So it happened that Joyce did not see that edition of 
 the daily papers at all, and Bahrdt read them but saw 
 nothing to take note of, and Tom Garner walked up the 
 street clutching the paper inside of his pocket as though 
 it were the throat of a wild animal he held down. He 
 fancied that every reader was turning to that item on the 
 second page : 
 
 "AN UNPLEASANT DISCOVERY. 
 
 " Mr. J. W. Richardson, of this city, whose collection of paintings is 
 famous in the Northwest, has just made a most unpleasant discovery. 
 One of the treasures of his collection is, or rather was, one of Daubigny s 
 landscapes. The gallery has been closed to friends as well as to the 
 public during Mr. Richardson s absence in Europe for the last three 
 months, yet someone has evidently had access to it and has taken ad 
 vantage of the opportunity to commit a most ingenious robbery. The 
 valuable Daubigny has been removed from its frame and a very clever 
 copy substituted. The work was so well done that the substitution 
 would not have been so soon discovered but for the removal of the 
 painting from its place in order that it might be re-hung. It is not by 
 any means the work of a tyro."
 
 V. 
 
 THERE were two incidents in that monotonous railway 
 journey for Joyce. They left two pictures upon her mind, 
 and it was only afterwards, when she found how impossi 
 ble it was to forget them, that she began to realize the 
 meaning they had held. The riddle of the Sphinx is put 
 to every man sooner or later, and it is well for him who 
 sees though he cannot yet answer that an answer must 
 somewhere wait for it. 
 
 They had left the city and the pleasant suburbs and the 
 prosperous farms of the neighboring counties far behind, 
 and for hours had been getting into a wilder and more 
 desolate part of the country. There are interior parts in 
 the western states where nature is still very near the abo 
 riginal condition, and where the scattered farm-houses are 
 as helpless in the grasp of the green savagery as though 
 the rescuing parties of civilization were continents instead 
 of miles away. The tract through which the train was 
 flying as it neared evening had been lately burnt, and the 
 stripped and scarred trees stretched torture-twisted limbs 
 into the pitiless sunlight. At their feet tangled vines and 
 underbrush struggled half-heartedly to hide the disfigure 
 ment of the earth. There was an ache of desolation over 
 it all, even to one flying through it to reach a cheerier life 
 beyond. In the midst of this isolated dreariness there 
 was set a little log-cabin, and at the sound of the train a 
 woman, with her hands rolled in her apron, came to lean 
 against the door and look. There was an expression of 
 hopeless apathy in her face and attitude, as she turned
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 5 I 
 
 her head to follow the flying messenger of a brighter 
 world, that echoed in Joyce s memory like the voice of 
 one at the bottom of a grave, yet just alive enough to 
 know that she was buried. 
 
 The other picture was sharper. The train had stopped 
 at a way-station, a little later, to have a defective wheel 
 on a forward car replaced. 
 
 "Won t you come out and see them doit?" asked a 
 kind-faced lady who thought the serious-looking girl must 
 be having a lonely time of it, and Joyce went out with 
 the other passengers. A score of workmen had appeared, 
 though it was hard, in the face of the wild tangle of forest 
 that surrounded them, to guess where they came from. 
 Piles of iron rails and rusty wheels lay about, partly over 
 grown by the rank grass. On one side was a swampy 
 lake with luxuriant water-plants crowding the shores and 
 .clouds of insects hovering over it. On the other side was 
 the wall of the forest, green, impenetrable, oppressively 
 triumphant. All about was untamed vitality of the lowest 
 order, and the men at the handles of the windlass, lifting 
 the car as the hand lifts a cushion, seemed of the same or 
 der of life. They worked furiously, with shouts and laugh 
 ter and sharp orders and occasional oaths, and as they 
 pushed and pulled and strained until the muscles on their 
 naked arms lay hard and taut like ropes, they looked more 
 like great gnomes than men. It was an animal life, but 
 there was the joy of the animal in it, the joy that comes 
 from the pulsing of hot blood and the triumphing of 
 strong muscles. One man in particular seemed to be an 
 embodiment of the spirit of them all. He flung himself 
 upon the work with a sort of savage joy in mere exertion. 
 His eye laughed and his sweat-washed face gleamed with 
 animation. At some order he caught an iron bar from a 
 rusty pile to use as a lever. The action frightened out a 
 small rat which had sought this unpromising situation for
 
 52 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 shelter, and it scudded along the gully, startled and fleet. 
 The man laughed and sprang after it and kicked it with 
 his heavy boots and followed it to kick it again and again, 
 till it lay crushed and quivering and not even a rat any 
 more. Then he came back with a triumphant grin, and 
 the men, who had paused a moment to see the outcome, 
 gave a shout of laughter and then plunged on with their 
 work. It was no sentimental pity that made Joyce turn 
 away with pale lips. It was the shock of seeing souls to 
 whom cruelty is sport and justice lacks a definition. 
 
 Study life, Karl Bahrdt had said. She tried to find the 
 answer his philosophy would find for this starving woman 
 in her dungeon of solitude and for these men with 
 dwarfed souls. That the answer was to be found there 
 she did not doubt, and just then nothing in life seemed so 
 important as that she should find it.
 
 VI. 
 
 A FEW hours later Joyce caught her first glimpse of 
 Hereward, lying cool and still under the touch of an early 
 May evening. The clouds-in-waiting which had gathered, 
 all a-quiver with ecstacy, to assist at the function of sun 
 set, had drifted regretfully away to either side of the sky, 
 and the ecstacy had faded, as it is apt to do, into a gray 
 memory. A little river curved like a soimitar about the 
 town, and the sliding water reflected the arches of the 
 bridge upon which the train had rested for a minute, and 
 the shreds of drifting cloud and the line of gray buildings 
 near the bank, all with a tremulous hesitancy that seemed 
 to cast a doubt upon the substantiality of the forms above. 
 Beyond these lines of gray buildings the town lifted itself 
 up by terrace after terrace, to the wooded bluff that had 
 marked the river s sweep in that little yesterday of the 
 earth when the men who were to swear nature to allegi 
 ance were as yet an unfinished part of the plan. 
 
 It was shaped like an amphitheatre, and a fancy came 
 to Joyce that she was stepping upon a waiting stage, 
 where the scene was all set for the enactment of a drama. 
 Was it to be tragedy or comedy, or a bit of realism that 
 would refuse to rank with either ? Had she been cast for 
 a speaking part, or was she to be a villager on the green ? 
 At any rate there never was a play without a lover, and 
 even the village girls found room for frivolous thoughts, 
 it seemed ! 
 
 Off to the left, on the low land across the river, were 
 clustered half a dozen large buildings, square and ugly.
 
 54 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Factories, Joyce thought, with a little frown that was a 
 reflection of Karl Bahrdt s. Yet they too were a part of 
 the stage-setting and might have something to do with 
 the play. Back of them again, undulating away to the 
 far horizon line, were fertile farm lands and meadows, 
 and pastures where meditative cattle stood at rest. The 
 optimism of spring was over it all, and before Joyce knew 
 it the shadowy edge of her mood had melted away in its 
 sunshine. 
 
 The train moved on to the station, and there was Dru- 
 silla Hamill waving an excited parasol from the edge of 
 the platform, while her husband, tall and mild as of old, 
 expostulated with her gently (and entirely without effect), 
 upon her lack of dignity. Joyce understood the panto 
 mime perfectly and laughed at it under her breath. They 
 were not the kind that change, those two. 
 
 " So glad to see you, dear ; so glad," Brasilia said over 
 and over again, as they all walked up the shady street 
 together. Prof. Hamill looked over Dru s head to nod 
 his own and echo benignantly, 
 
 " Yes, so glad." 
 
 And a flock of blue-birds, holding possession of an 
 apple-tree that hung its blossoms over the edge of the 
 street, broke into so unmistakable a chorus of assent that 
 they all laughed. Perhaps the birds might have been as 
 jubilant if a girl by the name of Joyce Mabie had never 
 come to Hereward, but then again, as Dru said, it was 
 one of the things that could never be proved and she for 
 one wasn t going to believe it. 
 
 If you climbed the longest street in Hereward you 
 would come at the end to a white frame building which 
 gained from its position an impressiveness that did not 
 belong to it architecturally. It was known locally as the 
 Academy, and was supposed to offer a particularly safe 
 and pleasant route over that desert region which a youth
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 55 
 
 must traverse to reach the promised land of manhood. 
 That the privileges were not as widely appreciated as 
 might have been to the profit of the institution was evi 
 denced by the fact that the two wings which had been 
 planned when the central hall was erected, and which lent 
 dignity to the wood-cuts which were sent out with the 
 prospectus every year, had never had occasion to mate 
 rialize upon the ground. It was also made manifest, to a 
 certain extent, in the domestic economy of the household 
 of Professor Robert Hamill, though such a statement 
 would probably have struck him as a discovery in the 
 domain of cause and effect worthy of admiring and en 
 tirely impersonal consideration. 
 
 " I do wish the youth of Hereward were more deeply 
 impressed with the relation of a thorough training in 
 Greek verbs to a successful business career," his little 
 wife might exclaim when the time for balancing the 
 house-keeping books came around. 
 
 " Oh, I think the percentage is fully up to the average 
 in American towns, taking the population into considera 
 tion," he would answer placidly. 
 
 " Then I wish the population would increase." 
 
 " But if the percentage remained the same, my dear, it 
 would not indicate a wider spread recognition of the need 
 of scholastic culture." 
 
 " No, but it might indicate a wider spread recognition 
 of the fact that Professors families occasionally like to 
 break the monotony of explaining to shopkeepers that 
 they have a strong and inherited liking for those things 
 which happen on this particular visit to be the cheapest." 
 
 The Professor laughed, and then, after a moment s 
 reflection, it dawned upon him that there might be some 
 meaning hidden under her words. 
 
 " But, my dear, we have everything we want, haven t 
 we?"
 
 56 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 And she, being a woman who endeavored, as far as 
 practicable, to combine the speaking of truth with her 
 devotion to her husband, would answer that she would 
 not change lots with anyone in the world, and he was sat 
 isfied. 
 
 Half an hour after Joyce s arrival, Drusilla gathered 
 her family about a table which had been spread under an 
 apple-tree in the back yard. The Professor came with his 
 hands full of miscellaneous dishes which he had gathered 
 up in the china closet on the theory that an exigency 
 might arise in which they would be needed. Drusilla 
 interrupted her occupation of extemporizing a high chair 
 for her five-year old boy in order to laugh at her hus 
 band. 
 
 " This is a Hamilly supper-party, altogether," she 
 explained to Joyce, who was down on her knees making 
 the acquaintance of Jamie. " I never would have thought 
 of anything so delightful and so absurd as to drag you 
 out of a comfortable dining-room, where there are spoons 
 and dishes and things within reach, and no caterpillars 
 dangling over your head, in order to put you on a very 
 tippy chair and serve your berries and milk to you on a 
 table that had to be very carefully propped up at one 
 corner. I like plain, unromantic comfort myself. Rob 
 thought of this. Rob, won t you lift Jamie up ? And, 
 Joyce, if you will sit opposite, and pretend that you like 
 this kind of a party, just to be kind to Rob ! " 
 
 " Plain comfort will do very well for ordinary occa 
 sions," said the Professor placidly, " but Joyce s first day 
 with us isn t an ordinary occasion, and it must be signal 
 ized." 
 
 " That is exactly like you, Rob. Do you think it would 
 spoil the romantic effect if you put another volume of the 
 Encyclopedia on Jamie s chair, so that he wouldn t pour 
 all his milk down his sleeve ? If you think you are going
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 57 
 
 to have any chance for an orderly, well-regulated life 
 while you live here, Joyce, you might as well give it up in 
 the beginning, because you won t. We aren t that kind of 
 people, are we, Rob ? " 
 
 " We wouldn t recognize an orderly, well-regulated per 
 son as a second cousin," he answered calmly. 
 
 Joyce listened and laughed, recalling the old, queer 
 way he had of touching things obliquely. Somehow the 
 whimsicalness seemed to lessen the tension of a direct 
 thought. She listened and laughed and thought how 
 happy they were here, in a world of their own making, 
 with a baby Jamie on the other side of the table. The 
 life of the city, with its problems, even the active life of 
 her brain and of " Justice," was slipping far away. 
 
 " Misteh Jeff son lives oveh theh," Jamie announced 
 when he discovered that her look had fallen upon him. 
 He had evidently grasped the idea that this visitor was 
 one who stood in need of any stray bit of local informa 
 tion which might come into his mind. 
 
 " Mr. Jefferson is our next door neighbor," explained 
 Dru. " He is the strangest old man. I don t suppose 
 that he really is a million years old, but he makes me feel 
 as though he were. He is an astrologer, do you see 
 that turret window? That is for his telescope, and I 
 haven t any doubt he has our little horoscopes all hung 
 around the walls of his room." 
 
 " I suppose you mean that he takes them with a snap 
 shot of his telescope," said Professor Hamill. 
 
 " Well, I don t know just how he takes them, but I 
 feel in my bones that he has us all down. I just know it. 
 I ve seen him reading mysterious old books that looked 
 like nothing under the sun but books of black art." 
 
 "With which we are to suppose you have an intimate 
 acquaintance," suggested her husband. 
 
 " What is a blackart ? asked Jamie. Obtaining no
 
 58 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 answer he repeated the word experimentally under his 
 breath before he resumed his spoon. 
 
 " Well, he s queer, anyhow, and his name, now guess 
 what it is ! Hippolytus ! Isn t it awful ? Just how any 
 mother could have the conscience to name an innocent 
 child with a whole life-time before him, Hippolytus, I 
 never could conceive. Perhaps there was some wealthy 
 old uncle of that name, whom the parents wanted to pro 
 pitiate. He couldn t have been very wealthy though, 
 judging by Mr. Jefferson s household, or, if he was, he 
 saw through their scheming and very properly refused to 
 be made a party to it, and left his wealth to found an 
 asylum for bootblacks who hadn t any names at all of 
 their own." 
 
 " Aren t you carrying your deductions a little too far for 
 a strict adherence to the scientific method?" asked her 
 husband. " You have just admitted that you were not 
 convinced of his existence." 
 
 " Oh, now don t be perky. I m just explaining to Joyce 
 how Mr. Jefferson happened to be saddled with Hippoly 
 tus like an old man of the sea, and I don t suppose you 
 will deny that that is a fact. What do you suppose his 
 wife called him ? Now that I think is an interesting 
 question on purely scientific grounds. What could she 
 call him ? I suppose when they were first engaged she 
 tried to make herself believe that she liked it. There is 
 no telling to what extremes a girl will go, you know. 
 They do things that they would see, in any other state, to 
 be simply idiotic, but if they saw it then there would be 
 few marriages, so I suppose it is all a dispensation of 
 Providence. But when they were married, she would have 
 to face the situation. She couldn t very well call him Mr. 
 Jefferson all the time, because it does seem sort of formal 
 and arms-lengthy, doesn t it now ? And I object to 
 * dear and darling for promiscuous public use. It is
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 59 
 
 really too familiar to be in the strictest good taste. 
 Something like kissing on the front door-step. I tell you, 
 Rob, if your name had been Hippolytus, I would have 
 been driven to finding some other name for common use, 
 to save the best one with. Sort of economical, you see. 
 The idea appeals to me for that reason." 
 
 " What a wasted opportunity ! I might have had a 
 chance at Percival or Marmaduke or at least Marmalade." 
 
 " No, I m not grasping; I would be grateful for mere 
 commonplaceness ; John, for instance." 
 
 " Oh ! I don t believe in self-indulgence, but that 
 really is carrying asceticism farther than is necessary." 
 
 " The trouble with a name is that you have to keep the 
 same one all your life," said Joyce. "It can hardly help 
 being too big or too little at some period. Mr. Jefferson 
 has just grown up to Hippolytus. It suits very well when 
 one is old and impressive enough to match it." 
 
 " And I suppose he used to be rather proud of it when 
 a boy," said the Professor. " There probably wasn t any 
 other boy in the whole neighborhood that had that 
 name." 
 
 An idea came into Joyce s head. Perhaps this old man 
 might have been here in her father s day. " Has he lived 
 here long ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, forever and forever, I think. Do you know, I 
 have had him a good deal on my mind of late. I dare say 
 it is quite unnecessary, for I must confess he doesn t seem 
 to have himself on his own mind at all. But he is so old 
 and so alone, and there isn t any one to look after him 
 except a sort of housekeeper and maid-of-all-work com 
 bined, who may up and leave him any day after the fashion 
 of women who work for money." 
 
 " And the fashion of men who work for money," the 
 Professor interposed dispassionately. 
 
 " Well, perhaps," she admitted. " Not as much as
 
 60 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 women do, though. I am sure you can turn to any his 
 tory and read of soldiers dying like heroes to save the 
 lives of their commanders, while any servant girl will 
 leave her place and let her old employer starve, for two 
 dollars a month, at any time." 
 
 " You hear, Jamie," said the Professor gravely. " When 
 you grow up you may be a soldier and die for your coun 
 try, but don t you ever be a servant girl and leave your 
 place for two dollars a month, or your mother won t like 
 you any more. Would you like to die for your country? " 
 
 " No," said Jamie, after a moment s reflection, smiling 
 like a seraph. 
 
 " Is he all alone? " asked Joyce. 
 
 " Absolutely. He likes it that way. I don t. I like to 
 have people around. I like to have you here, dear girl ! " 
 She leaned over to pat Joyce s hand. " But he is made 
 kind of curus. He had a wife once. He shut himself 
 up with his old books and left her to be company for her 
 self. She died. It took several years, though. I would 
 have died in three weeks. Then he had a daughter who 
 ran wild. Perfectly uncared for. Just grew up. She ran 
 away and married a scapegrace. I dare say he checked 
 it off on her horoscope and was rather proud that it came 
 out true. I don t feel really sure he would mind if you 
 ran a pin into him." 
 
 " Yet he has had an unusally satisfactory life, in one 
 way," said the Professor meditatively. " Most men see 
 the life they would choose for themselves shut away by 
 some barrier of necessity, but he has been free from all 
 exterior claims. He has not been a citizen or a house 
 holder or a father. He has simply been a man, and 
 the matter of living has been between himself and his 
 God. Perhaps it is the real way, which we common peo 
 ple miss with all our weaving of webs of circumstance 
 about us. We tangle ourselves up so, in our duties and
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 6 1 
 
 our relations and our wants, that we can hardly imagine 
 ourselves without these mufflings or make a guess at 
 what we are, our real selves." 
 
 " Now don t get thinking that you are sorry you have a 
 wife and child," protested Mrs. Hamill with a quick jeal 
 ousy of abstractions. " We are better for you than Mr. 
 Jefferson s philosophies, Rob Hamill." 
 
 He gave her a whimsical smile. " I admit it." 
 
 " I ll take you over some time to see his telescope, Joyce. 
 It is one of the public institutions of the place, and as we 
 haven t many, we make the most of them." 
 
 " Then I must warn you, Joyce," put in the Professor, 
 " that what Dru says about his being an astrologer may 
 be all very true, but I have an idea that it would rather 
 surprise himself to learn it. It doesn t sound so interest 
 ing, but the plain fact is that he is simply Oh, I ll ex 
 plain later." 
 
 What he was, was interrupted by the appearance of the 
 subject of their conversation himself. He pushed open 
 the wicket-gate between the two gardens and came slowly 
 down the path toward them with a book in his hand. A 
 tall, heavy old man ; slow steps ; a head grizzled, . not 
 snowy ; old, not feeble ; eyes that lay like sunken lakes, 
 untouched by storm and unwarmed by sunlight, that was 
 what Joyce saw. There was power and the repose that 
 comes of the consciousness of power in every measured 
 movement. 
 
 Joyce watched him with a sudden and curious interest. 
 She had a feeling that already, in that first moment, she 
 knew and understood him as Dru did not. 
 
 Professor Hamill had risen to greet him. " Won t you 
 join us ? " 
 
 11 No, no ; thank you. I do not play tricks with old 
 habits. I was walking in my garden and happened to see 
 you. That was all."
 
 62 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 His voice was low and courteous, but curiously imper 
 sonal. He let his eyes rest upon the group with a certain 
 abstract and distant good-will that yet would have held 
 any responsive sympathy aloof forever. 
 
 " Mr. Jefferson, this is an old friend of mine, Joyce 
 Mabie, who is going to spend the summer with me. You 
 must let me bring her over to your star chamber, some 
 time." 
 
 Joyce watched him eagerly to see if any recognition of 
 the name would show itself in his face, but there was 
 nothing but the courteous indifference of a stranger in the 
 look he turned upon her. 
 
 " I shall be most happy. Come when you will," he said 
 quietly. Then, turning to Hamill, " I have brought back 
 your Omar Khayam. There is much that appeals to me 
 in it. Yet not its unrest. The man who wrote it was 
 younger than I." 
 
 " But the unrest is old." 
 
 " Perhaps so. An old emotion, perhaps. But the 
 strings in an old harp do not respond to the winds that 
 made it tremble once." 
 
 The two men walked down the path together, loiteringly, 
 much to Joyce s regret, for she would have liked to hear 
 more of Omar Khayam. 
 
 " What do you think of him ? " asked Dru. " When he 
 looks at me in that way, I feel as though a breath from a 
 blue cavern in a glacier had struck me. Didn t he freeze 
 you ? " 
 
 " No, I think I like him," she said with a laugh. And 
 a little thought that she was too shy to put into words 
 came into her head. " I believe I am a little like him my 
 self ! " 
 
 That evening brought Joyce a letter from her father 
 which must have been written a few hours after her own 
 daparture from the city.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 63 
 
 "My dear Joyce : I am minded to try a mysterious disappearance for 
 a while. I want to make some sketches, I don t want to be bothered 
 with answering questions, I want to be undisturbed, briefly, I want to 
 go and I don t want any one to know where. I don t know myself yet, 
 so I couldn t leave my address for my kind friends here, if I wanted to, 
 and I don t want to. I shall write you en route and tell you where to 
 address me, as soon as I know myself. You needn t tell, and you 
 needn t worry. I suppose it sounds freakish, but I never did live by rule 
 and compass, and I m not going to begin now. Besides, you are really 
 the responsible one, as I hope you will bear in mind. 
 
 " Never mind, Joyce dear. You can t help it, and neither can I. 
 
 " T. M." 
 
 Joyce read the letter with a good deal of surprise and 
 some dismay. Particularly she puzzled over the sentence 
 where he attributed the responsibility to her, for she had 
 forgotten her own jesting remarks about mysterious dis 
 appearances in general. It must be that people had been 
 ,dunning him, she thought with a flushed face, and he 
 wanted to escape for a time. But she was wrong.
 
 VII. 
 
 UNDER the blossoming apple-trees of Hereward another 
 girl was swinging that morning, an apple-blossom of a 
 girl, with the color of the petals in her tinted cheeks and 
 a mouth like a half-opened flower. The problems of the 
 universe were not troubling her. She did not look as 
 though she had ever had any acquaintance with a prob 
 lem more serious than the question of how to evade an 
 unpleasant caller or to persuade Aunt Eleanor to yield to 
 some wilful whim. That was not particularly difficult, for 
 Aunt Eleanor had a hospitable sentiment for whims her 
 self, and she was, moreover, quite as open to the per 
 suasiveness of a blue eye and a beseeching mouth as 
 though she had not been a woman, too, and of the same 
 blood. Aunt Eleanor wrote stories. Perhaps that ex 
 plained it. She couldn t write stories, and be blind to 
 the fact that as a heroine Edith would have been irresist 
 ible. If she had been just a plain aunt she might have 
 missed, through too close proximity, the girl s character 
 istic charm, but being an aunt with a literary twist of the 
 mind, she had contracted the habit of viewing her com 
 mon surroundings more or less in the light of material. 
 It is just possible that a plain aunt might have had a 
 livelier sense of responsibility as to the proper develop 
 ment, mental, moral and spiritual, of her young charge, 
 but the law under which Miss Estee lived was the canon 
 of art, not the canon of conscience. 
 
 "What would be the use ?" she would exclaim when 
 right-minded friends expostulated with her. " I like the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 65 
 
 child as she is. She is complete in her way, quite per 
 fect as the type of a happy, beautiful girl, without any 
 morbid cares or sense of responsibility. Call her a but 
 terfly-girl, if you like. I might clip her wings, but that 
 wouldn t turn her into a bee, fit to become the subject of 
 proverbs. It would only spoil her as a butterfly. And 
 what with our small-boy humorists with their butterfly- 
 nets, and our entomological moralists with their pins and 
 glass-cases, the genus is so near extinction that it be 
 hooves us novelists to preserve a few specimens if we 
 can." 
 
 But to do Edith Estee justice, the butterfly symbol was 
 incomplete. She had the child-nature which some women 
 carry into the region of old age, and which is liable to 
 much misconception to compensate for its blessings. A 
 great capacity for happiness went with it, and that, to 
 some mentors of Hereward as well as to some outside, is 
 the equivalent of frivolity. 
 
 Yet she was not under public ban, at all. Those who 
 disapproved of her were the women with a mission, or 
 those with daughters whose unadorned goodness, with 
 reason, common-sense and all the eternal verities to back 
 their claim, was at a hopeless disadvantage beside Edith s 
 illogical attractiveness. She was a man s girl, they said 
 with a hint of disapprobation. So she was. She was 
 exceedingly pretty, though rather "with the vanishing 
 prettiness of girlhood than with the abiding graciousness 
 of a severer standard. Then she was not unpleasantly 
 wise, and she wasn t strong-minded. She would accept 
 the opinion of a man, just an ordinary man, who wasn t 
 accustomed to being counted much of an authority, 
 with an air of submissive tutelage which was simply ador 
 able. It would have been strange if mankind as a rule 
 had not approved of her. The exception to the rule was 
 Stephen Hale. Ever since their school-days together,
 
 66 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 when he had made her blush and hang her head because 
 she stumbled over the long-division problems that he 
 mastered at once, he had impressed it upon her that she 
 fell far below his ideal. His ideal for a woman demanded 
 that she should be industrious, and Edith was as idle as a 
 bit of thistle-down. It required her to be learned in all 
 housewifely accomplishments, and Edith would have 
 starved if the cooking of a dinner rested with her. It 
 required her to be discreet and dignified and to wear an 
 aspect of cheerful gravity. Edith wasn t and didn t. 
 Yet Stephen Hale found occasion to call upon Miss Estee 
 much oftener than his position as her legal adviser alone 
 would have made necessary, and the village of Hereward 
 had long ago concluded to hold Edith responsible for the 
 young lawyer s devotion to her aunt s interests. It was 
 waiting with general satisfaction to have the formal 
 announcement of a betrothal verify the foregone conclu 
 sion. As for Stephen and Edith, well, they were both 
 people who would do what was properly expected of 
 them. 
 
 Miss Estee had established herself within conversa 
 tional distance of her niece, with a portable writing-desk 
 on her knee. The desk was a dainty affair, bound in 
 morocco and lined with silk, and the note-book on it was 
 clasped with gold. Miss Estee s accessories were always 
 of that sort. She felt that she owed it to herself as a 
 devotee of art, to surround herself with things which 
 should all be artistically perfect in their way, and if peo 
 ple smiled sometimes at the ceremony with which she 
 treated herself, it was a smile aside. She had clearly 
 established her right to take her own way in the world 
 without help or comment, and the way she took was a 
 very pleasant one. 
 
 "Do you know what I am going to do, Edith?" she 
 asked meditatively.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 67 
 
 " Write a new story ? " 
 
 " Bright child ! But I am not going to let you spoil it 
 by hit-and-miss guessing. I am going to make a story 
 out of Hereward people." 
 
 Edith stared and laughed. 
 
 " Honestly ? Would you dare ? " 
 
 " I dare do all that may become a novelist. Who dares 
 do less, is none. Besides, they will never know." 
 
 " You ought to have left that for your reviewers to say, 
 aunty dear ! " 
 
 " I m thinking of having the phrase copyrighted so 
 they can t use it." 
 
 " May I be the heroine, please ? " 
 
 Miss Estee frowned thoughtfully. 
 
 " I don t know. You have posed so often as my 
 heroine that I am afraid you are rather becoming a man 
 nerism with me. If I do have to fall back on you, I shall 
 so drape and costume you that your best friends won t 
 recognize you." 
 
 "Oh, I would like nothing better," cried Edith with 
 animation. " It will give me the chance I have always 
 longed for of saying what I think about the other charac 
 ters, I mean the other people in the village, without 
 being held responsible for my opinions." 
 
 " I thought you generally availed yourself of that priv 
 ilege in your own person," Miss Estee remarked drily. 
 
 Edith laughed. " Oh, that sort of talk is only for the 
 purpose of charging the conversational machine," she 
 said, without any pretence of not understanding what 
 was meant. " People here grow so dull unless you put in 
 a little electricity of the other sort. Perhaps that isn t 
 scientifically expressed, but you know what I mean." 
 
 " Yes, I ve seen you do it." 
 
 " But what I really and truly think about them I don t 
 often dare to say. Do you know, Aunt Eleanor, I some-
 
 68 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 times think that I wouldn t ever have had courage to be 
 a martyr, if I had lived in those days, I mean. It is 
 kind of awful to think of it, isn t it ? Because I truly 
 don t believe I would, and it must be just as bad to be 
 that kind of a person now as it would have been then. 
 Just as bad inside, I mean." 
 
 She had looked up with a sort of shame-faced wistful- 
 ness, but her aunt, after a quick glance, had dropped her 
 own eyes. What could she say to such a question, she, 
 not a moralist, but a novelist to whom it seemed bad art 
 to discuss too seriously the bald questions of conscience ? 
 She wavered a moment, and then answered lightly, 
 
 "Then it is lucky for you that you were born in a toler 
 ant age, my dear ! " But a queer little voice down some 
 where in her heart was saying all the time, " That was a 
 failure, Eleanor ! " 
 
 Edith looked away for a moment, and then, as though 
 there had been nothing between, she said jestingly, 
 
 " At least I must have something to say about my lov 
 ers, dear Madame Destiny ! I suppose there is to be a 
 lover ? " 
 
 " Necessarily. You shall have your pick of the collec 
 tion. Select his outfit yourself. Wise and grave, of 
 course, to set off your frivolity ; obstinate to a certain de 
 gree, as becomes a man ; wealthy and of good repute, and 
 with correct principles 
 
 " And his name it is Stephen Hale," cried Edith, eye 
 lashes drooping over pink cheeks. " Oh, Aunt Eleanor, 
 there is such an awful inevitableness about it. Do give 
 me a hero fresh from your imagination." 
 
 " Very well," said Aunt Eleanor. She felt rather 
 ashamed of her maneuver, and relieved now that she had 
 gained nothing more by it after all. " I suppose I shall 
 have to put in some imaginary people to leaven the Here- 
 ward heaviness."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 69 
 
 " Mrs. Hamill will do that." 
 
 " As she does. And Professor Hamill. I shall make 
 him the mouthpiece of my philosophical reflections. It is 
 to be hoped that I hit upon the right school. It is not 
 always easy to know what he really thinks, because he is 
 so sedulously broad-minded, so almost fanatically unfa- 
 natical by the way, that s rather a striking phrase, isn t 
 it ? I ll just put that down in my note-book before I 
 forget it." And she did. 
 
 " Then there is Mr. Jefferson. Don t forget our one 
 really picturesque inhabitant." 
 
 " I ll work him into the background. Though I must 
 confess there is some fear and trembling mixed with my 
 courage there. It is a relic of the days when I wore tiers 
 and stood outside of the fence to coax Helen, through 
 the slats, to go blueberrying. " 
 
 ,. " That was the daughter who eloped, wasn t it ? Oh, 
 put that in, Aunt Eleanor. A real romance is some 
 thing you can t afford to waste. Won t you put that 
 in?" 
 
 A queer little change came over Miss Estee s face, 
 that indescribable hardening of the muscles which turns 
 a face into a mask. 
 
 " Oh, that is too much out of date," she said. 
 
 " Well, tell me about it at least. I never heard the 
 story rightly. Weren t you in the secret, and didn t you 
 help them to get away ? " 
 
 " At the end, yes. When it was too late to help or 
 hinder." 
 
 " But you wouldn t have wanted to hinder it ! You 
 needn t pretend to be proper and disapproving, aunty 
 dear. You know you are ten times as romantic to-day as 
 I am, so what must you have been at my age ? " 
 
 Miss Estee smiled, but a sigh would have been gayer. 
 " Whatever I was or wasn t, well, I ve had to pay the
 
 70 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 penalty. And in some ways I m not much changed, I m 
 afraid." 
 
 " Did you know her lover ? Who was he ? " 
 
 " Yes, I knew him. He was an artist." 
 
 " And did they live happy ever after ? " 
 
 " Helen died within a very few years. He went abroad 
 after that." 
 
 " Is that all ? " asked Edith with acute disappointment. 
 " I didn t suppose there could be so little story to an elop- 
 ment, and that little so commonplace." 
 
 " It didn t seem exactly commonplace at the time," 
 her aunt said musingly. " Unless the heartbreaks of one 
 generation are the commonplaces of the next. Humph, 
 that sounds impressive enough to go into my note-book." 
 
 Edith swung herself to and fro, dreamily wondering 
 over the story. Aunt Eleanor could have made it thrill 
 ing enough in her novels, she reflected, but the plain 
 facts, as Aunt Eleanor told them, were plain and bare. 
 That doubtless was the truth of the matter, this young 
 woman of the moderns concluded. Love was all very 
 pretty when the poets and romancers dressed it up, but it 
 probably didn t wear its star-dust for every day. 
 Heighho ! 
 
 " Aunt Eleanor, I have often wondered why you were 
 never married," she said with sudden daring. 
 
 " Have you ? So have other people," Miss Estee re 
 torted coolly. 
 
 " Did any of them ever find out ?" her niece asked mis 
 chievously. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then I suppose I won t either." 
 
 " Oh, I don t mind telling you. It is for the same rea 
 son that a confectioner doesn t eat candy. I don t want 
 to drag my shop into private life." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Edith, and subsided.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 7 1 
 
 But the ghosts her questions had awakened were not to 
 be put down so easily. One must be more than forty 
 years before the ghosts of old love lose power to stir the 
 heart. Miss Estee s pencil made idle tracings on the sheet 
 before her, but it was not the plot of her story she was 
 working out. It was the plot of her own life that rose 
 before her, a very simple plot, and all of it told in mem 
 ories. First there was the memory of the awakening love 
 of a romantic girl ; even as a memory it held, like faded 
 roses, a hint of color and of perfume that could make a 
 heart beat fast. And then the memory of how the rose 
 petals had fallen apart in her fingers and she had crushed 
 her palm hard upon the thorns. Even now she had a 
 smile of pity for the girl, (though she too was but a mem 
 ory,) who had learned one day, when the air was heavy 
 with the fragrance of these same apple-trees, that life and 
 love must henceforth walk apart. It was Helen who had 
 won the love, and to Eleanor was left the barren task of 
 living. So long ago it was, the very memories were thin 
 and faded, like ghosts indeed. And the story was so 
 simple that it would have seemed nothing to anyone else. 
 It had always been Helen who was the chosen heroine of 
 romance, Helen who had known loneliness and dreams 
 and despair and love and daring and joy, who had gone 
 out into the great world with all its wonders and who had 
 crowned her stormy young life at last by dying in his 
 arms. Eleanor had only stood by the wayside when the 
 splendid angel of romance passed by, and the rush of his 
 wings had fanned her cheek a moment and lifted the hair 
 lightly from her forehead. Then it was all over and she 
 walked alone. There at least she had triumphed. She 
 walked alone, and had a right to her dreams. 
 
 " Then there will be Miss Mabie," said Edith. 
 
 Miss Estee turned to look at her in a dazed and fright 
 ened way.
 
 72 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " What what do you mean ? Miss Mabie ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Hamill s friend who is coming. Don t you 
 know ? Did I interrupt the plot at a critical point ? I 
 meant to say that you can study her for your book." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Miss Estee, but she was curiously pale. 
 " Are you sure that her name is Mabie ? " 
 
 " Why, of course. Mrs. Hamill calls her Joyce, so I 
 suppose that is what you have heard. What of it ?" 
 
 " I don t think I had heard it before. It reminded me 
 What do you know about her, or her people ? " 
 
 "She was at school with Mrs. Hamill, but she isn t 
 nearly as old. And she lives with her father alone, and 
 he is devoted to her. That s all I know. Why?" 
 
 " Oh, nothing," Miss Estee said hurriedly. " I once 
 knew slightly, or rather well, a man of that name, but 
 oh, it would be impossible." 
 
 " Is there a story about it ? " cried Edith quickly, pounc 
 ing upon the hint. She sat up to confront her aunt 
 eagerly, but as she did so she caught sight of an object 
 which scattered all her ideas. 
 
 " Oh, here s Stephen," she said hurriedly. " Do, for 
 pity s, hide An Idle Dream for me. He doesn t like 
 that kind." And she tossed the paper-bound novel she 
 had been reading to her aunt. 
 
 " Nonsense," exclaimed Miss Estee expostulatingly, 
 and making no motion to pick up the contraband book. 
 
 Edith groaned and darted forward for it, and managed 
 to conceal it in the folds of her gown as she dropped 
 back f into her hammock and looked up with a smile, half 
 saucy, half afraid, to greet Stephen Hale, who came 
 striding across the plot of lawn. 
 
 " Oh, is this you ? " she asked, with a little air of sur 
 prise that was charmingly childlike and patently artificial. 
 
 For half an hour the thought of this meeting had been 
 with him and had quickened his pace against his will, but,
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 73 
 
 now that she was before him, he bent a look upon her that 
 would have served very well if he had been trying to dis 
 concert a prevaricating witness on the opposite side. 
 
 "That would imply that you didn t see me till this min 
 ute. As a matter of fact, you saw me when I turned the 
 corner of the block." 
 
 She flushed and turned away. He saw that she resented 
 his words, but if she deserved them he was justified, he 
 told himself. Her lack of training was always on his 
 mind. Then he turned to Miss Estee. 
 
 "How do you do, Miss Estee?" 
 
 " If any one else had asked me, I should probably have 
 lowered my moral tone several degrees by recklessly an 
 swering, Very well, thank you, but as it is you, I think 
 I may safely say that I am quite well physically but some 
 what melancholy in mood. My mental faculties are in 
 their usual condition, modesty forbids me to character 
 ize it, and the spiritual faculties which concern them 
 selves with disentangling truth from falsehood, are, I 
 believe, in good working order." Miss Estee felt that she 
 had sufficiently avenged Edith s rout, and smiled blandly 
 as she concluded. 
 
 " You think I am hypercritical," he said quietly. " But 
 it is as grave an offense to pass counterfeit dimes as 
 counterfeit dollars." 
 
 " Don t insist upon putting us on the other side and 
 then arguing us down. Do take for granted that we are 
 good and virtuous people, and that we believe all we 
 ought to believe. Tell us what you have been doing in 
 the great city." 
 
 She motioned him to a garden chair as she spoke, but 
 before he took it he glanced toward Edith. The girl 
 was toying with her fan, and her face betrayed nothing 
 but careless indifference to the world in general and 
 present company in particular.
 
 74 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " The great city?" Hale repeated. He took the chair 
 quietly and dropped his straw hat on the grass beside it. 
 " I have been closing up the Rodman estate. Paul will 
 be here in a few days." 
 
 " Paul Rodman ? " cried Edith with sudden interest. 
 " Oh, is he as light-hearted and handsome as he was 
 eleven years ago ? " 
 
 Hale gave her a sudden look and then dropped his eyes 
 swiftly. It was a moment before he answered chillily, 
 
 " He is light-hearted. As for his looks, I may not be a 
 good judge." 
 
 " Oh, there couldn t be any difference of opinion if he is 
 what he promised a t sixteen. Don t you remember, aunt 
 Eleanor? His eyes were blue and always full of fun and 
 his hair curled around his forehead in a way that made 
 the girls frantic with envy. It was such a waste on the 
 part of nature, we thought. And everybody was more or 
 less in love with him. We had just discovered Matthew 
 Arnold in those days, and we used to speak of Paul, 
 among ourselves of course, as sweetness and light." 
 
 Hale was looking so black that Miss Estee hastened to 
 turn the tide by asking, 
 
 " Is he going to carry on the Rodman Works, then ?" 
 Inwardly she was protesting, "There is no harm in what 
 the child says, and he ought to understand her, if he means 
 to marry her." 
 
 " So 1 understand. He is coming down to see about 
 it."- 
 
 " I am very glad. He is something less than a forty- 
 ninth cousin of ours, and I always liked him. It is years 
 since he was here. It will be a good thing for the place, 
 too. Hereward would not be Hereward without the Rod 
 man Works, and a young Rodman in place of the old may 
 be expected to add something to the town in other ways." 
 
 " Yes," said Hale in a tone that meant a very modified
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 75 
 
 " yes." He was still ruffled. " He has some dubious no 
 tions though, and some friends that are more than du 
 bious." 
 
 " Oh," said Miss Estee coolly, and Hale perceived that 
 he had made a mistake. To make a mistake galled him, 
 and particularly before Edith. But it was all her fault, 
 added the Adam in him. Why did she say what she should 
 not say and leave unsaid what she should ? Then an ac 
 cident happened which gave him a chance to vent his 
 growing annoyance and re-establish his position as censor. 
 
 Edith had forgotten the insecure hiding-place of "An 
 Idle Dream," and a sudden movement threw the guilty 
 secret to the ground at Hale s feet. He picked it up, 
 read the title, ran his thumb over the leaves, and then re 
 stored it to the unhappy owner with an ironical bow. 
 
 "The seventh this week ? " 
 
 Edith bit her lip and blushed and looked as though she 
 might cry in a minute. Miss Estee looked at her in sur 
 prise, and then, forced again to mediate between the two, 
 she said lightly, 
 
 " Surely, Stephen, you haven t the temerity to condemn 
 novels while under a novelist s roof, or on her lawn, 
 which is practically the same thing ? " 
 
 " Not all novels. But I condemn this one, and I con 
 demn the taste Edith generally shows in fiction, and par 
 ticularly the number of such books that she reads. It 
 isn t a new question. I have often spoken to her of it." 
 
 " Quite often," Edith interrupted. 
 
 " Then why don t you heed what I say ? " he asked with 
 grave surprise. " I don t see why you should choose to 
 read such poor stuff, works that give weak and false ideas 
 of life, exaggerating sentiment and dwarfing common- 
 sense. And yet you read nothing else." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do," she protested. 
 
 " What else have you read this week ? "
 
 76 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 " This month, then ? This year?" 
 
 " You have no right to catechise me," she said hotly. 
 
 " Dear me, how unpleasant you children are," exclaimed 
 Miss Estee. " Stephen, when are you going back to 
 Chicago ? " * 
 
 " I may have to go up any day," he said obtusely. " Can 
 I be of any service to you ? " 
 
 " Yes. Leave your examining-counsel manner there, and 
 be agreeable when you come to Hereward." 
 
 " Have I been disagreeable ? " 
 
 " Extremely. Come up for tea to-morrow and efface 
 the recollection of it." 
 
 He glanced at Edith before answering. She had turned 
 her head away and was rather ostentatiously giving her 
 attention to twisting some clover heads into a wreath. He 
 had not meant to hurt her, only to instruct her, but it was 
 not becoming that she should be entirely unmoved. He 
 had a feeling that he would like to crush the soft hands 
 moving among the flowers, to bring tears into the averted 
 eyes, in some way to force her to acknowledge him the 
 stronger, the master. 
 
 " Thanks," he said abruptly to Miss Estee, " but to 
 morrow I shall be buried in work, till past all chance for 
 tea." He was watching Edith, but she gave no heed to 
 him at all. 
 
 " Make it Friday, then. And I ll have the Professor and 
 Mrs. Hamill up, and that friend of theirs. And Paul 
 Rodman, if he is here. Will he be here Friday ? " 
 
 " Yes," Hale said. 
 
 " Then remember Friday," she said definitively. He 
 bowed, with another side-look at Edith. The conversa 
 tion drifted into smoother waters, and after a little while 
 he departed. 
 
 The two women sat silent for some time 1 after he had
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 77 
 
 gone, each thinking her own thoughts. Finally Miss 
 Estee turned to her niece and said quietly, 
 
 " Why do you let Stephen take that domineering tone 
 with you, Edith ? It isn t like you." 
 
 " I never am myself with him," the girl said slowly. 
 " But [ suppose it is because myself is all wrong. He 
 makes me always seem in the wrong, somehow. And I 
 suppose he knows, because he is generally right." 
 
 Miss Estee frowned a little. 
 
 " You shouldn t let him brow-beat you so. Stephen is 
 good, one of the best young men in the town. Every 
 body admits that. I like him for his sterling qualities, for 
 his ability, for his family. But he is masculine to an un 
 pleasant degree. One is sometimes forced in self-defence 
 to be feminine to an unpleasant degree with such a man." 
 (She scribbled something in her note-book here, and looked 
 at it critically.) 
 
 Edith had dropped down in the hammock again and 
 was swinging herself to and fro with a thoughtful face, 
 idly clutching at the grasses as she went over them. 
 
 " Yes, he is good, as you say. Without reproach. So 
 was the Cavalier Bayard, you know. I wonder if he 
 made other people feel it so." 
 
 " Well, why don t you snub him a little ? It would do 
 him good." 
 
 " I can t," she said in the same thoughtful way. " I 
 think the things to say, but I don t dare to say them. I 
 am dumb. But at the same time I always know in my 
 heart that he is right, about standards and things, and 
 so I suppose I would improve if if he I mean if I " 
 She stopped short, and then, still looking down and mak 
 ing little ineffectual clutches at the grass-tops, she added 
 more slowly still, " I mean if I were his wife. He asked 
 me to be, just before he went away." 
 
 " Child ! " gasped Miss Estee.
 
 78 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 " Haven t you always known it would happen ? It 
 seems to me there hasn t ever been any escape for me. 
 Ever since we went to school together, and he took care 
 of me, it has been plotted and planned." 
 
 " Escape ! Why, if you feel that way 
 
 " I don t feel that way. I didn t mean to say that. It 
 wouldn t really be fair, I suppose." 
 
 " But what did you say to him, child ?" 
 
 " I said I wanted to wait awhile before I decided. It is 
 only putting it off, I suppose. There can be but one 
 answer in the end. But I wanted to put it off a little. I 
 wanted the summer free." 
 
 Miss Estee let her papers go fluttering over the grass 
 as she dropped down beside the hammock and threw her 
 arm over the girl s shoulders. 
 
 " Edith, my dear little Edith, don t ever let him be any 
 thing more to you if the thought makes you unhappy. 
 There mustn t be any question in your mind, any doubt 
 at all. You think me an old sentimental woman, I dare 
 say, with my stories and my dreams, but, my dear girl, 
 love isn t a dream. It is something very real. I know. 
 That s why I am alone to-day, because I did know once, 
 and after that could never have been content with any 
 substitute. Never ! Never ! " 
 
 Edith touched the cheek that was near her face with 
 caressing fingers. 
 
 " Dear old aunty ! But you are more romantic than I, 
 and braver, I guess. I wouldn t dare to be an old maid." 
 
 " But if you don t love him 
 
 "Oh, well, perhaps I do enough. I ought to, if I 
 don t, because he is irreproachable. Everybody says so, 
 so it must be so. Besides, I m not going to decide yet 
 awhile. It is this way, aunt Eleanor. Stephen is the 
 most well, eligible ; there isn t any other word, though 
 that doesn t sound nice for a girl to say, but girls have
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 79 
 
 to think of such things. What I mean is that if I am 
 going to marry (and I don t see what I shall do if I 
 don t), I must marry some one who is clever and not 
 poor, and respected, and all that. I couldn t think of any 
 one who wasn t, even if he was nice in himself, because 
 I m not romantic like you, aunty dear. Well, Stephen is 
 all that. It is a marriage everyone would approve of, 
 and I like to be approved of. And there isn t really any 
 good reason for saying no." 
 
 " But that isn t the idea," cried Miss Estee. " Child, 
 child, you might be my grandmother, the way you talk." 
 
 Edith laughed and jumped up, shaking her skirts into 
 shape. 
 
 " I m a modern young woman, nothing worse. I m not 
 going to let my heart run away with my head, that s all. 
 However, it isn t settled yet." 
 
 She picked up the condemned " Idle Dream," and saun 
 tered toward the house with a bit of song on her lips, 
 and Eleanor Estee sat down in the shadow of the apple- 
 tree and dreamed over again the dream that had been 
 the shaping reality of her life. What it had meant in the 
 first blush of rapture, in the sharp hours of pain, in the 
 long years of waiting that had slipped by more and more 
 gently, no one but she could have told, unless you 
 guessed it from her face. There were lines of gray in the 
 hair and she wore glasses when she read, but the face 
 back of the thin mask the years had left was still the face 
 of a young girl.
 
 VIII. 
 
 "An, if Miss Mabie is out, I shall have credit for a call 
 upon her, and the pleasure of a call upon you, all in one," 
 said Miss Estee, with the touch of smiling cynicism which 
 she wore as a part of her mental dress. She leaned back 
 in her rocker and smiled down at Drusilla Hamill who 
 had taken a low piazza chair. " Tell me something about 
 her before I meet her." 
 
 " Oh, I hope you will like her," cried Dm, leaning over 
 to rest her hand for a moment on Miss Estee s knee. " I 
 know in my secret soul that it is no sort of use planning 
 to have your friends be friends with each other, but I am 
 always doing it. Somehow it almost seems an algebraic 
 necessity that if you like two bodies equally, they should 
 like each other. Doesn t it sound like an axiom or a 
 theorem, or at least a corollary ? But they don t. I 
 always think they will, and I never get to have sense 
 enough not to be disappointed when it all turns out as flat 
 as soda-water without any fizz to it. But I want you to 
 like Joyce, because she really is so nice when you know 
 her, and so I think perhaps I d better just let you find her 
 out for yourself." 
 
 " I ll make a point of having my affections fizz enthu 
 siastically for your sake, my dear," said Miss Estee with 
 a smile. It was as impossible for older women to keep 
 from petting Dru as it is for school-girls to keep from 
 kissing a baby. " At least, tell me who she is. That is 
 to say, who are her parents ? " 
 
 " She doesn t remember her mother. Think of it, dear
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 8 1 
 
 Miss Estee. I tell you, when I think of Jamie growing 
 up all by himself without remembering me, it makes me 
 feel pretty solemn." 
 
 " But her father ? " asked Miss Estee. And not being a 
 character in a play but only a living woman asking about 
 the man whose image had, actively or passively, been a 
 part of her thought for twenty years and more, there was 
 no break in her voice or change in her face as she spoke. 
 
 " He is an artist, but I don t suppose he is much of an 
 artist. You never hear of him." 
 
 " Do you know his first name ? " 
 
 Dru meditated. 
 
 " Thomas, I think. Yes, I am sure. Thomas Mabie." 
 
 "Where do they live ?" Miss Estee pursued with polite 
 interest. 
 
 " Nowhere and everywhere ! She has no more idea of 
 a home than a gypsy. Oh, they have lived in Chicago for 
 the last year or more, but in an entirely Bohemian way. 
 It is queer to me, that sort of life. I suppose I m bigoted 
 and narrow-minded, Rob says I am, but I can t make it 
 seem right for a girl to grow up with ideas on art and 
 socialism and public matters and know nothing of the 
 saving trifles that feminine life is mostly made of. I ll 
 admit there isn t anything intrinsically evil in art and 
 socialism and public matters, you can t say I m not fair 
 to the verge of generosity ! But when you have such 
 things undiluted, the atmosphere isn t healthy. That s it. 
 It is the atmosphere more than the things themselves. 
 So when letter after letter came from Joyce all full of 
 ideas and all barren of incidents, I felt that it would be a 
 good thing for her to come out here where we aren t 
 bothered with ideas, and don t want to be ! " 
 
 " Has her father gone in for socialism, then ? " There 
 was an accent of astonishment in Miss Estee s voice. 
 
 " No-o, but he lets Joyce."
 
 82 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Is he coming here ?" 
 
 " No, he has just gone off on a sketching tour. I don t 
 know where, exactly. I m a little afraid, " She hesi 
 tated, divided between a fear of gossip and a love of what 
 Rob called gravely "an intimate study of humanity," "I 
 am afraid Joyce isn t altogether happy about her father. 
 Perhaps it was just a notion, but I thought she avoided 
 speaking of him, and that she seemed constrained. She 
 is one of the intense kind, you know, with a complete 
 outfit of brand-new ideals, all appallingly speckless, and I 
 fancy to a girl of that sort a father like Thomas Mabie 
 might be pretty disappointing on close acquaintance." 
 
 " The girl probably doesn t understand him," Miss Es- 
 tee said abruptly, shaking off the absent look with which 
 she had been listening. " How could a jeune personne 
 understand such a man ? He represents life, and life 
 always is at odds with ideals. It takes art to measure 
 both and that only on condition that it surrender to 
 neither. I m art, you understand, my dear," she added 
 with a glancing amusement. " Art is the only thing that 
 is both clean and sane. Life is not clean and ideals are 
 not sane. Yet they tantalize and haunt me, both the life 
 which I have kept out of and the ideals that are only art- 
 material for me. They tantalize and haunt me, though I 
 have made my choice for art, and would make it again. 
 What else is worth while ? Not the fever of sharing in 
 the tumults of such a life as Thomas Mabie s. I m not 
 like myself, am I ? But a restless longing for some share 
 in the swell of passion and experience comes over me 
 sometimes. It is a part of my youth, I suppose, that 
 hasn t grown old with my hair and my dresses. Youth 
 dies much more quickly in a woman s face than in her 
 heart. Half the tragedies of womankind come from that. 
 I think the ghost of my girlhood has been walking to-day." 
 
 She leaned forward suddenly and took Dru s face be-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 83 
 
 t \veen her hands. " Dear little girl, you at any rate are 
 nice and faithful and happy." 
 
 " Dear Miss Estee," murmured Dru, too much surprised 
 at this unusual demonstration to frame any guess at 
 what had brought the mood. Then she sprang 
 up ; " Ah, there is Joyce. Jamie has been taking her 
 around." 
 
 A tall girl was coming up the walk, and Miss Estee 
 leaned forward with a queer throb of the heart. What 
 she saw was a quiet face of the sort that can leap to a 
 passion but would miss the gradations between. The 
 dark eyes, made yet darker by the shadows of black 
 lashes, rested upon ordinary objects with an expression of 
 indifference that yet held no lightest touch of scorn. It 
 was rather the indifference of one who is waiting. Her lips 
 met in a still, even line. It was a face that revealed little yet 
 suggested endlessly. There was a hint somewhere of the 
 resemblance Miss Estee looked for, but so illusive that it 
 was impossible to define it. 
 
 Dru introduced her when she came up, and she sat 
 down on the topmost step, leaning her head back against 
 the pillar. In her attitude there was the same suggestion 
 of waiting interest. 
 
 " Ardent, yet cold," thought Miss Estee, watching the 
 girl critically. " She might sacrifice herself for a cause, 
 but hardly for a person. Where did she get that look of 
 reserve-power ? Not from poor Helen, with her passionate 
 impulsiveness. Never from Tom Mabie. He wouldn t 
 have worn that brooding look if the world had been 
 waiting for its doom. Ah ! " She leaned forward so sud 
 denly that Joyce turned her dark gray eyes full upon her, 
 and then she laughed lightly. 
 
 " Forgive my staring, Miss Mabie. There was some 
 thing in your face that hinted a resemblance, and I have 
 just traced it. It will sound absurd, but there is some-
 
 84 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 thing in your face that reminds me of Mr. Jefferson. Do 
 you know him ? " she asked, watching the girl. 
 
 " I saw him here yesterday," said Joyce. She looked 
 amused and curious, but her manner was so frank that 
 Miss Estee had to acquit her of any reticence. So she 
 did not know he was her grandfather ! Evidently, then, 
 Tom wished she should not know. Miss Estee glanced 
 at the old astronomer s turret, showing through the trees 
 and throwing its shadow across the lawn to Joyce s feet, 
 and wondered what the recluse would say to the story 
 and the silence. Well, if Tom wished the story untold, 
 it should remain untold, so far as she was concerned, she 
 concluded.
 
 IX. 
 
 WHEN Hale, correct and punctual, put in an appearance 
 at Miss Estee s little parlor Friday evening, he had appar 
 ently banished his demon of contrariness. The force and 
 vigor and directness of the man made him a delightful 
 talker when he would condescend to the task of entertain 
 ing, and he devoted himself to Edith with an animation 
 that brought a responsive brightness into her face. A 
 girl loves to be courted, and there is unquestionably an 
 added charm when the courting is done by a man whose 
 general form of address is in the imperative mood. In 
 this lies the true reason for the superlative incivility by 
 which the hero may be picked out at sight in a certain 
 class of novels. Edith felt the homage and was flattered 
 by it, and probably thought that if the power of her per 
 sonality could bring out this unwonted side of his charac 
 ter, it could always keep the darker mood in abeyance. 
 Even Miss Estee, who had much experience in the theory 
 of the art of love-making, felt reassured as she listened 
 to him with half an ear, while giving her attention nomi 
 nally to Drusilla s story. Dru was of course telling a 
 story. They say a French cook can make a delicious 
 soup out of two beans and the shadow of a bone ; Dru 
 could make an entrancing story out of a walk down the 
 block with her eyes bandaged. 
 
 They were all laughing at the story when Rodman was 
 announced. He hesitated a moment in the doorway 
 before his eye fell upon Miss Estee, and in that moment
 
 86 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Joyce recognized him with much surprise and a quick 
 pleasure. He came as he had come before, bringing a 
 sense of sunshine and outdoor cheer and vitality in his 
 very atmosphere, for the level rays of the sunset, coming 
 in through the opposite window, fell upon him in a dazzle 
 of glory that made a striking contrast with the quiet pro 
 priety of ordinary humanity. It is rather a disadvantage, 
 in some ways, for a man to be noticeably good-looking, 
 but it occasionally gives him a chance to get into the lit 
 tle pictures with which memory vignettes its pages. 
 Years after Joyce could shut her eyes and see the picture 
 he made there in the sunlight, and the surprised pleasure 
 in his eyes when they fell upon her. 
 
 Miss Estee had seen him a few hours before. She pre 
 sented him now to Mrs. Hainill and the Professor, and 
 lastly to Joyce as her " cousin Paul." 
 
 " You here ? How nice ! " he said softly. 
 
 Joyce smiled at his way of taking her for granted. 
 
 At the tea-table the talk soon turned to local subjects. 
 
 "The place seems very little changed," said Paul. 
 
 "Why should it be ? It was good enough in the begin 
 ning," returned Miss Estee in the capacity of oldest 
 inhabitant. 
 
 " I wonder if some of my old friends are here still, 
 Ben Baily, for instance." 
 
 " Ben Bail} ? Why, did you know him ? " asked the 
 Professor with quick interest. " I thought he was a new 
 comer." 
 
 "He went away some time after Paul s last visit and 
 only came back a year or two ago. He is here, Paul, and 
 has made himself one of the notable characters of the 
 town." 
 
 " And one with which the town might advantageously 
 dispense," added Hale grimly. 
 
 " Why ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 8/ 
 
 " He is a mischief-maker, a regular fire-brand." 
 
 " Oh, not quite that," expostulated the Professor. 
 
 " You must admit that he is lawless, in theory and what 
 is worse, in practice." 
 
 " And corrupts the minds of the youth, as was said of 
 another character some centuries ago. Ben Baily is our 
 Hereward gadfly, Mr. Rodman." 
 
 " I am surprised. He was one of my heroes, when I 
 was a boy and he was the best wood-carver in my uncle s 
 factory." 
 
 " He isn t in the Works, now. He is a free lance, and 
 sometimes he runs a-tilt with Stephen s ideas of law and 
 order, but no one is hurt," said Miss Estee. 
 
 " And Mr. Jefferson. He is still alive ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed." 
 
 " I must hunt him up. He was always different from 
 everyone else in the world to me." 
 
 " He is really different," said the Professor eagerly. 
 " Most of us are cut out pretty much of a pattern, but he 
 is very individual. The rest of us aren t well enough 
 acquainted with ourselves to know what we really care 
 for, so we follow the crowd and accept its aims, just as a 
 mob will follow a dozen boys down the street if only they 
 set off on a run. But Mr. Jefferson never was led away. 
 He made up his mind in the beginning that the things 
 which interest the mob of humanity, such as wealth and 
 fame and family, were straws in the street, so he placidly 
 went his way counting the stars and very properly ignor 
 ing the cries and remonstrances of the mob." 
 
 Miss Estee glanced involuntarily at Joyce at this. It 
 was hard to realize that she would have no personal feel 
 ing. 
 
 " I am almost as much of a stranger here as you can be, 
 Miss Mabie," said Rodman, catching but not understand 
 ing the look.
 
 88 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Oh, there is a difference. You mean to stay here, do 
 you not ? " 
 
 " No, I think not. I mean to sell the Works, if possi 
 ble." 
 
 There was a general movement of surprise, and Hale 
 turned to look at him questioningly. 
 
 " Your poor uncle Ned ! " ejaculated Miss Estee. 
 
 Paul looked rueful but he held to his point valiantly. 
 
 " Wouldn t I be doing better by uncle Ned to give it up 
 in the beginning than to keep it and bungle it ? " 
 
 " Nobody said you would bungle it." 
 
 " You will look far before you find a better-paying 
 investment," said Hale. 
 
 " And what will become of the poor workmen if you 
 give it up ? " exclaimed Mrs. Hamill. 
 
 " And what will become of all the picnics and private 
 theatricals we have planned ? " demanded Edith. 
 
 "What will become of Hereward generally?" echoed 
 Miss Estee. " The Rodman Works are our only tradi 
 tion. They go back to the beginning." 
 
 " But think of me ! " cried Rodman with comical distress. 
 "What will become of me if I keep them ? " 
 
 " You will become a rich man." 
 
 "You will be a father to the poor." 
 
 " You will be the great man of the village." 
 
 Paul looked from one to another. 
 
 " The toils are closing around me ! " he groaned. 
 
 " Does it interfere with any previous plans ? " asked the 
 Professor. 
 
 "Very decidedly. I m a naturalist, what there is of 
 me. That s what I ve been in Europe the last five years 
 for. And I ve planned, well, other things, you under 
 stand. But ever since I came home, to America that is, 
 I ve felt myself veering around like a protesting weather 
 cock."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 89 
 
 "What has made you veer ? " asked Edith saucily. 
 
 Rodman laughed. " The high pressure of the moral at 
 mosphere here. I am no longer able to look at a question 
 from the point of view of whether I like it or not." 
 
 " True," said the Professor, with a kindling face. " Peo 
 ple are beginning to think and talk much more about the 
 reason behind actions. Do you mean that you were really 
 conscious of it when you returned ?" 
 
 "Almost oppressively conscious," said Paul, shaking 
 his head with a smile. " It seems to me that you have 
 been doing nothing but evolving problems and that every 
 right-minded person is expected to sit up nights brooding 
 over them. I have wondered sometimes whether you 
 were bringing them out for my benefit, like your company 
 manners and your best china, or whether you dined with 
 them regularly. 
 
 " You shall have nicked china to reassure you when you 
 come to see me," said Mrs Hamill. " But what do you 
 mean ? Do give us an instance." 
 
 " Instances are as thick as blackberries. I talk to the 
 politician, and I soon discover that politics are a fit sub 
 ject for reform. I listen, am impressed, and in a burst of 
 reflected enthusiasm I carry my newly-grafted ideas to 
 my next neighbor, who happens to have an interest in 
 educational methods, and behold, the present system of 
 education is in even a more critical state than the politics 
 of the nation. I immediately catch fire and try to light 
 the torch of my next neighbor on the other side, when I 
 find that he already has a lantern which is throwing a 
 most damaging radiance into the dark corners of our 
 present system of relieving the poor. When he has talked 
 to me for half an hour, I am crushed to the earth with the 
 consciousness of having undermined the moral constitution 
 of a score of street beggars within the last fortnight. I 
 can only redeem myself by bringing my new knowledge
 
 go APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 to the ears of the rest of humanity, but the first man to 
 whom I begin to expound it begs me to wait a moment 
 while he convinces me that our whole social plan is based 
 on a mistake, that crime, pauperism and general wretched 
 ness are increasing at such and such a per cent., and that 
 unless the whole scheme is smashed to bits and made 
 over after his copyrighted pattern the world is doomed 
 and every enlightened man to whom he has talked in vain 
 is a dastard and a slave. I never could resist statistics 
 and I don t like anathemas. May I have another roll, 
 cousin Eleanor ? There is consolation in one of your 
 rolls for much of the woe of life." 
 
 " I wish I could reach across the table to shake hands 
 with you," said Mrs. Hamill solemnly. 
 
 " I ll be glad to come around." 
 
 " Never mind. But I sympathize with your feelings. I 
 have suffered in the same way. I can t pick up a maga 
 zine without coming upon people who want to reform re 
 ligion or dress or politics or government or human nature. 
 It always works the wrong way with me. It makes me 
 feel like taking a vow to get my religion straight from the 
 creeds, and the most binding creeds that can be found or 
 invented, and to wear gowns that would make a dress-re 
 former die of sheer envy. To be sure I can t, because 
 such gowns cost too much, and I generally have to be 
 sensible because it is most economical, but I always put 
 on the sensible dress with an inward protest and a deep 
 desire to tell everybody who praises it that I wear it be 
 cause I have to, but I would dearly like to wear a train 
 and pretty shoes with high heels." 
 
 "That s because she really ought to have been born in 
 the dark ages and got into this century by some mistake," 
 explained the Professor. 
 
 " If worst comes to worst, Mr. Rodman, and you have
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. gi 
 
 to set up as a reformer or philanthropist, you won t forget 
 to let me know, will you ? I haven t a single professional 
 philanthropist on my list of acquaintances, and, the way 
 the world is going now, I really feel that it is not quite 
 respectable not to have at least one philanthropist and 
 two reformers and a sprinkling of inquiring minds about, 
 so as to sort of give me an atmosphere, you know." 
 
 " I am very glad you mentioned it. Does it make any 
 difference at all what reform I adopt ? " 
 
 " Oh, not in the least. Only you must be very much 
 in earnest and talk about your cause, and you must de 
 spise and scoff at everybody who doesn t believe in the 
 same thing." 
 
 " And if you want to make converts, Paul, you must 
 believe something hard, and the harder it is to believe, 
 the harder you must believe it," added Miss Estee. 
 
 "A pleasant future you are all outlining for me. You will 
 bring me to the point of taking up the Rodman Works on 
 the theory that it must be my duty because I don t want 
 to, and that I might as well be out of the fashion as to 
 neglect a duty. And here I have been retailing my woes 
 with the secret hope that some friend would insist I should 
 let duty go or my health would suffer." 
 
 " He would hardly be a friend," said Joyce in a low 
 tone. 
 
 " You are one of them, then ? I rather suspected it." 
 
 " One of what ? " demanded Dru. 
 
 " One of the conscientious moderns who won t let a man 
 be irresponsible." 
 
 Joyce did not answer, but she looked up at him with a 
 serious intensity that made him glad when Miss Estee 
 rose. Somehow he didn t want the other people to see 
 that look, though they were undoubtedly deserving 
 people, too. 
 
 They went out to the veranda, where the light of the
 
 92 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 evening was still soft and tender, and by common consent 
 they dropped the serious tone of the conversation. 
 
 " What an uncommonly nice boy he is," said Mrs. Ham- 
 ill in an undertone, as the four young people sauntered 
 down into the garden and left their elders in the shadow 
 of the Virginia creepers. 
 
 " Yes, isn t he ? " echoed her husband. 
 
 " My face is my fortune, sir, she said, " murmured Miss 
 Estee. " I m fond of Paul myself, but I wonder some 
 times whether he will ever outgrow his face. He will al 
 ways be the uncommonly nice boy for his acquaintances, 
 and the chances are that his patronizing friends will 
 never discover what an uncommonly staunch man there 
 is back of that boyish face." 
 
 " But everybody must like him the better for it," ex 
 claimed Dru. "People are so much more agreeable when 
 they don t look oppressively wise." 
 
 "That s just it," said Miss Estee. "At the table we 
 were all giving him advice. Did you notice it ? We all 
 assumed that we were more competent to judge what he 
 should do than he. We wouldn t think of giving Stephen 
 Hale advice, for instance." 
 
 " Goodness gracious, I should think not ! I would 
 sooner think of giving advice to the ghost of Solomon 
 himself." 
 
 " I have a great admiration for Mr. Hale," said the 
 Professor. " You don t have to change your mind about 
 him." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that s Rob s way," cried his wife. " He does 
 have the absurdest affinities. You wouldn t think it to 
 look at him, but when we go traveling, for instance, it is 
 his greatest delight to get off with the stokers and engi 
 neers and traveling bunco-steerers and have a genuine 
 flow of soul." 
 
 " Do you mean me to draw the logical deduction that
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 93 
 
 Mr. Hale is of the bunco-steerer variety ? " asked the Pro 
 fessor serenely, undisconcerted by her personal remarks. 
 
 "I wasn t v trying to draw logical deductions, Robby. 
 Dear me, I wouldn t think of doing anything so high- 
 sounding. I was jest plain talkin ." 
 
 Out in the garden where the young people were revolv 
 ing about the flower-beds, Edith was scintillating like a 
 firefly. The constraint which Hale threw upon her when 
 alone was lifted in this diffused atmosphere. She called 
 Paul by his first name, hadn t they known each other as 
 children and weren t they included in aunt Eleanor s 
 cousinship ? and when she saw Stephen s face darken at 
 it, a little spark crept into her soft eyes. A little spark 
 dropped into a powder-keg might have tremendous ef 
 fects. Didn t all the novelists say that jealousy is a meas 
 ure of love? It might be a good thing to make sure of 
 the extent of Stephen s devotion, to say nothing of the 
 fun of testing this mysterious power of moving people 
 which one seems to possess without understanding it ! 
 No one but a girl knows the trembling delight there is in 
 holding the spark over the keg and thinking, "Just sup 
 pose, only suppose, of course, I let it fall ! " 
 
 The twilight had deepened, and here and there a glow 
 worm sent out a gleam of illusive light from the tangled 
 grass. 
 
 " Look ! Look ! " cried Edith. " There it is ! Wait a 
 minute see ! Like a star waking out of a nap ! " 
 
 They waited till the little creature glowed again, seem 
 ing to illumine the shady nook of grass where it nestled. 
 
 " I think I like your description of it better than the 
 thing itself," said Rodman. " I have seen them nearer, 
 and the poetry doesn t hold good." 
 
 "But this view is as true as the nearer one," said Joyce. 
 
 " And you d rather think of it as being like a star ? " 
 
 " Or like the ideal," answered Joyce gayly. " You get
 
 94 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 only glimpses of it, but a glimpse is enough to make you 
 hold everything else cheap beside it." 
 
 "That s a defiance, Stephen, realist that you arc. What 
 have you to say for yourself?" 
 
 "I accept Miss Mabie s simile. It is like the ideal, be 
 cause it leads you to believe it is something wonderfully 
 fine, when in reality there is only a worm back of the 
 light." 
 
 " Oh, you are all wrong," cried Edith, and her voice was 
 vibrating with excitement. "I will tell you what it is like. 
 It is like love, which is a paltry thing, as you know, but 
 which yet you will follow, follow. And it is like beauty," 
 she said, lifting a hand from which the lace sleeve fell 
 back to the elbow. She was a step in advance, and she 
 turned her face back to them with a sparkling audacity 
 that thrilled Joyce as keenly as it did the two men who 
 watched her. " It is like beauty, which is all illusion as 
 you know when the chase is over ! But you follow it ! 
 And it is like woman, who is a slight thing, Heaven help 
 her, that you may crush under your heel if you chance to 
 walk across the grass in your promenade, but a pretty 
 dance she leads you all the same, my fine gentlemen ! " 
 She looked full at Hale with a challenge in her eyes, 
 laughed with conscious, wilful mockery, and ran swiftly 
 toward the house. 
 
 " Edith ! " cried Stephen in a passionate voice, spring 
 ing toward her, and following as though the white face 
 gleaming tauntingly through the dusk were indeed a light 
 that he must follow whether he would or not. But it was 
 the face of a child afraid of being chidden that she lifted 
 when he overtook her at the foot of the steps. 
 
 " Well ? " she said under her breath. There was no de 
 fiance or mockery in her tone now. It was rather the 
 whisper of one who trembles at a lifted lash. 
 
 He had caught her hand and stood looking down upon
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 95 
 
 her with bent brows and quivering nostrils, his eyes beat 
 ing hers down fiercely. Then he crushed her hand and 
 threw it from him and turned to lean against the post of 
 the verandah, and would not look again at her where she 
 sat on the lowest step, humming a snatch of a song. He 
 felt as though he had been seized and shaken by something 
 outside of himself. He did not understand the passion 
 that had swept him from his usual calm, and was ashamed 
 of it and puzzled over it even while he still felt that the 
 one desire of his being was to crush her between his hands 
 until the defiance died out of those eyes, even if the 
 light died out with it. 
 
 Joyce and Rodman had been left behind by this rapid 
 flight. 
 
 " She is like a firefly herself," Joyce had said quickjy, 
 looking after Edith with a frank admiration not un 
 touched with wonder. " Wasn t she, when she flashed off 
 into the shadows that way ? Magnetic and elusive and 
 bewildering." 
 
 " Yes," he said. He was looking at her with a quiet 
 smile and trying to formulate the difference between the 
 two girls. " Yes. There are fireflies and stars." The 
 moment the words had passed his lips he regretted them. 
 They sounded tawdry, addressed to her. But to his 
 relief she seemed unconscious of any personal application. 
 
 " It was a surprise to see you here. I did not know 
 that this was where your work was." 
 
 " This is where the Rodman Works are." 
 
 " But not your work ? Have you decided it ? " 
 
 " What would you counsel ? " he asked. 
 
 How could the pupil of Karl Bahrdt answer, if not seri 
 ously ? 
 
 " May I take it for granted that the chance to make 
 money would not be the measure of success for you?" 
 she asked without lifting her eyes.
 
 96 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 He felt the little quiver of effort in her voice and it 
 kept him from smiling. 
 
 " Yes, you may take that for granted, for the time 
 being." 
 
 " Then, why will you not take an opportunity to do 
 something really worth while, something for the good of 
 the race ?" 
 
 " But what can I do ? " he asked gravely. " I can t 
 clutch society by the throat and say, Give me something 
 heroic to do or I ll be the death of you. Society would 
 probably clap me into a madhouse and not even dream of 
 me. Besides, heroic things are not in my line. They are 
 too apt to mean hard work." 
 
 She would not be turned aside. 
 
 "You can show how a capitalist, an employer, ought 
 to deal with the men he uses so as to make their life a 
 blessing to them instead of the curse it often is now. Oh, 
 if I were a man, there would be no other work possible 
 for me. I would consider it a crusade. I would leave 
 everything, the world, fame, wealth, everything, for the 
 one thing that is worth them all, a life in which the real 
 and not the factitious should be the standard, a life which 
 would not be for my own advantage or advancement, but 
 for the advancement, to however slight a degree, of 
 humanity." 
 
 " You are so sure," he said slowly. " I envy your 
 enthusiasm, because I am not sure that your enthusiasm, 
 even in a mistaken cause, would not lead to more good 
 than my deliberation and. doubt." 
 
 " It is not a mistaken cause," she exclaimed. " If once 
 you admit that we must not live for ourselves, it is the 
 only justifiable course, and all search for mere happiness 
 in living is just self-indulgence." 
 
 " Oh, but do you think happiness in itself is wrong ? " 
 he protested.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 97 
 
 "Yes. By itself ! At least, very apt to be." 
 
 " Why, I never am happier in my life than when I am 
 at my work, just on the trail of finding out something 
 about life in its lowest forms, you know. And don t ani 
 mals do all that is required of them in merely living, and 
 aren t they happy at it ? I am not going to believe that 
 I have any less right to the largess of nature than any 
 of her other children, or that I am not filling my place in 
 the scheme best and most harmoniously when I am hap 
 piest." 
 
 She threw out her hand with a scornful gesture. " So 
 the drunkard may say when he turns again to the wine 
 that has become his ideal of happiness. So the veriest 
 idler in the world may say, and with as good arguments, 
 when he shirks all duties that he may give himself up to 
 the delicate indulgences of self which take from him even 
 the power of comprehending what real living means." 
 
 " After that I hardly have courage left to make further 
 suggestions, but I would like to intimate, under submis 
 sion, that it makes a difference what the indulgences are. 
 One rule won t work in all cases. I m not sure but that, 
 when we children of humanity get through growing, if 
 that undesirable day should ever come, it will be found 
 that to live in accordance with the demands of one s own 
 special nature, that is, the supremest self-indulgence, is 
 the only right and harmonious and helpful thing." 
 
 She looked rather dashed. " I know that is sophistry," 
 she said at last, "though I can t say just where you are 
 wrong. At least you won t claim we have reached that 
 point yet ? " 
 
 " No, perhaps not. I won t argue with you about it," 
 he said, watching her with a smile. In fact he had much 
 less interest in convincing her than in seeing the earnest 
 ness with which she carried her Puritan standards. The 
 standards couldn t be very far wrong when defended by
 
 98 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 such lips. Who can say what it is that makes a young 
 man pass by a hundred maidens, all of whom are sweet 
 and lovely and each of whom may make the glory of 
 some man s life, and note of each that she is sweet and 
 lovely, yet noting pass on and heed no more, while when 
 one comes, though she may not be as fair as others, or 
 though she be wilful and defiant, straight he knows that 
 she is to him what no one else has ever been and that 
 here it is not for him to note and question and debate but 
 only to yield to the harmony of her presence and wait for 
 her to come to share that recognition ? Paul Rodman 
 did not know that he was yielding to a power which would 
 grow until it should come to seem the one thing in the 
 world fixed in the midst of change and true in the midst 
 of illusions. He only knew that no other girl had ever 
 talked to him in that way. and that to no one else would 
 he have made such answers. 
 
 " But the question isn t abstract or hypothetical," she 
 said, glad to get back to something solid. " It is just 
 this ; whether you will carry on the Works to make a for 
 tune, as Mr. Hale said, or whether you will sell them be 
 cause you don t want to be bothered with real work, or 
 whether you will use them to bring about the happiness 
 and blessing and advancement of a hundred fami 
 lies." 
 
 " Have you that faith in my latent powers ? " he asked 
 quietly, but something like a spark had leaped into his 
 eyes. "Well, if I go down into the world of action to see 
 whether you are a true prophet or not, I hope you will 
 remember that the responsibility of the expedition rests 
 upon you." 
 
 " Oh, no, that is not fair." 
 
 " Oh, yes, it is. If I fizzle and go out like a poor fire 
 cracker, I want it to be understood who lit me and threw 
 me in tne grass."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 99 
 
 She made a gesture of impatient repudiation, but he 
 went on with placid persistency. 
 
 " I want it understood, also, just what this quest of 
 yours is going to cost me. Ease, comfort, all the repu 
 tation for idleness which I have been building up for twen 
 ty-seven years, personal ambitions and enthusiasms, and 
 all the things that I have meant to learn in years to come, 
 all must be cast into the crucible and melted like dross. 
 Oh, you needn t think I am going to let you forget an 
 atom of it." 
 
 He was smiling lightly, but her eyes fell and she was 
 glad that they had at last, in their slow sauntering, 
 reached the steps of the veranda and so she need not 
 answer. 
 
 Then suddenly, sharp and clear across the stillness of 
 the evening, a pistol-shot rang out. The women started 
 and the men leaped to their feet, and all turned startled 
 faces toward the sound. It had been so sudden and so 
 near. 
 
 "Boys, probably," said the Professor instinctively. 
 
 There was a minute of silence, and then the sound of 
 men running in the street. 
 
 " I m going to see," said Hale, and he went off. 
 
 The Professor and Rodman longed to go, but being 
 chivalrously bound to stay by the women their inclinations 
 only carried them to the foot of the walk where they 
 stood peering out into the shadowy distance. The moon 
 lit the street in irregular patches and any dim corner 
 might be a lurking-place. But the disturbed stillness of 
 the night settled back and they were about to return to 
 the house when they simultaneously caught sight of a tall 
 figure which had appeared from nowhere and was unmis 
 takably trying to skulk away across the lower end of Miss 
 Estee s lawn. It was a man stooping and running in the 
 shadow of the lilac bushes that formed a hedge there,
 
 IOO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 and the shadows of the bushes and of the scattered clouds 
 had helped to cover his retreat. Both Rodman and the 
 Professor gave chase, and when the man saw he was de 
 tected he straightened himself up and made a break for 
 the alley that skirted the farther end of the lawn. Paul 
 was after him like a flash, but a moment later the Professor 
 cried warningly ! 
 
 " Rodman ! Rodman, stop ! " 
 
 At the voice of authority Rodman pulled up abruptly, 
 and then it was too late to attempt again to follow, for 
 the man had disappeared. 
 
 " What in the world did you call me off for ? " he de 
 manded. 
 
 " Because I It s all right. There was some mistake." 
 
 "A mistake to let him escape, I should think. It 
 wouldn t have been hard for him to clear himself if there 
 was any other mistake. There may have been murder 
 done." 
 
 " No, there has been no murder. Or, if there has, it 
 was justifiable." 
 
 " Justifiable ? " repeated Paul with an astonished look at 
 the staid Professor. 
 
 " I ll explain. Only don t say a word now, or give a 
 hint, especially before Hale. Be dumb." 
 
 The women had clustered together, waiting their re 
 turn, and Hale was with them. 
 
 " What was it ? Did you see any one ? " they demanded 
 in a breath. 
 
 " We thought we saw a man, and so we ran," said the 
 Professor, calmly. " What was it, Hale ? " 
 
 " A horse was shot in Mr. Twitchell s stables," said 
 Hale. 
 
 " Who shot him ? " 
 
 " Nobody knows. At least, I didn t find anyone who 
 knew. I came back to relieve your minds."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. JOI 
 
 " And is that all ? " asked Rodman. 
 
 " That s enough for Hereward, " exclaimed Hale indig 
 nantly. " It was a rascally thing to do. Personal spite, 
 I suppose. The horse was a valuable one, a racer." 
 
 "Oh," said the Professor suddenly. " Was it that hand 
 some gray that ran at the county fair yesterday ? I saw 
 him. Twitchell himself rode and lashed him savagely. 
 He lost the race, though." 
 
 A neighbor, seeing the group, stopped at the gate to ex 
 plain. 
 
 " It was Twitchell s gray, that lost the race yesterday. 
 Twitchell is a brute with horses, blamed if he isn t. 
 They say he beat the gray over the head with the butt 
 end of his whip yesterday, and when he was beaten any 
 how he was that riled at losing the race that he let the 
 horse lay blind and lame and half-killed, in his stables all 
 day without seeing to him. Blamed if it wasn t an act of 
 mercy to shoot the poor beast." 
 
 " That doesn t make it any less unlawful," said Hale se 
 verely. 
 
 " Well, I dunno as it does," said the neighbor respect 
 fully. Hale s opinion always carried weight. 
 
 But the Professor had fallen behind with Paul to re 
 mark sotto voce, 
 
 " I told you it would be justifiable murder. But Hale 
 mustn t suspect." 
 
 " But who was it ? " 
 
 " Our Hereward gadfly, Ben Baily."
 
 X. 
 
 RODMAN had promptly determined, when the formal 
 announcement of his inheritance had first reached him 
 from Hale, to sell the property as a matter of course, and 
 as soon as possible. A forced sale might mean a sacri 
 fice, and to a man of his very modest fortune, this could 
 not be a matter of entire indifference. But any interrup 
 tion to his career would be of greater moment, he 
 thought. The foundations of this resolution had been 
 gradually wearing away under the combined force of 
 pressure from without and some awakening within to the 
 responsibilities of ownership, and when he went down to 
 the Works the morning after his arrival in Hereward, it 
 was with a curious uncertainty in his own mind as to 
 whether he was viewing the scene of his future labors or 
 whether he was looking upon a rather cumbersome piece 
 of property which he might find more difficulty in dispos 
 ing of than he would like. 
 
 He found an established business, with a multiplicity 
 of details that seemed bewildering to his uninitiated eyes, 
 and a couple of hundred men who watched him askance 
 with a curious regard that embarrassed him. The idea 
 that he was the employer and to some extent the control 
 ler of these men gave him a new sensation. The relation 
 was not as simple as the one he had heretofore borne tow 
 ard his fellow-creatures. He was not sure that he could 
 come to find it even tolerable. But he conscientiously 
 went through the different departments and listened to 
 the account of the foreman, who was nervously anxious
 
 APPREN7ICES TO DESTINY. 103 
 
 to make a good impression. When the tour was over he 
 admitted to himself, seriously enough, that the establish 
 ment offered a much more complicated problem than any 
 with which he had struggled in the laboratory, and, what 
 was worse, it was all drearily commonplace. Then he 
 reproached himself for that thought, looking at the men 
 who lived in it and had to keep on living in it without 
 choice, and he tried to pull himself together, and view it 
 as a duty which had been tossed into his hands. It was 
 evident that the Works took it for granted he was going 
 to adopt them. 
 
 He was considering on his way up the street, after the 
 twelve o clock whistle had released the men, how far 
 individual fate is controlled in this world by the opinions 
 of us which other people take for granted, when he fell in 
 with Professor Hamill. 
 
 " It would be a little difficult to say," the Professor hes 
 itated, when Rodman maliciously put the question to him. 
 But though he was wise enough to fear a rash generaliza 
 tion he was not without resources, for he added, with a 
 funny little air of elation over his own adroitness, "We 
 might try a practical experiment. For instance, I take it 
 for granted that you are going to come in with me, since 
 we are at my door. This is where I live, as I hope you 
 will come to know well enough. Now, what effect is my 
 opinion going to have on your course of action ?" 
 
 " I am coming in," Paul answered gravely, " but that 
 doesn t prove anything, because you don t know how far 
 I am obeying my own inclinations in doing so." 
 
 He wondered, with a sudden bound of interest, whether 
 he would find Miss Mabie here, but it was Mrs. Hamill 
 alone who met them. 
 
 " How is the philanthropic wind this morning?" she 
 asked gaily. 
 
 " Due east. I have been spending the entire morning at
 
 IO4 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 the Works, trying to see whether there was anything there 
 which stood in pressing need of my administrative care." 
 
 " What did you find ? " 
 
 " Why, nothing. I felt rather defrauded that every 
 thing should be running smoothly and satisfactorily." 
 
 " You may find that all the workmen do not agree with 
 you," said the Professor. 
 
 " Why ? Is there any disturbance ? " 
 
 " I don t know just what it amounts to. You will prob 
 ably find out in time. But there is a workingman s club 
 here, which seems to have drawn in the more ardent and 
 hot-headed of the men. They have weekly meetings, 
 debates and discussions. I have attended occasionally. 
 They were very interesting, but it struck me they were 
 not always wisely directed. Their leader, a man by the 
 name of Mason, might be a dangerous man if the circum 
 stances abetted." 
 
 Rodman looked rather startled, and Mrs. Hamill broke 
 in impetuously : 
 
 " There, that is what comes of it all. The people here 
 used to have innocent spelling-matches and sociables and 
 sings, before your precious reformers came and stirred 
 them up." 
 
 " And taught them to see that life is real, life is ear 
 nest, and that it is much more important a man should 
 know what his rights are and make sure they are duly 
 respected than that he should know how to spell polysyl 
 labic words which he would never use except as missiles 
 with which to overcome some opponent in the ortho 
 graphical combats, while his sweetheart looked on." 
 
 " Rob, what was the name of that man who came up 
 from Chicago and set them off ? " 
 
 " Is the feminine judgment going to hold that one poor 
 man responsible for the doings of the entire club ?" 
 
 " But what was his name ? I don t care if you do say
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 10$ 
 
 it is feminine, I want to have things definite and personal. 
 I don t see why the feminine way should be apologized 
 for, anyhow. Who knows but what it is as good as any 
 other ? There isn t any absolute standard." 
 
 " No, there isn t any absolute standard. His name was 
 Karl Bahrdt." 
 
 " Oh, I know him," cried Rodman, with surprise. " It 
 can t be very bad if he is in it." 
 
 " He isn t in it. From what I hear of him, it might be 
 a good deal better if he were. But he only sowed the 
 seed, and the crop depends somewhat on the gardener s 
 knowledge of what is wheat and what is weeds. With an 
 ardent but amateurish gardener, the result may be uncer 
 tain. Hereward has always rather felt the ignominy of 
 being a small town in a century which measures things 
 by quantity, and the workmen may have thought they 
 had it in their power to remove the stigma. They have 
 had meetings and have appointed committees and had 
 orators come down from the city, and they probably feel 
 that they are going to be a power in the land in some 
 way or another. Just what they want to bring about I 
 don t know. They are discontented and in a state of fer 
 ment. They feel that their lot does not please them, and 
 as everybody else in the world is entirely pleased and 
 content with the conditions to which Providence has 
 assigned him, it naturally follows that there must be 
 something peculiarly unpleasant about the corner in 
 which they find themselves, and that being the case they 
 are going to protest." 
 
 " I didn t realize that it was so much of a live issue," 
 said Rodman. " I have always skipped the reports of 
 strikes in the newspapers, and I suppose my Nemesis 
 would consequently delight in tumbling one about my 
 ears. Is there anything tangible in their demands ? Are 
 they insufficiently paid ?"
 
 Io6 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " He is ready to be a reformer," groaned Mrs. Hamill. 
 " I suspected it from the first. I can t cut you, because 
 you know so few people here, and you will soon know so 
 many less that it would be clear cruelty to refuse to 
 recognize you." 
 
 "That would be clear cruelty under any circum 
 stances." 
 
 " If it wouldn t be interfering too recklessly with the 
 wider interests of humanity at large," the Professor 
 remarked gently, " I would like to suggest that I ought to 
 have some luncheon before I go back to teach my young 
 charges that law governs everything, and that obedience 
 to law and a recognition of the ruling principle in things 
 is the first mark of a sane mind. I wouldn t mention it, 
 only I know you would be sorry, after I had gone, if you 
 happened to remember that I hadn t had anything to 
 eat." 
 
 " Oh, Rob, is it so late ? I m a dreadful housekeeper, 
 am I not ? But you like me, don t you, even if I do forget 
 about having luncheon ready ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, that is a habit I have fallen into, and it has 
 nothing to do with the merits of the case. Mr. Rodman, 
 have your socialistic impulses developed far enough to 
 lead you to share the fare of a starving laborer ? " 
 
 But Rodman was obliged y to plead an engagement with 
 Miss Estee. 
 
 The situation seemed growing more serious through all 
 this, and the thought of it lingered in his mind through 
 the more or less frivolous pursuits of the rest of the day. 
 He went about gathering up old threads, and he found a 
 new pleasure in discovering that he was remembered in 
 this little corner of the world and that it was taken for 
 granted he had a right and a place here. The possiblity 
 of living his life out here began to have a different look 
 from what it had had when viewed from across the Atlantic.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 10/ 
 
 He waited for the evening before visiting the old recluse 
 and astronomer, Jefferson, whose mysterious personality 
 had filled his boyish imagination with dreams. The old 
 house had lost somewhat in the matter of impressiveness, 
 and the gate that guarded the entrance was only an ordi 
 nary gate instead of the bar to the Mysteries which it had 
 been of old. The darkness of night had followed the 
 rose-flush of evening, and under the trees the shadows lay 
 heavily. The hedges were a dark line that he descried 
 only as something that hemmed him about. The loosened 
 fragrance of the apple-blossoms, never so sweet as when 
 the dew distills it, floated down about him, and the trees 
 bent their old branches down to his face. He smiled to 
 think how august they had seemed when only their 
 shadows were within his reach. 
 
 The old housekeeper, who answered his knock with an 
 air of surprise and took his name doubtingly, came back 
 in time with a message requesting him to go up the old 
 way to the turret room. 
 
 He knew the way to the stairs, which he had boyishly 
 fancied must be like the dark and narrow way that initi 
 ates into the mysteries of the pyramids had had to trav 
 erse. They were narrow and steep still, but the glamor of 
 mystery was gone. He reflected that this was a part of 
 the price one must pay for the privilege of growing old. 
 At the top he came suddenly out upon the little turret 
 room that gave character to the house. Then he forgot 
 to think of himself, for over him the sky was arched, 
 with all the stars shining down upon him through the 
 darkness. Beneath him lay the garden, with its roof of 
 apple-blossoms at his feet. The village stretched away 
 beyond, dark and indistinct save for here and there a roof 
 growing out of the shadows, and over his head the stars 
 came close, as though he stood on the deck of a ship. 
 The air between seemed to pulse with the light they shed,
 
 108 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 and the blue patches of sky were deep with the nearest 
 approach to the infinite which comes within human reach. 
 
 The translation from the tender dark of the garden to 
 this luminous calm was startlingly abrupt, but a moment 
 later Mr. Jefferson came forward from the shadows of 
 the wall, and the human equilibrium was restored. 
 
 " You see I claim the privilege of age in asking my 
 guests to come to me," he said with a stately courtesy, 
 extending a delicate, cold hand. " Miss Mabie has 
 honored me by coming to my tower." 
 
 Paul had at once discovered the young girl who sat 
 before the telescope, and at the first glance something 
 swifter and surer than sight had told him who it was. 
 He was very glad he had come. Miss Mabie bent her 
 head slightly, but turned her face away again to the night 
 as if to decline any share in the conversation. 
 
 " I hoped you would let me come up," Rodman said. 
 " I wanted to see it as I remembered it, a place apart, 
 with the world of men shut out." 
 
 The old man leaned toward him, studying his face in 
 the dim light of the stars with a curious, half-cynical 
 smile. 
 
 "And you have been spending your time since you left 
 me last in seeing the world of men, I suppose. That 
 means wandering over the globe and looking at its cities 
 and its ruins of older cities and its people who will make 
 cities to be ruined in turn. Well, what have you found 
 out about it ?" 
 
 " Very little," Paul confessed gaily. 
 
 " Yet you are going back to it? " 
 
 " Why, what else can I do, since I am not the happy 
 possessor of a tower ? " 
 
 " You will never find reality there," the old man said. 
 There was a hint of scorn under his dispassionate tone.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. ICX) 
 
 " The world of men is a Babel of discordant cries. The 
 only virtue of the tower is that it shuts men out." 
 
 Perhaps it was the force of contrast only, but there 
 came to Rodman s mind a swift thought of the men he 
 had seen in the morning, struggling with the only reality 
 their lives knew, and the reflection woke a feeling of 
 championship for them in his heart. With the high 
 appreciation of humanity which is one of the forms of 
 modern thought, though it may not yet have precipitated 
 into habits of action, he resented the solitary s disdainful 
 exclusiveness. 
 
 " Poor humanity ! " he said lightly. " It is shut out on 
 one side and shut in on another, and there doesn t seem 
 to be very much room for it anywhere." 
 
 " Men jar," the recluse answered frowningly, as though 
 he might have pointed a near example. " They jar upon 
 me, with their eagerness and passion. The stars are bet 
 ter company. Look yonder ! Through the depths of 
 space, to the very limit of thought and then as far be 
 yond, they wheel together in harmony so perfect that not 
 one atom swerves from its place or leads another astray, 
 in obedience to law so implicit that not for the thou 
 sandth part of a second does one waver from its path. 
 That is the law of numbers of harmony. On that the 
 universe is founded. I claim it is better worth while to 
 study and reflect that law than to add to the discord by 
 joining the clamor of my voice to the clamorous voices of 
 the multitude." 
 
 Paul reflected that it would hardly be becoming to 
 argue with a man old enough to be his grandfather upon 
 the wisdom of his course, so he kept silence. But he 
 stole a glance at Miss Mabie. She was listening, with 
 her hands clasped idly before her, but her face was in the 
 shadow. 
 
 But apparently the desire of expression, if not of justi-
 
 HO APPRENTICES TO DESTIiVY. 
 
 fication, had fallen on the solitary old man. He had 
 walked away to the low wall that formed one part of the 
 turret room, and leaning his folded arms upon the ledge 
 he leaned out and looked down on the village which 
 stretched below him, embowered in trees and idealized by 
 starlight. It was long since its streets had been familiar 
 to him. 
 
 " With their strife they have broken the law," he said 
 accusingly. "With their bitterness, their hatred, their 
 greed, they are breaking the law every day that they live. 
 You cannot deny it. Is there a spot in the whole world 
 where the air is not heavy with the breath of warfare ? 
 This is a peaceful scene, you are thinking. The dwell 
 ings which you are looking at, under the glorified sheen 
 of the stars, are beautiful, and they must be the sanctua 
 ries of peace and the domestic virtues, you would say. 
 Oh, I have heard the talk with which you flatter each 
 other. Well, go through these streets to-morrow and you 
 will see men who spend their lives hating each other and 
 striving to wrest some advantage from each other. 
 Among the men who go up to those shops of yours, is 
 there one in a hundred who does not feel that he is 
 wronged by the necessity of labor laid upon him ? Is 
 there one who would not long to possess himself of that 
 wealth which seems to him the one valuable thing on 
 earth, if he could do so without laying himself open to 
 the penalty of laws which men have made to protect 
 these same valuable possessions ? Or take men whom 
 you call educated. For what purpose do they use their 
 better powers ? For the purposes of self, again. A man 
 who has had the fortune to be ground to a finer edge 
 than his fellows has so much better a chance of cutting 
 his way through the mass that crowds about him, and 
 the fact that that mass is made up of his brothers matters 
 nothing. And in the houses, it is the same, strife and
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. I I I 
 
 bitterness and unrest. I have seen it all, and to escape I 
 built this tower. Here is peace, and peace is the only 
 good the earth holds." His voice failed suddenly at the 
 end, and he leaned heavily against the wall as though in 
 weariness or weakness. 
 
 Paul put his hand on his arm questioningly. 
 
 " Have I let you talk too long ? " 
 
 "It is nothing. Give me your arm. So." 
 
 Miss Mabie had arisen and now came anxiously toward 
 him. 
 
 " Do not alarm yourself," he said courteously. " I am 
 perfectly well, but somewhat weary." 
 
 " We have staid too long ! " 
 
 " I hope you will come again and when you will," he 
 answered evasively. " The glass will always be here, if I 
 am not. To-night, perhaps, I may ask you to excuse me." 
 
 May I not take you to your room ? " Paul asked. 
 
 He looked up in surprise. 
 
 " Oh, no. I am better here. This is where I live. You 
 will come again, I trust. I assure you this talk has not 
 harmed me. It was only a little unusual." He smiled 
 deprecatingly, and they said good-night and left him 
 there, though Joyce was disturbed. 
 
 " Do you think we ought to leave him alone ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I think he has probably forgotten about us by this 
 time and that consequently he is restored to perfect 
 serenity. Did you know you were in for a lecture when 
 you came over ? " 
 
 " No, I came to look through his telescope. Mrs. 
 Hamill was to have come, but she couldn t get away from 
 Jamie just then, so I came alone. But I wasn t sorry to 
 hear the lecture, as you call it. What he said was true." 
 
 " Oh, yes, men in general are disappointing. Why, I ve 
 seen a number of disagreeable traits in them, myself."
 
 112 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Have you ? Curious ! What, for instance ? " 
 
 " Not thinking as I do is probably the most serious 
 and comprehensive. Then, not understanding that 
 though they may not think as I do, my view must neces 
 sarily be the right one, and that it is only a question of 
 time and conscientious effort when they may attain to it." 
 
 She laughed, as he had meant to make her. 
 
 " What are you going to do about the Works ? " she 
 asked directly. 
 
 " Didn t you tell me that I must take them up ?" 
 
 " I didn t know you were going to." 
 
 " I didn t know you had left me any alternative." 
 
 " Are you always so obedient ? " 
 
 " Doesn t obedience become my years ? " 
 
 Drusilla Hamill had come down from her steps to meet 
 them as they crossed the garden. 
 
 " What are you discussing so seriously ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, the chief end of man, and freewill and foreordina- 
 tion, and some other things of that sort. Isn t it a beau 
 tiful evening ? "
 
 XL 
 
 BUT it was not Joyce Mabie after all who was responsi 
 ble for Rodman s decision. What a young man says in a 
 moonlit garden, with a girl s eyes drawing unsuspected 
 thoughts to the surface, may be very different from what 
 he thinks on the same subject the next morning under 
 the light of the work-a-day sun. Paul probably remem 
 bered the eyes themselves much more vividly than what 
 they had befooled him into saying, and it is just possible 
 that he was not thinking of the troublesome Works at all 
 when he set out across the borders of the town the next 
 morning to find Ben Baily. And Ben Baily was the man 
 who tipped the wavering scale, much to his own disgust, 
 as it happened. 
 
 There was a little pond on the way where the boy Paul 
 had made many marvellous discoveries in the days when 
 every water-beetle might be a rare Dytiscus, heretofore 
 unnamed and unknown, and the memory thereof lured him 
 aside when he found himself again in its neighborhood. 
 There it was, as slumberously warm as of old, with dart 
 ing flies lacing their way over it and water-spiders sliding 
 on the surface. He made a scoop of his handkerchief and 
 a willow twig and dipped up a handful of the slime from 
 the bottom, and went down devoutly on his knees to 
 examine the wriggling colony. There were still some 
 things that could banish Joyce Mabie s eyes. He did not 
 note the shadow that fell upon the grass till some one 
 spoke almost at his elbow. 
 
 "You re dead in earnest, ain t you, though ?"
 
 1 14 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 The slow, soft voice made its way through Paul s mem 
 ory even before he turned to catch the intent eyes fixed 
 upon his work. 
 
 " Hello, Ben Baily ! Why, I was just looking for you. 
 
 "Was you? Well, I haven t been living at the bottom 
 of the pond for some little time now," said Baily with a 
 grin, sitting down on a convenient log. " So you knew 
 me, did you ? " 
 
 " Did you think I d forgotten ? That isn t likely ! 
 Besides," he added mischievously, " the moonlight on 
 Miss Estee s lawn was bright enough." 
 
 Baily shot a sudden side-glance at him. 
 
 " You re mightily taken up with them things, ain t 
 you ?" he said calmly, with a gesture toward the writhing 
 mass on the handkerchief. 
 
 " But why didn t you stop when I called to you, Ben ? " 
 
 " I remember it was the same when you was a young 
 ster," Baily continued meditatively. " You knew more 
 about the birds and squirrels and such things all over the 
 neighborhood than them that had lived here all their 
 lives." 
 
 " What were you doing on Miss Estee s lawn, anyhow 
 Ben ? " 
 
 " I suppose, now, there ain t much about such little ani 
 mals that you don t know by this time." 
 
 "There is a good deal about both big and little animals 
 that I don t know. How can I, when they won t answer 
 straight questions ? " 
 
 " I suppose, now, that sort of study might have a ten 
 dency to develop unusual symptoms of curiosity in gen 
 eral ? " said Baily blandly. 
 
 Paul threw back his head and laughed at his own baffle 
 ment, and Baily, feeling that he had won, returned to his 
 first query. 
 
 " Say, Paul, you re dead in earnest about studying the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 115 
 
 ways of them unhandsome little creatures, ain t you ? Or 
 was you just doing it for the fun of it ? " 
 
 " Well, both. It s my business, in a way, but I like it. 
 I am free to confess that much to you, Ben ! Do you 
 remember the man on the coach in David Copperfield, 
 with his talk about horses and dogs ? They are some 
 men s fancy, he says, but to him they are wittles and 
 drink, lodging, wife and children, reading, writing, and 
 rithmetic, snuff, tobacker and sleep. Well, I m not sure 
 but that these little creatures, unhandsome as you find 
 them, are almost that much to me." 
 
 " I saw that when you was a kid, only I didn t know as 
 it would hold. Have you been at it ever since ?" 
 
 " When was I down here last ? In my sophomore vaca 
 tion, wasn t it ? Yes, I went to Italy to study after leav 
 ing college, and I have been at work at the Neapolitan 
 aquarium almost all the time since. Oh, I haven t wasted 
 any time on anything else. There was too much of my 
 own work to do. It isn t play, Ben. There s hard work 
 in it, but it is the only work worth doing, for me, that 
 is." He pulled himself up with a feeling, instinctive with 
 a modern, that he was saying more about himself than 
 was strictly necessary, but the look with which Baily lis 
 tened, leaning forward with his hands on his knees and 
 his long face set into lines of intense interest, reassured 
 him. With such an auditor, the most modest man in the 
 world would be lured into self-revelation. 
 
 " And you put your whole heart and soul into it, didn t 
 you, Paul ? " he said, impatient of the pause. 
 
 " It was easy to do that. It would be a sight harder to 
 put them anywhere else, that is, well " 
 
 " And what are you going to do now ? Keep right on 
 until you learn some of the secrets that have been hidden 
 away all this time for you to come and find ? " 
 
 Certainly he had a shrewd eye, this Ben Baily, for all
 
 Il6 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 that his movements were so slow and his voice so indo 
 lent. Paul blushed as a young poet will when you ask 
 him when his book is to appear. 
 
 " It would be fine, wouldn t it, Ben, if I could perhaps 
 discover the antidote for the wheat-blight, for instance ? 
 I ve been experimenting a little, well, not enough to 
 amount to anything, perhaps, but I ve an idea that I m on 
 the right track. And if I am to stay in the West 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " Why, you see, I ve had an offer of a chair in the State 
 University at Allentown. It would give me just the 
 chance I want for practical experimenting, it is the very 
 thing I have been working for, but " 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
 " Here s this confounded factory on my hands." 
 
 Ben Baily made no answer. He stared hard at Paul 
 and dropped his chin on his hand and stared harder. 
 
 "By the way, Ben, what s this I hear about your quit 
 ting the Works ? " 
 
 Baily pulled his mind back with an effort and answered 
 slowly, 
 
 " Me ? Oh, yes. Long ago." And then he fell to star 
 ing again. 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 He lifted his attention again with a visible effort. 
 
 " Oh, I didn t seem to hit it off with your uncle." 
 
 " Poor uncle Ned ! " said Paul with a laugh and a sigh. 
 " I m afraid he didn t hit it off very well with a good many 
 people. His heart was all in the Works, and everything 
 and everybody had to bend to that. It was a great dis 
 appointment when I wouldn t come into the business, 
 greater, I m afraid, than I had any idea at the time. 
 That s one reason why it seems so treacherous, almost, 
 for me to think of letting it slide now. And he made the 
 Works a good thing for Hereward, at least, and the work-
 
 APPRENTICES t O DESTINY. \\~ 
 
 men are almost family clients. I feel that I owe some 
 thing to the Rodman name, to keep up his memory and 
 his work." 
 
 Ben Baily had listened throughout with absorbed atten 
 tion, but at the end he drew a long breath and his face 
 relaxed. 
 
 " If that s your feeling, I can set your mind at rest 
 mighty easy. The Rodman Works were run first, last and 
 all the time for the good of Ned Rodman. You think it 
 was for the good of the town ? He would have moved the 
 plant onto a desert island any day to save taxes, if it 
 hadn t been for the question of transportation. He was 
 the great man of the town, you re right about that, and 
 he could have run things for the most part as he pleased, 
 and what did he do? It was the good of Ned Rodman 
 every time, and the town might go to thunder. And as 
 for the men, it would surprise them to learn that they 
 were beholden to him, or so considered. They were no 
 more to him than the machinery they worked with, not 
 so much, for he didn t have to pay for repairs when they 
 wore out. When was there a chance to screw them down 
 that he didn t take ? When was there a chance to make 
 a penny out of their poverty and their need that he didn t 
 take ? Beholden to him ? They were slaves to him." 
 
 "You surprise me very much," said Paul quickly. "I 
 never knew much about the business 
 
 " How should you, a youngster as you was, with your 
 mind on better things ? " 
 
 " But I always supposed the Rodman Works were some 
 thing to be rather proud of." 
 
 " And many people that ought to know better think the 
 same." 
 
 " But the people here speak of it in the same way." 
 
 " What people ? " 
 
 Well, Mr. Hale for one."
 
 Il8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " He s as hard in his way as Ned Rodman was. Who 
 else ? " 
 
 " Professor Hamill." 
 
 " A man that walks with his head in the clouds." 
 
 " And Miss Estee and her niece." 
 
 " Women." 
 
 "Well, what do you say, then? Is there anything 
 shameful that you are keeping from me ?" 
 
 " Not that, as business goes. It was all on the square, 
 according to the rules of the game, but it s a game that 
 you don t belong in. That s all. You ve got another 
 place in the world, and a business of your own, and it isn t 
 carving false images out of your uncle s memory and sac 
 rificing before them. You owe nothing to his memory. 
 If you ve got his money, it s because he couldn t help 
 it. And as for keeping his work a-going, it is quite 
 unnecessary, for his work will be as well forgot 
 ten." 
 
 "You have some reason for saying all this, Ben ? " 
 
 " I have a reason and a good one. I want you to see 
 the truth and keep from making a mistake that ll cost you 
 dear in the end. If it is because you want to make 
 money, because you ve nothing better to do, because you 
 feel that this is your best chance of making your life worth 
 while, I ve nothing more to say. Go in and make a suc 
 cess like your uncle. Make your fortune out of other 
 people s needs, like him ; press and grind and scrape un>! 
 shave for gain, like him ; eat and drink and breathe and 
 dream gain, like him ; live, like him, a burden to the 
 earth and a shadow to the sunlight, and when you come 
 to die, like him, people will breathe freer to know that 
 you re out of the world." 
 
 " Is that what he was ? " 
 
 " The truth is no respecter of tombstones. That is 
 what he was."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 119 
 
 " An oppressor instead of a benefactor, a man who died 
 in debt to humanity ? " 
 
 " That is what he was." 
 
 Paul pondered in silence for a few moments, and then 
 he said very quietly, 
 
 " Then I shall pay the debt." 
 
 Ben Baily looked puzzled and then dismayed. 
 
 " How do you mean, Paul ? " 
 
 " I mean that. I told you I felt that I owed something 
 to the Rodman name. That was when I thought he had 
 made it a mark of honor to his townsmen. I owe it all 
 the more, if things were as you say. I owe it to him to 
 retrieve his career, to rescue his memory from such judg 
 ments as you have passed upon him, to take up his work 
 and carry it on as he would have carried it on if he had 
 understood. I mean that I shall make the Rodman 
 Works in truth what I had mistakenly thought them to 
 be, a blessing to the town and to the men who depend 
 upon them for their livelihood." 
 
 11 And your own work, your own career, the life you 
 was meant to lead ? " 
 
 "This duty has earlier and stronger claims." 
 
 " Now may Heaven forgive all blind fools, and you 
 among the rest, Paul Rodman. Is suicide a duty ? Is 
 self-murder a holy thing?" 
 
 " It may be." 
 
 " Never. There s some work in the world for the poor 
 est stick to do, and he d better hold on to life till he finds 
 it, and if he has found it, as you have, you know well 
 enough that your work is in the laboratory and that the 
 Master-Worker set you at it, if he has found his work, 
 as you have, and turns and leaves it, he is a deserter and 
 a traitor and a coward." 
 
 " Ben 
 
 " Now you listen to me, Paul Rodman. You ve said
 
 I2O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 what your meaning is. Now listen to me. If you, in 
 your blindness and ignorance, go to tie a rope around 
 your neck, I ll cut you down, my boy, and I won t stop to 
 ask your leave till afterwards." 
 
 " Do you mean " 
 
 " I mean that if you tie yourself up with these Works, 
 which you have no proper business with, I ll cut you 
 free." 
 
 " Thank you, Ben, but I am generally the master of my 
 own actions." 
 
 " Perhaps you have been, but there s going to be a 
 change. I give you warning. I ll save you from your 
 own headlongness, if the Works have to burn for it." 
 
 " All right, Ben. It s a challenge, is it ? The first 
 move is mine, and I m not going to let you beat me if I 
 can help myself." 
 
 " You can t help yourself, because you re on the wrong 
 side, while I m doing my proper work, which is to look 
 out for them that can t help themselves, like fool humans 
 and maimed horses."
 
 XII. 
 
 So, after all the preliminary deliberation, the die was 
 cast somewhat impulsively in the end. Rodman felt that 
 it meant the end of certain things and rather solemnly 
 put his mind in order and prepared to forget them. He 
 wrote to the regents at Allentown and to Karl Bahrdt, 
 and subscribed to a number of trade and economic jour 
 nals. Then, feeling that he had made an heroic begin 
 ning, he rested on his oars a little, and discussed the 
 matter with Miss Mabie. That, on the whole, was the 
 -pleasantest aspect of the entire business, and as pleasant 
 things were more in accord with his genius than solemn 
 ones, and his personal presence at the factory was cer 
 tainly not necessary to keep the lathes turning, and the 
 Works were a stuffy place at best, and the schemes that 
 the future might hold would certainly be better for being 
 thoroughly talked over first, there were reasons enough 
 why he should be more frequently found in the pretty 
 garden where Mrs. Hamill and Joyce spent their morn 
 ings than in the " Private Office " where his uncle had 
 chiefly lived, or in consultation with Hale over the papers 
 and policies that had to do with his newly-acquired prop 
 erty. For certain reasons that were entirely personal, 
 Hale was relieved by the discovery of this tendency in 
 his client, but nevertheless his instincts of business and 
 conscience prompted him to expostulate. He was per 
 haps rather given to expostulating. Miss Estee had once 
 suggested that he write a text-book to be called, " Hale 
 on Remonstrance ; being a treatise on the Practice and 
 f
 
 122 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Procedure of Holding One s Friends to their Duties." 
 He had betrayed no resentment, but it took him a long 
 time to forgive her. 
 
 One day, turning a street corner at his habitually rapid 
 pace, he almost shot by his fugacious friend. 
 
 " Hello ! Oh, did you see Cuminings ? " 
 
 " Cummings ? " Paul repeated. Cummings was the 
 foreman of the Rodman Works, but the owner and pro 
 prietor of the Works looked as though he could not place 
 him for a moment. " No. When ? " 
 
 " To-day. He was looking for you." 
 
 " I m afraid he didn t find me, then," Paul said serenely. 
 He had turned and was walking with Hale, forcing him 
 to take his own sauntering pace. " Did he happen to 
 say what he wanted ? " 
 
 " He intimated that there was some trouble with the 
 men. I suppose you know about it." 
 
 " That is a great deal of an assumption for a man with 
 a legal training, Steve." 
 
 "You didn t know about it ?" 
 
 " Not a word. I thought the trouble was all on my side." 
 
 " They may make you share it. They re a hard lot, 
 some of them." 
 
 " And he wanted my advice as to how to deal with 
 them ? " 
 
 "Whose else? Don t you intend to take hold of the 
 thing practically ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. But I want to be sure I have the theory 
 straight before I begin the practice. All material things 
 are built upon thoughts, don t you know ? Like the 
 cakes my mother used to bake that were moulded around 
 a hole." 
 
 " The men, unfortunately, don t seem inclined to wait 
 for your philosophy to work out its perfect result. They 
 mean to strike for higher wages."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTIA T Y. 12$ 
 
 " Oh ! Well, I don t blame them. Only they might 
 have waited to see what I was going to do about it my 
 self." 
 
 " Were you going to volunteer an advance ? " 
 
 " Well, I ve been thinking of it. I must do something 
 to signalize my accession, and that comes as near a gen 
 eral amnesty as modern conditions will admit. Besides, 
 it seems we are rather below the eastern rates, which 
 isn t creditable to us." 
 
 Hale walked on with his eyes upon the ground. They 
 were eyes that could see through subterfuges and veils, 
 and pierce to the secret places of conscience, but they 
 did not always see what lay upon the surface. He was 
 perhaps constitutionally incapable of understanding 
 Paul s way of looking at things. When he spoke it was 
 with a conscious deliberation, as though every phrase 
 -were weighted. 
 
 " You might as well understand, Rodman, that it is no 
 child s play you are engaged in. These men are the 
 rough material of humanity. If you are going to do any 
 thing with them, you must master them. They must feel 
 the iron heel. I have no patience with your flimsy theo 
 ries and sentimental propaganda. Go back to first prin 
 ciples, and it is power which has built up civilization, 
 and law, which is the language of power. Crush or be 
 crushed, that has been the condition of existence from 
 the beginning. Hold your hand while you elaborate fine 
 theories that your men don t understand and would scorn 
 if they did, and you will be crushed, that s all, and the 
 earth be better off by one fool less " 
 
 He had fallen into a long stride, and law and order and 
 power seemed to run like well-trained lackeys at his 
 heels. But Paul, even while the heavy voice with its 
 dominant ring was filling his ears, thought of Karl Bahrdt 
 and smiled involuntarily to himself.
 
 124 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " I am afraid the iron-heel business isn t suited to my 
 style," he said gaily. 
 
 Hale turned to take in deliberately the white-flannel 
 tennis suit, the flower in the button-hole, the hair that 
 had been allowed to grow long enough just over the fore 
 head to indulge its tendency to break away from a 
 straight line. 
 
 " You are master," he said shortly. 
 
 A light shot from Rodman s eyes, and the lips pressed 
 close for a moment. " Yes, I am master," he repeated 
 slowly. And then he laughed. " Though you don t be 
 lieve it ! " 
 
 When Hale left him, Paul turned, too, concluding to 
 postpone his visit to High Street. It would be as well to 
 see what Cummings wanted of him. He might not make 
 Hale his father-confessor, but he had no intention of 
 playing with his undertaking. There is an inspiration 
 about work, as he knew well, that might make it the 
 dream of heaven for idlers, if they were ever so fortunate 
 as to make a guess at what it is like. He was ready for 
 the work, when he had made the conditions clear to him 
 self. So he turned towards the square buildings that 
 were visible beyond the border of trees which skirted the 
 little river. The river was the separating line between 
 the aristocratic portion of Hereward and the portion 
 where the men who lived in the aristocratic end made 
 their money and the men who were not aristocratic made 
 their homes. 
 
 But his thoughts could not keep him from taking note 
 of the beauty of the morning. Nations may totter and 
 races shipwreck themselves on reefs of their own fashion 
 ing, but the spring sweeps over the earth each year with 
 the same ungrudging bounty of life, the same inspiration, 
 that it must have had when the experiment was new. 
 Every thing that was free felt it. It was easy to believe
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 12$ 
 
 all that poets would wish us to believe about the joy of 
 the winds and the woods and the running brooks. There 
 was no room for question when it came to the animals. 
 From the squirrels that frisked along the top of the 
 fences with a defiant flirt of the tail as they flashed 
 behind a tree, to the small boy scuttling along the street 
 with a fishing-rod over his shoulder, the whole world was 
 alive with the response that spring demands to her anti- 
 phone. Probably some misguided father would punish 
 the boy later on for listening to nature s invitation to the 
 dance instead of going to the school-room and taking a 
 long lesson in pessimism from being compelled to parse, 
 define, and otherwise maltreat words that should only 
 have been felt, but it was worth risking. 
 
 The water in the little brook was high and it danced 
 down its way as gleefully as though it never suspected 
 that half a mile farther down it would be prisoned, spite 
 of its splashes of protest, and compelled to turn the 
 wheels in Mr. Rodman s service, until with a turbulent 
 indignation it broke away and ran, scolding and turbid, 
 down to where the pacific meadows might coax it into 
 gentleness again. The brook was more of a social than a 
 physical barrier at Hereward. " Across the bridge "was a 
 colloquialism for that social state which is understood by 
 the rest of the world to consist chiefly of dirt, duties, and 
 other discomforts. There certainly was an access of dirt. 
 Rodman glanced down the streets with a feeling of deso 
 lation. The houses were smaller and more crowded, but 
 that was not the worst. There was a general air of 
 untidiness about the place. The spring was working here 
 against disadvantages which almost robbed it of its 
 power to charm. The springy sod, which on the other 
 side had suggested only the newness of the season, was 
 here a hint of mud. The gurgling little stream which 
 splashed along the edge of the walk made him think of
 
 I 
 
 126 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 the need of drainage rather than of any freshening touch. 
 Where carefully cared-for gardens on the other side had 
 given promise that the earth was going to do its best for 
 its friends, the men who were its guests, here the enclos 
 ures about the houses were weed-grown and neglected, or 
 hedged off with laths to protect their probably useful but 
 unattractive stores from the depredations of the chickens. 
 These contented birds were all about, and they seemed 
 to be the only portion of the community which was doing 
 its duty in the way of co-operating with nature. They 
 scratched in the middle of the street and sang loudly 
 their undiversified but most cheerful song, and when a hen 
 with a brood of little yellow creatures ruffled up her 
 feathers at him, he felt a debt of personal gratitude to 
 her for doing so exactly what was befitting. It made up 
 in part for the very evident failure of the human race to 
 do what was either befitting or beautiful. 
 
 At the Works, however, the squalor of the residence 
 portion was replaced by the cleaner atmosphere of busi 
 ness activity. Beauty might be reduced to its lowest 
 terms, doubtless it was, but at least here were order 
 and utility and fitness. Rodman, coming from one to the 
 other, saw that very possibly the best and most perfect 
 part of the lives of the men came with the orderly routine 
 and discipline of this work of theirs. They didn t know 
 how to make homes yet, or independently to live lives 
 that would be lovely and self-justifying. Take away from 
 them the work against which their extremists were fight 
 ing, and what would be left ? Only that part of their lives 
 which they had proven themselves unable to cope with, 
 even while it was only a portion. 
 
 Ho went into the " Private Office," where he was, in 
 truth, a good deal of a stranger. A lonely book-keeper 
 on a high stool was industriously whittling a lead-pencil 
 down to fit a nail-hole in his desk, but when he perceived
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 12 J 
 
 Rodman he stiffened his muscles and tried to pretend 
 that it had all been in the interests of business. 
 
 " Good-morning," said Rodman. " I want to see Mr. 
 Cummings." 
 
 " He ll be in in a few minutes." 
 
 Rodman sat down and looked about. The sunlight 
 came in languorously through the open windows and there 
 was a drowsy whirr of machinery in the air. The book 
 keeper looked sleepy in spite of his efforts to make a show 
 of activity. Rodman wondered who he was and how he 
 regarded his own life in this limited territory and what 
 his ambitions were ; he was about to speak to him when 
 he caught sight of a placard, " No communication allowed 
 with employees during business hours." That rather 
 abashed him and he checked the words on his lips, but the 
 next moment he remembered that he was no meddlesome 
 visitor but the employer himself, with an undisputed right 
 within the walls. He turned to the man again with 
 friendly overtures. 
 
 "You keep the books, don t you ? How long have you 
 been at it ? " 
 
 " Ten years." 
 
 " Why, that is a long time," said Paul, reflecting that 
 the young man looked about his own age, and remember 
 ing that his own last ten years had been spent in prepara 
 tion rather than achievement. 
 
 " It s likely to be longer," he answered carelessly. 
 
 "You like the work, I suppose." 
 
 The man didn t answer, so Paul added with a smile, 
 " Or don t you ? " 
 
 " It s as good as anything, I suppose, but I can t say I 
 like it. I have to work. I wouldn t if I could help my 
 self. Who would ? " 
 
 " What would you do ? " 
 
 " If I didn t have to work ? Why, I d enjoy myself."
 
 128 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "How ?" 
 
 The book-keeper looked up with rather a doubtful 
 glance. " Oh, I don t know," he answered carelessly, but, 
 Rodman had an idea his reticence might be due to an 
 unwillingness to expose his aspirations to a man whose 
 attitude seemed critical, and pressed the question. 
 
 "Is there anything in particular that you have a bent 
 for, that you would like to follow ?" 
 
 " Not in the way of work," he said with a relaxing grin. 
 
 " In what way, then ? " 
 
 " Why, if I had all the money I wanted, if that s what 
 you mean, I d be what they call a sport, I suppose. I d 
 have horses, and so on. Oh, I d know how to enjoy 
 myself." He laughed rather shamefacedly, and, evidently 
 ill at ease, turned back to his work. Paul said no more, 
 but, studying the heavy face, flushed skin, thick neck and 
 drooping eye with his naturalist s habit of observation, he 
 saw clearly enough that whatever there was in the man 
 above the level of coarseness came from the discipline of 
 the work he hated. With that relaxed, he would have 
 been a rough. He was forced to be something better by 
 the necessity of earning a living. It was the same situa 
 tion that Paul had seen outside. He wondered what Karl 
 Bahrdt would say to it, and what Ben Baily would say, 
 and what Hale would say. He felt that he was getting 
 into deeper water than he could fathom, and turned back 
 to the more immediate business. " Will you see if you 
 can find Mr. Cummings ?" 
 
 But Mr. Cummings himself came hastily in at this 
 moment. 
 
 "I just heard you were here, Mr. Rodman. Will you 
 go over the building ? " 
 
 " Not to-day, Mr. Cummings. I came down to find out 
 what it is the men want. Are they asking an advance in 
 wages ? Mr. Hale said you spoke of it to him."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 12$ 
 
 "Yes, I I mentioned it," said Cummings, looking ex 
 ceedingly uncomfortable. " I didn t know where to find 
 you, and they are urgent. Some one has been stirring 
 them up. I could have settled it myself, and would have 
 done so at once in your absence, but they insisted on hav 
 ing it presented to you, and I felt that it would be as well 
 to do so, so they would understand you were back of 
 me." 
 
 " You were quite right." 
 
 " I have done what I could to make them see that they 
 were making fools of themselves arid that they would only 
 lose in the end if they persisted, but as they look upon me 
 as representing your interests, I have not very much in 
 fluence with them." 
 
 " Oh, you have opposed it ? " 
 
 " Certainly. At all times and in every way," he said 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Have they made any demand of this sort before ? " 
 Paul asked with surprise. He felt that he stood on the 
 shore of an unknown sea, and every new fact washed up 
 was fresh cause for surprise. 
 
 " It hasn t been formally made before, but there has 
 been talk. I knew what was in the wind, and was pre 
 pared to meet it." 
 
 " Then they have now made a formal demand for 
 higher wages ? " 
 
 " They are ready to do so as soon as you will see the 
 delegation." 
 
 " Who are the leaders ? " 
 
 "Old employes, sir. But there will be no difficulty in 
 filling their places. Of course it will throw us back at 
 first." 
 
 " They mean to go out, then, if they are re 
 fused ?" 
 
 "So they say, but that will make no difference at all,
 
 130 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Mr. Rodman. I ll turn them all out to-morrow, and have 
 
 the Works running smoothly in a week." 
 
 " Then you think their demand is unreasonable?" 
 Cummings looked as though he doubted that he had 
 
 heard aright. 
 
 " Why, as to that," he hesitated, " as to that, I suppose 
 
 it is as you look at it." 
 
 " Well, must you necessarily look from one side only ? 
 
 Is it impossible to arrive at a fixed rate which shall be 
 
 just to both sides ? " 
 
 " The other side generally looks out for itself. It 
 
 don t need much help ! " 
 
 But isn t there some way of saying what is just ?" 
 
 " Why, the rates are advancing in some quarters. You 
 
 see, the men wring a concession from one company, and 
 
 then all the others have to meet it." 
 
 " Yes," said Paul, perceiving that the other had failed 
 
 altogether to apprehend his question. " Did they wring 
 
 many such concessions from my uncle ? " 
 
 " No, sir. He could stand up to them well, and he did 
 
 it, too." 
 
 " Then we aren t paying the highest ruling rates ? " 
 " No, sir, we re better than that by some degrees." 
 " Are we paying what the work is fairly worth ? " 
 " Why, I can get two men for every one that goes. 
 
 No fear of that. There are plenty willing and glad to 
 
 work at any price." 
 
 His fear of saying anything contrary to his employer s 
 
 supposed wishes, his utter sacrifice of his individual 
 
 erectness, struck Paul as so pitiable that he instinctively 
 
 turned his face away that he might not see the other s 
 
 shame. Couldn t a man be a man and a workman, too ? 
 
 " Yet what chance is there for the soul to stand erect, 
 
 when first of all the body must be fed?" he asked him 
 self.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. I 3 I 
 
 " Will you tell the men that I am here and will hear 
 what they have to say ? And I would like to have you 
 here, too, Mr. Cummings, to hear what I have to say to 
 them." 
 
 " Certainly, Mr. Rodman." 
 
 The delegation came in, a striking contrast, regarded 
 as a picture, to Paul, standing by the table with his boyish 
 air and his observant eyes. The spokesman came first 
 an old man with a long grey beard and a frame bent, yet 
 stalwart. He would have been a noticeable man in a 
 crowd, and under other circumstances might have stood 
 for a patriarch or a sage. As it was, he was simply a man 
 who had spent some sixty-odd years striving to keep the 
 large family, which, with more or less honesty of thought, 
 he attributed entirely to an inscrutable Providence, 
 clothed and fed. For recreation, (for steady work for 
 sixty-odd years comes to have a certain deadness of 
 monotony,) he read reform papers and talked at socialis 
 tic meetings of various sorts. 
 
 In his rear, hovering with somewhat uncertain foot 
 steps, was a pale-faced youth who had acquired a reputa 
 tion for much learning. It was he who had drawn up the 
 document which the spokesman carriegj. Now, as he took 
 a chair with a face paler than usual and a nervous tremor 
 at his lip, he was thinking less of the import of the set of 
 resolutions he had drawn than of their form, and mentally 
 he repeated the opening sentence again and again, turn 
 ing it anxiously and yet proudly in his mind. 
 
 The third man was different. There was power in his 
 face, the sort of power a strong nature has. But it was 
 power directed by self-seeking and armed with hate. 
 Paul s blue eyes rested upon him longer than on the 
 others, and a look came into them which might have made 
 an observer remember that blue is a color which pertains 
 to steel as well as to summer skies.
 
 132 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 They took the chairs around the little table, and the 
 oldest man unfolded and folded the paper he held with 
 nervous fingers. 
 
 " Mr. Rodman, we come as a delegation to represent to 
 you the wishes 
 
 " Demands," the third man put in, in an impatient 
 undertone. 
 
 " of the workmen employed in your Works. And to 
 begin with as an introduction I would like to remind 
 you of Peter Cooper s words, that every manufacturer 
 ought to remember that his fortune was not achieved by 
 himself alone but by the co-operation of his workmen. 
 He should acknowledge their right to share the benefit 
 of that which could not exist without their faithful per 
 formance to duty. As the men who are engaged in build 
 ing up a fortune for you, we claim that we are entitled 
 to favorable consideration at your hands." 
 
 "I am ready to listen," Paul said quietly. He was 
 doing more than listen. The men before him were repre 
 sentative men, and he was studying them, not their cum 
 brous phrases. The theories of Karl Bahrdt and Joyce 
 Mabie were translated into concrete terms, and he felt 
 that there was something more in the translation than in 
 the original. 
 
 "We have worked here for a long time, and we have 
 built up this industry, which is a matter of pride to the 
 community and of profit to you. It is our hands that has 
 erected it. Without us it would not have been. There 
 fore we rightfully have some share in it, we ought to have. 
 We haven t been organized before and didn t know 
 enough to assert and defend our rights, but we re organ 
 ized now and in union is strength and we mean to stand 
 firm in defense of it. This draft of the Resolutions passed 
 at our last meeting will show you our position. The 
 wages we have had are too low. A man can t live on
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 133 
 
 them," he finished, with a tremble in his voice that be 
 trayed an honest feeling under his artificial rhetoric. 
 
 Paul took the paper and read it faithfully to the end, 
 and for that act of courtesy he had the blessing of at least 
 one member of the delegation. 
 
 " And we don t mean to live on them," the third man 
 broke in, when the last page was turned. He had listened 
 restlessly to the first speaker, and Paul s eye had wandered 
 to him once or twice. It was evident that he chafed 
 under the moderate tone of his spokesman. " We don t 
 mean to live on them. We ve got the power and we mean 
 to use it. We want justice. We don t believe in prop 
 erty-rights. We believe that property-rights is the in 
 fernal monster that needs to be annihilated. We re going 
 to have justice or annihilation, and soon, too. It is rights 
 of property that has made all the injustice and inequality 
 in the world." 
 
 Paul had turned with attentive manner when he began 
 to speak, but as his truculent purpose was more and more 
 manifested, Paul had gradually, though most uncon 
 sciously, assumed the air of unassailable superiority which 
 no one could ever entirely ignore with him. He was hon 
 estly unconscious of anything offensive in his manner. He 
 was simply drawing away from what struck him as a 
 manifestation of a brutal nature, but his ease, his invul 
 nerable armor, something that hinted scorn to his uncul 
 tured opponent, acted like a challenge on the man. He 
 met Rodman s look with one that was angrily personal. 
 
 " Look at you and look at me," he cried passionately. 
 " There you sit, like a lord, cool as you please, with hands 
 soft like a woman s and a flower in your button-hole and 
 there you sit and look us over like we was cattle. And 
 look at me ! Look at me ! Some different, ain t I ? What 
 makes the difference, say ? Wasn t we as good in the 
 cradle ? Not much difference then. But now it is fine
 
 134 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 linen for you and overalls for me ; a traveling through 
 Europe for you and a traveling through East Hereward at 
 six o clock every mornin for me ; mock-turtle for you and 
 corn-beef for me." 
 
 " Pardon me, but let me set you right on one point. 
 I don t eat mock-turtle ; I don t like it," Rodman said 
 with a grave air, as desirous to correct a fatal mistake. 
 
 The pale-faced youth, who evidently was not yet 
 aroused to the graver issues of life, snickered at that and 
 Cummings smiled ostentatiously. The passionate speaker 
 flushed and clenched his hand. If his hatred of his fair- 
 faced employer had been based on general principles 
 before, it was bitter and personal and unrelenting from 
 that moment. 
 
 "But we didn t come here for personal criticism, how 
 ever valuable that may be as a means of self-education," 
 Paul continued, with an easy assumption of the reins of 
 the discussion, " Mr. Cummings, how does this schedule 
 compare with the eastern rates ? " 
 
 " It is higher. It is outrageously high." 
 
 " Much higher ? " 
 
 " It is higher here, and here." 
 
 Rodman took the paper again and ran his eye down the 
 column. For this grade of work, so much ; for that, so 
 much. Little enough, in all conscience ! He thought of 
 the work it represented, he tried to imagine himself 
 doomed to that life, to fancy himself one of the delegates 
 come to petition for the advance this represented. He 
 looked up to meet the eyes of the old man opposite, 
 pathetic in their eagerness and suspense. Involuntarily 
 he put out his hand to take the gnarled old hand that had 
 grasped the corner of the table for steadiness. 
 
 " You may tell your constituents that I agree to their 
 proposition." 
 
 " Do you mean " the old man stammered, half ris-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 135 
 
 ing. To have it all conceded without any beating down, 
 without any bitterness, made him tremble with a strange 
 weakness. It was not what he had expected. 
 
 "I mean this schedule of rates will go into effect 
 from the first of the month," Rodman answered, and with 
 an instinctive shrinking from seeming to ask an acknowl 
 edgement as for a bounty, he rose to close the interview. 
 The men passed out, but the one whose angry words had 
 put the sharpness into the scene refused to raise his eyes 
 to Rodman s. He was still unreconciled. 
 
 " What is his name, that last one ? " 
 
 " That one ? Oh, Mason." 
 
 Rodman nodded carelessly and went away. 
 
 Cummings promptly snubbed the young book-keeper 
 into a state of resentful industry, and then pulled out the 
 balance sheets of the last few months. He studied the 
 schedule of wages that Rodman had left, ran over certain 
 memoranda of contract for work now under way, and cov 
 ered some scraps of paper with figures that seemed to 
 yield puzzling results. 
 
 " If the old man could know of this ! Lord Harry ! " 
 he said to himself, and then he tried to make the figures 
 mean something else, but the more ways he turned them 
 the more unmanageable they became. " If he is in busi 
 ness for fun he won t need a foreman very long. I d bet 
 ter be looking out for another place. And it was as 
 pretty a business as any in the country of its size. I 
 hope the old man doesn t know ! " 
 
 If Paul thought anything further about the episode, as 
 he went across lots to Professor Hamill s house under the 
 hill, it was perhaps to word a conceit that this same 
 unpromising business was a good enough soil to yield 
 now and then a posy for his lady to wear. His morning s 
 work might mean something " Across the bridge," but 
 the best part of it was telling Joyce Mabie.
 
 XIII, 
 
 "So far, so good. Now what next, ma am?" asked 
 Rodman mischievously when he made his report. 
 
 Joyce laughed, but she was not to be daunted. 
 
 " Don t you think a reading-room would be a good 
 thing ? " she asked meekly. 
 
 " Oh, you ve thought it all out, have you ?" 
 
 " A reading-room isn t hard to think of," she protested. 
 "And then you could have something like lyceum lec 
 tures in connection with it. Once a week you could give 
 a talk on natural history." 
 
 " So you have included me among your beneficiaries? " 
 
 She looked puzzled and a little doubtful of his mean 
 ing. The one thing she could generally be sure of was 
 that he was teasing. 
 
 " Don t you know that the privilege of talking about 
 natural history would be much more to me than the 
 privilege of listening could possibly be to any one 
 else ? " 
 
 " Oh ! But I wasn t arranging it for your benefit." 
 
 " Why need you insist upon that ? I d rather think you 
 were." 
 
 " But don t you think it would be a good plan ? " she 
 asked, feeling that it would be safer to keep to the im 
 personal question. 
 
 " It would give them some place to go evenings, I sup 
 pose," Paul admitted. " From what I saw of the homes 
 over yonder, I should think that would be a good deal of 
 an inducement. Yes, I m not sure but that a reading-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 137 
 
 room is the next thing, provided you will take it under 
 your peculiar and particular care." 
 
 Her eyes sparkled with the anticipation. " Why, it is 
 quite ideal ! It will be beautiful to arrange it all and 
 surely they will like it ? " 
 
 "They ll have to like it. I ll bribe them to like it, if 
 they won t on any other conditions." 
 
 " Are you doubtful about it ? " she asked, with the dis 
 trust of her own ambitious schemes that his teasing 
 sometimes awoke. 
 
 " Only of the absolute ideality of it. You know one of 
 your poets says something about Heaven s gift having to 
 take earth s abatement. I suppose we must count upon 
 there being some discount of the ideal perfection, just 
 because of the material conditions under which the idea 
 has to manifest. There, I m becoming quite proud of 
 your pupil, Miss Mabie ! " 
 
 " It will be a good thing, even if it isn t absolute perfec 
 tion," she said thoughtfully. " It needn t be anything 
 elaborate. Just a room with some tables and chairs and 
 curtains, and a few pictures, and then the books and mag 
 azines and papers, not so very many to begin with." 
 
 " Ruskin to head the list ? " he asked mischievously. 
 
 "Yes," she said so seriously that he hadn t the courage 
 to explain that he hadn t meant it. " Time and Tide, 
 and the rest of that sort. And then we must have some 
 books suited to the women. I suppose they will have 
 more leisure to go in the afternoon than in the evening, 
 
 But this time his amusement betrayed him, and then he 
 stood abashed before her questioning look. 
 
 " Why did you smile in that way ? " she demanded, 
 looking at him under severe eyebrows. 
 
 " I didn t mean to smile in that way," he said peni 
 tently, "but really, do you insist ?"
 
 138 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Of course I do." 
 
 " I doubt a little that the wives and mothers will care 
 to waste time in reading." 
 
 " Waste time ? " 
 
 "I was putting it into their language," he said de 
 murely, noting the light that flashed over her mobile face. 
 She was ready to fling down the gauntlet to any taker, 
 when her theories were assailed ! " They have to take 
 care of the children, and cook and sew and do such 
 things, you know. And there are a good many such 
 things. And only twenty-four hours in the day, even for 
 them." 
 
 She let her intent eyes rest on his while she took in the 
 new idea. It rather dashed her enthusiasm. " I wonder 
 if it can be that they really haven t time to read at all," 
 she said slowly, in an awe-struck voice. 
 
 He laughed. " You could bear to hear that they lived 
 on crusts and slept on the floor, but if they haven t time 
 to read Ruskin, it is a pretty hard lot, isn t it ? " 
 
 "But do you really think they haven t any time?" she 
 persisted. 
 
 " Oh, it is a question of distribution, I suppose. Dec 
 ades for gossip, but not one hour for reading. But per 
 haps the gossip does them more good, poor souls, than 
 ever Ruskin would, if they didn t understand him. You 
 might reap the best results by having a graded course, 
 say picture-papers first, and then thoughts in one syllable, 
 and so lead your class on until it is ready to give a com 
 mencement essay next June on the allegorical significance 
 of Childe Harold to the Dark Tower Came. " 
 
 She sighed and looked so disturbed that he had to de 
 sert his own cause and go to her rescue. 
 
 "Oh, never mind. Hereward can t be regenerated in a 
 day. If the fathers and sons have the taste for reading 
 developed, of course the general tone will be elevated. I
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 139 
 
 think we may be content to begin with them, and trust to 
 the influence of their- broader culture to bring in the rest 
 of the population afterwards." 
 
 That sounded nice and serious, and she was content. 
 
 It was altogether too pretty a play to let her suspect 
 that he was not as earnest about it as she would have had 
 him be. He pretended so well that she had all the de 
 light of arranging the affair with no sense of responsibility 
 for its success, and he had the delight of watching her 
 at it. They were golden days that were consumed by 
 these two in discussing and planning, and in selecting the 
 books and making the curtains. 
 
 " Can you really sew?" Paul asked with respectful cu 
 riosity the first time he saw her plying her needle. 
 
 " Did you doubt it ?" she asked with a surprised air. 
 
 "Why, it never occurred to me that you would know 
 anything about a needle, unless as an implement some 
 how connected with sweating establishments." 
 
 She laughed, but she looked a little piqued, too. He saw 
 that she was not altogether pleased to have him assume 
 that she was set apart from all femininities, and the obser 
 vation thrilled him with a sudden sweet joy. It added 
 another charm to those he was already finding it quite 
 enough to contend with. 
 
 Paul procured a room in the neighborhood of the Works, 
 and proceeded to make it attractive. He explained the 
 scheme to the foreman, Cummings, and asked him to com 
 municate it to the men. He had a feeling of diffidence 
 about doing so himself. He didn t want to pose as a ben 
 efactor, for one thing, and he didn t want the men to feel 
 under any obligation to come and be improved because 
 he had provided the opportunity. So he was careful to 
 leave them wholly at liberty to follow their own inclina 
 tions, only making the fact known. Perhaps his sensitive 
 ness was needless, for the men did not seem to be at all
 
 140 APPRENTICES 7 O DESTINY. 
 
 backward in protecting their independence. They talked 
 about the new plan among themselves, and wondered 
 what it was for, anyhow, and a few of them came and 
 looked in at the door while Rodman was directing the 
 hanging of Joyce s curtains. When one of her curtain- 
 rings came off, by the way, he slipped it hastily into his 
 pocket so that the workmen would not notice the defec 
 tive fastening. He put it on his table as a souvenir after 
 ward, and though he smiled at it himself when he remem 
 bered, he never gave anyone else occasion to do so. 
 
 Finally the work was finished, and the result was a very 
 clean and attractive place, with freshly scrubbed iloor 
 and new pine chairs, and fresh literature that would have 
 tempted any epicure in books. Paul took his friends over 
 for a " Private View " the day before it was to be thrown 
 open to the public. 
 
 " I d just like to come here myself and read," Mrs. Ha- 
 mill declared, looking about her with enthusiasm. " I 
 never had such a beautiful reading-room to revel in. I 
 feel like applying for a position in the Works, Mr. Rod 
 man, in order to have a chance to come here and complete 
 my education." 
 
 " Membership isn t conditioned on employment in the 
 Works," Rodman assured her. " I am more ambitious 
 than that, and you are the first indication that my ambi 
 tion hasn t run away with me. I will have a duplicate 
 key made for your special benefit, and you can come over 
 in the afternoons and be assured of undisturbed posses 
 sion. Miss Mabie and I have concluded that we wouldn t 
 expect the resident book-worms to give up more than 
 their evenings to it." 
 
 "Well, it is beautiful. Don t you think it is beautiful, 
 Rob?" she demanded, appealing to her husband for re 
 sponsive enthusiasm. He was already deep in one of the 
 volumes which he had taken down from the shelf, but he
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 141 
 
 looked up at the sound of his name with a confused sense 
 that he was being called upon somewhere in the outer 
 
 world. 
 
 " Why, yes," he said, in general acquiescence. " Where 
 did you find this old edition of Lamb, Rodman ? Don t 
 you know it is a rare one ? " 
 
 " No, I didn t notice the edition. It is one of my old 
 books. Take it over to your own library if it is anything 
 you care for." 
 
 " Oh, no, no," he protested, but so Imgeringly that they 
 all laughed, and Miss Estee interfered in support of his 
 desires against his politeness ; 
 
 " You might as well, Prof. Hamill. A Lamb with any 
 other date will serve as well. A fifty-cent edition here 
 will be newer and nicer." 
 
 "Oh, I ll send another copy over if I may exchange 
 with you. That is a happy suggestion, Miss Estee. I 
 wonder " And he began assiduously to examine the 
 title-pages of the other books with an eagerness that 
 banished all thought of time and people. 
 
 " Why didn t you think of establishing your reading- 
 room on our side, Mr. Rodman, where you would be sure 
 of appreciation ?" asked Mrs. Hamill. " But I think it is 
 lovely where it is and it is going to be a great success, 
 and we are proud to know the founder." 
 
 It was all very gay and pleasant, and Paul began to 
 think that there were a good many compensations for the 
 sacrifice the new life had involved, but what repaid him 
 most, after all, was the look in Joyce s eyes when she said, 
 quite low, so that no one else could hear, 
 
 " I like it." 
 
 The only trouble about the reading-room scheme proved 
 to be that the enthusiasm was exclusively on the side of 
 the projectors. The other people looked at it askance, 
 and with a queer mingling of pride and independence and
 
 I4 2 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 indifference they passively took the position that the 
 reading-room, as the scheme of an employer, might cover 
 something they would better be on their guard against. 
 They preferred the freedom for discussion which the 
 door-step of a neighbor or the bar-room offered, and as 
 for reading, they liked to select their own mental 
 pabulum. The rare edition of Lamb would hardly have 
 been injured, for after the first week, when a stray visitor 
 or two dropped in for a lonesome hour, the room was let 
 gloriously alone. Paul looked in every day at the begin 
 ning, but afterwards he rather perferred to take another 
 street. He had a self-conscious feeling that perhaps lack 
 of proper leadership was the cause of the failure, and that 
 with a different sort of man at the front it might have 
 proved a very different thing for everybody. But he 
 wasn t a different sort of man. He was his own sort, 
 and if he didn t learn much of anything else he was in a 
 fair way to learn something about humility. 
 
 But Joyce believed in him, and so did Mrs. Hamill. He 
 took what comfort he could out of their feminine faith, 
 because it was about all the external support he received 
 at that time. The professor approved of the theories he 
 espoused, but prudently evaded committing himself re 
 garding the practical details. Hale said some uncom 
 fortable things which it was better to forget, and Ben 
 Baily, whose opinion ranked higher than he knew, held off 
 in chill disapproval. Paul began to wonder whether Karl 
 Bahrdt couldn t be induced to come down to Herewurd 
 for a vacation, and, incidentally, to lend a little moral 
 support to a somewhat unsteady experimenter, but a.-. 
 long as everything kept smooth on the surface he re 
 frained from hoisting a signal of distress. But one day 
 his foreman came to him. manifestly in an agitated state 
 of mind. He had brought numerous documents to bul 
 wark up his courage, and he proceeded to lay a number of
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 143 
 
 { 
 
 enigmatical papers before Paul. These, according to his 
 interpretation of the symbols, seemed to indicate that the 
 business was at present running at a loss. Paul had de 
 clared that he was not going into business for the purpose 
 of making a fortune, but he saw, without having the point 
 emphasized further, that a business which didn t at least 
 pay its own expenses would soon be among the experi 
 ments of the past, if its continuance depended on him. 
 He listened to the explanations of Cummings, who had 
 been Ned Rodman s foreman too long to view the present 
 course of events with anything approaching equanimity, 
 and when the situation was made clear he asked, humbly 
 enough, 
 
 " Well, what would you suggest ? You know more about 
 the business than I do." 
 
 " We must go back to the old scale of wages," cried 
 Cummings, stuttering in the haste of his answer. 
 
 But Paul winced at that. The experiment had only 
 been running a few weeks, and it would be hard to have 
 to confess it a failure so soon. 
 
 "No, you must think of something else." 
 
 " Then we must shut down part of the time, or work 
 with half force. There isn t work enough to keep the 
 factory running, to say nothing of paying." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Rodman. He had rather taken for granted 
 that the work was there on demand, like other resources 
 of nature, and that all there was to do was to be ready for 
 it. A vision rose before him now of an outside public 
 holding aloof, and he remembered certain magazines 
 which he had seen only to smile at before, devoted to the 
 art and science of advertising. There were many factors 
 in this problem, it appeared. "Why doesn t the work 
 come in ? " he asked. 
 
 " Competition is sharp, that s the chief reason. I have 
 had to refuse several orders from old customers, because 
 
 \
 
 144 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 if I took them, at the market price for furniture and at 
 the wages we are paying, it would have been doing the 
 work at a loss. If you won t reduce the wages 
 
 " Not yet." 
 
 "Then we will have to ask more for the work than 
 other factories do." 
 
 " Well, can t we do better work ? " 
 
 " I m not sure that we can, or that people care to pay 
 for better work, if it costs more. They always want the 
 cheapest thing." 
 
 "You say you have already refused orders from old 
 customers. Why didn t you tell me about it ? 
 
 Cummings eye shifted, and he muttered something 
 about having always made the bids, but Paul shrewdly 
 suspected that he considered his employer unequal to 
 dealing with the situation. He didn t have enough per 
 sonal vanity to resent it, but it made him rather serious. 
 
 " We must bring in more business," he said at last, after 
 a pause which he had devoted to considering several sub 
 jects besides the one immediately at hand. " That is 
 where the trouble is, not with the scale of wages. Ab 
 stractly, that is low enough. If we were crowded with 
 paying orders, the balance sheet would be all right, 
 wouldn t it?" 
 
 " Why, yes, I suppose so." 
 
 "Very well, then I shall advertise the business. That is 
 the modern net used by the fishers of men. You go right 
 ahead, Cummings, and never mind if business is dull for 
 a season. Keep the men at something, and stand ready 
 to take care of the work when it comes piling in, in answer 
 to my seductive advertisements. I ll make a circular this 
 afternoon that will convince every furniture dealer in the 
 country that he is missing the opportunity of his life if 
 he doesn t order his goods of the Rodman factory." 
 
 That sounded businesslike and confident, and it visibly
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 145 
 
 restored Cummings courage to continue the struggle. 
 He went away, and Paul set to work at the new depart 
 ment. As a matter of fact, he actually did bring some 
 animation into the sluggish business by his advertising 
 efforts within the next few weeks, and the gloom was tem 
 porarily lifted from Cummings brow. But Rodman came 
 to have a deep-seated conviction that there are more 
 things in a furniture factory than are dreamed of in phi 
 losophy. 
 
 He had not meant to tell Joyce Mabie of this episode, 
 but when he saw her he did. It was much easier to tell 
 her than not to, even though it came, unfortunately, as a 
 sort of climax to the reading-room fiasco. But he told 
 her when no one else was around, and though he did not 
 ask her not to mention it, he knew she would not. She 
 listened with a serious attention that caught his words 
 almost before they were spoken, and that was very con 
 soling. But when he left her, he wrote the long deferred 
 letter to Karl Bahrdt.
 
 XIV. 
 
 ALL this time, no further word had come to Joyce from 
 her father. He had always been a careless correspondent, 
 yet she could not but attribute his present silence to 
 something more than carelessness, and her anxiety was 
 not lessened by the fact that she fostered it in secret. It 
 was impossible, with her temperament, to discuss such a 
 matter, even with Drusilla Hamill. She kept her fears to 
 herself, sometimes telling herself that there was nothing 
 to fear, sometimes trying to find escape from the haunt 
 ing doubt by plunging into the books Karl Bahrdt had 
 left with her, and which were certainly not of the sort to 
 magnify personal concerns. 
 
 It must be admitted that this preoccupation had some 
 thing to do with the difficulty which Rodman found, and 
 which he grew daily more unwilling to submit to, in in 
 ducing her to transfer some of her interest in his work to 
 the worker. He had devoted himself to his task with a 
 zest that would have surprised some of his old friends, 
 although the thought did occur to him at times that there 
 was more inspiration in drawing a fine plan than in cart 
 ing the bricks for it. But there were compensations, 
 when it was only to climb a steep street and push open 
 a gate freighted with an old brown stone to let yourself 
 into a clover-grown orchard, where the matted blossoms 
 brushed out their sweetness against your ankles and 
 where the shadows wove a circle of enchantment under 
 each tree. There one perchance might find a lady ready 
 to take one s reports from the street and turn them into
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 147 
 
 \ 
 
 visions to suit the orchard sweetness and the June sky 
 lifting itself above the woven branches ; there one might 
 listen and watch the gleam in her eyes, like the gleam 
 that hides in still, brown pools till the sun strikes them. 
 How long is it to endure ? That is a suggestion that 
 comes from the street beyond the hedge, and the proper 
 retort may well be that the sky s arch lasts while molten 
 planets turn into mud and their children s children into 
 whirling lumps of frozen matter. 
 
 .Sometimes Paul told of the lands where he had wan 
 dered and the peopre he had seen, and though Mrs. Ham- 
 ill joined in and Jamie dug his elbows into the ground to 
 prop his chin while he listened, there was really only one 
 auditor whom he saw. After a while he came to know 
 very well what keys to touch to bring the light that was 
 his reward into her eyes. He soon came to reserve such 
 stories to tell when they were alone. Curiously enough, in 
 spite of her practical and even prosaic theories of action, 
 it was idealism, heroism, splendid achievements, that 
 touched her most quickly. With a lover s instinct of 
 comprehension, he made some guess at the facts of her 
 life which had led her to think she could find, in this 
 work of Karl Bahrdt s, the element of devotion to an ideal 
 which was otherwise somewhat difficult of access. Mrs. 
 Hamill, on the other hand, looked upon the whole social 
 istic fabric with distrust, feeling that both Joyce s instincts 
 and theories were at too high a tension. 
 
 " It is just Mr. Jefferson and his theory of life over 
 again," she cried one day. "You may think, Joyce Ma- 
 bie, that it is all very fine to go and immure yourself in a 
 stone tower, and gradually freeze your wife to death and 
 drive your daughter to running away with the first man 
 who will take pity on her and help her to escape. You 
 may call it fine names and think it is philosophical, but it 
 isn t human and it isn t natural and I won t say I believe
 
 148 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 in it or admire it, because I don t. I think it is wicked. 
 Yes, I do. People weren t made for that." 
 
 " Have you found out what they were made for ?" asked 
 the Professor with his teasing smile. 
 
 " Why, to live natural and healthy lives, and that will 
 mean happy lives " 
 
 " Mr. Jefferson is happy. I know of no one of whom 
 that could be said more surely." 
 
 " But it isn t the right way," she cried with a little 
 quiver in her voice. " It isn t, it isn t ! You know it 
 isn t, Rob, and you ought not to eve\ pretend that you 
 think it is, because here is Joyce just ready to go off and 
 join a sisterhood, or something dreadful 
 
 " If that will make her happy, it won t be dreadful. 
 Isn t happiness your criterion ? " 
 
 " He doesn t mean it in the least, Joyce, and I wish you 
 wouldn t listen to him at all. Because the best of life isn t 
 in the striving and fret and the ungrateful neglecting of 
 what is near and simple and true and good, for something 
 that seems far and fine and cold and hard, and that I 
 don t believe is good at all." 
 
 " The best of life," said the Professor gravely, " is to 
 have a little house on the left side of High street in Here- 
 ward, half way up the hill, and a little boy named Jamie 
 and somebody called Joyce or something like that, and a 
 Mr. Rodman to come in pretty often, and a husband do 
 you think he has a right to go in among the conditions? " 
 
 " Oh, Rob, you are too absurd." 
 
 " Don t you think that is a pretty good recipe for hap 
 piness, honestly now ? And don t you feel like founding 
 a system of philosophy upon it, Dru sOwn Philosophy, 
 and going out to lecture upon it and expound its vir 
 tues as a universal remedy for the various ills of mankind? 
 The price of lots on the west side of High street will go 
 up like smoke, and people will be forming societies and
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 149 
 
 trying to find little boys named Jamie and big girls named 
 Joyce to complete the necessary conditions of member 
 ship, and Dru s own philosophy will make the world a 
 blooming Paradise." 
 
 " So it would, much sooner than Mr. Jefferson s kind," 
 persisted Dru defiantly. 
 
 When she had gone to the house and the Professor had 
 followed, Paul took up the thread. 
 
 "I believe in happiness, too," he said, "and, like Mrs. 
 Hamill, I am satisfied with the kind I have. It is abso 
 lutely perfect here to-day, and I haven t a wish in the 
 world. How glad I am that I am no where else." 
 
 " I m afraid you are in a perilous state if you have no 
 wish unfulfilled." 
 
 " Oh, well, then I ll have one," he responded promptly. 
 " On second thought, I m not sure but that it is the pres 
 ence of a wish not yet fulfilled, hovering in the background 
 of the present, that is filling this very afternoon to the 
 brim, as this flower-chalice is filled with sunshine." He 
 bent his head low over the flower for a moment as though 
 to drink it, and smiled softly to himself. 
 
 " What have you been doing ?" she asked. 
 
 " I ve been in the nether world, trying to see how things 
 look below. It is dusty, and there is a smell of grease 
 and a whirr of hot air and a spinning of belts and a flash 
 ing of knives that makes an explorer glad to come back 
 to the surface and breathe some clean oxygen and look at 
 what a delightful old garden this is ! " he added 
 hastily. 
 
 "Yes," she said, but without glancing at it. "Tell me 
 what you have found out so far about the people who 
 live in your nether world. I have sometimes thought 
 when on the sea " 
 
 "Where have you been on the sea? "he asked with 
 sudden interest.
 
 I5O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "Out of New York. And along the coast. And long 
 ago when I went across with my father once." 
 
 " Isn t it the one thing on earth worth coming to the 
 planet to see? I beg pardon. You were going to say 
 something about the people at the Works and I inter 
 rupted you, because you heedlessly introduced a refer 
 ence to the sea, and I m afraid I find it much easier to 
 be enthusiastic over the sea than over people, some 
 people, that is. I suppose, being a natural man, and there 
 fore, according to the creed of our grandfathers, a de 
 praved creature, I love the sea and such things without 
 any effort of will, while it takes a high moral pressure to 
 bring my affection for people, some people, of course, 
 to the boiling point. But I m ready to apply the pressure. 
 You were saying " 
 
 He had thrown himself down on the grass and was 
 looking up at her with the light of>a laugh in his eyes. 
 
 " You were saying," she retorted. " I was only carry 
 ing out your figure for you. You spoke of them, those 
 people, you know, as living under the surface, and I was 
 only thinking what a difference there is between sailing 
 over the water, with soft winds and sunsets and music 
 
 " And silken scarfs fluttering in the breeze and ropes 
 of roses trailing out behind. You might as well have 
 them all in. They cost no more, in a picture." 
 
 " Well, the difference between that and the life down at 
 the bottom seems wicked, doesn t it ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don t know. You might not like it down at the 
 bottom, perhaps, but I m not sure that the deep sea fishes 
 and the wriggling monsters would like it any better in 
 your silken boat. They d suffocate." 
 
 She laughed, but checked the laugh with a little shake 
 of the head. 
 
 " I don t believe that figures of speech are safe, mixed 
 in with arguments. They do very well in poetry, but in
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. I 5 I 
 
 argument, they ate apt to tangle themselves about your 
 feet and trip you up. Do you really think that that hard 
 life suits the people who do it better than any other 
 could ? " 
 
 " I don t know what I believe," he answered. " Perhaps 
 I may come to have some ideas on the subject after 
 awhile, but they haven t budded yet. Only I have a glim 
 mering impression that perhaps I am going to believe by 
 and by that it isn t so much the conditions as the people 
 themselves that makes the difference, the people and 
 the other people, you understand. But nobody does know 
 except Karl Bahrdt. By the way, he is coming down 
 very soon." 
 
 " Is he ? " she cried quickly, with a change of counte 
 nance that made him wonder. " I am very glad. How 
 long will he stay ? " 
 
 " As long as I can persuade him. He is an easy guest 
 to entertain. All that he needs is a pipe, a problem, and 
 an inner consciousness. On a pinch he could dispense 
 with the pipe, but I mean to make him happy while he is 
 here." 
 
 " I believe that is what you like best to do," she said 
 softly. 
 
 A quick flush of pleasure came over his face at her tone 
 more than her words. 
 
 " I have confessed to having a preference for being 
 happy myself." 
 
 " Some people can t be." 
 
 "And some people won t be," he said, letting his laugh 
 ing eyes rest on hers. " They feel it their vocation to be 
 martyrs whenever there is any opportunity. I admire them 
 more than I can tell you, but I can t undertake to emulate 
 them." 
 
 " You could if there were need." 
 
 "Well, let us try to believe so until it is disproven.
 
 152 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 The trouble is, I don t often see any chance for martyr 
 dom. Things almost always conspire in my favor." 
 
 " Except in the matter of the Works." 
 
 " I m not so sure but that I may in the end count that 
 among the most fortunate things in my life, if something 
 doesn t happen to blot the day out of my sky." 
 
 " How terrible ! You don t anticipate that ?" 
 
 "I m not going to think about it, for fear it might be 
 tempting fate. But will you promise to avert it if you 
 can ? " 
 
 " I ? How could I ? " 
 
 "Will you promise?" 
 
 " No. I don t promise blindly." 
 
 " Prudent young woman," he said mockingly. " Then 
 I suppose I must be content for the present to know that 
 I am doing your work at the Rodman Works." 
 
 " My work ! No, indeed, it isn t mine." 
 
 "Oh, isn t it? Very well, then, I ll drop it to-morrow, 
 and all the poor people may go to rack and ruin." 
 
 "Why, how absurd ! It is your own work." 
 
 " Not at all. I don t know anything about sociology or 
 wood-turning, either. If I am going to try this experi 
 ment, I want it distinctly understood, between you and 
 me, that is ; we needn t announce it publicly, that it is 
 your experiment and that I am doing it solely and wholly 
 to please you." 
 
 " What nonsense ! I can t " 
 
 " Didn t you suggest it the first time I saw you ? Didn t 
 you inspire me with your own idea that it would be a 
 nobler thing to ruin myself in a sociological experiment 
 than to make a sordid fortune in the regulation way, or a 
 famous discovery in my way ? Didn t you make me stay 
 when I was going to go and didn t you talk till you set me 
 aglow with reflected light ? Come, own up ! Hasn t it 
 been your doing from beginning to end ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 153 
 
 " But I won t be responsible for your experiment ! I 
 certainly won t ! " 
 
 "You are responsible. I am simply asking that you 
 recognize the fact, when we talk it over together, I 
 mean." 
 
 "No, no," she protested, laughing. 
 
 "But of course ! What am I but your agent, your fac 
 tor, your squire, in carrying out your grand idea ? " 
 
 " It is your own idea ! " 
 
 " Then you give me full leave and license to do what I 
 please with it ? " 
 
 She looked irresolute. There was too much of the mis 
 chievous school-boy in his eye to risk a careless permis 
 sion. " I m afraid you are not to be trusted," she said 
 doubtingly. 
 
 " Then you are not willing to surrender your right to a 
 controlling vote ? Oh, well, that is all I wanted settled. 
 It is only a business understanding, but it is well to have 
 business details perfectly clear. I don t think that we 
 need to explain the terms of the contract to Bahrdt un 
 less you wish it ? No ? All right. He shall help us 
 out with our experiment without knowing that it is all 
 your affair. I don t remember that there is anything else 
 in the way of business to discuss this afternoon," he 
 remarked ruminatingly, as he picked up the straw hat 
 that had rolled away on the grass and held out his hand 
 to her. But she withheld her own with a piqued air. 
 
 " Good-bye," she said coolly. 
 
 " Won t you shake hands ? " 
 
 " It isn t necessary." 
 
 " I wasn t urging it as a matter of necessity. Call it a 
 matter of pleasure." 
 
 " It would be no pleasure to me." 
 
 " A matter of duty, then. It is your duty to confer pleas 
 ure on any stray member of the human family, isn t it ? "
 
 154 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "You implied a while ago that I am too much given to 
 unnecessary martyrdom. I am going to mend my ways." 
 
 " Oh, if it would be martyrdom to shake hands with me," 
 he said, in a tone so deeply wounded that she was filled 
 with compunction at carrying things so far. 
 
 " Oh, I didn t mean that," she cried penitently. And 
 she held out her hand. 
 
 He took it, and held it rather more firmly than was 
 necessary. 
 
 " Thank you," he said, and there was open, undisguised, 
 unpardonable triumph in his look and in his voice. " I 
 shall remember for future use that your obduracy is only 
 to be shaken by a touch of pathos 
 
 But by this time she had wrenched her hand away and 
 sprung back to face him with flaming cheeks and eyes 
 where storm mingled with laughter. 
 
 " Tell Mrs. Hamill I was sorry that a prior engagement 
 would have made it impossible for me to stay to tea, if she 
 was thinking of asking me. She may take the hint for 
 the next time. Good-afternoon, and remember." He 
 lifted his hat with an audacious smile, and went off, 
 reflecting contentedly that at least he had succeeded in 
 arousing her temporarily from her abstract interest in 
 humanity in general with its exasperating accompaniment 
 of indifference to humanity in particular.
 
 XV. 
 
 A FEW days later Joyce saw Karl Bahrdt. She was re 
 turning from the Post Office, where she had presented her 
 customary petition for a letter and had been put off with 
 the customary refusal, when he came down the street with 
 Paul Rodman. Bahrdt s face, dark, eager, intense as 
 usual, was lit with an unusual animation. It was not 
 often he looked so happy, but then she had not often 
 seen him with Rodman. It struck her with a little sur 
 prise that Rodman, slight, sunny, serene, should be able to 
 influence a man whose power had always seemed to her 
 indisputable, but the slight signs of feeling in Bahrdt s look, 
 which she understood so well and which others were so 
 apt to misunderstand, revealed something that made her 
 unconsciously take a more respectful attitude toward Paul. 
 
 They caught sight of Joyce in a moment and came 
 toward her quickly. 
 
 " Ah, surely it is in this little town you live. I hoped I 
 should find you, but I knew not it would be in the first 
 street," Bahrdt said, and the little accent in his familiar 
 voice brought back to her a hundred memories. His 
 dark face was lit with a brightness that had a pathetic 
 quality because of its rarity, though in itself it was hope 
 ful enough. 
 
 " Mr. Rodman said you were coming. I am so glad to 
 see you." 
 
 Mr. Rodman had watched their greeting with a more 
 narrowly observant eye than seemed absolutely necessary 
 or than he was perhaps wholly conscious of. At any rate,
 
 156 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 he probably saw nothing to occasion him any discom 
 posure, for his face emerged from its momentary shadow 
 with a cheering radiance. 
 
 "Oh, Hereward isn t big enough to hide in, and Miss 
 Mabie knows it would be useless for her to attempt it, 
 even if it were. I suppose, though, I might just as well 
 remember a pressing engagement at the other end of the 
 town, eh, Karl ? " 
 
 "Oh, I have much more to say and to come to an 
 understanding of," he answered anxiously, with a supreme 
 disregard of Joyce that made her exchange amused looks 
 with Paul. - 
 
 "When will you come to see my friend, Mrs. Hamill ?" 
 she asked. 
 
 " Go now, Karl, and I ll call for you there, and then 
 we ll talk over many things all afternoon, and I will do 
 my humble best to understand as many of them as possi 
 ble. Honestly I will, and no shirking ! Till then " 
 He nodded, raised his hat, and left them, with a joyous 
 content in his heart. They weren t lovers ! He knew 
 enough about love himself just now to be sure of that. It 
 was rather unaccountable, to be sure, that anyone could 
 have had the supreme privilege of meeting Joyce Mabie 
 intimately in her father s house without learning to love 
 her, but it was a blessed and beneficent fact that some 
 men were blind. And what a delightful fellow Karl was 
 with his theories blinding him to the beautiful things of 
 ordinary life ! Whereupon he fell to whistling the gayest 
 air he could remember and to planning many things for 
 Karl s delectation. 
 
 Joyce had turned to Bahrdt with the instant inquiry, 
 
 " Have you seen my father, Mr. Bahrdt ? Do you 
 know where he is ? " 
 
 He gave her a quick look that demanded everything 
 and revealed nothing.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 1$? 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Neither do I," she exclaimed, and she lifted her hands 
 with a slight gesture that from one so undemonstrative 
 betrayed much. 
 
 He was silent, walking by her side with bent head as 
 though waiting, and she continued in a hurried undertone 
 that was very unlike her usual calm : 
 
 " I would not wonder so much, because he never wrote 
 very often, only when the mood came and then it was 
 oftener a funny sketch than a letter, but to go away with 
 scarcely a word and then to keep silence so long some 
 thing may have happened. He may be ill somewhere, 
 he may need me." 
 
 He had been observing her narrowly, and he saw that 
 she was ignorant of the rumor which had followed so 
 soon upon Tom Garner s disappearance of a reason why 
 ..it- might have been prudent for him to disappear. Well, 
 was it neceseary for him to repeat it ? Rumors be con 
 founded ! He sighed with vexation and impatience, and 
 the old look of authority came back. 
 
 " He is not ill. It would not be impossible for him to 
 write. No, he is off at his own will, and a wild will you 
 surely know it always has been. You know it is not for 
 you to control it." 
 
 " But I want to know where he is. I cannot tell you 
 how anxious I am. It keeps coming between me and 
 everything else." 
 
 " Put ! You talk like a child. You have your own 
 work to do and must not be so easily turned aside. Is it 
 so little to you, this work you are fitting yourself for, that 
 any vexation can upset your mind and make you forget 
 it ? I have told you before that you must not be too 
 much the woman if you would be anything more." 
 
 Joyce turned upon him with swift intensity. 
 
 " You entirely disregard the fact that he is my father,
 
 158 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 and that I love him and that where we love we must fear. 
 You can t eliminate that with all your philosophy, even 
 you must recognize it." 
 
 "Must?" he repeated with light mockery. " No, it is 
 not my nature to love. Perhaps I do not rightly under 
 stand the power that lies in that word. Perhaps I am 
 blind, but truly it seems to me that the men and women 
 who let this love you talk of dull their brains and betray 
 their purpose and hamper their usefulness in the world, 
 are the ones who are blind. You love your father, you 
 say, and straightway you fall to trembling like a hare over 
 his fate instead of thinking what you have to do. No, 
 truly I do not understand what love is." 
 
 Almost without knowing it, they had reached the little 
 wicket-gate of the Hamills garden. Joyce put her hand 
 upon it. 
 
 " You will come in ? " 
 
 " Yes, I will come in, for I have more to say to you. 
 Ah, it is here that you live, in this garden of a poet s 
 fancy?" He looked about him with smiling cynicism as 
 they entered. " Perfume and beauty and swinging idle 
 ness. I understand why you have grown to tremble 
 before the facts of life and to deem love stronger than 
 courage. After all, it needs a garret and a crust to breed 
 high thoughts. It is perilous for one who would be true 
 to himself to dally with beauty or with love." 
 
 He laughed softly as he glanced at her with a gleam of 
 sarcastic amusement, and then suddenly he added, 
 
 " So you have houris in your paradise ! Truly, it is 
 most fitting." 
 
 " What do you mean ? Oh ! " 
 
 It was only Edith Estee, but even a philosopher, social 
 ist and vowed ascetic might be pardoned for naming her 
 an houri. She possessed that crown of a beauty which 
 has its basis in physical perfection, the gift of being beau-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 159 
 
 tiful at all times. There were moments when Joyce, for 
 instance, was beautiful only to those who were too fond 
 of her to be judicial, but Edith s face did not need a 
 partial eye. Melancholy suited it as well as smiles, and 
 every change that passed over it was a new revelation. 
 As she came toward them now, over the clovers that were 
 lightly swept under by the trailing edge of her gown, the 
 spell of her springtime face seemed a part of the spell of 
 the springtime weather and the beautiful day. 
 
 She gave Joyce a meaning glance as she approached, 
 and with an answering smile Joyce formally presented 
 Mr. Bahrdt. 
 
 "Do you know, Mr. Bahrdt, that Joyce is always quot 
 ing you when she advances some wild theory?" Edith 
 said gaily, looking up through a bewildering fringe of 
 hazel lashes. "Are you coming down here to make us 
 all socialists against our will ? " 
 
 "Would it be against your will?" he asked with an 
 uneasy doubt in his voice that made Joyce smile and 
 wonder. 
 
 " Oh, that would depend upon which side of the line I 
 arn on, and that I don t know. If my possessions would 
 be increased by an equal division of all property, then I 
 am in favor of socialism, but if they would be decreased, 
 then I am not in favor of it at all." 
 
 "Oh, you are thinking of communism," he said eagerly. 
 "That is not what I try to bring about. But perhaps 
 you will not care to have me explain ?" 
 
 Edith laughed and shook her head. " Oh, I don t know 
 anything about it ! " 
 
 " Would it bore you to have me tell? Yet, truly, some 
 people do their share by simply bein what they are," he 
 added, with an air of formulating an abstraction. And he 
 didn t realize that he had perpetrated a compliment till 
 Edith s blush and smile of pleasure brought a reflected
 
 l6o APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 blush of utter confusion upon himself. Then without 
 further parley he walked abruptly away, and Joyce turned 
 to Edith with a silent laugh in her eyes. 
 
 " You musn t tease him ! He doesn t understand that 
 language." 
 
 " Is that your Mr. Bahrdt ? Why didn t you ever say he 
 looked like that ? Goodness, what eyes he has ! I don t 
 wonder he stirs an audience. I believe I would follow him 
 to the north pole if he looked at me and commanded it 
 with those eyes." 
 
 " Shall I tell him so ? " 
 
 " Heavens, no ! I wouldn t have him know for the 
 world." She laughed and ran away with simulated ter 
 ror, and Joyce quickly overtook Bahrdt. 
 
 " She is himmel-schon, your friend," he said with a cu 
 rious abstraction and without looking up. Then, putting 
 the subject away, he added with a return to his decisive 
 manner, " Before we go in, where I cannot speak to you 
 alone, I wish to say one word more. Shall it be here? 
 Yes?" 
 
 He leaned against the tree under which they had 
 paused and turned his compelling eyes upon her with an 
 intensity that made her shrink. 
 
 " When the time comes that you learn for yourself how 
 bitter the world is, remember, and this is all I wish to 
 say to you, remember that you will find your true voca 
 tion and happiness in work that is not personal, that has 
 larger ends than your own happiness. That time will 
 come. It must come to all sooner or later, and to you it 
 may come very soon." 
 
 " Why ? " she asked with startled eyes. The words 
 seemed to hold a menace. 
 
 " Why ? Because, my child, you may soon learn how 
 unjust the world is. That will be the last lesson needed 
 by one like you, who can see clearly the wrongs under
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. l6l 
 
 which the best part of humanity labors and yet can be 
 lieve, with fatal optimism, that methods which have 
 brought about only wrong will somehow, if let alone, turn 
 into good. The world in general is not honest or reason 
 able or helpful. You will find this when your fair friends 
 turn from you. Human companionship, human love, 
 it is good. I do not deny that. But you will not find it 
 among these people whose idol is respectability and whose 
 creed is conformity. You think I am too hard ? Wait till 
 you feel the scorn and the coldness with which these deli 
 cate ladies, like that beautiful one we saw, can turn from 
 you for no fault of your own. When you have lost this 
 paltry show which is blinding your eyes, then you, too, 
 will see, you, too, will know, that nothing is worth the 
 toil of living but the possibility of working for the good 
 of those most wronged by this society of our day, the poor 
 and the ignorant." 
 
 The torrent of his feeling carried Joyce with him in his 
 impassioned plea. Her kindled eye and flushed cheek 
 showed him how deeply she responded. 
 
 "What is there I can do ? If I am needed in the real 
 work of the world, tell me so." 
 
 He took a step toward her. 
 
 " And give up these friends, their standards and their 
 judgment? Are you ready for that? Can you forget 
 them ? " 
 
 Joyce did not take her eyes from him, but something 
 passed over her face, a change slight but unmistakable. 
 The ardor was gone. He could not know that they were 
 standing under the trees where Paul Rodman had stood 
 yesterday, but he saw the change in her face, and he 
 turned aside with a smothered sigh. 
 
 " Not yet. Well, it will come, and when it does come, 
 remember. Let us go in."
 
 XVI. 
 
 " Edith, I m going to take in this affair that Paul has 
 arranged, but you needn t bother about going. It is ma 
 terial for me, you know." 
 
 Edith looked up from her novel. 
 
 " Poor auntie ! What a lot of boresome things you 
 have to take in as material ! What is Paul s affair ? " 
 
 " Oh, a sort of glorification of labor, with opportunity 
 for unlimited speechmaking and rant. It is queer how he 
 has gone off at a tangent." 
 
 " Yes, isn t it ? " Edith assented, letting her eyes wan 
 der back to her book. 
 
 " You don t care to go, do you ? " 
 
 " Goodness, no ! I don t have to go, do I ? " 
 
 " No. I ll go with the Hamills. Miss Mabie will go, 
 of course. That Mr. Bahrdt is going to make a speech, 
 or something." 
 
 Edith shut her book and looked suddenly attentive. 
 
 " By the way, what do you think of him, Edith ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don t know." 
 
 " You haven t noticed, probably, but he is a curious foil 
 to Stephen. I have the greatest longing to see them set 
 against each other in some way. I think I must take 
 enough liberty with the facts, (since facts are by nature 
 too stupid to know it,) to get them into some sort of a 
 coil in my novel." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Edith, looking away, " perhaps Joyce 
 would like to have me go." 
 
 " Oh, I don t think she would care."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 163 
 
 "But she might," the girl persisted. "If I went, it 
 would be as a compliment to her, she would understand 
 that. I think I d better." 
 
 " Very well. I ll ask Stephen to come around and take 
 us." 
 
 " Oh, no, don t do that. I won t go a step if he comes. 
 Let s go with the Hamills." 
 
 " What a freakish child you are ! Have it your own 
 way, then." But Miss Estee fell into a thoughtful silence 
 after that, as she often did when Edith betrayed the dis 
 quiet into which Stephen Hale s name could throw her. 
 This adjusting of human relations was a more serious 
 matter when it involved the future welfare of one you 
 loved than when only the children of your fancy were con 
 cerned. A few pages blotted, and this could be made 
 right again ; but how could a mistake in life be corrected ? 
 .The people of one s fancy were simple, must be simple 
 to keep from blurring. But the other people were so 
 complicated and contradictory ! Stephen was admirable 
 in many ways, would be admirable even as a husband if 
 he chose the right sort of a wife. But was Edith the one ? 
 Her heart ached with tenderness over the child, though 
 the child herself, sparkling with more than her usual ani 
 mation when evening came, seemed in no need of pity. 
 
 Miss Estee had further opportunity to exercise her 
 lively faculty for speculation when Joyce Mabie met her 
 in the evening with shadowed eyes and a sort of electric 
 restlessness under her usual calm. 
 
 " Xow, what is going on behind the scenes ? You don t 
 know that you are one of my characters, young lady, but 
 you are, and I have a proprietary right in all your feelings 
 and opinions. A real, down-right bit of emotion is valu 
 able property, and if you have such a thing in your posses 
 sion, my dark-eyed maiden, I mean to have it, by fair 
 means or humph ! I ll watch, then."
 
 164 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 And watch she did, and was rewarded beyond her 
 expectations. 
 
 They were all waiting on the verandah in the summer 
 twilight, until it should be time to go, when there was a 
 quick step on the gravel, and Paul Rodman came up. 
 Joyce was in the shadow, but Miss Estee saw the instant 
 light that flashed into her face at the first sound of his 
 voice, and was so gratified at her own astuteness as 
 almost to miss what followed. 
 
 "You are all coming?" he asked gaily. "I m under 
 personal obligations. I feel as though I were manager, 
 scene-shifter and orchestra for this show, and I want to 
 know that I have some sympathy in the audience. Did 
 you know I am going to make my maiden speech ? " 
 
 Mrs. Hamill went solemnly up and shook hands with 
 him. 
 
 " Really and truly ? And you depend upon us for your 
 inspiration ? I never was so set up in my life. I ll do 
 my very best to bring in the applause at the right 
 moments. Dear me, I feel so important and responsi 
 ble." 
 
 " I m glad someone is willing to acknowledge a share 
 in the responsibility," he answered, and though he was 
 speaking to Mrs. Hamill he stole a teasing glance at 
 Joyce. " Now I must go and look up Karl Bahrdt. He s 
 my star. I shall count upon seeing you in the front rows 
 It is the only thing I can think of just now that may keep 
 my courage from failing." Yet he didn t look as though 
 he needed much of a stimulus. 
 
 The hall " across the bridge " was dimly lit with kero 
 sene lamps, swinging in iron brackets from the window- 
 frames, and when the little party under the guidance of 
 Professor Hamill came in and found seats on a row of 
 benches near the door, there was already a number of 
 men in the room, some talking together in excited groups,
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 165 
 
 some sitting apart in dull or moody silence. The dim 
 light gave to it all a weird aspect, and the workmen in 
 their rough, symbolic garb seemed to loom up to the 
 stature of a gigantic possibility. There were few women, 
 and they were mostly gaunt and stern and dressed with 
 the pronounced disregard of beauty which is apt to mark 
 the \voman reformer. Miss Estee took note of it all with 
 her observant eye. 
 
 " What lives these women must have led to come to 
 look like that," she thought to herself. "They aren t 
 women, wholly. A woman should be beautiful. So 
 should a man, for that matter. Unless he is a character, 
 of course. Then good looks don t count. But a woman 
 hasn t much chance as a character-study. She must be 
 beautiful, in some sort of way, or there is no doing any 
 thing with her in any story, even the one we call life. 
 .And these poor creatures, with their tragic faces and more 
 tragic dressing, what is the matter with them ? They 
 are starved, that s what it is. They ought to be fed for a 
 whole generation on nothing but poetry and music and 
 love. I wonder if they would come out of it like Edith 
 and Joyce and Drusilla here." She turned to look at the 
 three young women, who were intently observant of the 
 unusual surroundings. " They have a glorified look, such 
 as denizens of another sphere might wear. I suppose 
 those women see it and resent it as a part of their birth 
 right of which they have been unfairly defrauded. Well, 
 is it fair ?" 
 
 The room slowly filled. There were young men, with 
 dark, sharp faces, intelligent, powerful, dissatisfied. 
 There were older men with a sullen weariness of manner 
 that spoke of the desperation born of the knowledge of a 
 losing battle. There were men with ragged gray beards 
 and hairy hands that seemed to mark the third stage, 
 where the fire of discontent had sunk, through repeated
 
 I 66 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 defeat, into the dying ash of impotence. There was 
 something oppressive in having the story of their lives set 
 out in living pictures before the eyes of the world. Miss 
 Estee felt accused, and glanced at her companions for 
 support. Joyce was watching the assembled crowd with 
 a serious intentness that was oblivious of everything else, 
 but there was an electric quality in her very silence. 
 Edith was leaning back, with the lamp, overhead, throw 
 ing its light full upon her fair, wondering face. Drusilla, 
 clear womanly Dru, had crept a little closer to her hus 
 band s arm, though he, absorbed in enjoying the latent 
 excitement communicated by a waiting multitude, seemed 
 to take no note of her. 
 
 Then there was a stir as Rodman and Bahrdt came in 
 and walked quickly up the aisle to the desk at the farther 
 end of the room. Mason, the favorite home orator, and 
 several other local celebrities, were already on the plat 
 form. Rodman was the first to come forward, and Miss 
 Estee glanced quickly at Joyce. 
 
 " I thought so ! It is well to have one thing clear, and 
 I know now where to place you, Mistress Joyce. There 
 is one thing that will take the tragedy out of your eyes 
 and make you as tremulously pretty as though you had no 
 more brains than the average woman. Well, he s a manly 
 fellow, though I don t know that there is any reason to 
 look so absurdly proud and happy just because he can 
 stand up there and talk to these people in that happy way 
 of his, as though he rather enjoyed an opportunity to do a 
 little dusting of the world s furniture. Ah, that was well 
 put, and taken. They have enough life in them to 
 respond to a little humor, these dread, accusing skeletons 
 at the feast of our modern civilization. \Yhat is he talk 
 ing about, organization ? Not particularly new, but 
 eminently the proper thing to say, my callow reformer. 
 He really looks as though he thought he had discovered
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. l6/ 
 
 something good and was much pleased over it. They 
 don t half look the enthusiastic gratitude they ought. Is 
 that all ? So, you sit down, just a little flushed, fop you 
 are not a born orator, my dear boy. But it was well and 
 modestly done, Paul. I am pleased with you, and so is 
 someone else, or I ll never make another guess at a hero 
 ine s hidden feelings. 
 
 " Ah, here is the orator of the evening, our German so 
 cialist, with his message direct from the empyrean. The 
 practical trouble will probably be that his hearers have 
 been so long exiled from the empyrean that they don t 
 follow the language readily. But let us have it, friend 
 interpreter." 
 
 There was a little movement in the room. Bahrdt, 
 after Rodman s introduction, came to the front of the 
 platform. He stood silent for a moment, letting his 
 glance sweep over the rows of dimly seen faces. Then 
 in a low voice, even with the perfect quiet of conscious 
 strength, he began talking. All the power of the man 
 came out when he fronted a crowd. At other times he 
 might be bitter and volcanic, but when he faced an audi 
 ence waiting for the message he lived to speak, the peace 
 of attainment came upon him and a simple dignity and im- 
 pressiveness clothed his manner. He was like a courier 
 who with pain and passion has fought his way through 
 opposing mobs and has reached at last the audience-room 
 of the king. 
 
 " You believe in your ideas yourself, at any rate," Miss 
 Estee thought to herself as she watched the speaker. 
 " Perhaps they deserve such faith, / don t know of 
 anything but the abstractly beautiful that is worth be 
 lieving in to that extent. However, each one to his 
 taste, my fine young enthusiast. I m going to get some 
 thing from this lecture whether anyone else does or not, 
 for I m going to study you for one of my characters.
 
 1 68 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Wouldn t you resent that, if you knew ? But that is one 
 of the ironies of fate. You probably think you are setting 
 the affairs of the cosmos to rights, and even having some 
 influence on the balance of the eternal verities, while all 
 the time you are only striking an attitude to adorn a nov 
 elist s idle page. Well, many men have lived and died 
 without doing even so slight a thing as that. 
 
 " But what is this you are telling ? The story of the 
 ideal dream, which has always haunted high souls, of life 
 amid perfect conditions, the possibility of life at its 
 best. Only you don t call it a dream. You believe in the 
 possibility, I see, a Utopia made real, where glorified 
 men and women shall walk the earth and there shall be 
 no oppression, no wrong-doing, no sorrow, or injustice. 
 
 " It would be good to live under such conditions, you 
 think, and so doubtless do these twisted men and tired 
 women who are listening to you as though you were a 
 new evangelist. Well, the dream is a fair one. Men 
 have held it before, and have tried to plan out ideal Re 
 publics and Utopias and millenniums. So people have 
 tried to paint sunset with chrome yellow and crimson 
 lake. Something is lacking ! But it is a fair picture, and 
 you are making it a near and tangible vision to these peo 
 ple who never heard of Plato or Sir Thomas More. I 
 never suspected, -your mouth is so hidden by that beard, 
 that you had so much of the poet in you. 
 
 " Now of course you hold up present facts in contrast. 
 I m riot sure it is altogether fair to the facts to pit them 
 against so immaterial an antagonist as your vision, but 
 have it your own way. You know even more about sta 
 tistics than about dreams, don t you ? You use them like 
 bullets, and you shoot well. A rain of bullets ! Where 
 did you get all your facts, I wonder, the Lord help us 
 if they are facts ! Yet somehow you look honest. But if 
 you don t moderate your showers of disheartening statis-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 169 
 
 tics, you will soon have your whole audience in a state of 
 mind where the only thing left will be to go home and 
 commit suicide. Don t you think you have discouraged 
 us just about enough, and can t you let us off from the 
 rest, if you have any more in reserve ? 
 
 " No, you are bent on crushing us utterly, I see. Pauper 
 ism, crime, ignorance, suffering, injustice, oppression, dete 
 rioration, a hopetess, endless snarl of wrong within 
 wrong that involves government, civilization, individual 
 standards, the whole human race and all its works ! 
 There, I could have told you in the beginning ; I knew the 
 only thing worth having any enthusiasm for is art. Per 
 haps that isn t what you are trying to prove, but that is the 
 logical conclusion/ draw from your array of facts. That 
 is my way out of the coil, and I don t see why I haven t as 
 much right to escape by way of art, as you have to seek a 
 .political and sociological day of deliverance. 
 
 " So that is your real topic, is it ? The Day of Deliver 
 ance, and how to bring it about. 
 
 " We are all enslaved for that matter. That is one mis 
 take you make, my dear reformer. You assume that only 
 the laboring classes and the poor are in durance. Why, 
 we all are, and we are waiting for the dawn of our Day of 
 Deliverance, every one of us, and working, in our own 
 way, to bring it nearer. Deliverance for me is by way of 
 my art. I devote myself to describing these human 
 chains as gracefully as possible and so forget that I wear 
 them myself. And your way of deliverance, for your 
 self, I mean ; not what you are preaching, is to throw 
 yourself into this sort of work. You think you are doing 
 it to clear a way for these people, but really and truly you 
 are doing it in an unconscious attempt to free yourself 
 from the common chains that all chafe at. Paul Rod 
 man s way is to live happily and cheeringly and to dis 
 pense a sweet reasonableness. It isn t as heroic as your
 
 I7O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 way, but it will serve. And there is Joyce Mabie. She 
 rather inclines to your method, but she is a woman and 
 the chances are that she will fall in love with Paul, and 
 then her intensity will all be spent in giving point to his 
 genial optimism. That s the way of escape a woman s 
 instinct chooses, though sometimes it is anything but 
 freedom she finds, poor thing. That s dear little Dru- 
 silla s way. She looks impressed by your fiery logic just 
 now, but don t flatter yourself upon that. She will be 
 swerved about again by one calm word from her Profes 
 sor, though of course she would but acknowledge it ; 
 particularly to him. His way of self-deliverance is to 
 stand apart from the turmoil and watch with a sort of 
 wondering sympathy while the other poor wretches are 
 struggling and fretting. Perhaps he gets a truer vision 
 from his vantage-point than they ever have. And there 
 is my poor little Edith, with her wide, surprised eyes, 
 Ah, my child, how startlingly beautiful you are to-night ! 
 Is it your soul waking up at last ? Can it be that this is 
 the food you need, when I have been feeding you all your 
 life with gestheticism ? I have sometimes thought you 
 hadn t any soul, my little girl, child of my lonely heart ! 
 But few young things have more than a germ-soul, I 
 fancy. It doesn t begin to grow till the animal efferves 
 cence is over. The danger is that you may be caught 
 before that time and enslaved beyond the possibility of 
 any ray of the day of deliverance reaching you. And I 
 can do nothing for you. 
 
 " That s the trouble with this slavery of ours. We all 
 have to deliver ourselves, and our wisest planning and 
 plotting for others won t help very much, whether they 
 are individuals or classes, Herr Bahrdt ! Perhaps the best 
 we can do for the others, for the whole, is to free our 
 selves, as far as we can. And that is what we all are try 
 ing to do, in our own way, consciously or not. Ah, what
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. I/I 
 
 a whirl it all is, and so few things sure ! Not even art 
 quite stable to-night ! Ah, Tom ! Tom ! Ah, the years 
 of my life and the handful of ashes at the end ! 
 
 " There, you have no idea how many things you have 
 proved to me that were quite outside your argument, good 
 reformer mine. Why, what is he going to do now ? " 
 
 The speaker had paused abruptly, and the silence woke 
 everyone to an effort to recall his last sentence. Every 
 eye turned to him, but he did not resume. He stood at 
 the edge of the low platform looking toward the spot where 
 our friends sat, and where Edith s face, with the halo of 
 her wide lace hat encircling it, shone out of the gloom like 
 a star. Then he stepped quietly from the platform and 
 walked down the central aisle. Rodman, who had been 
 sitting back of him, started to his feet, and every head in 
 the audience was turned to follow the speaker, but he 
 .gave no sign. Only his step grew faltering, and a deep 
 flush surged slowly up over his face. But he kept his 
 course to the bottom of the aisle, and there, with elabo 
 rate pains he tried to re-adjust the lamp that swung in a 
 bracket from the wall, and finally lifted it down alto 
 gether. It was the lamp over Edith s head. No one had 
 noticed anything wrong with it, but everyone took for 
 granted now that from his elevation he had seen some 
 sign of dangerous insecurity and had terminated his 
 speech abruptly to avoid an alarm. He turned now, with 
 a slight nod and sign to Mason, who immediately came to 
 the front of the platform and began to speak. Bahrdt sat 
 down in one of the back seats, erect and stern, but Miss 
 Estee took note that presently his head sank and the 
 hand that had supported it slid down to cover his eyes. 
 
 Mason s speech was of a sort that is commoner at such 
 meetings than Bahrdt s. It was full of violent denuncia 
 tions of vested property, capital, the monopolist and the 
 tyrant, and did not hesitate to point out that the way from
 
 1/2 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 the present slavery which the former speaker had so forci 
 bly pictured to the ideal state he had shown as a possi 
 bility, lay in the destruction of the existing fabric of soci 
 ety and government. There was a good deal of rant and 
 air-sawing about it, and Miss Estee, who had recovered 
 her dilettanteish mood, looked at her watch undisguisedly, 
 and then at Bahrdt s silent figure across the aisle. Hut 
 he sat motionless, with bent head and hidden face, till it 
 was over and there was a movement of rising. Rodman 
 came down hastily to meet his friends. 
 
 " Wait half a second and I will come with you. Mason 
 is going to organize a League, or something of that sort, 
 but that isn t in my province. I suppose you ll insist upon 
 staying for it, Karl ? " 
 
 Bahrdt was standing by, with his eyes bent upon the 
 floor. 
 
 " No, I shall not stay," he said in a low voice, and then 
 he looked up for one swift glance. 
 
 " So much the better. We ll all walk home together 
 then. By the way," he said suddenly, when they were 
 outside the house, " was anything the matter with that 
 lamp ? I couldn t think what possessed you to start off 
 in that way." 
 
 " I suppose I was nervous," Bahrdt said with an effort. 
 " It was nothing." 
 
 But when, a little later, he found himself walking by 
 Edith s side, he said in a low voice, 
 
 " Why did you call me ?" 
 
 She stared at him. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 He did not answer for a moment. He was looking at 
 her with a curious, earnest gaze. Then he smiled. 
 
 " I don t know. Nothing ! "
 
 XVII. 
 
 " AFTER the play, the talk," said Rodman when they had 
 reached his rooms. He was in a jubilant mood, and the 
 speech was not wholly responsible for it. He flung the 
 window wide open to the night, and brought out a box of 
 cigars. " You prefer your pipe ? I forgot your objection 
 to the cigar as an emblem of aristocracy. Have a match ? 
 Sorry I can t offer you a flint and steel. Ah, what a 
 heavenly night it is ! " 
 
 He sat clown on the wide window ledge, with his head 
 thrown back against the curtained side, and blew delicate 
 films of smoke out on the flower-scented air. The gar 
 den was beneath. The long shadows of the Lombardy 
 poplars fell athwart it, and queer, thin patches of dark 
 ness marked the flower-beds. 
 
 " What did you think of your audience ? " 
 
 " Ah, good. But not Western in type. Where did 
 you get your men ? " 
 
 " I didn t get them," Paul laughed. " Don t hold me 
 responsible. I m a fly on the rim of the wheel of this con 
 cern. I found them here." 
 
 "So! " 
 
 " Cummings got most of them from somewhere, I under 
 stand, to replace a set of men who went out on a strike. 
 That was before my time. He doesn t seem at all afraid 
 of them. That fact awakens a heartfelt and respectful 
 admiration of Cummings in my soul. Mason is their 
 leading spirit." 
 
 "Who is Mason?" 
 
 \
 
 1^4 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " You heard him speak." 
 
 " No oh, yes ! " Bahrdt rose impatiently and walked 
 to the other window. " I did not listen well." He stood 
 silent a few minutes and then said abruptly, 
 
 " Did you notice that Miss Estee was much interested ? 
 Miss Edith Estee, I mean. 
 
 " No, I didn t notice. I was surprised to see her there 
 at all." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Oh, that isn t her sort of thing." 
 
 " She is very responsive." 
 
 " Emotionally responsive, perhaps. I don t think she 
 cares for it intellectually one little straw." 
 
 " It is not necessary that she should," Bahrdt said im 
 patiently. " Why should a woman think ? There are 
 men enough to do that." 
 
 " Take care, Karl ! You are a naturalized American 
 citizen. Don t you know that what you are saying is high 
 treason ? " 
 
 Bahrdt turned his face toward his friend with a sarcas 
 tic smile. 
 
 " Ah, these country-women of yours ! They have 
 given up the toys that women amused themselves with in 
 the older world. They have outgrown house-keeping and 
 embroidery and the care of children and knowledge of 
 simples and herbs. They must have thoughts like men s, 
 only miniature ones, to suit their brains. Like boys 
 who play at soldiering with tin swords that are warranted 
 not to cut." 
 
 " Do you say that of Miss Mabie?" 
 
 " She is a good girl, Joyce Mabie. It is a pity that 
 she is not a boy." 
 
 " There, you have spoiled your own argument. The 
 first woman I mention, you admit to be as good at the 
 business of thinking as a man."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 175 
 
 " I did not admit it," Karl retorted. " I said it is a 
 pity she is not a boy. Then she could do some good. 
 Mark the difference. I did not say so of Miss Estee. 
 She fulfils her mission by being beautiful." 
 
 " Oh, confound you, Karl, for a reformer with worm- 
 eaten ideas ! If women want to manage their own think 
 ing, let them. I shall feel that we are getting off easily 
 if they don t take it into their heads to insist on establish 
 ing a standard of dress, morals and ideas for us. They 
 might, you know, just to show us how it feels." 
 
 " And they will, if you Americans have your way." 
 
 " All right. If they can, they may. I say, I m going 
 to take a turn in the garden before I turn in. This sud 
 den blossoming into a public character and a local mag 
 nate is going to turn my head. I want to cool my brain 
 by looking at the stars and meditating for a few brief 
 moments on the vanity of human greatness. Don t wait 
 for me, though I won t be long." 
 
 He found his hat and went out into the cool garden, 
 where the heavy flowers stirred drowsily as he passed. 
 A rose-tree thrust its drooping flowers into his face, and 
 he snapped the stem of one and put it between his teeth. 
 
 " And which of the roses three 
 Is the dearest rose to me ? " 
 
 No need for an answer. He smiled to himself as he 
 walked slowly through the dewy paths, and always before 
 his eyes there was a girlish face with eyes that seemed to 
 appeal to him. Sometimes they were proud, as if demand 
 ing how he dared to call them into his thoughts. But 
 that was only a gentle pride that faded soon into a half- 
 sad loneliness, which made him tremble with joy to think 
 he could banish it, as he knew he could. And then he 
 would remember how she had looked one day when he 
 came upon her suddenly, and something had leaped into
 
 1/6 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 her face for a moment, Joyce Mabie, Joyce Mabie, Joyce 
 Mabie ! He said the words softly for the pleasure of 
 hearing them with the outward ear, and they ran into a 
 tune that sang itself through all his thoughts. A blind 
 musician once wrote a fantasy upon a name, the name of 
 a lady. The music goes weaving and wreathing in delicate 
 sprays of melody, but under it all, like the murmur of a 
 brook that the flowers bend over, runs the rippling accent 
 of the name. So in his heart it sang, and his thoughts 
 and fancies were woven around it, and when he went in at 
 last he did not know that the peaceful chapter of his love- 
 story had been ended in the garden.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 " WHY weren t you out at my debut last night, 
 Stephen?" Rodman asked maliciously, dropping in at 
 Hale s office the next morning. 
 
 Hale turned his office chair about, but still kept his 
 hands full of papers, as though the physical contact with 
 the interests of business were necessary to him. 
 
 " I would rather have heard you speak on a less fanati 
 cal subject." 
 
 " I fanatical ?" Paul exclaimed with horror. 
 
 " I didn t say so. You happen to have the instincts 
 and traditions of a gentleman. But you are meddling 
 with a fanatical subject." 
 
 " All great questions seem to have the misfortune to be 
 born fanatical, don t they ? They don t grow to be really 
 respectable until they are bald and toothless, and have 
 become institutions instead of problems." 
 
 Hale lifted his eyebrows for a moment without lifting 
 his head. 
 
 " You are catching the trick of their speech very credi 
 tably. Nevertheless, the world is directed, guided and 
 governed by institutions, not by problems. And it will 
 be, in spite of the froth and foam of the agitators." 
 
 " And it has been directed, guided and governed so 
 well and so wisely that it would be a pity to make any 
 change." 
 
 "The change you are proposing is the wrong sort." 
 
 " I m not proposing anything revolutionary, only a 
 little more humanity to man."
 
 1/8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "You can t look upon employes as human beings." 
 
 Paul stared. " Oh, can t you ? " 
 
 " Not your own employes. As a humanitarian, as a 
 philanthropist, you may. But as an employer, you must 
 come practically to regard them as instruments. Your 
 friends would like to get hold of this sentiment, of course. 
 It would be a fine text for them. But I have no interest 
 in the question. I am not in the muddle, and don t in 
 tend to have anything to do with it." 
 
 Paul laughed, but at the same time he wondered whim 
 sically whether it hadn t ever happened that a client, a 
 little woman, say, who hadn t more vitality than just 
 enough to keep her going under favorable conditions, 
 had been carried out of that client s chair stiff and frozen. 
 
 " But what is your idea ? I won t give you any." 
 
 " You couldn t, because those friends of yours wouldn t 
 understand. It is safe telling state secrets to children. 
 But it is very clear, if you keep reason above emotion, 
 that the foundation of all institutions is in law, and the 
 fundamental law of man and of nature is the law of 
 strength. At first a man s right was just what he could 
 successfully defend. Then, because it was a tedious proc 
 ess to put it to the proof each time, they adopted a legal 
 tender for the actual strength in the treasury and called it 
 law. And law has always governed because it is based on 
 strength. And it always will do so." 
 
 " But what if the strength shifts to the other side and 
 the laws remain unchanged ? There may be a revolution 
 brewing." 
 
 Talk like that is idle and mischevious. Idle, because 
 it disregards the very fact on which my argument is based, 
 that law naturally gravitates to the side of strength and 
 that it can t be forced ; and mischievous because it tends 
 to give the malcontents false and distorted ideas of their 
 own power. Besides, it is nonsense to talk about a
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 179 
 
 revolution in a country where the people make the 
 laws." 
 
 " Do they ? Have you never heard of a wealthy cor 
 poration buying up a state legislature ?" 
 
 " And have you never heard of a granger legislature 
 amusing itself by making little laws for the express pur 
 pose of driving the stockholders of such corporations into 
 bankruptcy ? They will always fight, of course, and of 
 course the under dog will always howl. But what would 
 they do if they didn t fight ? It is their way of getting an 
 education." 
 
 Paul laughed. " I would like to have Karl Bahrdt hear 
 you say that ! " 
 
 "I would not say it to him," Hale answered with care 
 less disdain. " He is one of your fanatics, and I dislike 
 the type. I see by the paper he discoursed upon the Day 
 .of Deliverance for the masses. It would be impossible 
 for him -to see or admit that there is no deliverance possi 
 ble for the masses, and that they constitute the masses 
 simply because they are fit for nothing else." 
 
 " Not very much mercy in your scheme of evolution." 
 
 " No, there isn t, because man is a part of nature, and 
 there isn t much mercy in nature. How many million 
 seeds are blown away on the wind for one that finds a 
 crevice in which to grow ? How many surplus men are 
 provided by nature as a foundation, in order that some 
 may carry the generation s work to a higher point ? The 
 men protest, that is the difference. The seeds don t. 
 They are swept up into the dust heap and carted off to 
 the crematory." 
 
 " Is this indigestion, my friend, or have you been read 
 ing Schopenhauer ? " 
 
 " It is logic. I am looking facts in the face, that is all, 
 instead of shirking them, like your contented optimists, or 
 dressing them up into fantastic dolls, like your agitators."
 
 I So APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " I d like to know what good purpose you think men 
 serve as a whole in the scheme of nature as you have it." 
 
 " That is out of my province. I m not a metaphysician 
 or a theologian. I am a lawyer, and I should say, answer 
 ing your fiery friend s questions of last night, that the day 
 of deliverance for humanity in general is to come by the 
 furtherance of the best part of it and the extinction of the 
 unfit, and for the particular individuals on whom the rule 
 bears heavily, why, it will come with death, and that 
 isn t long to wait for." 
 
 " Good-morning, Stephen. If you think I am equal to 
 more than half an hour of this at a time, you give me credit 
 for more nerve than I possess. If you decline to talk like 
 this to Bahrdt, I shall bring him with me next time as 
 a protection." 
 
 " Don t. I have an instinctive dislike for the man. 
 Though, by the way, I was going to speak of him. Wasn t 
 it he who introduced you to the artist who painted that 
 Spartan Boy you bought ? " 
 
 Paul had reached the door, but he turned with his hand 
 upon the knob. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " What was his name ? " 
 
 Paul hesitated a moment before he said, "Tom Garner." 
 
 " I thought so. You don t happen to know his present 
 whereabouts, do you ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Do you suppose your friend knows ? " 
 
 " I have no idea. Why, if I may ask ? " 
 
 " Simply because Tom Garner is wanted to answer a 
 criminal charge, and I am professionally interested in 
 getting some authentic information as to his present 
 whereabouts." 
 
 Paul came back. " A criminal charge ? " he repeated 
 deliberately.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. l8l 
 
 " Yes, a robbery. It was so artistic a piece of work 
 that one can t help having a sort of admiration for the 
 fellow, though unfortunately for him the criminal code 
 doesn t take that into consideration. He conveyed away 
 a valuable painting from a private gallery, and left in its 
 place a copy so well executed that the substitution was 
 only discovered by accident. The matter was kept out of 
 the papers as much as possible, because the authorities 
 didn t want their bird to take alarm, but he quietly disap 
 peared, and the detectives have not succeeded yet in trac 
 ing him. I disapprove of the man s contempt for the law 
 of the land, but I admire his cleverness." 
 
 Paul was lightly leaning against the edge of the desk. 
 A curious look had come into his blue eyes, but he only 
 nodded. 
 
 " I heard about it while in Chicago, and my colleagues 
 .there are engaged on the case. He must have gone off 
 when the first breath of suspicion was aroused, and he 
 took his daughter with him. They were traced to Mex 
 ico, and it is probable that they have gone to South 
 America. It was all very ingeniously managed. Whether 
 this Karl Bahrdt knows their address or not, he is 
 their friend, and wouldn t give it away if he did. I only 
 thought it would be well to mention it to you, so that if 
 anything should be dropped, you might catch it." 
 
 " I haven t really looked upon myself as a budding de 
 tective," said Paul sweetly, "but there is no telling what 
 heights my ambition might reach if properly spurred. 
 I m not sure that I would be equal, at first, to opening 
 letters, but I suppose I might be trusted with something 
 more elementary to begin with, like worming myself into 
 Karl s confidence, and then giving you the results. I 
 wouldn t do it for nothing, mind you. I would want to 
 be paid for my work, just to made up an artistic complete 
 ness of baseness."
 
 1 82 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Hale s eyebrows contracted. " I m not asking you to 
 do anything of that sort," he said shortly. " Though I 
 didn t suppose your sympathies would be on the opposite 
 side. But since you take it that way, I will only ask you 
 not to mention to your friend that I am interested in hunt 
 ing down one of his cronies who has been so unfortunate as 
 to get into a misunderstanding with this law which he so 
 eloquently denounces. It might make it harder for me 
 to get my information." 
 
 " I shall probably have no occasion to mention the sub 
 ject," Paul said, and then he went out. 
 
 He walked up the street with an undisturbed air, but 
 he had forgotten whither he was bound. He walked on, 
 past the last house of the village, up to where the hill 
 turned into a tableland covered with a scrubby wood. 
 He walked on with no conscious purpose, striving to re 
 cover himself in this strange tumult that was sweeping 
 over him.
 
 XIX. 
 
 SHE was walking on a mine, with her brave and innocent 
 feet, his lady of dreams who saw the stars and knew so 
 little of the earth. How could he save her ? How could 
 he, unless she loved him ? 
 
 As for the story, after the first shock of the idea, it 
 was not difficult to understand. He had never seen Tom 
 Garner, but he had guessed his character from Bahrdt s 
 description, and Joyce had told him more, by what she 
 did not say as well as by what she did. It was not hard 
 -to understand that such a man, posing as an outlaw, gaily 
 defiant of society and associating with men, like Bahrdt, 
 who were not in the habit of taking the righteousness of 
 established laws for granted, volatile of fancy and per 
 haps desperate with some disappointment, might deem 
 himself justified, even, in doing what he had done, if he 
 had done it. Hale might not have any proof. 
 
 That Joyce did not even know of the suspicion which 
 rested upon him was certain. How her proud and sensi 
 tive soul would bear it he dreaded to think. She would 
 want to shut herself away from everyone, even from 
 him, unless he had won the confession of her love from 
 her first. Then, he felt exultingly, the clouds might 
 break upon their heads. 
 
 And it could not be long at the longest before she 
 knew. It was strange that it had not all come out before 
 this. Some chance word might put the clew into Hale s 
 hands any day, or Bahrdt, who surely must know the re 
 port at least, would warn her of it. Yet if he knew, why
 
 1 84 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 hadn t he mentioned it before now ? Karl was unaccount 
 able. If worst came to worst, he must put her on her 
 guard before the fatal news reached her from some less 
 friendly source. But if they would only both hold off a 
 little while, till he had time- 
 He had no doubt in his heart but that she would come 
 to love him if only he had time to win her. She hadn t 
 waked up yet to the possibility, perhaps, because she had 
 lived with different thoughts, but she would love him in 
 time. It was destined, he asserted passionately. His own 
 love was a warrant for it. It was impossible that he 
 should love her as he did and that she should not respond. 
 It was impossible to believe that this love which was so 
 much more to him than anything that his life had ever 
 held before could be nothing but a delusion. He 
 clenched his hands to think how impossible it was to 
 prove his faith, yet he knew it ! He knew it with every 
 fibre of his being. She loved him now, though she might 
 not know it ! She would come to know it, if he might 
 have time to waken her gently. She would confess it, 
 if this dreadful thing did not happen first and drive her 
 away from him and from all help, to fight it out by her 
 self in loneliness of soul. He knew exactly what her im 
 pulse would be, and he trembled to recognize his own 
 powerlessness unless he had first won some right to stand 
 between her and her fate. 
 
 How was it that this stranger had come to be so im 
 portant a factor in his life, which had seemed complete 
 enough before ? She suited him, that was all there was to 
 be said about it. There might be surface surprises and 
 re-adjustments, to keep the harmony from monotony ! 
 but they found in each other the certainty of responsive 
 mood which makes the beauty of old companionships. 
 And all her little ways fascinated him, her little habit of 
 frowning in her earnest speech, which always tempted
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 185 
 
 him to smile and spoil the effect, the sudden light that 
 could chase the wistful shadows out of her eyes, the 
 little quick revelations of an ardent temper which most 
 people never suspected, he knew them all. Truly, he 
 knew them by heart ! They had never had any need to 
 learn each other s ways. It was hard to analyze, but he 
 always seemed to reach the truest fulfilment of himself 
 when with her. 
 
 The old ambitions which had possessed him from boy 
 hood, the later ideas which he had half adopted, as a 
 matter of conscience and intellect, all fell away before 
 this. If life had proved sunny and smooth, it would have 
 been his crowning joy to ensure her happiness. If life 
 was to be rough, to love her, to shield her, to be to her all 
 that his heart might make possible, would be his suprem- 
 est commission. The best of him was bound up in that. 
 
 " I am named and known by that hour s feat, 
 
 There took my station and degree. 
 So grew my own small life complete 
 
 As nature obtained the best of me, 
 One born to love you, sweet 1 "
 
 XX. 
 
 WHEN Paul left the wooded hill, where he had thought 
 his way clear, and came down to the village again, the 
 afternoon was sinking toward evening. He took grateful 
 note of the slanting, reddish light and the cooler air, 
 with the appreciation that a quickened inner sense gives 
 to the outer perception. He pushed back his hat and 
 slackened his pace, yet all the outer peace could not quiet 
 certain tremors at his heart. 
 
 He saw Hale down the street, and crossed over to avoid 
 him. He must see Joyce first of all, and then events 
 must decide what next. But as he turned up High street 
 he felt somewhat as a soldier does when marching into 
 unknown territory. Mr. Jefferson s tower came out sud 
 denly between the trees, and he wondered whimsically 
 whether the white-haired old man could tell him if the as 
 pect of the stars was favorable for wooing. It is rather 
 nervous work at best, but to woo against time, as it were, 
 and with a good deal of uncertainty as to the field, was 
 enough to stir even Paul Rodman s serene temperament. 
 
 When he pushed open the swinging gate that put slight 
 barrier between Prof. Hamill s orchard of the blest and 
 the outside world, he found Mrs. Hamill in the accustomed 
 place, but alone, with a basket of mending beside her and 
 a very forlorn expression of countenance. 
 
 "Oh, I am just as glad as I can be to have you come," 
 she exclaimed, upsetting her basket in the ardor ( of her 
 welcome. " I am all alone, and I don t like to be 
 alone."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. l8/ 
 
 " How does so unjustifiable a condition of affairs come 
 about ? " 
 
 " Oh, Rob has gone off somewhere with a book in his 
 pocket / and that is the end of him, humanly speaking. 
 Joyce, she has shut herself up in her room and won t see 
 anybody. Not anybody at all." 
 
 Terror held Paul s voice in his throat. " I trust that 
 nothing serious 
 
 " I think it is pretty serious to be left alone all after 
 noon with nothing but my mending. I like Joyce, Mr. 
 Rodman. I just like Joyce, but I do think it was awful of 
 her to leave me alone on mending day, because mending 
 at the very best is nine parts spiritual discipline to one 
 part patches, for me." 
 
 " But why does she shut herself up?" he demanded. 
 " Has there been any bad news ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear no. She is enjoying herself, Joyce is. She 
 thinks she is working for humanity, and she doesn t con 
 sider that I am a part of humanity myself, small as I am. 
 Mr. Bahrdt has been here and he has given her some writ 
 ing to do that is going to take three solid months. She 
 has been at it six hours now. Whether she will come 
 down to tea or not, I don t undertake to say." 
 
 " You might represent to her the alarming increase 
 there would be in the statistics of starvation if she didn t." 
 
 " So I could. And I might talk to Mr. Bahrdt. The 
 young man means well, but he is a young man, and conse 
 quently he doesn t know anything about nerves. Not 
 anything at all. And I don t like to have him setting 
 Joyce to work at his socialistic schemes." 
 
 " Oh, well, that is only what she has always been doing," 
 he said with a breath of relief. He would have liked to 
 add that it was no worse a fad than collecting autographs 
 or old lace, but a sense of loyalty restrained him. Even 
 her fads were in a manner sacred.
 
 1 88 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Not by any manner of means," she retorted. " You 
 don t appreciate the solemnity of the occasion at all. 
 Everything that has gone before has only been prepara 
 tion, that is what she said herself. This is the final step, 
 a consecration, something like taking the veil, or at 
 least a vow. She talks about going back to Chicago in 
 order to be freer to work. Don t you think we would be 
 justified in putting poison into Mr. Bahrdt s coffee, 
 some nice, sweet poison that wouldn t hurt him at all but 
 would just dispose of him ?" 
 
 " It may come to that, but we might try moral suasion 
 first. The first thing to do is to find out whether she has 
 really determined to resist all worldly temptations. Sup 
 pose I arrange a picnic on Berry Hill to-morrow." 
 
 " To cook coffee over an Indian Mound. Splendid ! " 
 
 " Do you think she will come ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don t know, Mr. Rodman. She s Joyce, you see. 
 That s the trouble. I don t know at all." 
 
 "Well, we ll try. It will be a test, and then we ll 
 know whether more stringent measures are neces 
 sary." 
 
 The conspiracy was interrupted by the appearance of 
 Joyce, who came down with some newspapers and 
 journals in her hands which she rolled up and dropped on 
 the grass when she discovered that it was Rodman who 
 rose to meet her. 
 
 "Ah!" he said, with that indefinable accent which is 
 more complimentary than words, and makes the setting of 
 a chair a personal homage. 
 
 She had been working till her cheeks were flushed and 
 her eyes brilliant and every movement had the grace of 
 languor. She leaned back and looked at Dru, smiling, 
 silent. Her unusual beauty made Paul s heart leap, 
 though the next moment he was ready to be jealous of 
 the element in her life that could bring that look into her
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 189 
 
 face. He was very little of an egotist ordinarily, but 
 being a man and in love, he could not, in the nature of 
 things, be wholly content while there existed any power 
 on earth to move her, save himself. 
 
 "We have been working up a beautiful scheme, Mrs. 
 Hamill and I," he said, trying to keep his voice and eyes 
 under control. " We are going to invite you to take 
 breakfast at the Indian Mounds to-morrow morning. 
 (Does she begin to look interested?" he asked Mrs. 
 Hamill in a stage-aside, and then he went on boldly and 
 rapidly). " The Professor will be required to appear in 
 the capacity of cook. He doesn t know it yet, but that 
 doesn t matter. Cousin Eleanor and Edith, of course, 
 and Stephen Hale if he will promise to be good, and 
 Karl, just to show him what a good time the natural man 
 can have. Also chowder." 
 
 "It sounds delightful," Joyce hesitated, and Paul s ear 
 caught the premonitory note of refusal. " But I think 
 you will have to count me out," she added, flushing. 
 
 " Even if we let you bring the last book on labor 
 statistics in the lunch-basket, and refresh yourself by 
 dipping into it at reasonably infrequent intervals ? " 
 
 " It is hard to resist that," she conceded, laughing, 
 " but, honestly, I m afraid I won t have time." 
 
 " What is time for ? " he asked calmly. 
 
 " To work with," she answered so promptly and 
 happily, that he regretted the indiscreet form of his 
 question. 
 
 " Oh, how does the good work go on ?" he asked mali 
 ciously, with the hereditary impulse of the race to slay a 
 rival. " Mrs. Hamill tells me that you have taken a con 
 tract to sprinkle salt on the tail of the millennium within 
 three months." 
 
 " Has she told you all about it ? " asked Joyce with a 
 bright smile. She was excited and happy, and perhaps a
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 little relieved that he already knew. " That is why I must 
 stay at home. Mr. Bahrdt has been gathering material 
 for a history of the labor organizations in this country, 
 and he wants very much to have it published this fall. 
 He thinks I can do the writing up from his skeleton plan 
 and the materials he will give me, and I am going to 
 work hard. I shall be so pleased if I can do it." 
 
 " A book ? A whole book ? And, worse than all, a 
 book with a purpose ? " 
 
 " All of that," she admitted gaily, though her eyes 
 were downcast. " Really, I think it better to call it a 
 purpose with a book, the purpose is so much the more 
 important." 
 
 " But how much of your time is this precious enter 
 prise going to occupy ? That is the point that your 
 friends are interested in." 
 
 " Oh, I shall have to give up everything else. I shall 
 have to give myself up to it wholly," she said earnestly. 
 "If I can do it at all by the time he wants it, I must not 
 divide my time with anything else. That is why I 
 thought it would be best for me to go back to Chicago to 
 work, but Dru wants me to stay." 
 
 Dru looked at Rodman with a tragic appeal. 
 
 "Do you think you could make this girl understand, 
 Mr. Rodman, that if she goes away to work where there 
 is nobody around with a grain of sense to make her stop 
 occasionally, I shall be mortally offended ? I Tiave stated 
 it as forcibly as my limited gift of language will permit, 
 but maybe if you put it in scientific form it will have 
 more weight with her." 
 
 " Very well. In scientific form, Miss Mabie, do you 
 intend to write every day until your hands tremble like 
 that ? " 
 
 She flushed and clasped one hand over the other. 
 
 " What if I do ? It is necessary."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 19! 
 
 " The necessity is not so urgent that you should wholly 
 sacrifice yourself." 
 
 "It is not a sacrifice. I want to do it. It is my life- 
 work, and if I can spend myself in strengthening the 
 sense of justice and responsibility in men, I think it will 
 be quite as well worth while as if I gave up my whole in 
 terest to discovering how many joints there are in the 
 legs of some invisible animal in our drinking water." 
 
 " Is that a challenge ? " he cried with much glee. " To 
 strengthen the sense of justice and responsibility, quotha. 
 Let me see," and he picked up her papers with a mis 
 chievous air. " Will you let the decision rest on six ex 
 tracts ? Just talk to Mrs. Hamill a moment, Here, will 
 you take this for one ? The man who sells his labor is 
 an economic slave and the man who sells the product of 
 the slave is a master. A great conspiracy against labor 
 ers has been organized and legalized. The railroad and 
 other mpnopolies are but part of this conspiracy, which is 
 the present industrial system, whose trend and object are 
 the overthrow of free government and the establishment 
 of despotism. By this conspiracy laborers are forced 
 into the market controlled by the employing class, 
 chained to the block of lost opportunity and knocked 
 down at such prices as the lowest level of civilization in 
 the community will permit. The dregs of civilization are 
 drawn to protect the rights of capitalists at strikes. 
 The police exist to protect the workingman if he works 
 for starvation wages and is an obedient serf ; to club him 
 down when he rebels against the capitalistic herd of rob 
 bers. Force only gives away to force. Who wants to 
 attack capitalism in earnest must overthrow the body 
 guard of it, the well-drilled and well-armed men of order, 
 and kill them if he does not want to be murdered himself. 
 Justice or responsibility, which ? No, just wait a minute. 
 I want to find another. Here ; We hold that the locked-
 
 IQ2 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 out or discharged employee has a property right in the 
 plant as well as in the surplus that was created by his 
 labor. Let us organize and renew our efforts and pro 
 ceed to attack the citadel of capitalism. Let us have 
 strikes and strikes and strikes until we win. There will 
 be some responsibility then, at least ! Oh, here is some 
 thing beautiful. I ll admit anything you want to claim for 
 this : I am weary of the cant which deifies the shadowy 
 vaporings of ill-balanced minds and labels as reactionary 
 that concrete expression of the noblest aspirations of 
 mankind called trades-unionism. The Bluchers of timid 
 ity and irresolution may cavil that the old guard fails to 
 pierce always the lines of the grenadiers of capital, but it 
 is not the Bluchers who deserve the laurel wreaths of 
 honor or the sounding peans. " 
 
 " Well, rhetoric is harmless," she protested. 
 
 "Is harmlessness your greatest claim for it? Then 
 what do you say to this ; All governments exist by the 
 abridgement of human liberty, and the more government 
 the less liberty. He alone is free who submits to no 
 government. All governments are domineering powers, 
 and any domineering power is an enemy to all mankind 
 and ought to be treated as such. " 
 
 " That isn t a fair example," she said uneasily. 
 
 He picked up another. 
 
 " This, then ? Money is carried away little by little 
 until the piles become larger and larger until it is like a 
 river running into Wall street, then it ceases to be like 
 the water of the earth because it is not taken up and 
 carried back over the country unless there is a shortage 
 and a contract to return the same and an additional sum 
 as interest. How could they return a shortage ? The 
 water is heaped up into little piles and pretty soon there 
 are so many little piles that they make a river and then
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 193 
 
 " And does it mean no more to you than a stumbling 
 grammarian and a poor maker of phrases ?" cried Joyce 
 passionately. " Don t you feel something under the wild- 
 ness and the unreason of the most fanatical of them all 
 that you have to bow your head to, that you do bow 
 your head to when Lowell voices it, calling his country, 
 She who lifts up the manhood of the poor. That is 
 what they are all trying to say, these writers who don t 
 stop to prune and trim their sentences and don t know 
 enough to weave smooth phrases, but do know something 
 infinitely better." 
 
 He felt himself thrilled by her fervor, yet he called her 
 a pretty fanatic to himself. He couldn t approve of even 
 a pretty fanaticism when it shut him out, and he distinctly 
 disapproved of any scheme of Karl s which was going to 
 occupy her time and interest to the exclusion of other 
 affairs. Mrs. Hamill saved him the necessity of replying. 
 
 " It isn t because they want to reform things," she 
 broke in, snapping a thread decisively. " It is just be 
 cause they like a fight. They just like it. It is their 
 nature to, and they wouldn t be happy a bit, or think it a 
 bit nice world, if there wasn t something in it to fight. 
 You needn t tell me. I know em. It is just human nature, 
 the same kind that makes the other people fight for 
 money or honors. They take it out that way, that s all." 
 
 " I don t think that is it altogether," Joyce said stead 
 ily. " I think perhaps they might like to choose the easy 
 way of letting things go, but after you have once seen 
 something that is true, you cannot ignore it and go on 
 your way as before." 
 
 " O Joyce, can t you be nice and bigoted for once, 
 just to make yourself agreeable ? It isn t as though I 
 were asking you to do something hard ; to be narrow- 
 minded is really the easiest thing in the world. Can t 
 you just pretend to be, at least?"
 
 194 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 But Joyce smiled rather faintly. She felt the dis 
 approval in the atmosphere, and contrasted it with the 
 burning eloquence with which Karl had discussed the 
 plan of his new book, the need there was of it to right 
 popular misconceptions and the important bearing it 
 would have at this most important epoch in their work. 
 Never had he been so ardent, so sternly self-devoted to 
 the cause of furthering the welfare of humanity. In the 
 fire of his enthusiasm, all worldly ambitions and objects 
 melted like dross in the crucible. Joyce had listened with 
 a high-strung responsiveness that made his ardor seem 
 the only justifiable ambition in the world. She did not 
 know he did not know himself how much of it was due 
 to the protest made by one side of his nature against a 
 weakening of the other. He talked of the old ideals 
 because he was not so sure of them as he had been. 
 Something had come between him and them, a girl s 
 face. He could not talk of the rights of humanity to 
 Edith Estee. In her presence he could not think of them. 
 He was an enthralled Samson, and while watching as he 
 had never watched before for every change in her most 
 changeful face, he could not remember that there was 
 anything else in the universe worth a man s thought. He 
 had never felt the power of a woman s charm before and 
 he was ignorant of all arts to defend himself. He gave 
 himself up to it with an abandon that terrified himself 
 when he realized it. Then he would tear himself away 
 and try to set himself right by preaching his most exact 
 ing creeds to Joyce, who had none of that numbing power 
 to charm a man away from his sterner ideals. She was 
 only his pupil and his fellow-worker. But when he left 
 her, to swing back himself, unwillingly but surely, into the 
 circle of Edith s influence, Joyce was in no mood to listen 
 to Paul s more circumscribed views of the future, in which 
 the welfare of humanity in general held a very small share.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 195 
 
 So Paul went away, wondering how it had come about 
 that he should have said the things he had said and put a 
 barrier between them when he had meant, if possible, to 
 ensure that there should never be any barrier between 
 them more. They were farther apart than ever, and in 
 some way it was partly his fault, though he didn t under 
 stand just how. She was more highly wrought than he, 
 he thought humbly ; he must try to understand the finer 
 feelings by which she was swayed. 
 
 And Joyce went back to her work in the evening, but 
 the words that came into her head were not words that 
 she would have wanted to write down. Why should she 
 mind what he had said ? It was nothing to her. She 
 knew her work and was doing it, and if he disapproved it 
 was only what was to be expected from the world, the 
 outside world which didn t understand. There was no 
 question at all about what was right. She must live her 
 own life and learn not to mind criticism. Of course his 
 criticism was no more than that of any other kindly 
 stranger who might happen to take an interest in her 
 doings. And then she tried to write, and couldn t, and 
 cried a little, and concluded that perhaps she was nervous 
 to-night, and she wouldn t try to write any more, but go 
 down and let Dru pet her into quiet instead. 
 
 And neither understood that the jar was simply the 
 inevitable outcome when the complex feminine nature 
 and the simpler nature of man meet, and that in the clash 
 they were learning the first great lesson of the Master 
 Love, to recognize and respect each other s right of 
 individuality.
 
 XXI. 
 
 THE most absorbing question with Stephen Hale at 
 this time, (in a professional direction, that is to say,) was 
 how and where it might be possible to find Tom Garner. 
 There were many reasons for his earnestness in the mat 
 ter. For one thing it appealed to that instinctive desire 
 of his to punish all wrong-doers which sometimes made 
 it hard for his friends to remember the more amiable 
 qualities of his nature. It also appealed to his profes 
 sional ambition, for this case was one of the first in which 
 he was associated with a certain prominent firm of law 
 yers in Chicago, with whom he hoped to establish closer 
 relations. Besides all this, there was a third element 
 down in the bottom of his mind which perhaps he did not 
 very often drag up to the light. Tom Garner was a 
 friend of Karl Bahrdt s, and Hale was growing to hate 
 Karl Bahrdt with a bitterness that was a new experience 
 to his just soul. He did not seek to justify it or even to 
 explain it. But if it would sting Bahrdt to have his 
 friend disgraced, the friend s chances for mercy at Hale s 
 hands were slight. 
 
 This was all in the background of his mind when, one 
 day, he called upon Miss Estee. His natural reticence 
 had prevented his ever mentioning the subject to her, 
 though he told her more of his personal and even profes 
 sional affairs than he ever told anyone else. They were 
 friends of long standing. She had defended him against 
 his aspersers from his boyhood up and she found in him 
 now a completeness of type that pleased her artistic
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 197 
 
 sense. She could not easily understand the fear Edith 
 seemed to have of him, for " the boy," as she called him, 
 had never overawed her in the least. But then she did 
 not treat Edith s fear very seriously. 
 
 Hale found her on this day at her writing-desk, which 
 was covered with a litter of manuscript, books and maga 
 zines. She turned her back upon these to greet him, and 
 then leaned back to watch him with a tentative expect 
 ancy, as though she were waiting for him to say something 
 that was worth taking note of. Some people found this ex 
 pectant manner of hers embarrassing, as intimating that 
 they were cumberers of the earth to no good purpose if 
 they remained commonplace and stupid after the fashion 
 in which they had been created, when they might have 
 used the opportunity she afforded them of being effec 
 tive. 
 
 _ But if they failed, she seldom did, which perhaps gave 
 her as much satisfaction. 
 
 " I have just been to see Mr. Jefferson," Hale said, 
 dropping his hat on the floor. " He seems to be failing 
 this summer. He wanted me to remind him of what pro 
 visions he had made in his will. He said he had forgot 
 ten himself." 
 
 " Did he really conform to the customs of the world 
 sufficiently to make a will ?" Miss Estee asked. "That 
 is a surprise. I should as soon have expected him to be 
 concerned about the salvation of his soul as about the 
 distribution of his property." 
 
 " I have had the honor of being his legal adviser for 
 some years," Hale remarked drily. 
 
 " To be sure ; and one might as well expect you to for 
 get about ^he salvation of your soul as the distribution of 
 your property," she retorted, with evident pleasure in the 
 characterization. " By the way, who is his heir? Why, 
 " She sat up straight, with sudden animation. " It
 
 198 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 can only be his granddaughter. I hadn t thought of 
 that. Isn t it his granddaughter ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said. There could be no secret about it, 
 but he let the fact slip from him with a certain reluct 
 ance. 
 
 Miss Estee said nothing for a minute. She stared at 
 him with an intently absent look, a red spot glowing on 
 each cheek. "I wish Helen could have known," she said 
 at last. " So he really admits that he was conscious of 
 her existence, and that he owes something to her child ! " 
 
 " He could hardly question her existence," said Hale. 
 
 " You do not understand the language of philosophy," 
 she said with a ready delight in any verbal tangle. "One 
 of the first things you have to learn, when you try to be 
 philosophical, is that nothing really exists. The other 
 theories may differ in the different schools, but that is 
 something they all agree upon, because that is too pre 
 cious for any school to have a monopoly of it. As the 
 fairy godmother says in the good old-fashioned stories, 
 when you have found the diamond that is lodged in the 
 head of the walrus and the apple that grows in the heart 
 of the earth, and a few things like that, the rest is easy. 
 Once bring yourself to know that you are an illusion, and 
 that everything that you see and hear and feel and touch 
 is an illusion as well, and everything else you want to 
 prove is easy. Illusion is a very malleable substance." 
 
 " The existence of the grandchild may prove to be il- 
 lusionary also," Stephen answered. " I am sure I wouldn t 
 know how to goto work to find her, if it became neces 
 sary. This tracing people is not what you romancers 
 make it out to be." 
 
 " Don t throw discredit on an honest class of people," 
 Miss Estee retorted. " Perhaps you will admit in the 
 end that we haven t misled you very far. What would 
 you say if I were to help you find your missing heroine?"
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 199 
 
 " True, you knew her mother," he answered with new 
 interest. " Have you kept track of the child ?" 
 
 " No, I haven t kept track of her, as you call it. She 
 and her father vanished from my sight when Helen 
 died. But then I am a romancer, and know things that 
 are hidden from men of the law." With a sparkle in her 
 eyes she turned to the writing-desk. A little drawer gave 
 up to her hand a faded morocco case. She opened it and 
 looked quietly a moment at two faces it held, as though 
 renewing acquaintance with something half forgotten, be 
 fore she handed it to Stephen. 
 
 "That is Helen Jefferson," she said quietly, " and her 
 husband." 
 
 She watched him with a demure expectancy, waiting to 
 hear him exclaim upon the resemblance to Joyce Mabie. 
 To her eyes it was very marked. There was the same 
 erect poise of the head, the same straight gaze in the eyes, 
 the same sensitive droop of the mouth. It was Joyce 
 Mabie a little more wilful, a little more rebellious, a little 
 more beautiful than he might have seen her any day. But 
 she had not counted upon Stephen s peculiar lack of imag 
 ination and the difference that the old fashion in dress and 
 hair would make to a masculine eye, accustomed to judge 
 of effects rather than of details. 
 
 " Ah, indeed," he said with polite interest. Her little 
 dramatic effect was entirely spoiled. She looked at him 
 with silent indignation, and made a marginal note in her 
 mind that Edith s judgment was often instinctively 
 correct. 
 
 He looked at the other portrait. A long face, with a 
 drooping eye, a perfect nose, a mouth whose smile could 
 not be hidden by the long, delicate moustache that shaded 
 it. 
 
 "She eloped with a worthless fellow, didn t she ?" Hale 
 asked. " I have heard so, and his face shows it."
 
 2OO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Miss Estee caught the case from his hand with a sudden 
 movement and snapped it to. 
 
 " He was an artist," she said after a moment, keeping 
 her voice steady with an effort. " That was enough to 
 discredit him with a man like Mr. Jefferson. It was said 
 that he was a spendthrift. Whether that was true or not 
 I cannot say. Bohemians must bear that reputation, I 
 suppose, and he was a Bohemian to his very shadow. It 
 was also said, as you just remarked, that he was a worth 
 less fellow and a dissipated man. That was a lie." She 
 put the case back upon the table, but kept her hand 
 upon it. 
 
 Hale perceived that he had blundered, and made an 
 awkward attempt at turning the conversation. But Miss 
 Estee did not help him as usual, and he soon took advan 
 tage of a break to make his adieus. 
 
 Miss Estee watched him swinging down the gravel walk 
 with the nearest approach to sympathy with Edith s feel 
 ing that she had ever had. She turned to look again at 
 the face of the man who had been able, whatever his 
 faults, to win one woman to throw in her fortunes with his, 
 and to make another remain his defender for twenty years. 
 Be it more or less, that was what Stephen Hale could 
 never do. 
 
 Then she remembered that she hadn t told him, after 
 all, that Joyce Mabie was Helen Jefferson s child. Tom 
 Garner s freak of dropping the " Mabie " in those youthful 
 days had thrown them all off the track. Well, Stephen 
 might find it out in his own way now.
 
 XXII. 
 
 " SEE here, Karl, I wish you would take yourself and 
 your reform rubbish off to Kamtchatka, or wherever else 
 you please outside of Hereward. What is that stuff you 
 are putting Miss Mabie up to write for you ? " 
 
 " Oh, it is something that I need." 
 
 " Do you propose to offer that girl as a sacrifice on your 
 revolutionary altar ? " 
 
 " Does she call it a sacrifice ?" 
 
 " No, but that has nothing to do with it," Paul retorted. 
 " You are taking her time and her strength and all her in 
 terest in life for your purposes, and what good is going to 
 come of it ? I saw her the other day when she had been 
 working till she was in a tremble, and she has been keep 
 ing it up. I can t get a word with her." 
 
 " Well, what of it ? It is all for her own good." 
 
 " Will it be for her good to break down ? " 
 
 " Pooh ! No danger of that ! She is strong, and it is 
 as well that she should learn what work is. It was for 
 that reason I told her it must be done without delay. It 
 will be the best thing for her." 
 
 " You are an outer barbarian, and you don t know any 
 thing about it. I have just as much right to say it is not 
 good for her." 
 
 " Very well, then it surely rests with her to decide. 
 You can leave it to her." 
 
 " That sounds confoundedly sure on your part," Paul 
 chafed. The tension of the last few days was telling on 
 him. " You are responsible for this enthusiasm of hers,"
 
 2O2 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 he broke out, "and you are spurring her on to extremes 
 to which she would not be at all inclined to go by herself. 
 I d like to know what you are doing it for." 
 
 " As I said, for her own good. You do not understand." 
 
 " If you mean anything special " 
 
 " I mean something special." 
 
 " Then I wish you would be plainer about it." 
 
 Bahrdt turned restlessly away. 
 
 " I do not care to speak plainer. It is enough for me to 
 say that I am acting the part of a friend to a girl who has 
 not many, and who may soon find that her work is the 
 only thing she can lean upon. Work is a sure safeguard. 
 It is the only thing that one can trust at last. For that 
 reason I wish her to feel that she is needed in the work of 
 that cause where her sympathies are already engaged. 
 For that reason I have made this work for her to do. The 
 time may come when she will be glad to have it to keep 
 her from despair." 
 
 " You mean because of her father ? " 
 
 Bahrdt flashed a surprised look at him, but answered 
 without hesitation, " Yes." 
 
 " I heard the story as a rumor," Paul said quietly. 
 "What credit do you give it?" 
 
 " It is probably true," Bahrdt answered gloomily. " I 
 never understood Tom Garner. He is lawless to the very 
 bottom of his nature, yet not aggressively so. I have 
 sometimes thought that the artistic sense of fitness re 
 placed in his case a missing moral sense, and did it so well 
 that few people perceived the substitution." 
 
 " It sounds well as a theory," Paul said a little impa 
 tiently. He did not altogether relish the idea that 
 Joyce s father should be discussed in that way. " But 
 I m not sure that we know very much about the motives 
 or springs of action of anybody. People are mysteries, 
 and it is hard to classify them even as good and bad. Be-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 203 
 
 sides, it is merely a suspicion, as I understand it. It is 
 not even circumstantially proven." 
 
 " No. Perhaps my knowledge of the man makes me too 
 ready to accept the theory. It is too much in character 
 to leave room for much doubt." 
 
 Paul moved away restlessly. 
 
 " It will break her heart ! " 
 
 "His daughter s? No, it will not break her heart. 
 She is made of sterner stuff than that. She is not afraid 
 to face any reality. But it will be better for her to have 
 firm hold upon some work, hard work." 
 
 " Is that what you were thinking of ? You are a good 
 fellow after all, Karl !" Paul relented. 
 
 " Put ! The work needs her as much as she needs the 
 work. She can do much good if she is ready to give her 
 self up. That is what I have been looking forward to. I 
 have studied her. She has the qualities that will make 
 her a good lieutenant. But I have not been sure of hold 
 ing her before. She is young and life is always tempting 
 to the young. She could not help me so long as her 
 thoughts might turn with longing to the ordinary life of 
 the world. Dreams of possible happiness would interfere 
 with her usefulness. But if the world throws her off, she 
 will see that she must not hold back. She will have to 
 choose it as her salvation. There is nothing else for 
 her." His eye flashed and almost he seemed to rejoice 
 in the coil that snared her. At any rate, there was some 
 thing in it that Paul could not stand patiently. He 
 flushed under his fair skin, but he spoke coolly. 
 
 " Oh, yes, there is. If she will consent to be my wife, 
 that alternative is open to her." 
 
 Bahrdt wheeled upon him, amazement, chagrin and re 
 sentment in his face. 
 
 " Your wife ? So, is that settled ? " 
 
 " Of course not. How can a fellow settle anything
 
 2O4 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 with your confounded socialism cutting him out all the 
 time? That ever you should so far forget the obliga 
 tions of friendship as to become my rival in love, 
 Karl ! " 
 
 But Karl would not smile. " It would be a mistake," 
 he said passionately. " She has no right to think of love 
 if she hopes to do any good to the cause, no more right 
 than / have," he said, throwing his head up and looking 
 Paul defiantly in the face. 
 
 " That s all a lot of precious nonsense," Paul retorted 
 promptly, "and since you unfortunately seem to have 
 some influence with her, I shall be much obliged to you 
 if you will keep such opinions strictly to yourself. lr 1 
 had the gift of tongues, as you have, I would tell you that 
 a man may lose the best of life if he tries to feed his 
 heart as well as his brain with abstractions. That has 
 been Mr. Jefferson s plan, and he hasn t made a glowing 
 success of it. You may forswear love if you want to. I 
 applaud your wisdom, because no woman would ever 
 dream of falling in love with that ugly mug of yours any 
 how. But there are other people who are good enough 
 for your cause, people who aren t wanted anywhere 
 else in the world. You might let Joyce Mabie alone." 
 
 But Bahrdt was not to be appeased by his winning 
 abuse. He was disturbed by the news, more disturbed 
 than could be readily understood by one who did not 
 know his ascetic theories in regard to life and happiness, 
 and the difficulty he was finding just now in keeping those 
 theories clear to himself. To have his disciple desert 
 them seemed like treachery. 
 
 "As you will," he said sternly. " But understand that 
 I shall certainly do all that I can to prevent your mar 
 riage." 
 
 " Important if true. Why, you double-dyed traitor ? " 
 
 " Because if she marries she must give up her work."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2O$ 
 
 " Not unless she wishes. I don t offer myself in the 
 capacity of a domestic tyrant. My inexperience would 
 disqualify me." 
 
 " That is talk. If she marries, it will be the end of 
 her usefulness because it will be the -end of her interest. 
 And if she is to do any good in the work she has under 
 taken, if she is to be anything more than a dabbler, she 
 must give herself to it wholly, she must not try to serve 
 two masters, she must not give a divided interest. What 
 has any one to do with love who has once had a wider 
 vision? Love is a snare, a trap, the crowning personality, 
 and it should be fought, fought to the death, by everyone 
 who would keep his mind clear, his hands free to do the 
 work he is in the world to do, his soul unstained. Is he 
 sane, if he risks this for the sake of a pretty face and a 
 soft smile ? " 
 
 He was trembling with agitation and his pale face had 
 an appealing look that accorded strangely with his stern 
 words, but Paul had been too much absorbed in his own 
 interests to catch the hint Karl s last words might have 
 given. He held his peace a moment, mastering his first 
 impulse to knock his whilom friend down, but when he 
 spoke his voice was quivering with indignation. 
 
 " By what right do you lay the law down for Miss 
 Mabie ? By what right do you undertake to interfere 
 with me ? My word, Karl, this goes beyond my patience. 
 You count heavily on my friendship if you think I can 
 tolerate such interference." 
 
 Bahrdt had recovered his composure somewhat, but not 
 his serenity. 
 
 " It is nothing to me whether you marry, if you marry 
 someone else." 
 
 " I am not talking of anyone else. I am talking of 
 Joyce Mabie." 
 
 " And I am thinking of Joyce Mabie s good," Bahrdt
 
 2O6 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 said hotly. " She is worth too much to have her powers 
 wasted on a humdrum life of happy mediocrity." 
 
 " I don t know that the unhappy mediocrity of the life 
 you propose instead will be any better for her." 
 
 " That is for her to say." 
 
 " I am perfectly willing to leave it to her. If I spoke 
 to you about it, it was because I took your interest for 
 granted." 
 
 " My interest in what ? " 
 
 " In something besides your own personal affairs." 
 
 " It is fair of you to taunt me with being absorbed in 
 personal affairs." 
 
 " I don t care what you are absorbed in, provided you 
 will not interfere with mine." 
 
 " You are able to speak for yourself, I suppose." 
 
 " And I mean to." 
 
 Bahrdt did not answer. Paul watched him a moment 
 in wrathy silence and then turned abruptly and left him. 
 He was angrier than he had ever been since his school 
 boy days, and with his anger there mingled a personal re 
 sentment that Karl should think so slightingly of him. 
 Did Joyce share that opinion, with others ?
 
 XXIII. 
 
 WHEN Paul went to High street, which he did as soon 
 as he thought he could trust his temper, he was met with 
 the information that Joyce had denied herself to all vis 
 itors. Dru tried to convey it in as impersonal a manner 
 as possible, and expatiated in gay confidences on the 
 girl s inky fingers and inspiration-tumbled hair, but Paul 
 had a premonition of disaster. This grew into dismay 
 when the next day brought the same answer. That Karl 
 was at the bottom of it he did not doubt, and for a mo 
 ment he harbored the idea of a subtile revenge. Edith 
 Estee would not refuse to see him, and it would be hard 
 if he could not turn the conversation upon his dear friend 
 Karl Bahrdt s habits, his stern disapproval of frivolous 
 aims and his devotion to his work to the point of keeping 
 himself in continual poverty. A little of the right sort of 
 praise, judiciously expressed, might make it quite as dif 
 ficult for that meddlesome reformer to gain access to his 
 charmer as Paul was finding it in his own case. But he 
 relented sufficiently to wait another day, and fortu 
 nately for Karl this time Joyce did not refuse to see 
 him. 
 
 He congratulated himself upon this concession, but 
 when she came down he was swiftly conscious that there 
 was little gained by it. Something had happened. He 
 felt in some subtle way that she had put him far away 
 from her. The difference chilled and alarmed him even 
 before she spoke. All the jesting reproaches which he 
 had meant to heap upon her died on his lips.
 
 208 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 11 1 didn t know that the book was going to oust me 
 altogether," he said with pathetic directness. 
 
 " I have been very busy," she answered with no attempt 
 at evasion. " And I shall be busier still. I must be, to 
 do the work that is waiting. I can see that it worries 
 Dru, so I have decided to go back to Chicago. That is 
 why She stopped abruptly, but he guessed she meant 
 that this was why she had consented to see him. 
 
 He looked at her dumbly,, marvelling at her decisive 
 ness and helpless before it. He had not had time to real 
 ize that it was all artificial, an armor woven by her fears. 
 She did not look at him as she went on explaining in dis 
 passionate tones. 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt s paper is there, for one thing. You 
 know I have been working on it for some time. I shall 
 have more to do with it after this. He has been explain 
 ing his plans, and putting it more into my hands. Then 
 this book, and then other things when it is clone. I don t 
 know all, but so long as I can do the work, and Mr. 
 Badrdt thinks I can, I shall go on with it." 
 
 " You seem to have reached a point where every pros 
 pect pleases and only man is vile," he said, recovering 
 himself a little. " If you have actually determined to 
 know us no more, you might at least pretend to a little 
 regret and not be so heartlessly severe about it. How 
 soon do you depart ? " 
 
 " I must go in a day or two." 
 
 " Are you glad to go ? " 
 
 " I am very glad to have found my work." 
 
 " How do you know it is your work ? " 
 
 " Because it is what I have always wanted to do, though 
 I didn t know just how. It will make my life seem worth 
 living." 
 
 " Has it been a hollow mockery so far ? " 
 
 " I have not been living to any particular purpose."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2Og 
 
 "Then I am to congratulate you upon having found an 
 opportunity to justify your existence ? " 
 
 She lifted her eyes for a shy little look that was hardly 
 in keeping with her role. 
 
 " Yes, and to wish me success." 
 
 " I don t know whether I shall or not. If a good, thor 
 ough defeat would leave you ready to listen to someone 
 besides Karl, I am not sure but that I shall wish you the 
 very reverse of success." 
 
 She looked at him frowningly under her eyebrows. 
 " Don t you think that if there is some real work right 
 before my hands I ought to do it, and be glad to do it ? " 
 
 " I don t see any necessity for you to shut yourself 
 away from everybody who cares for you." 
 
 " If I am going to work, I must be free to work. I 
 must not let myself be drawn aside. That would mean 
 in the end simply frittering myself away. I don t sup 
 pose I can do very much at the best, and in order to do 
 anything at all I must keep myself from being dis 
 tracted." 
 
 It sounded like an echo of Bahrdt s words. Paul rec 
 ognized it and smiled a little sarcastically. 
 
 " I think I would like to have you congratulate me, in 
 turn, on being so fortunate as to have no uncomfortable 
 standards to keep preaching reproach at me when I en 
 joy life after the fashion into which I was born. Will 
 you ?" 
 
 " You didn t mind so long as I played with the subject 
 in a dilletantish way," she said urgently. " But when I 
 show that I am in earnest, you don t like it. I would be 
 ashamed of myself if I were not willing to devote myself 
 to it wholly, heart and soul, when the opportunity comes. 
 It is the only thing that would make my former profes 
 sions seem true." 
 
 " If you are doing it for the sake of consistency "
 
 2IO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " I am doing if because I want to make my life worth 
 while." 
 
 " And you think this is the best way ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said defiantly, and she met his searching 
 look without flinching. 
 
 " It seems to me hard and cold. I don t see for my 
 part why you should banish your friends because you 
 want to help humanity." 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt says 
 
 " I like Karl, as you know, but I would rather hear 
 what you think in this matter. You are not deciding 
 upon his advice alone, are you ? Don t say you are, or I 
 shall feel like calling him to account for the ruin of your 
 life." 
 
 " I decide on my own judgment," she said proudly. 
 " It is the only life that would satisfy me. I would hate 
 myself and be ashamed of myself for all time if I chose 
 anything else. It is the only thing for me." 
 
 " Do you think that all the women who live private 
 lives of helpfulness and love, who are an inspiration to all 
 that know them, are living wasted lives ? " 
 
 " No, no ! " she cried with a flash of reproach. " I am 
 not blaming anyone. I am only trying to see for myself 
 what is best for me, and you are making it hard," she 
 added under her breath. 
 
 He wondered whether the best argument would not be 
 to take her in his arms and kiss her cold lips until she 
 knew what it was she was putting aside, but he crushed 
 his hands instead and turned his head away. He was too 
 proud to wring a consent from her. Unless her love was 
 given without compulsion, there would be no grace in the 
 gift. If he must woo her by syllogism and demonstration, 
 so be it. It would not become either him or her to make 
 his appeal a low one. 
 
 " Do you think that Mr. Jefferson s life has been an
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2 1 I 
 
 ideal one?" he asked presently. He had been looking 
 absently at the tower which loomed beyond the edge of 
 their garden. 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " You are working on his theory. You are choosing 
 sociology instead of astronomy, but you are choosing it in 
 the same way, to the exclusion of all human interests. 
 His only crime was that he was incapable of loving, but 
 he has been punished with solitary imprisonment for life, 
 you see. In his old age he is left alone, sick as he is now, 
 with only a hired attendant." 
 
 " Is he sick ? " she asked, with surprise. 
 
 " You didn t know ? " 
 
 She flushed. "You think it would have been better if 
 I had been carrying him soup rather than staying at 
 home to write ? " 
 
 _ " No," he said gently. " Some have a talent for soup and 
 some for- writing, and you would better do what you can 
 do. I was only thinking that it points my mention of his 
 solitude. You live in the nearest house, but even you did 
 not know of his need, because he has shut himself apart 
 so long." 
 
 "And you think I am like him ?" 
 
 " You will be like him if you are going to vow yourself 
 to this work to the exclusion of everything else." 
 
 " I am going to give myself to this work to the exclu 
 sion of everything else," she said steadily. " Other people 
 have other interests in life, other claims which it would 
 not be right for them to neglect. I have no other claim 
 upon me 
 
 He made a sudden movement, and she added hurriedly, 
 
 " And I shall not allow anything to make a claim upon 
 me. I am choosing this as my life-work. I am going to 
 devote myself to it. This summer has been a pleasant 
 interlude, but it cannot last," She spoke firmly, too
 
 212 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 firmly, perhaps. It suggested that she feared to leave 
 any obscurity. At least there was some consolation in 
 knowing that she had been weighing the matter. It was 
 clear she meant him to understand the import of her de 
 cision, and if he gave her a chance now she would state it 
 unequivocally. This flashed through his mind while she 
 spoke and he decided swiftly that he would not give her 
 the chance. An unspoken decision might be more easily 
 changed than one which had been recorded in words. 
 His tactics now must be to avoid the understanding he 
 had been seeking, until he could bring other influences to 
 bear. 
 
 " The only thing I don t like about your little scheme is 
 that you have left no place for me in it," he said noncha 
 lantly. " You will be living the life of your choice, winning 
 fame and an approving conscience. And I, meantime, 
 will be living my insignificant little life after the lower 
 lights accorded me, and you will never think of me, or if 
 you happen to come across my name somewhere, you will 
 blush to remember that you ever felt a moment s interest 
 in so contemptible a creature, who didn t live for any 
 great purpose. I shall have to derive what consolation I 
 can from the fact that there are no tall tower walls be 
 tween my friends and me." And he picked up his hat 
 and retreated in good order. 
 
 But Joyce sat for a long time watching soberly the 
 shadow thrown by Mr. Jefferson s tower, creeping minute 
 by minute toward her over the grass.
 
 XXIV. 
 
 AT the gate Rodman met Prof. Hamill, who turned 
 with a pleased exclamation and walked back with him to 
 the corner. 
 
 " So sorry I wasn t at home ! You won t come in 
 again ? Then I ll walk a little way with you. Unless 
 you are in a hurry ? " 
 
 "No," said Paul, with a rueful laugh. "I m not wanted 
 anywhere. There isn t anything to be in a hurry about." 
 
 " That s nice," said the Professor genially, quite uncon 
 scious of any under meaning. " Oh, I wanted to speak to 
 you about Baily. Would it be possible for you to find a 
 place for him in that human hive of yours?" 
 
 " Ben Baily ? Why, he d never come. The last time 
 I saw him he gave me to understand that I would stay 
 myself at my own proper peril. He would no more 
 come himself than he would consent to wear hand 
 cuffs." 
 
 " Then I m afraid some evil may befall him, that s all," 
 said the Professor mournfully. " Perhaps it won t be a 
 cup of hemlock juice, but if it isn t it is only because 
 Hereward isn t Athens." 
 
 " Poor old Ben ! What has he been doing now ? " 
 
 " You ve heard of what happened last night ?" 
 
 " Nothing. I thought he was away. I haven t seen 
 
 him for several weeks." 
 
 
 
 " He has been away, on one of his regular country 
 tramps, but he came back a few days ago. I believe he 
 thinks the town can t be trusted too long alone. And
 
 214 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 this time he probably thought his apprehensions were 
 justified." 
 
 " What has he done ? Disregarded the divine right of 
 every free-born citizen to be as wicked as the thoughts of 
 his heart may prompt ? " 
 
 " Exactly. The trouble is that in the eye of the law a 
 man s conscience is as much his castle as his house is, 
 and our friend will get into trouble if he doesn t heed it. 
 You know the new brick business block that Hale has 
 been putting up and the Hereward Eagle has been flap 
 ping its wings over ? Well, the walls are down this morn 
 ing." 
 
 "Fallen ?" 
 
 " How else ? " asked the Professor so demurely that 
 Paul laughed. 
 
 " But why should you connect it with Ben Baily ? Does 
 anyone else suspect him ? " 
 
 " I hope not. And I may be wrong. I may do him 
 more than justice." 
 
 " Or less." 
 
 "Of course. It is just the way you look at it. He was 
 examining that piece of work yesterday. I happened to 
 see him, and this morning I remembered it, and the way 
 Baily s mind works. You may not have heard of it, but 
 -there has been some talk about whether that building was 
 safe or not. A small part of it fell a few days ago and 
 was patched up. The trouble was that the contractor 
 took it at so low a figure that I suppose he had to use 
 poor material to save himself from loss. In a city the 
 building would probably have been condemned, if public 
 attention had been directed to it. But Hereward has no 
 Building Inspector. Who among the citizens felt called 
 upon to interfere? I didn t. You didn t. I won t 
 .answer for Baily." 
 
 "Nor I," said Rodman, "though perhaps we are too
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 21$ 
 
 much inclined to credit him with a principal share in all 
 the visitations of divine wrath that befall the community. 
 How do you know that Providence didn t manage it with 
 out help ?" 
 
 " Baily wouldn t have waited to give Providence an 
 opportunity," said Hamill drily. " But my suspicions are 
 my own. It might not be kind to Baily to make them 
 public. Only, if you have anything you could set him 
 at that would take up quite a good deal of his time, per 
 haps it would be as well." 
 
 " I ll see about it," said Paul with a laugh, " but I m 
 afraid it will be difficult. Civilization is a red rag to 
 him." 
 
 " Considering the man, that is an arraignment of civili 
 zation," said Hamill quietly. 
 
 " Why ? Because Baily is a good fellow ? Oh, well, I 
 -don t go back on that. But then I m not prepared to go 
 back on civilization, either. It is clean, for one thing 
 That makes up for a good deal of plain viciousness." 
 
 Hamill grinned appreciatively. " You re a godly youth, 
 then. Go along, Beau Brummel, and try your arts on the 
 Hereward gadfly." 
 
 They parted at the corner, and Prof. Hamill turned 
 back. As he repassed the house of the old astronomer, 
 the door was suddenly opened and the housekeeper came 
 hurriedly down to the gate. Her face was pale and 
 frightened. 
 
 " Oh, won t you come in and see Mr. Jefferson, Prof. 
 Hamill ? I m afraid he s very bad." 
 
 " Oh, I m so sorry," he said, with but a hazy idea of 
 what the trouble might be, but turning in. " Can I do 
 anything ? " 
 
 She began to cry nervously. " He s talking out of his 
 head. I can t abide to have anyone talking out of his 
 head. I m that scared."
 
 2l6 APPRENTICES TO DESIGN Y. 
 
 " Oh, I m so sorry," he said again, chagrined at her 
 helplessnesss and conscious of his own. " I think perhaps 
 you d better run across for Mrs. Hamill. And the doctor. 
 And " He looked up the street, but Rodman was 
 already out of sight, so he went up alone to the sick-room 
 of the solitary old man. 
 
 Paul wandered on, and, as was his wont when troubled 
 in mind, his feet carried him out into the fields. It was 
 the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was warm and 
 the grasses under his feet were dusty and brown. The 
 grasshoppers flew up in swarms about him and the yellow 
 butterflies flocked past in graceful, timid flight. Men 
 were mowing in a near meadow, and the rhythmic whirr 
 of the machinery and the sweet scent of the cut grass and 
 the intricate tangle of insect sounds that fill a summer 
 day all came blended together to his senses. He gave lit 
 tle heed to any part of it. The pressure of suspense and 
 of the longing at his heart was beginning to tell upon him. 
 Only once he glanced about, and then it was to realize, 
 with a sort of fear, how different the very face of nature 
 would be to him if Joyce Mabie went out of his life. 
 
 A man who had been watching the mowers caught 
 sight of him and came across the field toward him. It 
 was Ben Baily, and Paul stopped with a gleam of pleasure 
 on his face 1 when he recognized him. 
 
 " Hello, Ben ! I thought you d gone off and left me to 
 my fate. What have you been doing with yourself all 
 these weeks ? 
 
 " Busy," said Ben laconically. 
 
 " With what ? " 
 
 " Doing things. And looking after things. Mostly the 
 latter." 
 
 " And earning public gratitude, I suppose," said Paul 
 remembering the brick wall. " I m afraid the public grati-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2 1/ 
 
 tude is hardly substantial enough for you to subsist upon 
 it alone. Does it pay ? " 
 
 " Well, I haven t had to hire a clerk to clip coupons 
 yet," he admitted cheerfully. " Perhaps you wouldn t 
 say it paid, exactly, perhaps not, but there is a mighty 
 amount of satisfaction about it," he concluded with a droll 
 gratification in his sidelong glance. " So long as I haven t 
 asked any woman to share my fortunes, I don t see whose 
 business it is whether they re fat or lean. And who d 
 look after Here ward if I took another job ? " 
 
 He looked so self-satisfied that Rodman* could not re 
 sist the temptation. 
 
 " By the way, Ben, what made the walls of Hale s new 
 block come down last night ? " 
 
 " I can t say," he answered calmly, though there was a 
 tightening about his lips, " unless there s a better use for 
 -men s life-blood in this here world than to make mort 
 of it." 
 
 " Mort ? What do you mean ? " 
 
 " That s what they would have done, Hale and his con 
 tractor between em, if the ram-shackly thing hadn t gone 
 down. It was bound to fall, as anyone could see that 
 hadn t been blinded by greed for gain. Better it fell last 
 night, with no one around, than to-day with a dozen men 
 on it." 
 
 " I didn t know it was so bad as that," said Paul, startled 
 by the thought and roused by Baily s stern tones. 
 " Surely Hale didn t know." 
 
 " Perhaps not. Perhaps he thought it wasn t his busi 
 ness to know. What he wanted was a fine brick block that 
 would bring him in fifteen per cent, on his money. Maybe 
 by skimping on the cost he could make it twenty. So he 
 let it to the lowest bidder instead of to the best workman. 
 Then the bidders figured on how much they could cheat 
 on materials here and there, and the one that dared to
 
 2IS APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 scale the closest got the job. So he got poor brick and 
 called it first grade, and he made his mort so thin that 
 his walls fell down before he was through, and if his work 
 men had been atop when it fell, he would have been a 
 murderer after proving himself a liar and a cheat." 
 
 "It is rather startling from that point of view. But if 
 you impeach our whole system, what would you do ? " 
 
 " I would prohibit every bargain counter in the country, 
 the same as lotteries. I d have men and women under 
 stand that they can t get something for nothing without 
 there being cheating somewhere along the line. But, 
 Lord, Lord, I don t mean to be hard on poor human na 
 ture. You can t expect a baby to keep its fingers off a 
 candy stick or a woman to pass by on the other side when 
 she sees a bargain or a man to let his work to the highest 
 bidder instead of to the lowest. Tain t in human nature 
 yet. Maybe we will grow to it sometime. In the mean 
 time, we ain t ready to discharge Providence as an over 
 seer." There was a mischievous gleam in his sidelong 
 glance, but he sedately stuck a blade of grass between his 
 teeth and walked on with his hands in his pockets, as 
 though he had no greater interest in the affairs of the uni 
 verse than any other yokel in the field. 
 
 "Ben, I wish you would come back to the Works," Paul 
 said presently. He had thrown himself down on a slope 
 that fell away toward the cool east, where he could see 
 the mowers in the distance. " You told me you left be 
 cause you couldn t hit it off with my uncle. Don t you 
 think you could manage with me ? " 
 
 " Oh, I dare say," Baily answered easily. " But I have 
 another sort of life before me now. I m a free lance and 
 answerable to no man. It suits me better. 
 
 " But it doesn t suit me. I want you there. You know 
 more about wood-carving than most people. I want you 
 to come and raise the standard of the work."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " That isn t my business," he said restively. " I work 
 at my carving as it is. I sell my things in the country 
 where I go, enough to get me a living, besides being a sort 
 of missionary work among the farmers. A bit of fine 
 work like that, if it is only a knife-box, does as much good 
 as a text framed and hung up over the best bed. More, 
 if they pay for the box and get the text for nothing." 
 
 " But that sort of a roving life is not the thing for 
 you." 
 
 " You mean well, Paul, but I don t see but what I m 
 the man to say whether it is the life for me or not. I do 
 have a tarnal grudge against putting my neck into a hal 
 ter, like. Why does it rile people up so like pizen to see 
 a fellow trotting along without a rope around his throat ? 
 A man can make a blame fool of himself in ten thousand 
 different ways, and it s his own business. He can swindle 
 an d cheat his neighbors and bully his family and put his 
 name ofi a sign board over a saloon, inviting the whole 
 community to go to perdition, and they don t meddle with 
 him. But let him set out to live a clean, honest life in 
 the way God meant him to, if so be that it ain t the way of 
 the rest of them, why, bless you, there ain t a man in the 
 place that don t have a right to call him to account." 
 
 " As for that, Ben, my boy, you get even with the ma 
 jority of us and leave a balance on the other side." 
 
 " Well," drawled Ben without a smile, " perhaps I have 
 done a little something in that line myself." 
 
 " You used to be the crack workman, I remember," said 
 Paul, returning to the charge. " And you earned very 
 good wages." 
 
 " Oh, I ve done lots of fool things in my day." 
 
 " What made you leave ? " 
 
 "Wanted to find out if Hereward had a monopoly of 
 idjets. It hasn t." 
 
 "Where did you go ? Come, tell me about it, Ben."
 
 22O APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "I went to Chicago first. Queer place for a country 
 chap who d been brought up to think that twelve men make 
 a crowd and twenty a howling mob. Why, there s enough 
 men walking up and down the streets there from morning 
 to night just looking for work to make a good-sized town 
 by themselves, set em off together on some prairie. 
 There are places in that city, with a lake afore them to 
 give em a hint now and again of what water is good for, 
 so foul that no animal but man would live there. I ve 
 walked there by day and wondered that the city didn t 
 clear the people out and set fire to the houses. And 
 when I walked there by night, I wondered that God, if 
 he took note, didn t burn it away with the people, for 
 their own good." He turned upon his back with his hands 
 clasped under his head and his eyes turned up to the sky 
 that arched above them in all the speckless splendor of 
 the summer. "Well, it set me a-thinking, that and 
 some other things. There weren t no lack of men that 
 could tell how to make the world run straight. I took it 
 all in like a fish. I went to the workingmen s meetings 
 and the socialists clubs and the anarchists conclaves. 
 There was red-hot talk, and every man of them was cock 
 sure his way was right. But somehow it didn t seem to 
 bring conviction to my soul, as we used to say at camp- 
 meeting. It was too red-hot, and they were too cock 
 sure, and it seemed to me that they spent more strength 
 in hating than in helping. So I went to the churches for 
 a spell. Nothing red-hot there. Everything soft and 
 cool and soothing. I was getting so kind of petered out 
 with the excitement of the labor meetings that I couldn t 
 sleep, and the churches was like a rest-cure. I went 
 steady, every evening, if not to one then to another. But 
 one day it came over me all of a sudden how they had 
 been going on just like that for hundreds and hundreds of 
 years, soothing people instead of making them think, while
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 221 
 
 here was the places I had seen and men living the lives I 
 had seen em live. Well, conviction came tq me all in a 
 flash, just like what they used to say in camp-meeting, 
 only it was conviction of the wrong sort. I got up and 
 walked out, with the people a-staring, and I never went 
 back." 
 
 He paused reflectively, but Paul, watching his absorbed 
 face, refrained from interrupting. 
 
 " Then I found that I had come to the end of my sav 
 ings and I had to join the army that was marching through 
 the streets looking for work. When I looked at the 
 others crowding and jostling around me, I felt mean and 
 held off, but at last it came to starving or jostling myself, 
 and that sort of life soon makes a man a wolf. But I 
 knew I was a wolf, which most of them didn t, and when 
 I finally got work, it seemed to me I could hear the dying 
 cry of some other starving fellow that I had kicked down 
 off n the ladder to get a footing myself. I tell you I could 
 hear it as plain as I hear my own voice. But after I had 
 a few square meals that went away." 
 
 " Hallucination, born of physical weakness and a morbid 
 conscience," put in Paul, but Baily was in the swing of 
 talk, and he kept on with the touch of awe in his manner 
 that a man must inevitably feel toward his own deepest 
 experiences. He may make a jest of things in general, 
 but when he tells, if he does, of what he has found in love 
 and religion, he must be reverent. The experience of 
 those days, when Ben Baily had awakened to the undying 
 cry of humanity, had taken the place of both love and re 
 ligion with him. 
 
 " But all the time I kept up a heap of thinking, for it 
 seemed to me like this, that if there was any way out of 
 this coil of things, it must be just as much within the 
 reach of plain, simple fellows like me that had to do the 
 living, d ye see, as for the philosophers and wise men that
 
 222 APPKEA T TICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 couldn t do any more living in their time than the plainest 
 man of us all." 
 
 "The day of deliverance that Bahrdt talks about," said 
 Paul. 
 
 "Then, I joined the union." He stopped and grinned. 
 The solemnity of his tone was swept away. Paul heaved 
 himself up on one elbow with anticipative interest. 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 "Well," said Ben with his lazy drawl, " I wasn t popular 
 somehow." 
 
 " What happened ? " 
 
 " I was boycotted." 
 
 "You? Boycotted? Oh, Ben, Ben! Tell me how it 
 happened." 
 
 " I don t see what there is so all-fired funny about it," 
 protested Ben Baily. " I wasn t going to let them run me, 
 that was all. The way of it was this. There was a strike 
 ordered. It was dead wrong. Everybody knew that, and 
 they swore about going out, but go they did, because they 
 were ordered. I wouldn t. Lord Almighty, when a man 
 has started out to see what there is in life, and is waiting 
 ready to take in the biggest things that he is big enough 
 to hold, he ain t going to let a little whipper-snapper with 
 a badge run everything to suit himself, even to taking in 
 law and conscience. I wasn t, anyhow." 
 
 "What did you do?" 
 
 " I staid at work. At least I staid until the strikers 
 beat and came back in force. Then I concluded it would 
 tend to the promotion of harmony and good will if I left. 
 The fact is, I was boycotted and after that I couldn t get 
 work. I would have been ready to quit, because I had 
 come to the mind that I would try to live the way I 
 wanted to instead of the way other men wanted me to, 
 but when they took to the boycott game it riled me, and I 
 said to myself, WVI1 see who will hold out longest. 
 Well, I did see. It wasn t me,"
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 22$ 
 
 " You were beaten ? " 
 
 " I was beaten," said Ben simply. " If I got work, there 
 would come a little billet, and the next day my money was 
 handed me in a little envelope, and I was free of the 
 world, but not of that shop. The boarding-house keepers 
 was warned not to keep me, and they didn t stop to 
 argufy. I was a marked man. I tried different things, 
 because, seeing I was in for it, I meant to make a clean 
 fight. But at last I gave up and came back to Hereward." 
 
 Paul s eyes were beginning to emit blue fire. 
 
 " You mean to say that you were hounded from place to 
 place and kept out of work ?" 
 
 " That s it. I was boycotted." 
 
 "Why, it is outrageous. It is incredible." 
 
 " No, it was a divine leading. You know I told you I 
 couldn t get any answer to my puzzle all the time I was 
 ji-.wandering in them devil s alleys in the back part of the 
 city. Neither could I get an answer from the socialists 
 or the churchmen. But when they took to driving me 
 from every place where I would have stopped to work, if 
 I had been let, and would have lived and died like the ten 
 thousand other men around me, if I had been let, then 
 sudden the answer came, / airit bounJ ! His eyes were 
 kindling and he pushed back his hat and faced Paul in the 
 earnestness of his speaking. " Mebbe it won t strike you, 
 I ve noticed that a thought has to come from the inside 
 to knock a man down, but what came to me was some 
 thing like a revelation of how a man has got to live his 
 own life as free as he can from let or hindrance, just 
 himself and God. And so you see it was a blessing that 
 it was taken out of my power to settle down as other men 
 do. I was forced, by that same boycott, to find out my 
 self. I took to peddling my own carvings about the 
 country, partly because I wanted to see how other folks 
 lived in the world, partly because, after Chicago, it was
 
 224 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 heaven to get out tramping over the fields with the grass 
 under my feet and the stars overhead. So I ve been 
 tramping now for four years or so, and seeing how things 
 go here at Hereward atweenwhiles, and this is what I ve 
 found out ; a man that s living his own life and doing 
 the work he s put to do, is helping the world along, if he s 
 making shoe-pegs or laws for his country, but the man 
 that s trying to do work that don t belong to him, he s 
 clogging up the whole solar system, like a loose pin that 
 gets atween the wheels." He finished his peroration with 
 a sudden wheeling upon Paul. 
 
 "Well, Ben, what are you looking at me for ?" 
 
 " Because you are that same man." 
 
 " The drag on the solar system ?" 
 
 " The same. What do you know about the manufacture 
 of furniture ?" 
 
 " Precious little, Ben," Paul admitted with a rueful 
 laugh. 
 
 " And what do you care for it ? " 
 
 Paul shook his head. 
 
 " And what do you know about the ways of microbes 
 and bacteria, eh ? " 
 
 " Oh, come, Ben, go easy on a fellow." 
 
 " I won t. You re turning your back on your duty. 
 You re running away from what you can do and ought to 
 do and was born to do, so as to take up with something that 
 you will muddle at the best." 
 
 " Ben, get out. I ve heard all that before." 
 
 " And you ll hear it again," said Ben threateningly. 
 " It is all well enough for them as have no calling to take 
 up with what comes along, but for a man as knows what 
 his work is to be, to go off trying to make money 
 
 " Hold hard, Ben. There isn t much show of my fall 
 ing into that iniquity, at any rate." 
 
 " No, you ain t even a success at the poor work you ve
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 22$ 
 
 deserted to. You don t know how to run a fac 
 tory." 
 
 " That s why I want you to come and help me." 
 
 Ben threw himself back. " I told you I was boycot 
 ted." 
 
 " Boycott be hanged. I d like to see anybody turn 
 you out of my place," cried Paul with flashing eyes. " I 
 think I see them doing it." 
 
 Ben watched him with a dawning idea in his face. 
 
 "What would you do if they were to try it ? " he asked 
 cautiously. 
 
 " Why, they couldn t. It isn t a supposable case." 
 
 " If I were sure of that," said Ben, looking away and 
 trying to keep the traitorous thrill out of his voice, " I 
 don t know but I d think of your offer. But I d hate most 
 fearful to go in and then have to walk out at their say- 
 so." 
 
 " I m not thinking of beginning that sort of a career," 
 said Paul hotly. " If you come, I ll stand by you till we 
 see who is running the thing. You ve never known me 
 to go back on my word. Will you come ?" 
 
 " I ll come," said Ben with a beautiful content. " I ll 
 be on hand Monday. I ll go and put my house in order 
 so as to be ready for what comes." He rose, to hide the 
 gleam of excitement in his eyes. " Will you walk back 
 to the village ? " 
 
 " Not yet. I m restless. I think I will take a long 
 tramp and tire myself out. Till Monday, then." 
 
 He turned off toward the hill, and Baily went back 
 toward the town, communing with himself with deep 
 joy. 
 
 " I m quite ready to attend to your case, Paul, my man, 
 and if I don t tumble the Rodman Works about your ears 
 in pretty quick order, then my name isn t Ben Baily."
 
 XXV. 
 
 PAUL S tramp did not bring him home until after nine 
 that evening. When he reached his rooms he found a 
 pencilled message from Prof. Hamill : 
 
 "Corneas soon as possible to Mr. Jefferson s. He is seriously ill, 
 and anxious to see you." 
 
 Paul answered the summons as soon as he could, 
 though not without some wonder as to its import. What 
 Mr. Jefferson could wish to see him for was beyond his 
 guess. On the way he met Prof. Hamill himself. 
 
 "Oh, I am so glad you have come. I was just starting 
 out to see if I could find you." 
 
 " I was out of town. I just received your note. Is it 
 anything serious ? " 
 
 " I am afraid it is. There can only be one end. How 
 soon it may come we can t say yet." 
 
 " Poor old man ! " said Rodman musingly. " Though 
 I suppose he would be the last to think pity needed. I 
 knew he was ill, but I did not know it meant this." 
 
 " He was more ill than anyone knew, I fancy. No one 
 was with him to know. When I first saw him this after 
 noon, he was in a feverish delirium, and though he seems 
 more rational now, he is not quite himself. He keeps 
 calling Joyce Helen." 
 
 "Helen?" 
 
 "His daughter s name, Miss Estee says. A daughter 
 who died nearly twenty years ago." 
 
 " Ah ! "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 22? 
 
 " The curious thing and the strangely touching thing is 
 his eagerness to have us all about him. He has asked 
 for you again and again, not for any special purpose, I 
 think, but from a wish to have you in sight. He has 
 asked for nearly everyone he knows in the village, in a 
 restless, disconnected way. First for Dru and Joyce and 
 then for you, and Miss Estee and Edith and others. I 
 can t tell how it affected me to hear him, a man who has 
 gone about among his fellows as though hardly conscious 
 of them, gathering them about him now that he has come 
 to die. He does not seem to want anything except to 
 see them about, to know that he is not alone." 
 
 " Poor old man ! " said Rodman again. 
 
 The door was wide open to the night, and the Professor 
 led the way at once upstairs. From the upper landing a 
 steep flight of steps went up to the little turret-room. It 
 was -the part of the house that spoke of the dying owner 
 most forcibly, and as Paul glanced at the worn steps, so 
 narrow that two could not climb them together, it struck 
 him that they were strangely symbolical of the path to 
 knowledge which the old recluse had tried to climb with 
 out companionship. 
 
 In a low, old-fashioned room they found the worn fig 
 ure propped upon pillows. The room was full of people, 
 it seemed to Paul, though he had distinguished no one 
 but Joyce in that first glance. The old man on the bed 
 had turned his eyes with a difficult eagerness toward the 
 door and lifted his hand slightly when he saw who en 
 tered. 
 
 "You staid so long," he said with an effort, as Paul 
 bent over him. 
 
 " I was not at home. I came as soon as I heard," Paul 
 said gently. 
 
 "What were you doing?" he asked querulously. 
 
 " I was out in the woods."
 
 228 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 "Alone?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The old man lay looking at him with weary eyes for a 
 moment, and then he said in the same hampered mono 
 tone, 
 
 " I am alone, alone." He closed his eyes, and almost 
 at once dropped weakly into a doze. 
 
 The shaded lamp threw an uncertain light about the 
 room and on the waiting groups and brought out the 
 sharp, long features of the sick man. Paul questioned 
 the physician with his eyes, but he only shook his head 
 slightly. Joyce was by an open window. She had turned 
 her face to the night, and Paul could only see the hand 
 that supported her cheek and the coil of dark hair above 
 it. The thought of death, death which was hovering 
 even now in the room, hushed and softened but could 
 not abash the tenderness he felt for her. It was the best, 
 the truest part of his life, this love, and this man had 
 chosen to live bereft. A great pity for him swept over 
 Paul. What had he gained by his loveless toil through 
 the barren years ? 
 
 Edith Estee, who was sitting beside Mrs. Hamill, 
 shivered with the chill of the stillness and the awesome 
 waiting. Bahrdt, with a quickness of observation that 
 was a new characteristic, brought her a wrap, and then 
 lingered, leaning his arm on the back of her chair and 
 bending low to speak to her. Paul saw nothing to take 
 note of until he caught the look on Stephen Hale s face. 
 It was like a blow or a curse ; it seemed to shiver the air. 
 The old man on the bed opened his eyes suddenly with a 
 startled look and murmured incoherent words, but, seeing 
 the familiar faces about, dropped off again into fitful doz 
 ing. 
 
 The stillness grew oppressive. Even Edith leaned 
 back heavily as though bound. Miss Estee opposite sat
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2 29 
 
 erect and still, with her eyes fixed on the gaunt face upon 
 which the shadow never to be lifted was slowly gathering. 
 Through it all the clock ticked on sombrely, and each 
 moment that slipped away was freighted. 
 
 Two men, neighbors who had been summoned by Prof. 
 Hamill at Jefferson s iteration of their names, grown rest 
 less under the stress of emotion and enforced inactivity, 
 whispered together and then rose softly, nodding to 
 Hamill, and stole creakingly out of the room. The slight 
 stir awakened the old man and he started up nerv 
 ously. 
 
 "Where are they going?" 
 
 " Home, for a little while," Paul said gently. " They 
 will come back when you want them." 
 
 " No, they will not come back," he muttered restlessly, 
 moving his head from side to side. " They all have 
 homes, all the people in the world, all but me. I am 
 alone, alone. You are alone, too," he wandered on, 
 opening his eyes suddenly upon Paul. "You said so. 
 Alone in the woods. But I am alone in the world." 
 
 They could hardly tell whether he was conscious or not. 
 At times he looked at them with full knowledge, and then 
 he wandered off on the theme of some word that caught 
 his attention. Again and again he returned to the 
 thought of his loneliness, though sometimes his rapid mut- 
 terings under his breath seemed to indicate that he 
 fancied himself with those who must have been only 
 memories for many years. At one time he started up 
 with a sudden cry. 
 
 " Helen ! Where is Helen ? " 
 
 He had seemed at times during the day to connect the 
 name with Joyce, and she came softly to the bedside and 
 put her hand on his. He sank back, looking at her 
 fixedly but dreamily. 
 
 "You are not Helen," he murmured. "Helen was lit-
 
 230 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 tie, with soft arms. She put them about my neck. She 
 was here a while ago, a few little years ago. Why 
 doesn t she come ? " 
 
 Miss Estee had started up at his cry and stood listening 
 to his incoherent mutterings. Now she bent over him and 
 asked unsteadily, 
 
 " Shall I bring Helen back to you ? " 
 
 He turned his look toward her quickly, as though 
 startled by the new voice, but there was no comprehen 
 sion in it. 
 
 " This is not Helen, but it is Helen s child," she went 
 on clearly. " It is Helen s own daughter, Joyce." 
 
 Joyce trembled and looked at her in mute question. 
 There was a stir of wonder in the room, but Miss Estee 
 went on quietly, without turning her head. 
 
 " Helen went away long ago. You remember, don t 
 you ? She married Tom Garner. But now she has sent 
 her little girl back to you. Don t you feel her fingers in 
 yours ? Helen s girl." 
 
 He fixed his eyes frowningly upon her at the name of 
 Tom Garner, but took no heed of Joyce, who had sunk 
 upon her knees by the bedside. She was trembling so 
 that she could not stand, and Dru slipped to her side and 
 put her arm around the girl s shoulders. Hale, too, came 
 near, with a look in his eyes that made Paul suddenly 
 realize all that the revelation meant. 
 
 " Helen sends her love to you by Joyce," Miss Estee 
 was saying. " Joyce is here beside you. Look at her. 
 She is your own child." 
 
 " Helen is gone away," he answered monotonously. 
 And, after a pause, " I am alone, alone ! " He turned 
 his head aside and closed his eyes wearily, and the silence 
 fell back heavily as before. 
 
 Ben Baily, who stood near Hale, spoke some words to 
 him in a low voice, and the two men went out together.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2$l 
 
 Rodman quietly followed a moment later and overtook 
 them before they reached the gate. 
 
 " Sure of it/ Ben Baily was saying. " Hamon keeps a 
 kind of artistic junk-shop, and sometimes buys my carv 
 ings. This man I tell you of was there the last time I 
 was in the place, and he was hot about something, too. I 
 asked the boy who he was, and he said Tom Garner, the 
 painter. Better telegraph to him in Hamon s care." 
 
 " What for, Ben ? " asked Paul, coming up behind. 
 
 " Why, Hale thinks we ought not to bother Miss Mabie 
 about getting her father s address," Baily answered, turn 
 ing to him with evident relief. " I was just telling him 
 that I saw her father in Chicago a few days ago. He 
 ought to come down, I suppose." 
 
 " I hardly think it necessary. Why should he ?" 
 
 " I ll attend to notifying him, at any rate," said Hale, in 
 a constrained voice. " Glad you mentioned it, Baily. 
 You are going ? Good night." 
 
 Baily had not been going, but the hint was too blunt a 
 one to disregard. He gave Paul an expressive glance, 
 shrugged his shoulders, and departed. They heard him 
 whistling down the street after the darkness had engulfed 
 him. 
 
 " What are you going to do, Steve ? " demanded Paul, 
 turning to Hale with instant inquiry when they were 
 alone. 
 
 " My duty to my client," he answered shortly. 
 
 " Confound your duty," Paul retorted hotly. " Your 
 duty is as much to shield a defenceless girl as to help 
 hunt down a man in hiding. Let some one else do that 
 sort of thing." 
 
 Hale had thrust his hands into his pockets, and stood 
 silent, but every line in his quiet figure spoke unyielding 
 determination. His very silence was a rock. 
 
 " In the first place, there is nothing but a suspicion
 
 232 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 against him," Paul said rapidly, trying to recall what 
 circumstances there were that would appeal to his friend s 
 mind. " To have him arrested may do him a wrong 
 you can t repair. Think of his friends 
 
 " Such as Karl Bahrdt," Hale interrupted, with a sneer 
 that betrayed the bitterness of his heart. It struck Paul 
 with surprise and revealed motives at work that he had 
 not suspected. 
 
 " You are the last man, Steve, I would have believed 
 influenced in such a matter by personal feelings," he said 
 gravely. 
 
 Hale changed his position slightly but made no answer. 
 
 " Think of what it will mean to Miss Mabie " 
 
 " Do you think she will mind ? Do you suppose any 
 woman would let a trifle like that affect her ? " Hale said 
 bitterly. " They are protected against such pricks. And 
 if you appeal to me on general grounds of compassion, 
 you might as well save your breath," he added with a 
 sudden fierceness. " I am not in the mood. I have other 
 things to think about and I don t let personal feelings of 
 compassion influence my judgment." He flung away and 
 went rapidly down the echoing street, while Paul watched 
 him angrily. 
 
 "Is our so upright friend fully determined then?" 
 asked Karl Bahrdt in a guarded undertone. 
 
 Paul turned quickly. Karl was beside him, and the 
 women were waiting in a group at the steps. " The old 
 man sleeps," Bahrdt added. " I think it is the last sleep, 
 but that was not told them. What is it our friend will 
 do ? " 
 
 " Telegraph to his colleagues, I suppose, and have Tom 
 Garner arrested. Can t you telegraph ahead and warn 
 him ? " 
 
 Bahrdt shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " To what address ? If he is there., a telegram to his
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 233 
 
 address would be a clue. Besides, he is warned. If he 
 has come back, he knows what he has come to." 
 
 " Then what in the name of common sense possessed 
 him to do it ? " 
 
 Bahrdt shrugged again. " The genius of madmen 
 knows. He always was a madman." 
 
 " You could telegraph to some one else and learn what 
 there is to learn, couldn t you ? Haven t you some com 
 mon friends ? " 
 
 " Yes, but there would be little gained. Let the Fates 
 spin out their thread." 
 
 " That is probably what they will do whether I agree to 
 it or not," Paul said impatiently. The thought occurred 
 to him that Karl would not perhaps be so collected if 
 he didn t think the Fates were spinning a thread that he 
 could use for his own purposes. The constraint of their 
 quarrel was still on them both and they kept silence as 
 they walked back to the house, though Paul at least was 
 quivering with excitement. But he swiftly determined 
 that Joyce should not be allowed to learn the effect of the 
 night s disclosure until she knew that he was ready to 
 stand by her side. 
 
 Miss Estee stood on the doorstep, holding Joyce s hand 
 in her own. Her own face was as pale as the girl s. 
 
 "I knew it when you came, child, but I thought I had 
 no right to speak when your father had not wished you to 
 know. Do you blame me ? " 
 
 " No," said Joyce with a quivering lip. " I couldn t 
 have made much difference to him," she added with a 
 sudden break. 
 
 " There, I think it is time for us all to go home and get 
 to sleep and stop having our feelings harrowed up," said 
 Mrs. Hamill decidedly. " Rob is going to stay with him 
 all night, and perhaps in the morning he will understand 
 better. Now I m going home. Come, Joyce."
 
 234 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 She gathered her wrap about her shoulders and went 
 down the walk to the gate with Miss Estee. Bahrdt and 
 Edith followed, but Paul, who had lingered a moment, 
 quietly drew Joyce s hand though his arm and led her 
 instead across the garden, by the path that ran between 
 the two houses. He did not speak for a moment though 
 he knew very well what he meant to say to her. There 
 was a din in his ears and his feet seemed to find the earth 
 unstable. Joyce had yielded to his guidance without pro 
 test, and now she drew a long, sighing breath and looked 
 up to the stars, measuring their quiet way. 
 
 " They go on just the same," she said wistfully. 
 
 " And isn t it well that they do ? " he said, swiftly un 
 derstanding her thought. "And everything else goes on, 
 as well. There is no such thing in all the universe as our 
 poor thought of death makes out. It is all life, every 
 where and always life, whatever form it takes. A natural 
 ist may dare to say that, whatever else he doubts." 
 
 " But it ends things so ! " she said tremulously. She 
 seemed to be struggling with a thought that half terrified 
 her. She had forsaken her icy armor, had forgotten it, 
 and he felt, with a thrill of triumph, that in her bewil 
 derment she was clinging to him. 
 
 "Yes, it ends things," he said gently. "There is the 
 veil of mystery. We can t go beyond it, and we 
 don t need to, do we ? The work this side claims all our 
 courage and hope. You are not afraid to see what we 
 call death, are you ? " 
 
 " No, I am not afraid." 
 
 "What, then ?" 
 
 " I am sorry that I could not have been anything 
 more to him. I feel that I have failed somehow -in in 
 tent or in capability." 
 
 "You cannot blame yourself for not knowing." 
 
 " But I am failing now," she said with a sudden sur-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 235 
 
 render, trembling on the verge of tears. " I do not feel 
 that I belong to him. Am I different from other people ? 
 It all came over me in there, and that was what made me 
 afraid of myself. At first, when Miss Estee spoke, I 
 was just astonished ; I couldn t understand. Then in 
 the quiet, when he dropped off to sleep, and everyone 
 was so still, I tried to make myself realize it. I thought 
 of how papa had not wanted me to come, and of what must 
 have been back of those years. I thought of how mamma 
 had gone through these rooms, young and sweet, long ago, 
 and I thought how strange that I had come back to her 
 home not knowing it, but all of it was only a wonder 
 and a surprise. Knowing that he was my own grand 
 father didn t give me a different feeling toward him. It 
 ought to have made me love him, other people would, I 
 suppose, but my heart was cold. Was it my fault ? 
 -And then I thought of what you had said, that I was liv 
 ing like him, shutting people out of my life, and that I 
 probably am like him, cold and hard, and and 
 
 " Yes, it is terrible," he said, his lips breaking from a 
 smile. " I don t know what can be done, unless you 
 could love me a little." 
 
 She started and tried to draw away, turning reproach 
 ful eyes upon him. Her thoughts had been so far away 
 that his words struck her with amaze and fear. But he 
 had caught her hand as it lay upon his arm. "You knew 
 I was going to say it, long ago," he urged, bending close 
 and trying to draw her eyes to his. " It has been my one 
 thought since I first saw you, I think. Can t you answer 
 me now, -here ? Then, whatever comes, we will be to 
 gether. I must know. Let me know now ! Oh, I am 
 pleading poorly, but you must understand, or I can 
 never make you understand. It is only the one question, 
 can you love me, Joyce ? Oh, can you ? " 
 
 The earnestness in his voice compelled her more than
 
 238 APl RENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 knew better, with this new wisdom which had corne to 
 him. He and Joyce had talked together of all the past 
 which they had lived without each other, (it was hard to 
 understand how it had been possible !) and of the future 
 which they would live together, until he felt that there 
 was nothing in which they could be apart again. His vis 
 ion of the future was one in which he would go through 
 the world with bold front and courage unfaltering, wel 
 coming the troubles which would give him a chance to 
 shield her. For him, a work to do and a life to make 
 worthy and a helpful hand for others. For her, an op 
 portunity to love him. Yet he was not an egotist ! 
 
 So, as it happened, he delayed too long, and Joyce 
 learned all there was to learn without forewarning. A 
 letter came to her as any other letter might have come, 
 but the word it brought was different from any other. 
 
 " Dear Joyce : I have been arrested on a charge of stealing a Dau- 
 bigny from Richardson s gallery. I suppose you can bear to read the 
 words, as I have written them. If you think that it is what might have 
 been expected of your scapegrace of a father, that is only what everyone 
 else will think. I am sorry for you, Joyce. I wish you might have had 
 a father to be proud of, instead of me. But we all have some burden 
 laid upon us by Fate, and I suppose this is yours. I might wish, for 
 selfish reasons, of course, after my fashion, that it had been anything 
 else. T.M." 
 
 She read it with amazement that grew into trembling 
 indignation. How dared they accuse him of such a 
 thing ? How dared they ? To steal the Daubigny ! Why, 
 that was the picture he had copied ! How he had joked 
 about bribing the janitor to let him into the closed gallery 
 and how gay he had been over the exploit, until that 
 morning when he checked her speaking of it. She held 
 her breath as memory brought back in a flash the way he 
 had looked and spoken then, and her hot indignation 
 faded into a sudden faintness. She thrust back the fear 
 that obtruded upon her, denied it, cried out upon it
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 239 
 
 She tried to keep her mind upon the other issue. She 
 forced herself to say how easy it would be to disprove it, 
 to shame them for daring to think it possible, but 
 through it all the pitiful, evasive look he had worn came 
 up before her, and one by one her defences slipped away 
 until she sank back to question with a wildly beating 
 heart. 
 
 " Could it be possible ? Can it be true ? " 
 
 Oh, to be able to deny it, to sweep the very doubt out 
 of the universe by the flooding in of a loyal faith in him ! 
 But her childish faith was gone and in its wreck more than 
 her faith had fallen. The bewildering feeling that she had 
 never known him came over her as it had in those last 
 days together. The clinging affection that blinds judg 
 ment had been snapped by the growth of their different 
 natures. He was her father, but they were far apart. 
 She -could see him as others saw him rather than as his 
 child, yet she did not understand him. She felt baffled 
 and conscience-smitten. 
 
 " It isn t true. It isn t true," she repeated to herself, 
 but doubt knocked at her heart until at last she turned in 
 desperation upon the thought. " Suppose it is true. 
 What then ? What then ? " 
 
 It was the question Karl Bahrdt had waited for, and he 
 was at hand to answer it. 
 
 " You do not wish that I should deceive you," he said 
 when she had placed the letter in his hands and stood 
 mutely watching his face for an answer. " It cannot 
 make black white to say different. Think of how the 
 facts are and then say. He was bitter with the world, 
 and in that he had good reason. He needed greatly the 
 money, you know that, and he probably believed it 
 wrong, being an artist, that so rare a work should be 
 buried in the dust of a rich man s gallery which was never 
 opened. It is easy to see "
 
 240 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "Oh, hush, hush ! I will not hear you say it. I may 
 have said it all to myself, but I do not believe it," she 
 added passionately. 
 
 " Perhaps you can believe as you wish to," he said with 
 a touch of scorn. "Why are you afraid to face the idea 
 that he may have done this ? Why do you shrink from 
 the thought of it ? " 
 
 She looked up in indignant surprise. " Is it not a terri 
 ble thing ? " 
 
 " From what point of view do you find it terrible ? " he 
 persisted mercilessly. " Don t take refuge in the suitable 
 and expected attitude of mind. Trace your thought to 
 its root. Is it terror for the welfare of his soul that 
 shakes you so? Perhaps you believe in a soul and think 
 you know enough about the laws that govern it to dare to 
 speak of their effects. I am very far from being sure that 
 /do, yet I will not quarrel with you for holding to the 
 belief provided you hold to it from conviction and not 
 from tradition. And if it is from fear that he may have 
 put himself in peril, then I have nothing to say, except 
 that you will do him no good by giving way to your fears. 
 But if your anguish is occasioned by a terror for yourself, 
 it is less worthy." He bent his glance, swift and keen and 
 piercing, upon her, but she was too bewildered to reply. 
 
 "You do not understand. I mean only that I wish you 
 to understand yourself. Half our emotions are due to 
 tradition. We think and feel as we are expected to by 
 the habits of our companions and the custom of our age. 
 I want you to free yourself from that, and to think and 
 feel for yourself. So you will find reality and know what 
 you are dealing with. Can you say that no part of your 
 horror at the thought that your father might have 
 
 She lifted her hand imploringly, and he smiled slightly. 
 
 " Put ! You are childish to be afraid of the words. 
 Think, dear Miss Mabie ! Are you then sure that it
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 24! 
 
 would be so terrible to you if the precious public were out 
 of the question ? " 
 
 " I suppose that was a part of my thought," Joyce, 
 admitted, "but 
 
 " Then that part you can throw away," he cut in keenly, 
 " for the precious public, as you know well, does seldom 
 trouble itself to think clearly. Then what part, in your 
 own mind, did the thought have that you personally 
 would suffer humiliation and shame because of your con 
 nection with the sinner? Bah, do not look angry. I am 
 challenging you to be honest with yourself. Did that 
 thought have some room in your mind or not?" 
 
 He held her eyes with his own and she answered hum 
 bly, " I suppose it did." 
 
 " Then that too can be cast aside, for it is unbecoming 
 that one should be disquieted over what may threaten 
 one s self alone. See, then, your burden will be quite 
 light." 
 
 She stood shrinking before him, trying to bring her 
 mind to his point of view. She followed his thought, she 
 believed in him, yet 
 
 "What is there left in life ?" she asked. 
 
 " Work," he answered briefly. " The work you know 
 of. The work you have promised to fit yourself for." 
 
 The color went out of her face. This was something 
 that she had forgotten, and there was an assurance in his 
 calmness now that terrified her. 
 
 Long, long ago, in that dim past which lay back of that 
 night in the orchard-path, she had thought and talked of 
 something like this, but the universe had changed front 
 since then. She put out her hand to steady herself while 
 she searched his face with appealing eyes. 
 
 " What else is there for you to do, now ? " he asked 
 sternly. 
 
 " Now ?" she repeated under her breath. The edifice of
 
 240 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "Oh, hush, hush ! I will not hear you say it. I may 
 have said it all to myself, but I do not believe it," she 
 added passionately. 
 
 " Perhaps you can believe as you wish to," he said with 
 a touch of scorn. "Why are you afraid to face the idea 
 that he may have done this ? Why do you shrink from 
 the thought of it ? " 
 
 She looked up in indignant surprise. " Is it not a terri 
 ble thing ? " 
 
 " From what point of view do you find it terrible ? " he 
 persisted mercilessly. " Don t take refuge in the suitable 
 and expected attitude of mind. Trace your thought to 
 its root. Is it terror for the welfare of his soul that 
 shakes you so? Perhaps you believe in a soul and think 
 you know enough about the laws that govern it to dare to 
 speak of their effects. I am very far from being sure that 
 /do, yet I will not quarrel with you for holding to the 
 belief provided you hold to it from conviction and not 
 from tradition. And if it is from fear that he may have 
 put himself in peril, then I have nothing to say, except 
 that you will do him no good by giving way to your fears. 
 But if your anguish is occasioned by a terror for yourself, 
 it is less worthy." He bent his glance, swift and keen and 
 piercing, upon her, but she was too bewildered to reply. 
 
 "You do not understand. I mean only that I wish you 
 to understand yourself. Half our emotions are due to 
 tradition. We think and feel as we are expected to by 
 the habits of our companions and the custom of our age. 
 I want you to free yourself from that, and to think and 
 feel for yourself. So you will find reality and know what 
 you are dealing with. Can you say that no part of your 
 horror at the thought that your father might have 
 
 She lifted her hand imploringly, and he smiled slightly. 
 
 " Put ! You are childish to be afraid of the words. 
 Think, dear Miss Mabie ! Are you then sure that it
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 24! 
 
 would be so terrible to you if the precious public were out 
 of the question ? " 
 
 " I suppose that was a part of my thought," Joyce, 
 admitted, " but 
 
 " Then that part you can throw away," he cut in keenly, 
 " for the precious public, as you know well, does seldom 
 trouble itself to think clearly. Then what part, in your 
 own mind, did the thought have that you personally 
 would suffer humiliation and shame because of your con 
 nection with the sinner? Bah, do not look angry. I am 
 challenging you to be honest with yourself. Did that 
 thought have some room in your mind or not?" 
 
 He held her eyes with his own and she answered hum 
 bly, " I suppose it did." 
 
 " Then that too can be cast aside, for it is unbecoming 
 that one should be disquieted over what may threaten 
 on-e s self alone. See, then, your burden will be quite 
 light." 
 
 She stood shrinking before him, trying to bring her 
 mind to his point of view. She followed his thought, she 
 believed in him, yet 
 
 "What is there left in life ?" she asked. 
 
 "Work, "he answered briefly. "The work you know 
 of. The work you have promised to fit yourself for." 
 
 The color went out of her face. This was something 
 that she had forgotten, and there was an assurance in his 
 calmness now that terrified her. 
 
 Long, long ago, in that dim past which lay back of that 
 night in the orchard-path, she had thought and talked of 
 something like this, but the universe had changed front 
 since then. She put out her hand to steady herself while 
 she searched his face with appealing eyes. 
 
 "What else is there for you to do, now?" he asked 
 sternly. 
 
 " Now ?" she repeated under her breath. The edifice of
 
 242 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 joyful dreams which the last few days had built seemed to 
 melt from her at the word and she stood face to face with 
 the old reality. " Nothing else," she said after a moment 
 in the same hushed voice. 
 
 " Are you ready, then, at last ? " 
 
 " I must go down to see papa," she said rather faintly. 
 " After that " 
 
 " Well ? " he queried, waiting. 
 
 " After that I will be ready." 
 
 His face cleared. " Good," he said, and his voice was 
 almost gay. " I, too, shall go down. There may be need 
 of a lawyer s counsel. That I will see to. And it will be 
 better for you to work there, where there is less to inter 
 fere. I have many plans " 
 
 " Yes," she said, with unsteady lips. " I think I must 
 go and prepare." 
 
 She went to her room and locked the door and then let 
 all her fine theories fly out at the window while she threw 
 herself down in a despairing passion of tears. If she only 
 had never come to Hereward, or if Paul Rodman had 
 staid in the Tyrolese mountains till this summer was past. 
 A few months ago it would not have seemed so hard to 
 dedicate her life to that abstract ideal which Karl Bahrdt 
 found sufficient. It would have been easy to decide, with 
 wholeness of heart, for the work that waited her hands. 
 Now it was different. It would cost now, and dearly. 
 She had fancied herself ready to renounce the world, the 
 flesh, and all delusions, but if it meant a renouncing of 
 love as well Miss Estee might have told her that one may 
 do even that and still keep the trick of smiling, and she 
 might in time have learned for herself that the soul which 
 isn t stronger than the strongest love will find itself in 
 sorry straits, but when the thought first confronts a young 
 girl it is apt to take the light out of her sky. 
 
 It was as though she had been brought up to believe
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 243 
 
 herself the daughter of a prince, and then, after the 
 fashion of fairy tales, had suddenly learned that her true 
 father was the old fisherman and that she must take her 
 place in the street with the common people she had known 
 only to despise, and go about crying his wares. Yet even 
 then the worst was not touched, for the fisherman might 
 be an honest man, while now The thought was like 
 the shirt of Nessus which stung and contaminated and 
 defiled. That she should find herself, not on the heights 
 beyond the reach of shame, but down on the common, 
 dusty highway, she, Joyce Mabie ! 
 
 Then, with a rush of humility, the self-rebuke came. 
 Who was she that she should be exempt ? One of a world- 
 ful only. The common lot, the common inheritance, must 
 be hers. In simple honesty she could not shirk the bur 
 den, be it shame, be it sorrow, be it sin, even. The pas 
 sionate conscientiousness that had swayed her from 
 childhodd had taken a somberer hue since her acquaint 
 ance with Karl Bahrdt. His stern philosophy had from 
 the first touched a responding chord in her Puritan soul, 
 and now because of its sternness it was the only help she 
 dared turn to. She accepted once for all and as a vital 
 truth the fact that she was not an on-looker but a sharer 
 in the world s burden. Nevermore could she fold her 
 white robes about her and pity humanity below her. She 
 was in it and of it and could shake herself free of no part 
 of it. She had no right to claim for herself only that part 
 of the common patrimony which might please her. But 
 on this descent she could not, must not, bear anyone else 
 with her. She must go alone. 
 
 In the calm of exhaustion that came after the tumult of 
 her thought, she fancied she had found the strength of 
 peace. She felt herself already standing at the end of 
 life and looking calmly backward to a long-past struggle 
 when all that she had held fast to had crumbled from her.
 
 244 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 There had been an interview with Paul in that long-past 
 time, at which she had bidden him farewell, and then had 
 gone out to live her whole long life alone. But it was 
 years and years ago. 
 
 Dru, meantime, hovered near the closed door in deep 
 disquiet. Joyce had given her the fatal letter, and her 
 first shocked surprise had been instantly swallowed up in 
 a tender desire to comfort her friend. What were human 
 hearts made for, if not to comfort each other ? Yet here 
 was a locked door between them. That anyone should 
 decline comfortings and choose to fight out a battle alone 
 was a dark mystery of human nature which for her part 
 she could only believe veiled a tragedy. 
 
 " What would you do if I shut myself up that way ? " 
 she demanded, after pouring out her fears and troubles to 
 her husband. 
 
 " Make you open the door." 
 
 " Then why don t we make Joyce open hers ? " 
 
 "Because we can t," he answered placidly. 
 
 " But she ought not to be allowed to shut herself away 
 from us and be so unhuman." 
 
 " We can t help it. It is her misfortune, of course, but 
 so it is her misfortune that she hasn t your eyes and isn t 
 like us in many other ways, because of course our ways 
 are very superior ways or we wouldn t have them, and it 
 is very sad to think how many people there are in the 
 world that are so unfortunate as not to have our ways or 
 our ideas or to be like us in the least." 
 
 " I will not be made fun of, Rob Hamill. I am your 
 own wife and you ought to be ashamed to make fun of 
 me." 
 
 " Oh, I didn t mean to. I like your kind. But there 
 are other kinds in the world, and I think we d better just 
 let Joyce alone."
 
 XXVII. 
 
 BUT Paul Rodman would naturally take another view. 
 Mrs. Hamill s first word told him everything, to her great 
 surprise and greater relief, and she went up to kiss Joyce 
 and send her down to him with the feeling that a world of 
 responsibility was lifted from her shoulders, and that 
 everything would now be made right. Rodman would do 
 what she could not. 
 
 He stood waiting when Joyce came to him, and he held 
 out his hands to her with a tender eagerness, showing in 
 .eyes, in gesture, in the nameless radiation of his inner 
 mood, that he stood just where they had last parted. But 
 in the meantime Joyce had been carried so far away that 
 there was almost a jar in their touch when she let him 
 take her hand for a moment and then withdrew it. 
 
 "What is it, Joyce? " he asked. His voice lingered on 
 the name with a shy delight that made her tremble. She 
 did not look at him as she answered. 
 
 " Haven t you heard ? " 
 
 " You mean about your father ? Yes, I heard that 
 before you did, but it had been so completely put out of 
 my head by you, that I forgot it was a new burden to 
 you instead of an old one. But I can help you to bear it, 
 can t I ? Remember, we are to share everything 
 now." 
 
 He held out his arms but she drew back. 
 
 " No," she said quietly, and now she looked at him fully 
 and sadly. "We cannot share this or anything. It has 
 changed everything." Still she was at so great a distance
 
 246 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 from his mood that it almost surprised her he should not 
 understand. 
 
 " It has not changed me or my love for you," he said 
 quickly. "You did not think that, Joyce ? What has it 
 changed ? " 
 
 " It has changed the conditions of my life. It has 
 changed my duty." She spoke with a weary iteration in 
 her voice as though she were saying what he should have 
 known. She had been saying it to herself for hours: 
 " It is impossible that we should longer dream of what 
 we dreamed yesterday." 
 
 " We weren t dreaming then, and we needn t dream now. 
 It is fact. There isn t anything else quite so sure a fact ! 
 If you think anything else, that is the dream, the wild, 
 foolish dream, dear ! " 
 
 She stirred uneasily and lifted her eyes to his. His 
 words were waking her from the torpor in which her sen 
 sibilities had been lulled, and with returning conscious 
 ness the pain returned. But one thought she held fast, 
 with a tremulous self-distrust. She must not let him per 
 suade her against what she had determined apart from 
 his influence. Because she loved him, she must not. Be 
 cause she loved him she must guard against him, though, 
 because she loved him, it would be hard. 
 
 "I have thought it all out," she said, trying to speak 
 clearly though her voice faltered. " It has changed my 
 life, and I must accept the fact. What I might have 
 wished has nothing to do with it. I must accept what 
 is." 
 
 " But what difference does it make between you and 
 me ?" 
 
 " It changes everything." 
 
 " Does it ? Does it change our love ? " 
 
 " It might," she said in a low voice. 
 
 He laughed in her face.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 247 
 
 " If you believe that, you do not know ! I am not 
 afraid ! " 
 
 Then, because she would not smile, he dropped his gay 
 air, and added with tender seriousness, " Perhaps we don t 
 either of us know much about it yet, it is new and daz 
 zling, and we are children. But I cannot believe that the 
 attraction which drew you and me together from the first, 
 and which makes everything you do and say and think as 
 much a part of my life as though it were my own act or 
 thought or word, I don t believe that can be broken, 
 Joyce, just by unsaying the words you spoke the other 
 night. It is something real, this love of ours. I don t 
 believe you half guess how real. I would not hold you 
 bound by a breath, but where can you go to escape my 
 love ? You would have to go outside of the universe ! " 
 
 She sat so still that in spite of his brave words a sudden 
 fear shook him. To be loved seems always so great a 
 miracle to the lover that he is prepared at any time to 
 hear that the natural law of indifference has reasserted 
 itself. 
 
 " Isn t it so to you ? Are you changed ? " he asked. 
 
 She looked up quickly, compelled by the pain in his 
 voice. It dashed the resolve from her face, and she an 
 swered faintly, 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Leaving out other things, do you care for me less than 
 you did yesterday?" 
 
 She clasped her fingers hard together, but after a mo 
 ment she answered steadily, 
 
 " No." 
 
 He drew a long breath and the color came back into, 
 his face, but he came no step nearer. 
 
 " Then nothing else can frighten me," he said gaily. 
 " Only you must tell me what has happened. In your 
 thoughts, I mean. I know the facts of the case, but I do
 
 248 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 not know how they have been transmuted in your mind to 
 make you say what you did. Tell me everything. You 
 said that you loved me. You said you would let me share 
 all that life might bring to you. That is what it meant, 
 when we said we loved each other, that we would bear 
 everything together and never be alone in meeting what 
 may try us or bless us. You have not forgotten ? You 
 cannot put me out of your life, Joyce ! " 
 
 His patience, his tenderness, his faith, thrilled her as no 
 passion could have done, and when he came toward her 
 with the love in his eyes which she knew, never more 
 clearly, was the essential sweetness of life for her, she 
 was tempted to let his arms fold her safe forever from the 
 need of guiding her own way in the world. But she was a 
 child, and she did not know how strong this love was. 
 She only knew its sweetness, and to her Puritan nature, 
 sweetness was a snare. She drew away falteringly. 
 
 " I have no right to be happy I cannot be happy 
 while this doubt remains. My way must lie apart. I saw 
 it all clearly, before you came. Uo you think I would let 
 you link your name with one dishonored ? " 
 
 "But if I choose ? Has that nothing to do with it ?" 
 
 " No, because you would be generous, but I will not 
 have it at that price. If ever this shame is removed and 
 the truth comes to be known, then But until then, no ! 
 Besides, you do not know all. I am not free from blame ! " 
 She tried to find the thoughts that had swayed her before 
 he came to confuse her mind. What was it Karl Bahrdt 
 had said ? "I had no right to think that I might be loved 
 as other girls are and live a quiet and happy life, in the 
 blessed security of a home, and so forget that there is 
 sorrow in the world which it might have been possible for 
 me to help if I had only kept my hands free to do the 
 work that belonged to me. So, long before I knew you, 
 I had chosen for myself. I meant to give what powers I
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 249 
 
 had to help the world in some way, not to live for myself. 
 That was what I was studying for. That was why I tried 
 to keep myself free, because I was afraid of the life of 
 simple happiness. I do not say that it is wrong for others 
 to live such lives. But for me there would be wrong in 
 it, because I have seen the sorrow of the world as many 
 have not. It is not a pleasant sight. It is something 
 that you want to forget. I had thought about it so long 
 that I was weary of it, and when the chance came to me to 
 put it all behind me and take up a new life, so safe, so 
 sweet, so happy, I did not stop to think that it might not 
 belong to me. I wanted it and I took it." He lifted his 
 head impetuously to answer her, but she raised her hand 
 entreatingly and he let her go on. " Let me say it, be 
 cause it is true and I must at least let you know that it is 
 true, I loved you and it seemed that for your love I 
 \vpuld be ready to let everything else go. That was the 
 wrong of it. Do you not see ? I should have understood. 
 It could not be right when I was choosing selfishly for 
 myself, putting aside the claims which would have inter 
 fered with my own happiness. Then this comes now, to 
 show that it must not be. I would not dare disregard it, 
 even if this in itself were not reason enough." 
 
 He moved his hand so as to hide his eyes. It required 
 all the resolution of which he was master to keep him from 
 going over to her, with those words of confession on her 
 lips, and compelling her to forget conscience, scruples, 
 everything but the fact that they loved each other. 
 
 "That is why," she went on, in the sweetly plaintive 
 undertone in which a woman forces herself to speak in 
 words of what is more easily told in silence, "as I see 
 now, that it would be wrong for me to take this happiness 
 now. The only thing I can do is to go away until I have 
 a right to it. That will only be when nothing stands be 
 tween."
 
 250 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Do you mean by that when your father is cleared ? " 
 
 "That first." 
 
 " And what else ? " 
 
 " When I see my way clear. I must be sure there is no 
 mistake again." 
 
 The unfaltering resolution in her voice, despite its 
 tremors, affirmed the fact of which he had already caught 
 glimpses now and again, that Joyce Mabie was a person 
 with an independent existence, who could not, because 
 she might happen to love him, delegate to him the re 
 sponsibility for her actions. He had the advantage of his 
 training as a naturalist in recognizing facts ; he knew that 
 ignoring them only brought one to grief in dealing with 
 even smaller creatures than women. But he knew, as he 
 listened to her tremulous words, that though he had 
 thought he loved her, he was only beginning to guess at 
 what love might grow to be. 
 
 " But are you the only one to be considered ? " he pro 
 tested at last. " If it means something to you, doesn t it 
 mean something to me, too ? Why do you speak as 
 though you could shut me out of your thought?" 
 
 " It is different," she repeated. 
 
 It was like battling with an invisible foe. He felt that 
 he could overcome it by the force of his will if he were to 
 throw his strength upon it, but that was not a victory he 
 would be proud of. 
 
 " Well, if you can put love aside for a higher ideal, you 
 need not flatter yourself that I am going to be content 
 with grovelling in the dust of the commonplace for the 
 rest of my days ! " he exclaimed with whimsical despera 
 tion. " I ll do something. I ll go to the leper islands, or 
 to Five Points, or somewhere ! " 
 
 But she looked so perplexed and wistful at this that he 
 could bear it no longer, and came and put his arms around 
 her.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 251 
 
 " Joyce, dear, you cannot separate yourself from me. 
 It is useless for you to try. We love each other. Does 
 that mean nothing ? Do you think so lightly of our love 
 as to suppose that after we have held each other like this, 
 have looked deep into each other s eyes as we do now, 
 have kissed as I kiss you now, my own, that we can part 
 and forget and be what we were before ? That is im 
 possible. We may part, but we can never be what we 
 were before this love came to us, any more than we can 
 go backward and be children again. We must carry it on 
 with us forever. If we were married you would not say 
 that we must loose each other s hands and go apart. You 
 would feel that we must hold together through anything, 
 through everything. Is it any the less true because we 
 only love ? That is the true marriage. Dear, you cannot 
 put me from you ! You cannot leave me, you cannot ! " 
 ..He looked down into her eyes with a tender triumph, and 
 for a moment he thought he had won. Her eyes sank 
 under his and her head drooped against his breast with a 
 relinquishment of struggle that made him dizzy with his 
 success. 
 
 " No, I cannot," she said at last, so faintly that he 
 hardly caught her words. " For that reason I ask you to 
 let me go." 
 
 " Joyce ! " 
 
 " I cannot think, here. I only know that I love you. 
 But I cannot trust that alone. Let me be free, Paul." 
 It was not often that she spoke his name. He understood 
 the tenderness that prompted her to use it now, and the 
 knowledge that she loved him, that he had it in his power 
 to compel her to yield to that love, that he had only to 
 kiss away her resolution and she would be powerless to 
 insist, flashed like fire through his veins. He only 
 tightened the clasp that encircled her and looked down 
 into her upturned face with compressed lips and an un-
 
 2$2 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 yielding, tyrannous tenderness in his eyes. She met his 
 gaze without faltering. In her look he read her soul. It 
 repeated her plea that he would be gentle, even while 
 it confessed her dependence upon his decision. For a 
 minute their looks battled in fateful silence. It was the 
 chance to choose nobly or ignobly which life does not fail 
 to offer once at least to every soul, and Paul met it. He 
 put her away from him with something like a groan, and 
 walked to the window where he stood with down-bent 
 head for a long minute, but when he came back he had 
 recovered himself. 
 
 " Tell me what you wish," he said gently. " I will not 
 touch your hand or try to control your thought in any 
 way. I do not want you to take my love as a second best 
 thing in your life. I want to understand you just as sin 
 cerely as you want to explain. If you think I have the 
 right to share your confidence to this extent, you may be 
 sure I will not try to warp your judgment from what you 
 feel to be right." 
 
 She thanked him with a look. 
 
 " I want you to know that you are free " 
 
 "Am I? The knowledge doesn t seem to be borne in 
 upon me very strongly yet, but that isn t your fault. For 
 give me. Go on." 
 
 "I must go to my father, and you must not come with 
 me." 
 
 He smiled, but did not answer. 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt is going down with me, and he will let 
 you know about everything. I don t know anything my 
 self yet. Only that I must go." 
 
 " Yes," he said gently, seeing how the strain was wear 
 ing on her. "It is right for you to go, and I will soon 
 know how everything is. But you will not wear your 
 self out, will you ? You will be a little reasonable be 
 tween times, won t you ?"
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2$$ 
 
 "I don t suppose there will be much that I can do," she 
 said, with a little break in her voice. " I shall go on 
 working at Mr. Bahrdt s book. There at least I am sure 
 of what I do." 
 
 " And you will not be unhappy ?" 
 
 " Oh, that doesn t matter," she answered, looking away. 
 " It doesnt matter. We think of that too much, until 
 something comes to make us see how aside from the real 
 questions of life happiness or unhappiness is." 
 
 He looked at her wistfully, dreading the thought that 
 she should go away alone with that look on her face. 
 
 " Will you let me come and see you ?" he asked quietly. 
 " I may be in town, you know. You will not mind ? " 
 
 " No, no ! " she said hurriedly, appealingly. " Do not 
 come. I mean it all. It must be so. You must believe 
 me." 
 
 " I do," he said. " At least I believe in you, which 
 ought to be enough." 
 
 He saw that she swayed under his words, and perhaps 
 he recognized that while she had had the daring to leap 
 to a point of self-sacrifice which he would not have at 
 tempted, she might not have his strength to maintain it. 
 Then he must help her. 
 
 " Good-bye," he said quite simply, holding out his hand 
 in farewell. 
 
 / She signed rather than spoke an answering " Good 
 bye." All thought of concealing her pain had fled, and 
 as she drooped against the table, with lashes low upon 
 her cheeks to hide her tears, there was a confessed help 
 lessness in her pose, an invitation to cherishing, that 
 would have swept away a resolution less fixed than that 
 which Rodman s gentleness masked. He looked at her 
 silently a moment and then went out so quietly that she 
 hardly knew when she was first alone. 
 
 But on his way to seek Karl Bahrdt, he pondered with
 
 254 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 some wonder on his own self-restraint. Perhaps he felt a 
 momentary disappointment at being denied the sem 
 blance of autocratic power which every man instinctively 
 longs to possess over one woman, but it was quickly fol 
 lowed by the recognition that their love would be finer 
 if it might possess, as she seemed to assume it must, the 
 mutual respect and common freedom that a friendship 
 between men would hold. 
 
 " But I don t believe most women are of that sort," he 
 concluded, hardly knowing whether to be proud of it or 
 not. 
 
 He hardly realized the difference it made in his own 
 thought. If he had happened to fall in love with Edith, 
 for instance, it is safe to predicate that he would have made 
 rather a domineering lover, and that any pouting protests 
 on her pretty lips would have been swept away with 
 kisses and soft laughter and never a thought of the ethi 
 cal bearing of the question. With Joyce, severe to think 
 and to act, yet tender to love and to lean, it was differ 
 ent. The effect of her ascetic clearness of vision upon 
 his naturally gentle and dispassionate temperament was 
 to bring out the sweetness and strength of both. They 
 helped each other to realize their truest selves, and in 
 this lay the warrant for their love. Perhaps he could 
 not have been so generous if he had not had a certain 
 faith in the outcome, yet at the same time it is true that 
 he was ready, if necessary, to let his heart go shipwreck 
 rather than bring it into port by any false chart. 
 
 But he was not quite equal to letting her go away with 
 no further word. He stood at the station when she came 
 down, and after shaking hands with her he walked away 
 and entered another coach unseen. But he left his first 
 love-letter in her hand. It nearly broke her heart at the 
 time, though he had not meant that. 
 
 " I told you that I didn t want you to take my love as
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2$$ 
 
 a second-best. I could not use any tenderness of yours 
 to urge you to a promise which your mind would not con 
 sent to. But there is one word more I must say. When 
 you see it possible to let my love go with you in the way 
 you would choose, I shall be ready. Until then I shall 
 wait. If necessary, I shall wait all my life. I have told 
 you I love you. That is something which cannot change 
 so long as you are you and I am I. But, unless your love is 
 as free, I cannot accept the dear gift. I cannot have you 
 come by compulsion, compulsion of my love, or even of 
 your own unless you consent to it. In the meantime, go 
 your way, dear. Try what you wish to try, and if you 
 find that it completes your life, I will be silent. But if 
 your heart shows you at last that you need what support 
 there is in the knowledge that I love you, and that every 
 little thing which comes to you must be a part of my life 
 -also, then come to me, dear, as confidently as you would 
 go to the country in the spring and demand as a right its 
 gift of green and peace. All my heart and all my 
 thoughts are yours, because whatever you do or where- 
 ever you fare, I love you, my Joyce, forever and for 
 ever."
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 PROF. HAMiLLhad had a guilty consciousness of relief at 
 the arrangement which made Bahrdt, instead of himself, 
 Joyce s escort. He was fond of Joyce, but he was never 
 entirely at his ease with any woman except Drusilla, and 
 Joyce with the pale face and haggard eyes she brought 
 down stairs that last day was more dismaying than ordi 
 narily. 
 
 Yet she bore herself calmly enough to win Bahrdt s 
 grim approval. The tears fell fast behind her thick veil 
 and lay in glittering mockery upon her clasped hands, but 
 whether they were for the lover she was leaving or for 
 the father to whom she was going, she did not confess 
 even to herself. And gradually, as the miles behind her 
 lengthened, the tears ceased and her mood grew quieter. 
 She was going back over the same road she had traveled 
 four months before, and the sight of the stocks and stones 
 by the wayside brought back something of the temper 
 with which she had viewed them before. Those old, high 
 thoughts were like the cooling touch of health on a 
 fevered brow. To live so that somehow the world would 
 be the better for her life, that, after all, was the only 
 thing worth caring for. She had seen it once and then 
 had let the truth slip because a vision of happiness had 
 come between. She had tried to grasp the happiness and 
 had found it the mask of sorrow. Now she found in the 
 exaltation of absolute self-surrender the only rest. Per 
 haps her idea of self-sacrifice was not made wholly neces 
 sary by the circumstances, but at least there was nothing
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 artificial in her thought of it. It was all solemnly earnest 
 to her ; any other choice would have seemed little better 
 than treason to the diviner part of her nature. She was 
 not old enough to have had her ideals worn smooth and 
 not old enough to know that there may be more than one 
 truth to be considered at a time. Above all, she had lived 
 too much apart to have accepted the conventional ideas 
 of love. She loved Paul ; of course she would always 
 love him. But it was quite as possible to love him afar as 
 near, to always love him though she should never see him 
 again. 
 
 " There need no vows to bind 
 Whom not each other seek, but find," 
 
 she remembered. And then the rest of the noble verses 
 came through her mind with a new, direct meaning for 
 her. 
 
 "They give and take no pledge or oath, 
 
 Nature is the bond of both, 
 
 And so thoroughly is known 
 
 Each other s counsel by his own, 
 
 They can parley without meeting ; 
 
 Need is none of forms of greeting. 
 
 " Not with scarfs or perfumed gloves 
 Do these celebrate their loves, 
 Not by jewels, feasts and savors, 
 Not by ribbons and by favors, 
 But by the sun-spark on the sea 
 And the cloud-shadow on the lea, 
 The soothing lapse of morn to mirk, 
 And the cheerful round of work. 
 Their cords of love so public are 
 They intertwine the farthest star. 
 
 " Not glad, as the low-loving herd, 
 Of self in other still preferred, 
 But they have heartily designed 
 The benefit of broad mankind, 
 And they serve men austerely, 
 After their own genius, clearly."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 She was fast reaching an idealistic attitude toward life 
 and love, which is, in truth, not so unfamiliar ground to 
 the thoughts of young girls as certain " realists " would 
 seek to persuade us. 
 
 When they reached the city the familiar rush of the 
 crowd, so jostlingly near and yet so impersonal, came up 
 to claim her as one human atom more and to sweep her 
 away in its tide. She looked out at it in a tremor of fear 
 for a moment. Would she not lose here the very memory 
 of those tranquil months gone by ? It had been an inter 
 lude, she had said, but she wanted to keep it ! No need 
 to fear. If she had learned nothing else, she had come to 
 know that some things cannot be forgotten. 
 
 Paul, drawing back into the crowd to escape notice, saw 
 her leave the train with Bahrdt, and then, as agreed upon, 
 he went to Karl s room to await advices. Karl had ended 
 by being very humane about it. He approved of Joyce s 
 resolution and would not assume that it was temporary 
 only, but he admitted that Paul might have a reasonable 
 desire to know how she fared and that he must act the 
 part of a common friend. He had undertaken to make 
 the way clear for Joyce, to arrange what must be done, 
 and to report duly. Paul sat in his room, watch in hand, 
 trying to imagine what was transpiring, and the weary 
 hours stretched out to a short eternity before Karl came. 
 When he did appear at last his gaunt face looked hollower 
 than usual. It was the Karl Bahrdt of the city, not of 
 Hereward. 
 
 " Well ? " demanded Paul. 
 
 " Well, we found him," Bahrdt said, throwing his hat on 
 the dusty table and looking around at the unused room 
 with an air of surprise and distaste. "We found him, and 
 then I took Miss Mabie to a house where she can stay. 
 Then I went to hunt a lawyer." 
 
 " How did she bear it ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 259 
 
 <l Quietly. But he is all broken up. It was a surprise 
 to me to see that. I had thought to find him as before, 
 debonair and jaunty, ready to make light speeches and 
 persuade everybody that he did not care a puff of smoke 
 for the worst that fortune could do. But as every man 
 has a price, so I suppose every man has a breaking-point. 
 His seems to have been the disgrace of a prison. It is 
 the disgrace and that alone that has touched him. But it 
 has taken all the man out of him. He is like a child un 
 der punishment. He would hardly speak to me." 
 
 " We must fix his bail 
 
 " Ah, that he will not have. It is a part of it. I can 
 hide my face better here than if I am out on bail, he said 
 sullenly. For God s sake let people forget me. I told 
 you he is like a child, angry at the punishment, yet too 
 ashamed to come out of the corner." 
 - " How about getting counsel for him ? " 
 
 "I have engaged Jordan. He is with him now. I am 
 going to see him after the interview is over and see what 
 he thinks the chances are." 
 
 Paul looked an anxious question that he would not put 
 into words. Karl understood. 
 
 " He asserts his innocence." 
 
 " He does?" cried Paul, springing up. "Then why 
 shouldn t you believe it ? " 
 
 Karl shook his head slightly. It might have meant dep 
 recation rather than disbelief, but Paul resented it an 
 grily. 
 
 " 1 have never been able to understand why you all 
 should assume that his criminality was as good as proven 
 because it was asserted. It is only common decency to 
 believe a man innocent until he is found guilty, yet his 
 friend, even his " Even his daughter," he had been 
 about to say, but he sheered away from that. "Even you 
 seem to have believed the worst of him without proof."
 
 26o APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 Bahrdt frowned nervously and shook the ashes out of 
 his pipe with an impatient knock. But all he said was, 
 
 " I shall be glad if I may confess that I was wrong." 
 
 " When will the case come on ? " 
 
 " The Grand Jury meets on the first Monday of the 
 month. Nothing can be done until then, and that gives 
 us nearly three weeks to prepare. I will take you around 
 and introduce you to Jordan. He is a good man to man 
 age it, I think. There is nothing further I can do, but of 
 course I will come up at any time if you send for me." 
 
 " You are going back to Hereward, then ?" asked Paul, 
 with an unintentional betrayal of surprise. He had taken 
 it for granted that, like himself, Karl would stay in town 
 till the affair was ended. 
 
 " I suppose I might as well go back in a clay or two," 
 Karl answered with an elaborate affectation of indiffer 
 ence. " This is the first vacation I have had for years, 
 and there really is nothing to keep me in town. Here- 
 ward is a pretty little place. It is so long since I have 
 been in the country that it has turned my head. I think." 
 
 " Oh, go, of course," Paul said quickly. He was not 
 unwilling to favor the conceit of convenient blindness, 
 though if Karl had not been so desperately serious a fel 
 low he might have made some disingenuous reference to 
 theories that are reserved for the use of one s friends. 
 But he had no heart for trifling. "Don t you think we d 
 better go around to Mr. Jordan s office now ? " he asked, 
 looking at his watch. 
 
 " All right. What an abominable place this room is ! 
 I never knew before it was so barren. I suppose I didn t 
 see it when I lived in it." It did not occur to him that 
 the change was in him. 
 
 They went down together, though it was before the 
 hour. They were both restless with waiting. 
 
 " We are most curiously made, are we not ? " Karl said
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 26 1 
 
 as they walked along. He had kept a long silence, with 
 thoughts evidently off on some quest. " We go on for 
 years and establish a character and think we know our 
 selves, and our friends, they too think they know us, and 
 then some little new experience is dropped into the mix 
 ture and there is an explosion, or a new precipitate that 
 changes the character of the whole thing. It may be 
 some little thing that we have come near a thousand 
 times. But it is curious, too, how the things that are 
 little when we see them in other lives and dim when we 
 think of humanity as a mass, become important and dis 
 tinct when they make a part of our own experience. The 
 general rules don t apply then. We are dealing with a 
 new man. Tom Garner, for instance," he added, as 
 though afraid Paul might make some other inference. 
 " As I told you, I could make nothing of him. All the 
 child in him has come uppermost, and the man is sunk out 
 "of sight." 
 
 They went together to the lawyer s office, and Paul, to 
 whom this side of life was an unexplored country, took 
 curious note of the dusty stairs up which they climbed, 
 and of the bare and dusty room, lined with leather-bound 
 books and almost empty of everything else, into which 
 they were shown. 
 
 Mr. Jordan came to meet them. He was a little man, 
 with white hair and a round, benignant face, so benignant 
 and so childlike that Paul could hardly believe this was 
 the astute man of law they had come to consult. He 
 looked as though he had never happened to come across 
 any example of the criminal class himself, and was in 
 clined to discredit the popular report of their existence. 
 He shook hands with them both, but looked at Paul some 
 what dubiously until Bahrdt said, 
 
 " Mr. Rodman is equally interested with myself in hav 
 ing our friend cleared."
 
 262 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "Ah, indeed, indeed," said the little lawyer beamingly, 
 and he shook hands with Paul again. 
 
 " What do you think of the case ?" asked Karl. 
 
 Mr. Jordan probably heard the question, but he did not 
 show it in any way. He turned and conducted them into 
 his private office with an air of bustling hospitality and 
 shut the door. 
 
 " Sit down, sit down," he said, with urgent friendliness. 
 He picked an " American Digest " out of one chair and half 
 a dozen volumes of " Reporters " out of another, to make 
 room for the visitors, and took himself a chair opposite 
 with an entirely disengaged air. Paul wondered how long 
 it would take to bring the conversation around, without 
 violence, to the matter they were all thinking of, but Karl 
 came to the rescue. 
 
 "What do you think about it ? " he repeated, bluntly. 
 
 "Well, he tells a simple story, very straight," Mr. 
 Jordan answered, yielding indulgently to their impatience. 
 " He says he got into the gallery by bribing the janitor 
 and made a copy of the picture. He sold this copy to 
 Hamon, the picture-dealer, and was paid for it. There 
 were no witnesses. That is all he knows." He smiled 
 and spread his hands as though to say that was all he 
 knew, too. 
 
 " But it was the copy which was found in Richardson s 
 gallery, and the original was gone," said Bahrdt. 
 
 " Exactly so," said the lawyer, turning his bright little 
 eyes on Karl, and looking politely interested and amiable. 
 "The story was told in the newspapers at the time, wasn t 
 it?" 
 
 "Yes, and the copy was attributed at once to Tom (lar- 
 ner by those who knew his work. He left town without 
 giving me or any one else his address. There was con 
 siderable talk about it, though it was quiet. How did he 
 come to be arrested ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 263 
 
 " Why, a warrant had been issued, it seems, but he 
 couldn t be found at the time. That was some weeks ago. 
 Then somehow information was received that he was here 
 and had been seen at Hamon s, and it wasn t hard to find 
 him. He didn t try to conceal himself. He says he came 
 back to have it sifted." 
 
 " That s very natural. That s what any man would do," 
 Paul exclaimed. Karl was silent. 
 
 " Then it appears that the original picture was found," 
 Mr. Jordan added, conversationally. 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " Why, a New York man happened to hear the substi 
 tution story, which went the rounds of the papers, and 
 recognized the picture described as one he had bought 
 from a New York picture-dealer shortly before. This 
 man, called upon to account for the picture, said Hamon 
 had sent it on to him to be disposed of. So it came back 
 to Hamon, and he declares he thought it a copy. He had 
 bought it of Tom Garner as a copy, and was much sur 
 prised to hear that it was the original." 
 
 " Tom Garner must be a better artist than his reputa 
 tion promises, or else Hamon is willing to let his reputa 
 tion as a connoisseur go pretty cheaply," Paul remarked 
 dryly. 
 
 Mr. Jordan smiled appreciatively and turned to look at 
 him with new interest. 
 
 " Does the New York picture-dealer corroborate Ham 
 on s story that the picture was sold him as a copy ? " 
 
 "A good point. We must find out," Jordan said, smil 
 ing and nodding. 
 
 " Because if the janitor was bribed once he might have 
 been bribed twice," Paul pursued eagerly. " Why couldn t 
 the exchange have been made afterwards ? " 
 
 " That is a point to be considered," Mr. Jordan agreed 
 as placidly as before.
 
 264 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 " Then it narrows itself down to a question between 
 the three men, Mabie, the janitor, and Hamon ? " 
 
 " Unless there are new developments," Jordan added, 
 and this time he looked at the floor. He seemed to ac 
 cept the suggestions made as though he were grateful for 
 them and might not have thought of that way of working 
 things. 
 
 " Will there be any difficulty in finding the janitor ?" 
 
 " I suppose not. We can have the case continued un 
 til we do." 
 
 " Do you know this Hamon, Bahrdt ? " asked Rodman. 
 
 " I have been to his place a few times. I went there to 
 find Tom Garner occasionally." 
 
 " Were they on friendly terms ? " 
 
 " So far as I know. Oh, Garner probably was in Ham- 
 on s debt for money advanced on unfinished work. He 
 generally was." 
 
 " Do you know that he was?" Paul asked sharply. 
 
 " Yes," Karl answered with a haughty repelling of the 
 implied censure. 
 
 Jordan listened with the interest of a confirmed gossip. 
 
 "Yes, yes ! Well, the first thing is to see whether \ve 
 can find that janitor. I will send out to see if he is still 
 there." 
 
 " Why not place him and Hamon under arrest as well 
 as Garner ? " 
 
 Jordan permitted himself to laugh outright at this. 
 
 " We hardly have sufficient evidence against them. We 
 can keep them under surveillance, however." 
 
 " When may we expect to learn something definite ? " 
 
 "Well, really, it would be hard to say yet," Mr. Jordan 
 answered cautiously. 
 
 " Shall we come in to-morrow ? " Paul asked. 
 
 " I shall be most happy to see you," Jordan answered 
 as though he could not contemplate the possibility of go-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DLST1NY. 26$ 
 
 ing on with the case unless he had their most valuable 
 and welcome assistance. 
 
 And as the two men went down the dusty stairs, the 
 old lawyer sat alone for a few minutes, recalling the in 
 formation they had unconsciously furnished him. 
 
 " That man Bahrdt, newspaper man, isn t he ? knows 
 Mabie well and believes him guilty. The other doesn t 
 know him, and hopes he isn t. Hum What is it to him ? 
 Now, either Mabie is lying, or Hamon has committed the 
 robbery and is ready to commit perjury. He won t risk 
 that unless he thinks it can t be proved against him. 
 May be difficult. Mabie seems to have lost his grip, 
 though that may be shame as much as remorse. Looks 
 ready for the hospital. Steady girl, that daughter. Came 
 up at once. Ah, so did that young man ! Hum " He 
 rubbed his chin slowly, and then called a clerk and gave 
 him some directions. 
 
 For tlje next week Rodman was occupied with people 
 and subjects that opened a new world to him. True to 
 his promise, he kept away from Joyce, though there was 
 little that she did without his knowledge. Karl had lin 
 gered a few days, and then, being unable to do any good 
 here, as he explained, he had rushed off, with half an ex 
 cuse, to Hereward. 
 
 Mabie s nervous strain had resulted in a physical break 
 down that took him out of the jail in spite of his declared 
 intentions. He was removed to the hospital and for a 
 few days he didn t care very much how things went in the 
 legal tangle. But when the fever left him he yielded 
 with something of his old gracefulness to the irresponsible 
 ease of convalescence and made much of Joyce s daily 
 visits. They two came nearer together in those days 
 than they had been for a long time, and re-established 
 something of the old comradery on the foundation of a 
 better understanding of each other.
 
 266 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " When people don t expect anything of me, they aren t 
 disappointed in me," he said one day with a wistful whim- 
 sicalness, and Joyce understood. 
 
 Paul learned her paths, and would lie in wait for a 
 glimpse of her when she passed on her early morning 
 visits. If she looked well and composed he went on his 
 way with a cheerful heart. Sometimes, when her pale 
 face was paler or sadder than usual, he found it hard to 
 hold himself back when she brushed past him, but so 
 long as the conditions were unchanged there was nothing 
 else to be done. But he grew rather haggard himself in 
 the process. 
 
 By way of solacing himself, he had conceived the idea 
 of paying off the debts which hung over Tom Garner. It 
 was for Joyce s sake, of course. He couldn t do any 
 thing for her directly, so he satisfied his heart by doing 
 this. She might be angry if she knew about it, but then 
 perhaps she would never know. Pity if a girl s innate 
 ignorance of business matters couldn t be put to some 
 good use ! Tom Garner, he suspected, was not a man to 
 be angry at the liberty, especially if he only learned of it 
 after accepting Paul as a son in the law. 
 
 This project and the details of arranging it kept Paul 
 occupied and saved him from the desperation of his less 
 cheerful thoughts. Each morning he climbed the stairs 
 to interview the little old lawyer, who received him with 
 an unfailing geniality in spite of all his red-tape and 
 leather-bound precedents. Each time the old man would 
 answer in the same way, rubbing his chin with the same 
 air of embarrassed ingenuousness. 
 
 " I m afraid there is nothing new yet, Mr. Rodman. 
 But we are reasonably sure of coming out all right, rea 
 sonably sure." 
 
 Paul would nod and go out quietly. He was coming 
 to have a horror of the dusty little office where deferred
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 267 
 
 hopes and crushed ambitions and life tragedies were filed 
 away in pigeon-holes and tied neatly up with red-tape 
 and sorted out in calm, alphabetical order. Then he 
 would go down the street to interview the young attorney 
 who was gradually finding out how many just and unjust 
 debts Tom Garner had left behind him when he went into 
 seclusion. They were many and of varying age and 
 amount. To meet them, Paul drew upon the rapidly 
 dwindling balance from his uncle s legacy, and was glad 
 that some of the money could be squandered in an agree 
 able experiment rather than in the equally quixotic man 
 ufacturing game, in which he had not even a sentimental 
 interest. 
 
 Sometimes it was necessary for him to personally inter 
 view angry shop-keepers, whose demeanor changed so 
 promptly at the prospect of money that he was nauseated. 
 From such scenes he came away sick at heart for all this 
 money-getting and money-valuing world. He saw its 
 signs everywhere. The streets were full of boys preco 
 ciously sharp about the turning of a penny. The offices 
 and shops were full of the same boys grown older, with 
 the same sharpness, the same slangy repartees, the 
 same absorption in the same penny-turning business. To 
 him, whose ideal of life was a well-equipped laboratory, 
 with limitless stores of infusoria and bacteria, and 
 Joyce to share his enthusiasms and triumph in his suc 
 cesses, all this rushing, unrepaying life seemed despair 
 ingly dreary. In a different mood he might perhaps have 
 seen something to admire in the enterprise and skill of 
 the masters of this different world. He might have had a 
 sympathetic recognition for the ambition of the younger 
 men, dissimilar as the field of their ambition was. He 
 might even have perceived that in the din of the markets 
 and the tumult of the human torrents that surged to and 
 fro, there was room for all the cardinal virtues and sev-
 
 268 APPRENTICES 7V DESTINY. 
 
 eral supplemental ones. But he was restless and ill at 
 ease, and his parting with Joyce lay so heavily on his 
 heart as the days went by that everything else looked 
 rather hopeless. He saw only the obvious poverty and 
 the degradation of such living. He spent his days walk 
 ing through it and moralizing bitterly, which was a new 
 departure with him, and his evenings he spent shut up in 
 his room, smoking more cigars than he was used to or 
 were good for him, and wondering what Joyce was doing 
 and whether she had ever really cared for him, after all. 
 
 He had almost forgotten his connection with the Here- 
 ward Works when the end of the week brought him a 
 letter from his foreman, written in pencil on a torn bill 
 head and with more attention to the message than to 
 mere form of expression. Paul made out, however, that 
 the local union at Hereward required the dismissal of the 
 new man, Ben Baily, and that the foreman respectfully 
 urged the necessity of giving heed to the demand, as the 
 union s suggestions were pregnant with meaning. 
 
 Paul read the missive with a kindling eye. So Ben had 
 been right in his anticipations of persecution ! Well, 
 they had chosen an unfortunate moment if they meant to 
 raise the issue. He was not in a conciliatory mood. He 
 went to the nearest telegraph office and sent back the 
 curt answer, 
 
 " Baily shall stay if every other man goes." 
 Then, as he went his way, he thought to himself, 
 " Karl will look out for his babes in the mill and see 
 that they don t make fools of themselves." 
 
 But, as it happened, Karl had other matters on his 
 hands at that time.
 
 XXIX. 
 
 THE days which Bahrdt spent restlessly in Chicago, 
 detained by the offices of friendship, Edith Estee spent in 
 taking thought. That was a humdrum occupation which 
 she had evaded very successfully during the summer, but 
 Bahrdt s manner at parting had warned her that it might 
 not be possible to go on much longer without making up 
 arrears. She had always known, in the background of 
 her mind, that a time would come when this summer 
 acquaintance would resolve itself back into the Great 
 Void, but so must everything else in life, and what was 
 the use "of thinking about it until one must ? 
 
 How it had come to be in the first place she hardly 
 knew. There was an exhilarating novelty in the admira 
 tion of a man so different from those she ordinarily met, 
 and then she did not want to recognize Male s claims 
 just yet, she told herself. But the real reason she did 
 not tell herself, because she did not even know it. Now 
 when it came upon her that the hovering future had 
 drawn ominously near, she felt suddenly chill and forlorn, 
 and she shut herself up in her room and denied herself 
 to Hale when he called. 
 
 That perhaps was imprudent, for it awoke an angry 
 jealousy that had never slept very profoundly. It had 
 only been by adroit management that she had kept Ste 
 phen from open incivility during the summer, and she 
 owed something to the fact that his pride refused to 
 admit the possibility of his being jealous of such a rival 
 as Karl Bahrdt, a man of unknown antecedents, no
 
 2/0 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 social position and ostracizing opinions. He had con 
 tented himself with showing that as for himself, he 
 classed the socialist very near the level of the dime- 
 museum freak, and he knew Edith well enough to be sat 
 isfied that she was never deaf to the opinions of the con 
 servative majority which he voiced. 
 
 But for all that he saw Bahrdt depart with a sense of 
 relief he would not have cared to acknowledge. He put 
 several matters of business aside that afternoon in order 
 to call upon Edith, and he was prepared to be particularly 
 civil upon the occasion, to show her what a cause for grat 
 itude she had in the fact that it was not he who went 
 away. To have her decline to see him was therefore a 
 blow. He could not help connecting it in some way with 
 Bahrdt s departure, and his first chagrin deepened into re 
 sentment. Were her moods dependent on that fellow s 
 actions, and was he to be made the sport of her moods ? 
 He vowed he would keep away himself until she learned 
 he was not to be trifled with. 
 
 How long he might have kept the vow under favoring 
 circumstances must remain uncertain. What is certain is 
 that he forgot it when with a shock of surprise he saw 
 Bahrdt in the streets again. It was near the railway sta 
 tion they encountered. He watched his enemy go up 
 High street, and then he turned himself and went swiftly 
 to Miss Estee s. 
 
 Edith was alone, and she received him with a coquettish 
 graciousness that was calculated to lay evil spirits, but 
 unfortunately her first words spoiled the charm. 
 
 " Goodness, what makes you look so savage ? " she 
 asked with simulated apprehension. 
 
 He passed his hand over his forehead. " Do I look 
 savage ? " 
 
 " Dreadfully ! As though some victim had just escaped 
 you, and you were on the watch for another. Did the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2/1 
 
 last one get off without the life-sentence you had arranged 
 
 for him ? " 
 
 " So you think my chief pleasure in life is to have people 
 convicted and sentenced ?" 
 
 "Why, isn t it? I m sure you never look happy here 
 unless you are correcting my slips and making me feel 
 uncomfortable and condemned. I thought that was what 
 a lawyer lived for." 
 
 That was not an auspicious beginning for a wooing, but 
 unfortunately he had not the tact to make the best of it. 
 She was wrong, therefore he must set her right, and the 
 wooing must take its chances afterwards. 
 
 " The lawyer s life has a great deal in it of public be 
 neficence. If it were not for the enforcement of the laws, 
 society would be at the mercy of lawless men." 
 
 " Why, men make the laws, don t they ? " she remarked 
 with flippant argumentativeness. " And if they do, I 
 don t see that the laws can be so very much better than 
 the men who made them." 
 
 " You are arguing for the sake of opposing me, and not 
 because you care a rush what position you take," he ex 
 claimed impatiently. " The object of law and of a law 
 yer s work is to protect the innocent as well as to punish 
 the guilty." 
 
 " But doesn t it give you much more pleasure, person 
 ally, to punish the guilty than to protect the innocent ? 
 Honestly, now ! " 
 
 " You needn t say Honestly, now ! as though I might 
 be expected to answer dishonestly unless you adjured me 
 to speak the truth on this particular occasion, for a 
 change." 
 
 She laughed delightedly. 
 
 " Is that what Honestly, now ! means ? There is 
 some advantage in having it interpreted by one who un 
 derstands so thoroughly. I have heard it said that the
 
 272 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 law is a hedge from behind which the protected thieves 
 shoot down the unprotected. How do you like that ? " 
 
 He guessed swiftly that she was quoting Bahrdt, and a 
 wave of white passion swept over his face. 
 
 " The man who said it seems to be conversant with the 
 ways of thieves," he said. 
 
 " Well, doesn t it mean hunting down people in hiding, 
 and all that sort of thing ? " 
 
 It was entirely a chance shot, but he thought she meant 
 Mabie. 
 
 " Why do you persist in seeing the worst in everything 
 I say or do ? " he cried, flinging down the paper-knife he 
 had been toying with so suddenly that she started. 
 " W T hy do you always put me in the wrong ? " 
 
 " I don t put you there," she said, but her voice was 
 not so saucy as she had meant it to be. " I didn t sup 
 pose you would admit it possible that anyone could put 
 you in the wrong. But you haven t answered my question 
 yet as to whether you enjoyed punishing more than pro 
 tecting." 
 
 " I don t see why I should be called upon to answer 
 such a question. You would probably believe what you 
 pleased, no matter what I might say, and you wouldn t 
 understand my feelings, anyhow." 
 
 " That is a reflection on my understanding, which is im 
 polite, and it is also an admission that you have feelings, 
 which is most astonishing ! Have you just added them to 
 your mental outfit ? And what in the world did you do 
 it for ? " 
 
 There was a moment of intense silence. 
 
 " You at least ought to know that I have some feelings," 
 he said significantly. 
 
 Then she knew what was coming, and for her life she 
 could not have uttered a word. 
 
 " Last April I asked you to be my wife. That was be-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 273 
 
 fore I left Hereward. You did not refuse, you only asked 
 me to wait " 
 
 " And you promised to give me the summer and not to 
 press me or even to speak of it," she interrupted. 
 
 " I have waited. I have waited and not said a word 
 while I have seen you But I will not wait longer." 
 
 " Will not r 
 
 " No, I will not. I want you to listen to me and answer 
 me." 
 
 "And I wish you would not be so bad tempered when 
 you come to see me. Why can t you be moderately 
 agreeable ? " 
 
 " I suppose I might take some lessons from your social 
 ist." 
 
 "You might. To advantage." 
 
 As she looked past him, with t her chin lifted and her 
 -eyes veiled, he did not know for a moment whether he 
 loved or hated her most fiercely. 
 
 " There has been enough of this," he said, with white 
 lips. " It must end here. I am not to be treated like a 
 toy, a dog. If you want me to go away, say so. But 
 you must make up your mind now. I have had enough of 
 this waiting and trifling. I will be recognized. I will not 
 be tolerated." 
 
 There was no room to mistake his meaning or to put 
 it aside. It was the native force of the man speaking, 
 with little heed of the forms of courtesy, and the woman 
 shrank before it, as before a strange power. 
 
 " I am not a man to be any woman s puppet. That may 
 as well be understood. You cannot play fast and loose 
 with me or dangle meat your apron strings with that 
 German fanatic and other fools." 
 
 " I hate you ! Oh, I hate you ! " she cried passionately, 
 and then the nervous strain went off into tears that choked 
 her voice and flooded her eyes.
 
 274 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 Hale bit his lip with vexation. That a woman s tears 
 come easily and mean little he considered a matter of 
 course, yet one must maintain the semblance of respect 
 ing them. 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, don t cry," he expostulated. 
 
 She was as angry at her own tears as he could be, 
 but they were becoming hysterical and she could not 
 check them. 
 
 " I wish you would go," she gasped. 
 
 He took up his hat, but paused again to look down at 
 her as she crouched in a big chair. 
 
 " I will go now if you wish it, but we must come to an 
 understanding," he said, and his voice grew firmer as he 
 spoke. "We cannot go on in this way." 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 " Shall I come in this evening, or will you write me ? " 
 
 Still she was silent, her face hidden in her handkerchief. 
 He was not sure whether it was obstinacy or tears that 
 kept her from speaking. He felt like shaking her, as one 
 might a naughty child, and telling her to behave herself 
 and answer him properly. At the same time he was irri 
 tated that he had been put into so ungracious an aspect 
 at this time of all others. He was like some blundering 
 animal, whose selfishness is too native to be blameworthy. 
 And Edith s stings were like the little arrows with which 
 the bushmen madden a beast to frenzy. She did not 
 shoot maliciously. It was her only mode of defence, poor 
 child, and she shot because she was terrified. A time will 
 probably come, if evolution keeps on, when the instincts of 
 both beasts and hunters will grow more amiable. In the 
 meantime it is unfortunate that they should come in each 
 other s way. 
 
 Hale went to the door, and then the thought that 
 Bahrdt was in town flashed over him again. He turned 
 toward her once more.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2?$ 
 
 " I must see you again. Will you let me come back 
 this evening ?" 
 
 She made some sign, it might have been of assent, 
 and without further parley he went. 
 
 Edith flew up to her room. 
 
 "I hate him, I hate him, I hate him," she murmured, 
 speaking aloud in her nervous passion, while the tears, 
 now unchecked, crowded each other down her cheeks. 
 " He is an abominable tyrant. Oh, I would like to make 
 him feel, to do something to wring his heart if he has 
 one." 
 
 She went to the mirror and brushed the tears from her 
 face, with little sobs betweenwhiles. Her temples were 
 throbbing. 
 
 " If I ever have a chance, I will make him pay dearly. 
 I was a fool to cry. What makes me so afraid of him ? 
 If I only could have been cool and cutting and horrid ! 
 I wish he were dead ! I wish / were dead. Oh, I wish 
 
 She threw up her hands despairingly and turned away 
 from the mirror. A letter addressed to her lay upon the 
 table, and with it a little white box. She had never seen 
 the writing before, but something made her heart leap at 
 the sight of it, and then sink back with a deadly faintness. 
 She leaned against the table looking at it with a fear in 
 her face that had never been there before. At last she 
 took it up although she knew what it would say as well as 
 though it were the fulfillment of some prophetic rhyme of 
 her childhood. 
 
 " I found some German forget-me-nots in town, the same kind 
 that I gathered my hands full of when I was a child. I thought them 
 beautiful then, but I had forgotten to think of flowers or other beautiful 
 things until I met you. When I saw these to-day, they made me think 
 of your face, which, in truth, I never long forget. Oh, my loved one, it 
 is with me always ! That is why I came back, because I cannot live 
 away from the sight of your face. Will you wear these forget-me-nots
 
 276 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 in your beautiful hair when I come to you, to tell me first of all what I 
 shall entreat your lips to say after ? 
 
 " KARL BAHRDT." 
 
 She tore the message out first, then she read the words 
 again and again. She folded the paper and put it back 
 into its envelope, and then, though her fingers trembled 
 till she frfcwned, she opened the little box. A handful of 
 wee blue flowers looked up at her. She bent her face lower 
 and lower over them till they almost touched her cheek. 
 Then she put them away and sat down, throwing her arms 
 out upon the table with an abandonment that would have 
 befitted some carven effigy of hopelessness. Outside the 
 day went on and the long shadows began to reach out 
 toward the east, but for her there was nothing in all the 
 universe except the one thought pressing upon her brain. 
 It was no question. All was decided from the beginning 
 of things. On the one hand was something that called to 
 her and pleaded with a power that made her ache with 
 the longing to throw herself into the answer. On the 
 other a future awaited her that but to think of made her 
 cold and hard and bitter. Yet this was what she would 
 choose. Oh, it was all settled, and there was to be no 
 revolt, but for the little time before the fate was sealed 
 one might dream of what the other lot could be,- dream 
 of long years wrapped in a light that was the light of 
 eternity shimmering down over the barrier and of how 
 two might walk through it, hand in hand, and never 
 know, because still hand in hand, when the barrier was 
 passed and the world that had been was left behind. 
 Only through it ever would be the smile of eyes that sel 
 dom smiled at the rest of the world. Through it all 
 would be the strong clasp of an arm that could hold all 
 the rest of the world aloof. 
 
 There was a hand at the door and Miss Estee came 
 in.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 277 
 
 " Edith, are you here ? Why, what is the matter, 
 child ?" 
 
 Edith lifted her dazed face. 
 
 " Nothing. I was only thinking," she said, with the 
 reticence that was characteristic of her. She rose heavily, 
 pushing her hair back with both hands. "How late it 
 is! " 
 
 Miss Estee watched her anxiously. 
 
 " Are you sure nothing is the matter ? " 
 
 Edith waited a moment to bring her voice down to a 
 matter of fact tone. 
 
 " Nothing tragic. I have two offers of marriage to 
 consider." 
 
 " My goodness ! " Miss Estee exclaimed breathlessly, 
 but Edith calmly hunted up a dressing sack to throw 
 over her shoulders and went to the mirror to let down 
 ,h-er tumbled hair. 
 
 " Mr. Hale asks to be taken off the hooks," she said in 
 the same manner. " He didn t ask in the sweetest way, 
 but perhaps that was not to be expected. I suppose the 
 average minnow might show some temper if it were not 
 happily deprived of the means of expressing it. Mr. 
 Hale was rather in a temper. So was I. That s what 
 made me cry," she added, with a touch of defiance. 
 
 " My dear, I didn t suppose it was any unduly tender 
 sentiment," Miss Estee remarked drily. "What did you 
 say to Stephen ? " 
 
 " I told him I wished he would go, and he went." 
 
 " For good? " 
 
 " A temporary alleviation only. Oh, I suppose I shall 
 have to accept him. He is coming this evening to find 
 out." 
 
 "And the other ?" 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt." 
 
 " Why, child ! Miss Estee murmured. She tried to get
 
 2/8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 a glimpse of the girl s face, but Edith had let her hair down 
 and was brushing it with methodical thoroughness. 
 
 " What would you say if I were to marry him ? " asked 
 a non-committal voice behind this veil. 
 
 " Edith, do you mean it? For heaven s sake, don t be 
 so feelingless and tantalizing." 
 
 "I m not. I am only considering, like the prudent 
 young modern I am. But 1 want to know how it would 
 strike you, as a romanticist. Have I your blessing and 
 support if I decide to marry Mr. Bahrdt ? " 
 
 " Of course I will stand by you whatever you do, and if 
 you are determined upon it 
 
 " But you wouldn t altogether approve. Why not ? 
 Isn t he all that a romanticist could ask ? Isn t he pecu 
 liarly fitted to carry a susceptible young girl s heart cap 
 tive ? " 
 
 " But you are not a susceptible young person, exactly." 
 
 " Quite true. I only wanted to see how you would 
 take it. If we were only spirits, now There wouldn t 
 be any complications then, no questions about what we 
 should eat or wear, or what people would think. It would 
 be all easy and simple." 
 
 " Edith, do you mean that you love him ? If you 
 do " 
 
 " I was only considering, I told you. I am not a ro 
 manticist like you, auntie dear. I am a modern young 
 woman, and I couldn t marry a man who is out of my 
 set, who is a fanatic, and poor. How could I, with my 
 nice, respectable little ambitions and my love of ease and 
 the conventional triumphs of a woman in good society, 
 how could I undertake to share the life and work of a 
 man who has chosen a career that dooms him to unpopu 
 larity and poverty for all the days of his life ? No, it is 
 utterly and forever impossible. Stephen Hale is the only 
 alternative."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 2/9 
 
 " Edith Estee, put down that brush and sit down where 
 I can see your face. If you care for this man, if you 
 fiat/care for him, you cannot marry Stephen Hale." 
 
 " I can t marry him" 
 
 " Why should you marry either ? " 
 
 " Who else is there ? Stephen is certainly the most 
 eligible young man in town. He is wealthy, and I have 
 just confessed that I could not endure poverty. He is 
 correct Oh, most correct ! An Admirable Crichton in 
 every way." 
 
 " But you do not love him, Edith ! You do not, or you 
 could not talk in this way." 
 
 "Well, suppose I don t," Edith said, but she could not 
 raise her eyes to support her valiant speech. Child as 
 she was, untouched by the knowledge of actual evil, she 
 felt arraigned before the purity of the gray-haired 
 .woman whose life had been loyal to an ideal. 
 
 " But think if you should ever meet someone after 
 wards Oh, Edith, why do you talk as though it must be 
 one or the other ? There is no necessity for marrying 
 either of them." 
 
 " Is there much likelihood that I will ever have a bet 
 ter chance ? " 
 
 " Chance ! Good heavens, child, don t use such a 
 word. Is marriage a chance in life ? It sounds commer 
 cial." 
 
 " What will life hold for me if I don t ? I m not a 
 genius, remember. I m just an ordinary girl, with the or 
 dinary ambitions and ideals. I m not good for anything 
 but to marry." 
 
 " You should never marry a man whom it is possible to 
 refuse," Miss Estee cried ardently. " That should be the 
 test. I don t believe that everyone can love to a degree 
 that justifies marriage, anymore than everyone can write 
 poetry to a degree that justifies publication. The tradi-
 
 280 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 tionsof the race are to the contrary, I know. People take 
 it for granted that they are going to fall in love as a matter 
 of course, as much so as that they will, in the course 
 of years, wear long gowns and cutaways instead of pin 
 afores and blouse-waists. So they fancy the first flutter 
 of emotion proves that wings are budding, and without 
 waiting to make sure, they rush off at once to an editor 
 or a minister and have the thing recorded. They can burn 
 their poetry when they grow older and learn that the wings 
 weren t wings after all but only the rudimentary suggestions 
 of undeveloped organs which all the race possesses but 
 which come to power only in the poets. But burning the 
 marriage certificate won t help matters. They have to 
 stand by their mistake because they recorded it. And, 
 my dear Edith, I am not sure that you have a real genius 
 for loving." 
 
 " Perhaps not, but I m afraid I haven t a genius for liv 
 ing alone, either. It would mean earning my own living 
 in the first place. How could I ? I don t know enough 
 to teach. I might learn shorthand, but I would dislike 
 exceedingly to sit at a desk nine hours of every day and 
 have some man dictating to me, instead of letting me dic 
 tate to him. It would be reversing the natural order of 
 things. There is nursing, and there is clerking, and 
 there are various other branches of industry, but who 
 could choose that life ? It isn t only that it means hard 
 work and no fun. It means numbing, paralyzing, dead 
 ening work. Oh, you see I have thought about it 
 There isn t very much to me, you know, auntie, and if the 
 lightness and brightness and individualism that people 
 generally, and men particularly, like, were taken out of 
 me, there would be nothing left but a colorless, tired-out 
 girl who would command no attention or interest any 
 where. That is what I would be reduced to in six months 
 of routine work under orders. A girl has to have ideals
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 28 1 
 
 with stiffer back-bones than mine to make her choose 
 that." 
 
 "But you would be free/ 
 
 " No, not even that. Because once in that sort of life I 
 would be bound to it beyond escape. The men that I 
 would meet would be the sort that I call impossible 
 now. And the sort of a man I would be willing to marry 
 would call me impossible then, and awaken the aston 
 ishment and commiseration of his friends if he should 
 disregard the barriers of station." 
 
 " But why should marriage be the only thing in life to 
 look to ? " persisted the old maid. Her own experience 
 came naturally before her mind. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know. It seems sort of bleak to look for 
 ward to a whole lifetime alone, getting older and older 
 with nobody bound to stay by you. Then somehow every- 
 qjj.6 does look forward to marriage." 
 
 " It is this pernicious trick of heredity," groaned Miss 
 Estee. " Our mothers were all married and their 
 mothers before them, and we begin with the accumulated 
 weight of their ideas. The sensible old maids can never 
 hand their sense on ! " 
 
 Edith laughed. " Well, life somehow seems to need a 
 climax to make it worth while." 
 
 " Yes, and there isn t much of anything but love or 
 religion that will supply it for the average woman, I sup 
 pose. We try for love first, and when we find that a 
 broken reed we fall back on religion as a. pis alter." 
 
 " But the married people are happier, as a rule," the 
 girl urged. 
 
 " I m not so sure," Miss Estee said dubiously- " If 
 they are, it is because of the finality of the thing, in most 
 cases. Their affairs are settled, and they see that the 
 only thing to be done is to make the best, not the worst, 
 of the existing circumstances. But they might have done
 
 282 APPRENTICES 7V DESTINY. 
 
 that before more easily, and found the same peace by a 
 less hazardous route." 
 
 Edith sat silent, but the fair face shaded by her falling 
 hair was wilfully set. It rushed over Miss Estee that she 
 was doing what she had been doing all her life, talking 
 abstractions and failing to get in touch with the girl s 
 mood. A remorseful fear and pity made her hold out her 
 arms. 
 
 " My dear, my dear, there is only one thing to do. We 
 must be true, though the heavens fall ! " 
 
 "That sounds well," said Edith, with a little pucker, 
 " but when the heavens begin to show signs of falling, 
 even in just one little corner, you are scared. At least I 
 am. Somehow I have more practical faith in the earth I 
 know than in any other part of the universe. Of course 
 one wants to be true, but if it really comes to a question 
 of cracking the truth a little or cracking the sky, Good 
 ness, I want something over my head ! " 
 
 "You are a little heathen," groaned her aunt. 
 
 " No, I am a realist. That s pretty much the same, 
 though, in your eyes, isn t it ? " 
 
 " If you can laugh about it, I feel relieved. You 
 weren t in earnest, were you ? Because what could be 
 more dreadful, Edith, more unspeakably dreadful, than to 
 be married to a man you didn t love ? Surely you 
 couldn t think of it." 
 
 " I am going to be married to Mr. Hale." 
 
 " Then you do love him ? Confess ! Is it just shyness 
 that makes you pretend not to care ? " 
 
 " Oh, I daresay I love him quite enough. His finger 
 nails are always in perfect order and his cuffs and collars 
 immaculate. I couldn t bear him if they weren t. As it 
 is, I don t know anyone else I would marry. Will that 
 satisfy you ? " 
 
 " No, that won t satisfy me," she said gravely.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 283 
 
 "Oh, well, then, I ll say I love him," Edith exclaimed 
 impatiently. " I suppose I might as well begin to practice 
 saying it." 
 
 " When is he coming ? " 
 
 " This evening. Mr. Bahrdt, also will call this evening, 
 I suppose. Pleasant, if they come together." 
 
 " I m sorry for him, Edith." 
 
 "Are you ? Oh, he ll get over it. He will know better 
 than to break his heart over so slight a thing as I." 
 
 Miss Estee put her hands on the tall girl s shoulders 
 and looked anxiously into her eyes. 
 
 " Edith, my little girl, I wish I were sure of you." 
 
 " I am doing exactly what I want to, auntie dear, so it 
 is all right. And if I am wrecking my life, well, it is my 
 own funeral. At least the hearse will have silver trap 
 pings. There, don t look at me like that. I don t know 
 what I may say. Go away now, like a good little dear, 
 because I must dress before the Philistines are upon me." 
 
 She pushed her aunt out of the room and locked the 
 door with a snap. Then she bathed her face, and, with a 
 mocking smile at herself, she arrayed herself in a trailing 
 white gown that fell about her like the robes of a sacrifi 
 cial victim. 
 
 " That is what I would wear if I were going to die this 
 hour," she thought to herself as she looked in the glass 
 to arrange the folds of filmy lace that crossed at her 
 throat. " It suits Iphigenia. What a hollow mockery I 
 am ! But I like these things." She thoughtfully adjusted 
 the trained skirt which fell about her in gracious lines. 
 
 " I never would have a gown like this if I married him. 
 And I d rather be Iphigenia with her robes than a dairy 
 maid in homespun, that s the truth. It is one or the 
 other, and I must choose the thing that is real to me. 
 There isn t any question of unreality about this gown. It 
 is perfect, for a victim. It only needs " She went to
 
 284 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 the table and took up a few of Karl Bahrdt s flowers and 
 tucked them into the braids that drooped goldenly low at 
 her neck. " That is complete How perfectly he knew !" 
 
 She did not take them out. She stood and looked at 
 their reflection a moment in the glass. 
 
 " It would be midsummer madness," she said to herself. 
 " I must be sensible, and then at least I will know what I 
 may expect." 
 
 Presently she heard the door-bell ring. It was only a 
 far-away tinkle, but it made her fall a-trembling as though 
 it had been the trumpet of a judgment day. She put her 
 hands over her heart, trying to still its wild beating by 
 the pressure of her fingers, while she waited for the slow 
 steps of the maid. It was either too late or too early for 
 an orthodox caller. It could only be Karl Bahrdt. She 
 drew her breath in quick gasps and for a moment the 
 thought of fleeing from the house before she was sum 
 moned flashed over her. Then she stamped her foot in 
 impatience with her own tremors and went to the window, 
 leaning out into the open air till the maid came. 
 
 It was Hale who awaited her. 
 
 The surprise was a nervous stimulant. She recovered 
 her self-poise in a moment. 
 
 " Very well, Mary. Oh, Mary, if Mr. Bahrdt should 
 come before Mr. Hale goes, you may show him into the 
 library. Tell him I am engaged and ask him to wait. 
 See that the room is lit, and, Mary, be sure to close the 
 door into the hall." 
 
 She turned to the glass for a last look before she went 
 to meet him. The forget-me-nots were still in her hair. 
 She touched them lightly and lingeringly, and, with a 
 curious smile, she left them there. 
 
 Then she went down.
 
 XXX. 
 
 HALE had passed two uncomfortable hours in the meam 
 time, and had come back after all sooner than he intended. 
 He was doubtful as to the nature of his reception, and the 
 doubt irritated him. He stood waiting in the room where 
 he had left her, and as the minutes lengthened he frowned 
 nervously. When he heard her step on the stair at last 
 he threw up his head and unconsciously squared himself 
 as for a conflict. A wonder flashed into his mind why he, 
 whose natural and divine right it was to command, should 
 treTforced by the artificial standards of society into the 
 false position of a suppliant. He always had commanded. 
 He expected to command when she was his wife. Why 
 should he lend credit to the fiction of woman s freedom by 
 suing instead of commanding at this juncture ? 
 
 Then Edith appeared at the door. She gave him a nod 
 and a brilliant smile that came from the lips only, and 
 swept across the room to a low chair. He followed her, 
 with a sudden revulsion of feeling. As she had instinc 
 tively known, the elegance of her dress inspired him with 
 a vague awe which would serve as a substitute for the 
 courtesy that springs from reverence. His senses suc 
 cumbed to the glory of her laces and jewels, and whereas 
 he had a moment before thought with favor of the olden 
 fashion of undisguised force, he felt now, with a strange 
 thrill in all his pulses, that he could throw himself at her 
 feet and kiss the hem of her dress. He thought it was 
 love that moved him. 
 
 " Well ? " she said mockingly.
 
 286 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " I told you I would come," he answered. He stood 
 before her, looking down at her through a haze. 
 
 " Then I suppose we can consider it settled without any 
 nonsense," she said with nervous quickness. " See," and 
 she held out a tag of the lace she wore, " I have decked 
 myself out in holiday attire to do honor to the great oc 
 casion." 
 
 " Did you wear that for me ? " 
 
 " And for myself. Do you like it ? " 
 
 " Yes. But Edith, is it true ? Will you be my 
 wife ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 She looked straight in his face, but there was no invita 
 tion in her eyes, no softness in her clear voice. If he had 
 offered to kiss her, she would have been tempted to 
 strike him. But he did not. Perhaps he recognized her 
 mood. He pulled a chair near her and sat down, smiling 
 but still looking a little doubtful and watching her with 
 an eye that followed every motion. 
 
 " Then it is to be a happy ending to our quarrel. Did I 
 seem disagreeable this afternoon ?" 
 
 " No seeming about it. You were." 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 "What made you be so unpleasant, then ? You said 
 you hated me." 
 
 " And I meant it." 
 
 " Do you hate me now ? " 
 
 She didn t answer, and he leaned forward and clasped 
 her fingers in his. It startled them both, and he drew 
 back confusedly. 
 
 " You don t suppose I have changed my mind so soon, 
 or that, if I have, I would confess it, do you ?" she asked, 
 making an effort to speak gaily, and finding it heavy 
 work. 
 
 " I expect you to confess more than that. Why have
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 287 
 
 you made me wait so long ? Why didn t you let me know 
 in the spring? " 
 
 " The waiting has not worn upon you very seriously," 
 she said saucily. 
 
 " You don t know," he answered. He had it in mind 
 to confess something of what he had suffered from 
 Bahrdt s appropriation of her time, but he checked the 
 words on his lips. He could not speak of it yet, and it 
 would not be dignified to confess that he had been uneasy. 
 He might be content now at least. He told himself he 
 was content, but, as he looked at her a sense of disap 
 pointment began to rise dumbly in his heart. He did 
 not understand it, and as he still looked at her he forgot 
 it to wonder over her beauty and to remember that it was 
 his own. He leaned toward her with a new light in his 
 eyes. 
 
 "You are very beautiful. When you are my wife I shall 
 feel like hiding you away to keep your beauty for my own 
 eyes alone. No one else will have a right to come and go 
 and talk to you and carry away the memory of your face. 
 You are mine, mine ! " 
 
 "A pleasant prospect for me, shut up like a prisoner ! " 
 she cried, looking a little startled at his manner, in spite 
 of her effort to meet him lightly. This was a new tone 
 for him to take and it frightened her. She knew what to 
 expect of Stephen the censor, but if Stephen took the 
 language of love on his lips she would be facing the 
 unknown. But he went on, in the same abstracted 
 way. 
 
 " Your happiness will be to be what I wish, will it not ? 
 You have thought me sometimes harsh and dictatorial. 
 It was because I wanted to make you what I most admire. 
 For that reason I have tried to train you, because I 
 loved you and meant some day to make you my wife. 
 Long ago I settled it all in my own mind, and I have been
 
 288 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 waiting years for this time to come. Think what it means 
 to me now ! " 
 
 She rose abruptly and crossed the room, anything to 
 escape from his words, to break this spell. It seemed to 
 her that she must cry out, sob, do something dreadful, if 
 he did not stop talking in that strain. She could not meet 
 his eyes. 
 
 " What is it now ? Did I say anything disagreeable ? " 
 he asked with a quick change at her manner. She recov 
 ered herself. It was the old Stephen back. 
 
 " No, but let s talk about something else. I don t like 
 to have you talk about me ! " 
 
 He was silent a moment before he said, 
 
 " Very well, let us decide about the wedding-day, then." 
 
 "Oh, goodness, I don t want to settle everything all at 
 once." 
 
 " This isn t everything." 
 
 "Oh, well, there s time enough. Don t talk about that. 
 Tell me about Oh, about your law cases !-" 
 
 He smiled in spite of himself. " If that is to be our 
 only common ground, I m afraid it will be difficult for us 
 to converse very enthusiastically. No, you can t put me 
 off in that way. I want to talk particularly about our 
 wedding-day. There is no reason why we shouldn t ar 
 range it now. And I must speak of it now because I 
 would like it to be very soon." 
 
 " I won t be hurried," she protested, and she looked at 
 him with dilating eyes. 
 
 " I am not hurrying you. I only want you to under 
 stand the situation, and that you can t do unless you will 
 let me speak about it. If you will not be so excitable, I 
 can explain. There are some reasons why I would like to 
 have it set for some day next week." 
 
 "Next week ?" she cried, starting up. "Next week ? 
 Why, you are wild. It is impossible, simply impossible."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 289 
 
 " Sit down," he said grimly. " We will never be able to 
 discuss anything rationally if you fly off at the first word 
 like that. It isn t impossible. It is simply a question of 
 convenience. I am going to New York next week on 
 business. The business will only take a few days, but it 
 can t be postponed, and when I come back it will be im 
 possible to get away again for a year, perhaps. So, why 
 can t we make this a wedding trip ? " 
 
 " If you can go in a year, that will be time enough." 
 
 His face darkened. " Do you insist on that ? " 
 
 " I don t insist on anything," she said, faltering. " But 
 a week is so short, and it surely can t be impossible for 
 you to get away some time between, if you want to." 
 
 " For business reasons, it will be so inconvenient as to 
 be practically impossible. I am just at a critical period in 
 my professional career, and this year s work may influence 
 -my entire future. Therefore I will not be at liberty to go 
 and come except as my business determines. You may 
 have been brought up to think you can control circum 
 stances. I confess that I can t, and I think, on the whole, 
 you might as well learn that you, too, must submit to 
 them. Don t provoke me, Edith. Why can t you be 
 reasonable about anything ? " 
 
 " I think the unreasonable thing is for you to insist 
 upon talking about having the wedding so suddenly." 
 
 He made a strong effort to control himself and to speak 
 temperately and gently. 
 
 " It isn t as though it were a new idea or as though I 
 were a stranger. You have known me all your life. You 
 have been considering this matter all summer. You 
 have just said you would be my wife. I don t see any 
 thing sudden in talking about the wedding, after that." 
 
 " Well, talk about it then, if it pleases you," she an 
 swered. She felt that she was pettish and ungracious, 
 but something she could not control urged her on.
 
 2QO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "If we put off the wedding till I come back, there will 
 be no wedding journey, for one thing. But what is more 
 important, if you go with me to New York, you can take 
 the opportunity to pick out your wedding outfit. It will 
 be all the same whether that comes before or after the 
 ceremony. Hereward is a little place and everything 
 here is provincial. I don t want you to look like a pro 
 vincial. If my plans prosper, we can live in Chicago. 
 That is a wider field, of course, and I have been working 
 for some time to make a satisfactory business connec 
 tion with an established firm there. Would you like 
 that ? " 
 
 " Would it make any difference if I didn t ? " she asked, 
 tapping the floor angrily with her foot. She knew that 
 she would like it, but she did not like to have it announced 
 as a matter in which she had no choice. 
 
 As he was about to answer, there was a sound of some 
 one entering the hall, the door to which Edith had closed 
 on her entrance. Hale frowned and bit his lip, expecting 
 an interruption, but the unknown visitor was shown into 
 the library on the other side of the hall from Edith s little 
 reception room. There were a few words in a voice that 
 Hale did not distinguish and then silence. Edith leaned 
 back in her chair, a trifle paler than before and with her 
 anger suddenly vanished. 
 
 " I simply wanted to say," Hale resumed, " that if these 
 plans succeed, as I think they will, we shall have to live in 
 Chicago, and it may be necessary for us to go very soon, 
 within a few months. I want you to be prepared to 
 take your place there as you ought to." 
 
 " Oh, don t pretend to think of me in connection with 
 your determination," she said with a last flash. It seemed 
 to her that the air was stifling, and involuntarily she put 
 her hand to her throat. She knew that Bahrdt was wait 
 ing for her, and the thought of what lay before her, if
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 29! 
 
 everything was not settled now beyond revoking, fright 
 ened her. Hale could not have evoked a better argu 
 ment for himself. 
 
 " It would be more agreeable if you would not put your 
 self into opposition to everything I propose," he said in a 
 chill tone. " If we are going to live in Chicago, you cer 
 tainly will want to be properly introduced and properly 
 dressed. It seems to me there can be no need of arguing 
 such a matter with a woman." 
 
 She had been thinking rapidly while he talked slowly. 
 Half an hour ago she would have said that nothing on 
 earth would induce her to consent to this hurried marriage. 
 Now she knew that she was going to consent unequivocally, 
 and she had a feeling that it was only the beginning of 
 what lay before her for all time. What he willed would 
 be the law for her beyond appeal, whether she protested 
 ryielded at once. 
 
 "Very well," she said recklessly. "We might as well 
 have it over with." 
 
 He frowned. " Why do you speak in that way ? I 
 think I have a right to something more than toleration 
 from you, Edith." 
 
 " Oh, I didn t mean that. But I hate scenes. Won t 
 you please just take things for granted ?" 
 
 " Of course. I didn t mean to tease you, only " He 
 looked so masculinely helpless that something like pity 
 and remorse touched her. She held out her hand. 
 
 " We aren t sentimental people, either of us," she said, 
 "but I think we suit each other, and we will get along 
 very well without any violent demonstrations." 
 
 " Yes," he said, echoing honestly enough the chill senti 
 ment though surprised it should come from her instead of 
 from him. He rose and took up his hat ; something in 
 her tone had dismissed him. But he lingered a moment 
 and looked at her curiousl
 
 292 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Do you realize that this is our betrothal night ? The 
 end of our romance ? " 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders lightly. 
 
 " Don t pretend you believe in romance ! " 
 
 " Why, everybody pretends once at least. Edith, let me 
 have those flowers in your hair, for sweet remembrance." 
 He put out his hand to take them without waiting for per 
 mission, but she drew back quickly. 
 
 " No, no ! " 
 
 His face darkened. 
 
 " It is a little thing to ask." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense ! Don t be absurd." 
 
 " Why do you refuse ? " 
 
 " Because I said no, that s why," she cried passionately. 
 She snatched the flowers from her hair, crushed them in 
 her hands and flung them into the open fireplace. She 
 had never felt so brave to defy him. It would have been 
 sacrilege for him to carry off those forget-me-nots as a 
 love gift from her. 
 
 He looked at her with glowing eyes, but with an effort 
 he mastered himself. 
 
 " Don t let us quarrel on our engagement evening," he 
 said rather grimly. " It might be ominous." 
 
 " I m sure I don t want to," she pouted. 
 
 " I suppose after a while we will come to know how to 
 avoid each other s friction-points. Good-night, my dear." 
 
 He took her hand and bent his head to hers. She 
 flushed, but did not draw away. It was a part of the 
 price, and she let him kiss her. Her drooping eyelids and 
 the startled quiver of her lips fired the passion in his veins, 
 and before she could realize his intention he flung his arm 
 about her shoulders and kissed her again. She freed her 
 self violently, and with no desire but to escape she flung 
 open the door into the hall and ran quickly up half a dozen 
 steps.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 293 
 
 " Good-night," she said, waving her hand to him over 
 the balustrade. She had recovered sufficiently to put a 
 dash of coquetry into her smile, and she turned her cheek 
 backward over her shoulder bewitchingly, though she 
 stood poised for further flight if necessary. 
 
 He came to the foot of the stairs and leaned his arms 
 upon the post, and looked up at her with a laugh. 
 
 " That s a kind way to treat me ! Do you think that 
 after the dance you have led me all summer I am going 
 to be put off in this way much longer ? " 
 
 " What do you expect ? " she flashed. 
 
 " Obedience ! " 
 
 " I will never promise to obey you ! I will not answer, 
 if he puts that into the service." 
 
 " Oh, that won t make any difference in the eye of the 
 law." 
 
 She knew that he was pronouncing her sentence, and 
 the impulse to free herself from the hateful tangle of her 
 promises rose and struggled within her, but for the last 
 time she put it down. 
 
 " You are not very polite ! Don t you think you have 
 been keeping me here in the hall long enough ?" 
 
 Involuntarily she glanced toward the closed library 
 door. She had been in an agony of fear lest Bahrdt 
 should hear them. She spoke in a nervously hushed 
 voice herself, and her senses had been strained to catch 
 any sound from the library. He caught the look, for he 
 was always quicker at detecting the signs of guilt than in 
 crediting those of innocence, and with a sudden change 
 in manner he asked, 
 
 "Who was it that came in awhile ago ? " 
 
 " I don t know," she exclaimed on the cowardly impulse 
 of the moment. 
 
 " Was it Bahrdt ? " 
 
 " How should I know ? I suppose it was someone to 
 see Aunt Eleanor."
 
 294 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Where are you going now ? " 
 
 " I am going to my room. I am tired out." She 
 looked ready to cry. 
 
 " Do / tire you ? " 
 
 Yesterday she would have answered, " Desperately," 
 with a sense of exhilaration in her own courage. To 
 night she dared not. She felt that she would never dare 
 again. She hung her head and murmured, 
 
 " No, not you. It is just that I am tired." 
 
 " Well, go then. I will see you to-morrow." 
 
 He let himself out, and Edith flew upstairs. There 
 was an hysterical sob in her throat.
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Ax the head of the stairs Miss Estee intercepted 
 her. 
 
 " Edith," she said, and there was a sound of entreaty 
 in her voice that said much. She had been waiting in 
 her room, with hands locked close, while she heard Bahrdt 
 come and Hale go. She hardly gave a thought to them. 
 Her heart was with Edith, the girl who was sealing all 
 her future, while she sat alone above in the fading light. 
 She was a mere child ! How could she know what she 
 was doing ? Her very self-confidence and hardness were 
 T)orn of her ignorance. But ever the old must sit with 
 folded hands and watch fearfully from their vantage point 
 of knowledge, while the young, who must act, laugh 
 knowledge to scorn, till they in turn come to look on 
 helplessly while those they love sign away their lives with 
 a smile. 
 
 " Edith," she implored. 
 
 The girl stopped on her hasty way to her room. 
 
 " It is all settled," she said, with an affectation of non 
 chalance, though her voice betrayed the effort. 
 
 " Oh, Edith, are you happy ? " 
 
 " As happy as is good for me, I suppose." 
 
 " I want you to be happy, dear ! " 
 
 " So do I," the girl answered naively. " I always have 
 wanted that. Wouldn t it be malicious of fate, if I should 
 prove to have sacrificed the very thing that I was trying 
 to save by sacrificing everything else ! " She laughed 
 lightly and her eyjs met Miss Estee s, and then in a mo-
 
 296 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 ment she was holding her aunt in her arms, half whimper 
 ing, half laughing. 
 
 " Don t look at me like that, aunt Eleanor ! It is 
 dreadful enough to have to choose a husband, without 
 having you look as though I were signing my death-war 
 rant. Goodness knows, maybe I am ! Whatever was I 
 born for ? " 
 
 She dabbed her handkerchief frankly to her eyes, and 
 then ran to the mirror to see that they were not 
 red, and that there were no forgotten flowers in her 
 hair. 
 
 But at the library door she quailed for a moment. 
 
 Karl was standing in the center of the room with his 
 eyes fixed upon the door, and when she appeared he took 
 a step toward her with passionate eagerness. Then he 
 stopped short, and involuntarily raised his hand as though 
 to shield himself from a blow. 
 
 "You did not wear them?" he faltered with a bewil 
 dered look. It was like the look of a child who does not 
 understand the calamity that has befallen him. 
 
 " I couldn t," she said in a low tone, and she stood with 
 bent head, like one accused. " I hope you will believe 
 me, Mr. Bahrdt, when I say that I am very sorry. I did 
 not know I shall always remember She faltered and 
 failed under the pain of the bewildered gaze she felt 
 fixed upon her face, and to have it over she ended ab 
 ruptly, " I am to marry Mr. Hale." 
 
 You are going to marry Stephen Hale ? " His eyes 
 rather than his lips demanded it. 
 
 " Yes," she breathed. 
 
 "Stephen Hale ?" he repeated, as though he had not 
 heard aright. " No, I think I am stupid. You cannot 
 mean that. It is not true. Tell me ! " He came to her 
 and held out his hands imploringly. 
 
 " It is true," she cried, frightened into insistence by the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTJA 7 Y. 297 
 
 tone of his voice. " I tell you I am engaged to Mr. Hale. 
 I should think you might understand." 
 
 He laughed shortly. 
 
 " I understand what you say. It is you I do not under 
 stand. I know well enough that you have no love for 
 that man. Have I not watched you ? Have I not seen 
 how you fear him and shrink from him in your inmost 
 soul ? Oh, it did not take me long to make sure of that. 
 I loved you, so I watched, and I saw that you dreaded 
 him, and turned to me." 
 
 " Mr. Bahrdt, how dare you ! This is unpardonable ! 
 I will not listen ! " She was trembling with anger and 
 fear. 
 
 " It is true," he said, with gathering intensity. " There 
 is no pardon needed for speaking what is true. If you 
 have not known it before you shall know it now. You 
 love me" 
 
 " I do not ! I never did ! " 
 
 "Tut! Why do you lie? "he said gently. He came 
 to her and took her face between his hands and turned it 
 up to his. " Look at me," he said in soft command. 
 
 She tried to look angry, indignant, defiant, as she 
 raised her eyes to his, but under the compelling and wist 
 ful tenderness of his gaze, everything faded out into a 
 mist of tears and she caught her breath with a frightened 
 sob. Then, before she knew it, his arms were around her 
 and his lips had touched hers and he was murmuring soft 
 words in her ear. 
 
 "You did not know the truth before, that was it, was it 
 not, my little one ? Ah, you love me, heart s dearest, as 
 I have loved you, from the beginning. Foolish child, 
 not to see ! Did you think it was to mean nothing that 
 we loved each other ? Blind of you ! Why, nothing else 
 means anything now, does it, dearest one ? " 
 
 Then she tore herself from him with such terror and
 
 298 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 
 
 such agony in her face, and the two hands she put out to 
 him trembled so appealingly that he fell back a step in 
 dismay and murmured, 
 
 " I frightened you. Forgive me ! " even while he won 
 dered blankly what had frightened her. 
 
 " I told you " she gasped, " I told you that I have 
 promised " 
 
 " Yes," he said gravely as she stopped. 
 
 " Oh, why don t you understand and go away ? Why 
 are you so cruel ?" 
 
 He pushed an arm-chair toward her. 
 
 " Sit down," he said briefly. 
 
 She obeyed. Indeed she had not strength to stand. 
 He stood beside her but without touching her for a few 
 moments, waiting for her to recover herself. 
 
 " Do you mean that I should have waited until you are 
 released from your promise to Hale ? " he asked gravely. 
 " That is true. But I lost myself when I found you. I 
 will wait. I can be patient, though it does not come easy 
 to me. But I will go away at once if you wish and not 
 see you again until you are free to listen to all I must 
 say." 
 
 She looked at him dumbly, despairingly. 
 
 "You must explain to him at once. You shrink from 
 that, tender little heart ? But it will be the last time you 
 will need to tremble before him. It was all a mistake, 
 I can understand, and when you tell him so, and tell 
 him that your heart is mine, ah, the blessing of it ! he 
 will not reproach you. He will understand that nothing 
 else is possible, since you do love me, as you do, you 
 do ! " He caught her hand for an impassioned moment 
 and then released it with a laugh. 
 
 "Do not scold! I will not offend again, though it 
 may be best for me to go away as you say, tyrant ! How 
 soon may I come back ?"
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 299 
 
 " Never ! " cried Edith, finding her voice at last. She 
 gave him a proud glance and then turned her face away. 
 " I told you that I am to marry Mr. Hale. My word is 
 pledged to him. You have acted very rudely. I cannot 
 forgive it, and I do not wish to see you again." 
 
 He did not move. He had been looking down at her, 
 his face glowing with the joy he had snatched so boldly 
 from the edge of denial and which made him seem a dif 
 ferent man. But as the meaning of her repulse made 
 itself clear to him, which it did slowly, for it was hard to 
 believe her words against the confession he had wrenched 
 a moment before from her eyes, her lips, her yielding 
 form, the light died out till it was only a gray mask, stern 
 and hard and without pity, that bent toward her. 
 
 " Do you mean what you are saying ? " he asked in a 
 voice from which every trace of emotion was banished. 
 " Do you really mean that this is your decision, and that 
 I am to be nothing in your life ? Forgive me if I am dull 
 to understand. I do not wish to mistake. You send me 
 away from you ? " 
 
 "Yes." She barely breathed the word. She was more 
 frightened by his severely impersonal tone than by any 
 passion. 
 
 " And you mean to marry Stephen Hale ? " he continued, 
 as relentlessly as an inquisitor. 
 
 She could not challenge his right to ask. Under his 
 eyes she could do nothing but answer. She bent her 
 head. 
 
 He folded his arms across his breast and stood silent a 
 moment, looking down at her as she cowered under his 
 eyes. Then he gave a short laugh. 
 
 " And I might have married this woman ! " he said, as 
 though to himself. 
 
 She lifted her head with an effort to recover her cus 
 tomary weapons of girlish power.
 
 3<DO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " You have no right to blame me. You should have 
 understood that that 
 
 " That a woman with such a face could have such a 
 soul ? I was a fool, no doubt, but I have known little of 
 women. That must be my excuse. And when I saw that 
 in your heart you feared Stephen Hale, shrank from his 
 hand and trembled at his voice, " 
 
 " I will not listen to you," she cried. There was a 
 hunted look in her face, and she half rose, with an effort 
 to be imperious. 
 
 " You will listen to me," he said sternly. " I have 
 loved you. I would have been glad to give my whole life 
 to serving you. Since you will not have it so, I will at 
 least do you this one service before I go out of your life. 
 I will sho,w you yourself. You fear him now, you will 
 come to hate him before long. Then you will wake to 
 know what it means to be bound in bonds of hate, with no 
 escape for you save that which leads out of life. You are 
 young and your desire is to be happy. Can you think 
 what it will be when you look to death, death that now you 
 shudder at, as the friend who may come some far off day 
 to deliver you from a life that you loathe? For you will 
 loathe it. It might be possible for some to go through 
 such a life without being crushed, but you are not hard 
 enough. Day by day the discord and deceit born of hate 
 will grow thicker about you, till the best part of your 
 nature is withered, and you will remember what you were 
 and hate yourself for what you are. The poison of your 
 falsehood will go with you wherever you go, an evil in 
 fluence to all who come near you, and your life, which 
 should have been a blessing to all, and might have been, 
 will be a curse instead, and chiefly to yourself, ignorant 
 child that you are." There was neither love nor anger 
 now in his passionless voice. He was no longer the Karl 
 Bahrdt whom she had commanded with a smile. He was
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 30 1 
 
 her judge, and the words he pronounced were the words 
 of irrevocable doom. But his voice came to her across a 
 sea of sounding waves, for the room reeled and she closed 
 her eyes. Then in a minute more she knew that she was 
 alone, and she knew, too, that somewhere a door had 
 swung to against her.
 
 XXXII. 
 
 WHEN Rodman s telegram reached his foreman, " Baily 
 shall stay if every other man goes out," there was nothing 
 for it but to communicate his decision to the delegation 
 appointed by the local union. 
 
 The result, to Baily s joy, was a strike. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this story to enter into the 
 details of that action or to discuss the rights and wrongs 
 involved in it. The event had an effect upon the for 
 tunes and character of several of the people whose fates 
 had run together at Hereward that summer, and it is 
 with them, not with the episode in itself, that we are con 
 cerned. Some years ago an island went clown in the 
 Pacific, and its overwhelming sent out a wave that swept 
 half-way around the globe .and wrecked fair vessels and 
 trim fishing-smacks lying at anchor in a South American 
 harbor. And doubtless it also washed up treasures of 
 sea-weed and shells that kept village children happy for 
 many a day. 
 
 The strike had been deliberately planned for and 
 brought to pass by Ben Bail} , though he did not claim 
 that honor publicly. It was enough for him to know that 
 Paul was to be freed, willing or unwilling, from the 
 burden which his unwelcome inheritance had laid upon 
 him, and sent back to his own place in life, the only 
 place, according to Baily s theory, where his powers, such 
 as they were, could count for much in the world or work 
 to bring about the elements of completeness and happi 
 ness in his own life. That other people might be in-
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 303 
 
 volved was beyond the range of Ben s immediate inter 
 est. Particularly it would have surprised him to know 
 that the strike could in any way affect Miss Mabie. But, 
 through what seemed like an accident yet was really but 
 the outcome of causes set in motion before, it was Joyce 
 herself who put the match to the fuse. 
 
 Karl Bahrdt had disappeared from Hereward the sec 
 ond clay after his return. Only Edith Estee knew why, 
 and even she supposed, as others did, that he had 
 returned to Chicago. This was a mistake. Where he 
 spent those days he never said. Perhaps he hardly 
 remembered, for the battle he was fighting was in his own 
 thoughts, and he probably took little note of where his 
 wanderings had led him. But in the meantime the print 
 ers who published his " Justice " were calling for copy, and 
 Joyce had not received the editorial which he usually 
 placed in her hands as the heavy gun of the issue. So 
 she set to work, as she had done on several other occa 
 sions, to supply the lack. But on this occasion the con 
 ditions were somewhat different. 
 
 She was desperately unhappy, in the first place, and 
 that means an unhealthy mental state, for a woman, at 
 any rate. Her father had been shamefully and unjustly 
 accused, or, if justly, so much the worse. Her lover 
 had left her. It was at her command, of course, but that 
 did not make the ache any easier to bear. So, her own 
 affairs being thus, the whole existing order of affairs in 
 general seemed out of joint, and all there remained to do, 
 while the law was working out its slow processes, was to 
 shut herself into her hot little room, with Bahrdt s revo 
 lutionary books before her, and pin her thought down to 
 the consideration of the sufferings of humanity in general 
 and the wrongs of the laboring classes in particular. She 
 thought that she was banishing emotion and confining 
 herself strictly to the cold peaks of intellect as she gath-
 
 304 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 ered statistics and culled a burning phrase here and a 
 scathing denunciation there ; but as a matter of fact, she 
 was simply letting emotion work out on a different line. 
 Given a generous-hearted girl brought face to face with a 
 set of cruel facts, and there is little question but that she 
 will let sympathy carry her beyond the delicate line of 
 just discrimination. If her heart is aching at the same 
 time with a bitter personal loss, she can hardly escape 
 coloring the abstractions with which she deals with her 
 own mood. 
 
 So Joyce wrote an editorial on the necessity of organ 
 ized opposition to the tyranny of capital. Unfortunately 
 the vigor and magnetic enthusiasm which had made her 
 valuable to Bahrdt in the first place did not desert her. 
 It might have been better if she had been dull and cold, 
 but she had never written so convincingly because she 
 had never been so deeply stirred. She was writing 
 behind the hedge of anonymity, and she put no check 
 upon the eloquence which swept along her thought. Paul 
 kept a copy of that paper ever after, with a secret feeling 
 that he had never known before how near the girl s 
 power came to being genius. It compelled a respect that 
 he had not given her before with all his admiration, and 
 he wondered a little in his soul that she had not found 
 too keen a fascination in flight to ever consent to come 
 back to him. But once, when he ventured to tell her 
 this, she begged him so tearfully, with looks so flushed 
 and shamed, never to speak of it again, that he could 
 only kiss her and promise, and marvel a little more at his 
 own incalculable good fortune, and vow in his soul to be 
 very good to her always. 
 
 But when Joyce read it over that night, with the thrill 
 of rapid composition still tingling in her brain, she knew 
 that she had written something with vitality in it, and she 
 sent it out to the printer and then threw herself down on
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 305 
 
 her bed to lie with wide eyes and throbbing head until 
 the cool morning light coaxed her into a restless slumber. 
 Before she awoke the little revolutionary sheet had been 
 printed, for it was already late, and the mails had carried 
 away the two hundred copies due on its list of paying 
 subscribers and the three hundred sent out for " agitative 
 purposes." 
 
 What became of four hundred and ninety-nine of these, 
 (except the one that Paul laid away afterwards with his 
 love-letters), is neither known nor very important. They 
 probably went the way of all printer s ink, and were 
 choked with dust in due season. But to one of them it 
 befell that it should reach Hereward and come into the 
 hands of the secretary of the local union at exactly the 
 hour most favorable for a test of its qualities as an explo 
 sive, the hour, namely, when a secret meeting had been 
 called to consider what action should be taken regarding 
 the new men who were expected to come down from Chi 
 cago. 
 
 Where do rumors come from ? And where do they 
 steal the very uniform and countersign of facts ? The 
 day before it had been rumored in Hereward that Rod 
 man was going to bring a new force down to man the 
 idle Works, and to-day arguments were made from that 
 as from a foundation fact of which there was no question. 
 
 Rodman had been down on a flying visit after receiving 
 his foreman s second telegram announcing the consumma 
 tion of the strike. There was an imperious air of decisive 
 ness about him that was new, and the men who watched 
 from the idle street-corners read in it no good to their 
 cause. He had spent several hours with his foreman in 
 the deserted factory, and then had gone off, taking the 
 bone of their contention, Ben Baily, with him to the city. 
 The doors of the factory were closed, and the foreman 
 refused to be interviewed.
 
 306 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 So far the facts were indisputable. Beyond that the 
 watchers drew a sketch on theory and filled it m with 
 imagination. They had assumed, when they decided on a 
 strike, that the event would be of as vital importance to 
 him as to them. They could hardly have understood that 
 for the last two weeks the interests of the factory had 
 dropped so far out of sight that he had deemed it a simple 
 and expeditious way of disposing of an unwelcome inter 
 ruption to order the Works " shut down " until the men 
 chose to come back. His instructions to the foreman 
 had been concise and brief. The men who lounged out 
 side and measured his perturbation by the length of his 
 conference would have felt that their dignity was again 
 trampled under the iron heel of plutocracy if they had 
 known that he was talking to Ben Baily, not to the fore 
 man, and that the subject of his discourse had nothing to 
 do with them or their affairs. 
 
 The idea had struck him that Baily s natural talent as a 
 private detective and vigilance committee combined might 
 be of some use in helping on the slow and fruitless search 
 instituted through the regular legal channels. With elab 
 orate care he went over the details of the case with him, 
 explaining, expounding and laying down the law in a way 
 that would have amazed Mr. Jordan. Paul s legal talent 
 was exercised " once, and only once, and for one only." 
 At the end Baily consented to see what he could do 
 toward tracing the robbery to its author. Perhaps he 
 recognized that his work of freeing Rodman would not be 
 accomplished till he had him safely married and a . They 
 went off together by the next train, and the factory was 
 left grimly silent and unresponsive while the men who 
 had worked in it hovered about the corners of the streets 
 and wondered. That it was to remain closed could not 
 occur to them. The very lack of demonstration on the 
 part of the enemy, (Rodman), was proof conclusive of
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 307 
 
 dark schemes a-brewing, and within twenty-four hours 
 every man of them knew that Rodman had gone to 
 Chicago to secure the services of non-union men, that he 
 had already secured them, that they were coming down 
 by the next train, that they were coming guarded by an 
 armed squad of police. There was no time to let the 
 rumor grow into greater definiteness, for it was evident 
 that immediate steps should be taken to meet the emer 
 gency already evoked. 
 
 This was the occasion of the secret meeting convoked 
 by the active spirits. What had been done, what could be 
 done, what should be done, crowded each other in their 
 speeches. There was real oratory, so full of passion and 
 earnestness that it was hard for the conservative members 
 to get a hearing or even to hold their own opinions against 
 the tide. Excited by their own eloquence, the agitators 
 grew more and more demonstrative. Should they allow 
 these unorganized men to come in and take the work out 
 of their hands and the food out of their mouths ? Not if 
 they could be persuaded, bought or terrified off. Some 
 one mentioned the soldiers. It would be too late to do 
 anything if they waited till the hostile forces were in pos 
 session. It would be easier to see that the machines were 
 " fixed " in the first place so that it would take something 
 more than the knowledge possessed by " scabs " to run 
 them. Someone hissed, and the hiss was drowned in a 
 shower of counter-hisses. Sentiment was going strongly 
 with the bolder speakers, when one of the cooler men got 
 the floor and tried to turn the tide. 
 
 " I m not talking against protecting our rights," he con 
 ciliated. "I m just as much as any of you for downing 
 the scabs. But we want to be careful that we don t get 
 on the wrong side of the law " 
 
 " We are that now, and always will be till we take a 
 hand in making it," interrupted a voice.
 
 308 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " That s all right, but it won t do for us to give people 
 a handle against us. Our own best men don t do that. 
 What would Karl Bahrdt say to the notion of damaging 
 the Works ? " 
 
 " What would Karl Bahrdt say ? " cried the secretary, 
 springing to his feet and pulling the last number of 
 " Justice " excitedly from his pocket. " This is what he 
 does say, and this is what he means, and there isn t any 
 dodging the question or skulking behind covers about 
 Karl Bahrdt ! " And then and there he read Joyce 
 Mabie s luckless editorial from beginning to end. 
 
 There was a responsive burst of applause that carried 
 all possibility of cool judgment away with it. The tide 
 of enthusiasm had swept them over the bar and out into 
 the sea of unreason. Under the guidance of the hot-heads, 
 who cared more, at that moment, for their own wild wills 
 than for any abstraction of justice or equity, they hurried 
 from the committee-room, down the road in the dark, 
 with a caution for silence, to where the deserted factory 
 loomed square and grim in the night. They broke their 
 way in through a low window. By this time the men 
 who might have had a restraining influence had gone off 
 perhaps with a care to proving an alibi if necessary. 
 
 It was not an idle precaution, for a little after midnight 
 the people of Hereward were awakened by the unusual 
 sound of their fire-engine tearing through the silent 
 street. The Rodman Works were in flames.
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 CUMMINGS had telegraphed at once to Rodman, but, as 
 it happened, Paul was out when the message came, and it 
 was some hours later, when he returned from one of his 
 long, aimless tramps, that he found Bahrdt waiting for 
 him, Bahrdt thin and stern and haggard, with travel- 
 stained dress and a hand that trembled with fatigue. 
 
 " Karl ! You here ? Why, old man, what has happened 
 to you ? You look all pulled down." 
 
 " To me ? Nothing," Bahrdt answered, with a surprised 
 glance. " But you Haven t you heard ? " 
 
 " Heard what ? I haven t heard anything. Chicago is 
 a howling solitude to me. You ve been living in Here- 
 ward, where things happen and there is something to hear. 
 What is it ? " 
 
 " I haven t been in Hereward for two weeks," Bahrdt 
 answered in the same unnaturally constrained voice. He 
 passed his hand over his forehead with a gesture of utter 
 weariness. " I came in on the last train, half an hour ago, 
 and I struck a man who left Hereward this morning early 
 to see me, Haven t you seen the last edition of the 
 papers ? " 
 
 " No," said Paul with a startled look. His first thought 
 was that Joyce was in Chicago, so the worst could not 
 have happened. 
 
 Bahrdt picked up the unopened dispatch envelope which 
 was waiting on Paul s table, and handed it to him without 
 a word. He tore it open, read it and read it again, and 
 then tossed it down.
 
 3IO APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " Burned ! Well ! " He took up the paper and read it 
 again. " Interesting ! What do you think of that?" 
 
 " You are not overwhelmed by the misfortune, then ? 
 It means little to you ? " Bahrdt asked with a serious look. 
 
 " Why, it means something, I suppose. It means the 
 loss of all the property my uncle left me, and I suppose 
 no man can say that loss of fortune means nothing. But, 
 honestly, the Works have been an incubus. I didn t 
 have the courage to throw them over when Baily first 
 wanted me to, but I believe I am really glad to be rid of 
 the whole thing without any responsibility for it." 
 
 " I am glad it hurts you no worse. It is more fatal 
 to me." 
 
 " How to you, old fellow ? You didn t have anything 
 to do with the conflagration, did you ? " 
 
 " Even that. But it is fatal to me in a different way. 
 It has shaken my faith in myself to the very foundations ! " 
 He spoke with a sudden passion, and turned abruptly 
 away. 
 
 Paul was startled and puzzled, but before he could 
 formulate any question Bahrdt went on, in a rapid, vi 
 brating undertone which betrayed the unusual strain upon 
 his emotions. 
 
 " It has upset me, made me doubt myself, my methods. 
 I do not know where I stand. I do not know what I 
 think. I was so sure, so very sure, a little while ago. 
 But this, it is as though I had been playing, like a child, 
 with forces I did not understand, and there has been an 
 explosion. It is not the explosion itself, it is the terror of 
 the unknown forces. I do not know how I could have 
 believed so blindly and so long. But I am shaken, I tell 
 you." 
 
 " Why, that s all nonsense, Karl, wildest nonsense. 
 Are you going to take all the insanities of humanity on 
 your shoulders because you have been trying to be a good
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 3 1 I 
 
 foster-mother to its deserted children ? You re morbid, 
 Karl. You re not yourself. I tell you, I m thankful to 
 your enthusiastic followers, though it is you, not I, that 
 dub them your followers." 
 
 " They were. It was I that led them on to their work." 
 
 " You just said you had not been at Hereward for two 
 weeks." 
 
 " I have not," Bahrdt answered, with a sudden contrac 
 tion of the eyes, like a flashing pain. " That was an 
 other of my blunders. Fool, fool and blind, that I have 
 been ! " He clenched his hands and threw back his head 
 with a despairing scorn of himself that made Paul fear 
 something worse than he yet knew. 
 
 " Karl ! " He shook his arm. " I swear you are out of 
 your head. Come and have lunch with me, and recover 
 your senses." 
 
 " No. I am going down to Hereward by the next train. 
 But first I must see Miss Mabie." 
 
 "Oh," said Paul calmly, though his blood bounded at 
 the name. " Well ! I suppose I ought to go down to 
 Hereward with you to see just how things stand, and how 
 near I have come to beggary. I ll meet you after you 
 have arranged with about your paper. So long as you 
 have that to give you an interest in life, old man, you 
 needn t look so tragic." 
 
 " I shall have it no longer." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " I would like to break the press that printed it." 
 
 " Recklessly wasteful. It will bring a good price in the 
 second-hand market." 
 
 " You do not understand that it was the last number of 
 Justice that lit the fires under your factory." 
 
 " For a fact? Well, I just told you that I am resigned 
 now and prepared to rejoice to-morrow, so that is all in 
 harmony with your role of benefactor of humanity."
 
 312 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 "Have you no realization then, of what this means? 
 Because you, in your own little case, are benefited by the 
 explosion, do you not see that it means something more, 
 something as regards the nature of explosives ? And 
 that a man who has been mixing the dynamite may well 
 turn pale ? Though I was not responsible, truly, for the 
 last number." 
 
 " Who was ? " 
 
 " Miss Mabie." 
 
 " How was that ?" 
 
 " She wrote the leader in the last number, and they 
 thought it was mine, so the man who came up told me. I 
 might have written such a thing, perhaps. I have written 
 even more passionately, I admit. But as it happened, they 
 thought it was mine, and they used my name to carry their 
 own plans, against the more conservative, and this wild 
 deed lies at the door of Justice. " 
 
 Paul s fair face flushed and paled rapidly, and a queer 
 look came into his eyes. 
 
 " So Miss Mabie has been playing socialist in your 
 place, and she is then responsible for my most lament 
 able reduction to penury ? Humph ! I d like to read 
 that editorial." 
 
 " It shall be the last." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " I told you. Stop the paper. It has done its work. 
 And I am going to make that girl understand what she 
 has done." 
 
 " No, you won t, Karl. You are going to stay here 
 until it is time to take that train." 
 
 "Do you think I will risk it again? I tell you I am 
 grown timid. I do not know what I shall do, but that I 
 shall stop the paper, and destroy every copy that I can 
 find and put an end to this part of my life is certain. I 
 cannot rest until I know that there is no chance for more
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 3 I 3 
 
 harm to come through it. I want to see it stamped 
 out." 
 
 " All right. I ll tell Miss Mabie so." 
 
 " I shall tell her." 
 
 " No, I m going to do it for you. While I am on that 
 mission you will go out and get something to eat. It isn t 
 at all flattering and you probably won t like to have me 
 tell you, but your mad disgust with things in general isn t 
 all spiritual travail or even mental exhaustion. It is 
 chiefly physical hunger, my friend, and a chop will miti 
 gate the blue hue that the universe wears by several de 
 grees. Then I ll meet you at the depot and we ll go down 
 to Hereward together and inspect the remains." 
 
 " I cannot let you attend to my work " 
 
 " And I cannot let you attend to mine. Your message 
 to Miss Mabie is that editorial activity on " Justice " is to be 
 ^suspended until further advice from the founder and pub 
 lisher. Anything else ?" 
 
 " No. But I wish 
 
 " And I insist," Paul interrupted, dropping his banter 
 ing tone and speaking with that fine directness which al 
 ways carried its way. " I have something to say to her, 
 too, and there isn t much time." 
 
 " Well, " Bahrdt yielded. He was nearer a state of 
 mental and physical exhaustion than he had ever known 
 before, or Paul might have had more trouble with him. 
 
 And Paul went on his way to the house where Joyce 
 was staying with a wellspring of joy in his heart. His 
 fortune, or at least that unassimilated part of it which 
 had come from his uncle, had gone up in smoke, but that 
 didn t matter. The weight that had been oppressing him 
 had gone too, and there was left in its place a swelling 
 sense of security and triumph, which made him so sure of 
 the end that he could afford to wait, and smile over the 
 waiting.
 
 314 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 He was ushered into the common parlor of the board 
 ing house and waited impatiently while his card was 
 taken up. It was not a room to wax enthusiastic over, 
 but the abominations in horse-hair upholstery that fur 
 nished the room assumed a certain grace and interest 
 since she frequented the place. And then she came, pale 
 and heavy-eyed and singularly fair in her black dress. 
 She looked so wistful, so childlike, so pathetic, that all his 
 impulse to triumph over her vanished and though some 
 thing made his voice dangerously tender, he decided 
 swiftly that he would say nothing here or now to shake 
 her. There would be a time But now she must be 
 soothed, child that she was. He was holding her hand 
 and smiling into her startled eyes, and then he said, as 
 quietly as though there had never been any strain be 
 tween them, 
 
 " Karl came up from Hereward to-day, no, I believe 
 he said he did not come directly from there, but at any 
 rate he brought me word that the Rodman Works were 
 burned last night." 
 
 " Burned ? Oh ! " she cried with a sudden dis 
 may. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know but what it is a blessing disguised, 
 and not very much disguised either, nothing more than 
 a half-mask, at any rate. I don t mind confessing, now 
 that I am out of it, that I wasn t much of a success as a 
 capitalist, and I don t think I shall ever make a second 
 attempt in that direction. Do you remember I told 
 you once that I held you responsible for my attempt, and 
 that if I went out like a bad fire-cracker, I should remind 
 you who threw me ?" 
 
 "Yes," she said, smiling faintly. 
 
 " Well, I want to take that all back. You were not re 
 sponsible for my decision at all. I wanted to associate 
 you with it, but really it was something that Baily told
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 315 
 
 me about the way things had been run in my uncle s time 
 that made me determine to take it up." 
 
 " I ought to have known," she said, a swift flush sweep 
 ing over her pale face. " I was foolish to think that my 
 words could ever have any weight." 
 
 " Sometimes they do," he said sweetly. " That last ed 
 itorial of yours, for instance. By the way, I haven t seen 
 it yet. Will you give me a copy ? " 
 
 " Of course, if you want it," she said, surprised, but 
 frank. " I will have a copy mailed to you to-morrow." 
 
 " I would rather have you give it to me now. You have 
 a copy here, haven t you ? " 
 
 "Yes," she admitted. 
 
 " And you will give it to me ? " 
 
 She rose and crossed the room to a table where a pile of 
 miscellaneous papers had been thrown together and se 
 lected one for him. 
 
 " Thanks," he said, as he took it from her hand. She had 
 thought he meant to read it now, but he folded the paper 
 and put it in his breast-pocket without taking his eyes 
 from her face. Then he said, in a different manner, 
 
 " Joyce, whatever there is before us in the future, there 
 must be simple truth between us, absolute and undisguised. 
 For this reason I wished to be the one to tell you that 
 this paper of yours was taken very seriously and had 
 great weight with the Hereward strikers. Bahrdt says, 
 though of this I am not at all sure, that it helped to 
 stir them up to that last insanity of setting fire to the 
 Works." 
 
 She was staring at him with a bewildered look, and he 
 put his hand upon hers as they fell clasped before her. 
 
 "You would be sure to hear it somehow, so I wanted 
 to tell you, and to tell you, too, that it makes no differ 
 ence even if it is true. Or rather that it is something 
 that I am glad of, not sorry for, for I truly think that it
 
 316 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 has brought the day of deliverance that Karl talks about 
 to me, deliverance from my own misjudgment of my 
 work and my ability." 
 
 " But do you mean that I that that thing I wrote 
 brought about ? " she gasped. 
 
 " I don t know whether it had anything to do with it. 
 Bahrdt thinks so, but he may be dreaming. He wants 
 the paper stopped, for the present. That is the message 
 I was to bring to you. I suppose you will hear from him 
 more in detail, but just now I am going to carry him 
 down to see what must be done at Hereward." 
 
 "But burnt ! What will the men do now ? " 
 
 " I confess I haven t considered that yet. Do you 
 think I ought to start a coffee-house to relieve any imme 
 diate distress ? " 
 
 " And that I did it ! " 
 
 " The evidence isn t all in yet. Don t take too much 
 credit." 
 
 What will you do ? " 
 
 " Go down by the first train. It isn t often in a life 
 time that one has so good a chance of verifying for one 
 self what the philosophers have said about the fleeting 
 character of wealth. I am no longer Rodman of Rodman 
 Works, but plain Paul Rodman, looking for a job ! " 
 
 " You can jest about it ! I I have ruined you ! " 
 
 " So you think I am worthless now ? I protest. There 
 is nothing ruined but the building and the machinery, 
 and they were old-fashioned, I understand, not worth 
 much insurance, even. No ; I confess I would rather 
 like to have you feel that the only thing you could do in 
 reparation would be to take my ruined life and bind it up 
 and set it going again, but as a matter of fact, I think 
 your achievement has been in the direction of freeing me. 
 Perhaps the responsibility is just as great." But he felt 
 that he was getting among quicksands here, and abruptly
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 317 
 
 pulled out his watch. " I m going to meet Karl and take 
 him down with me. Good-bye. Keep a good heart." 
 
 He did not take her hand this time, but got himself 
 away as quickly as possible. Joyce sank into a chair, 
 trembling and unnerved. She had to make an effort to 
 realize what it was that he had told her. The Works 
 were burnt, Paul s property destroyed, their dreams of 
 achieving the ideal shattered, and it was all her work. 
 She tried to picture to herself the ruins as they must look, 
 the loss and the suffering that would follow, and, hardest 
 of all, to understand how she could be responsible for it. 
 Thoughts and fragments of sentences she had used in 
 that editorial were still in her memory and they started 
 out in vivid colors. Feverishly she hunted up a copy and 
 tried to read it herself, but after a few paragraphs she 
 flung it from her and broke into a passion of sobbing. 
 Was this what came of pulling the strings of public 
 affairs ? Was this the fruit of her high enthusiasm for 
 benefiting humanity ? Tested by the outcome, every 
 thing had a different aspect. 
 
 Her brain ached, but she could not stop the thinking. 
 She heard the people coming and going in the house, but 
 she was alone, and for the first time in her life she felt 
 the need of being comforted without argument or justifi 
 cation. She wanted relief from the thought that kept 
 before her mind whichever way she turned. If only Dru 
 were here ! She sprang up suddenly and brushed the 
 tears from her eyes to examine a time-table. There was 
 a late train to Hereward, late, but it would get in before 
 midnight. Dru would be up, and Dru would be good to 
 her. She flung her theories to the winds, dressed herself 
 with trembling haste, and found her way to the station, 
 just in time to take the outgoing train. There was relief 
 in action. As she fled through the night she felt that she 
 was leaving far behind the shadow that the city had cast
 
 3l8 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 upon her life. Before her was Hereward, and she 
 reached out toward it in thought with a passionate long 
 ing for the restfulness it had held for her. 
 
 The well-known streets were dark when she reached 
 the little town, but there was a soft friendliness in their 
 quiet that was like an old welcome. And the lights were 
 burning in Dru s house when she slipped through the dim 
 garden and pushed open the unfastened door. 
 
 If Drusilla s tender heart had ever been grieved by her 
 friend s self-poised calm, which sometimes had the sem 
 blance of coldness, she had her dear revenge in that hour, 
 for, after the first passionate outburst which was hardly 
 an explanation, Joyce clung to her in a quiver of grief 
 and humility, and Dru comforted her to her own sweet 
 heart s content.
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 PAUL walked about the ruins, surveying the wrecks of 
 his financial greatness with a cheerfulness that would 
 have been most praiseworthy if there had been any effort 
 in it for him. 
 
 The debris was still smouldering, though it was the 
 second day after the fire, and the one fire-engine of the 
 town was still on the spot, making the most of its oppor 
 tunities. It wasn t often that Hereward had a genuine 
 sensation. The entire population had been around to 
 look at the wreck, and some of the workmen with their 
 families, who had drawn the means whereby they lived 
 from that building for a quarter of a century, still stood 
 by in groups, dumb and anxious at heart. 
 
 There were a thousand things for Paul to do and as 
 many men to see. There were the insurance men and 
 appraisers and salesmen and contractors and representa" 
 tires of the press to give audience to and dispose of. He 
 found himself answering questions all day. No, he did 
 not care to contract for supplies just yet, if they pleased. 
 The Works would probably not be rebuilt. He did not 
 mean to prosecute. That was the state s affair, if it 
 wanted to take it up. He didn t know whether he would 
 have the ruins pulled down and the land sold, and he 
 wasn t prepared to express any opinion as to the relations 
 between capital and labor ; in fact, didn t know anything 
 about them. Just why that should prevent his expressing 
 himself was not entirely clear, but the reporters were 
 obliged to depart and draw as best they could from their
 
 320 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 reserve fund of imagination. He felt that he was wind 
 ing up his meteoric career as a man of affairs, and he dis 
 posed of the various issues that came up with a prompt 
 ness and aplomb that inspired those about him with a new 
 quality of respect. They had never suspected that Rod 
 man possessed such business qualifications ! 
 
 But he freed himself at last, and hurried around for a 
 hasty call upon Mrs. Hamill. 
 
 " How does it feel to be a person of importance ? " that 
 small woman asked mockingly as she greeted him. 
 " Really and truly a personage, with things happening to 
 you ! Doesn t it seem kind of queer to have things 
 really happen ? Generally we have to pretend, and make 
 a great fuss over the trifles of life, so that the days won t 
 seem empty, like children playing house. But to 
 actually be the center of a whirlwind ! How does it affect 
 you ? Are you set up in your mind ? " 
 
 "Set up in my mind ? I am a ruined man, madam ! Is 
 this the tone in which you meet a bankrupt ? You don t 
 in the least realize that bankruptcy is a solemn busi 
 ness." 
 
 " You don t look solemn. I saw that when you came 
 into the room ! What right have you to be flaunting your 
 light-heartedness in our faces in this way? " 
 
 " Oh, I have been talking business all clay, which natur 
 ally makes me happy. And I am seldom if ever going to 
 do so again, which makes me happier still." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " I am going to shake off the dust of the Rodman Works 
 forever, and I am going to take the natural science chair 
 at the University at Allentown. They wrote me a while 
 ago, asking me to reconsider my refusal, so you see the 
 winds are tempered to this particular lamb." 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad. May I tell Joyce ? " 
 
 " Yes, certainly." He brightened at the name like a
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 321 
 
 boy. " Though as I am going back to town to-morrow, 
 I may see her first." 
 
 " Joyce is here," she said demurely, looking away and 
 pretending she didn t see his look of amazement. " She 
 will be so pleased. It is just what you always wanted, 
 and it will give you a chance to go on with your work, 
 
 " Is she here ? In this house ? " 
 
 "Yes," she yielded. Then when she met his eyes she 
 had to add another morsel. " She came down by the late 
 train last night." 
 
 " I hope she is well," he said with a sudden fear. 
 
 "She is tired and overwrought, that is all. I made her 
 lie down, and I don t think I shall allow her to be dis 
 turbed. Mr. Rodman, do tell me, what about her 
 father ? " 
 
 " I don t know. Nobody seems to know anything. 
 The Grand Jury meets Monday. I am going up to-mor 
 row so as to be there. I suppose he will be committed for 
 trial, as nothing new has developed in the case." 
 
 " Must Joyce go up ? " 
 
 " Better not to, if you can keep her here. She isn t 
 going to break down now, after all, is s,he ? " 
 
 " Oh, I hope not," said Dru, with tempered reassurance. 
 She believed too devoutly in the traditions of heart-affairs 
 to lighten his anxiety one iota more than the exigencies 
 of truth imperatively demanded. "If I can keep her 
 quiet, that will be the best thing for her. She needs some 
 one to take care of her, that s the fact of it." 
 
 " How good you are," he said gently, lifting her fingers 
 to his lips. 
 
 " When are you to be installed ? " 
 
 " Oh, the regents are probably standing around the 
 street corners now, waiting for me to come and set the 
 wheels moving. I shall write this evening and inti-
 
 322 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 mate that I have yielded to their eloquent persuasion. 
 You don t think it is imperatively necessary that I should 
 mention that the Works are burnt and that I am thrown 
 on a cold world alone, do you ? They might take advan 
 tage of my need to cut down the accompanying financial 
 consideration." 
 
 " Ah, your business experience is not without fruit ! " 
 
 " By the way, don t you think that a University town 
 would strike Joyce as a particularly good field for her 
 efforts? I want her to like the Allentown project." 
 
 " Oh, she doesn t want any field. She is sick of the 
 very name of a mission. She will never do anything of 
 that sort again." 
 
 He tried to look properly impressed by her vehement 
 assertions, but when he lifted his eyes the light of a quiz 
 zical smile broke out in spite of him. 
 
 " Did she tell you all that ? And do you believe it ? 
 You needn t mention the fact to her, but I don t ! She 
 may think just now that she will consent to be dumb for 
 the rest of her days, but that is because she has been over 
 taxed. When she recovers her natural tone, she will feel 
 the call to bear witness again. It is the deepest spart of 
 her nature, and if I am to be permitted to say anything on 
 the question she shall not lose faith in her ideals or in her 
 self because of what has happened. It is as much a neces 
 sity for her to work actively in the realm of ethics as it 
 is for me to work in the realm of physics. She will never 
 be happy unless she is able to do something in the larger 
 way for the good of her fellow-beings. To shut up her 
 interests in herself or in one household, would mean suffo 
 cation, mentally and morally, for her. But at the same 
 time, I think perhaps she knows more about the prin 
 ciples of higher living than she does about the labor 
 problem, and if you could happen to remark, incidentally 
 but frequently, what an enormous influence for good the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 323 
 
 wife of a professor could have upon the serried ranks of 
 raw material that come up fresh every year for impres 
 sions to carry away and disseminate in the world after 
 ward, it might prepare the ground, so to speak 
 
 There were tears glistening on Mrs. Hamill s lashes as 
 she impulsively put out her hand. 
 
 " I didn t mean to tell you, but I can t help it. I think 
 you have prepared the ground pretty well yourself." 
 
 And then she made him go.
 
 XXXV. 
 
 KARL BAHRDT found the experience of that day a bitter 
 one, though his stern will did not allow him to spare 
 himself a jot. He came back to Hereward with the feel 
 ing that his dead past would rise and look at him from 
 every familiar point in the scene, from every bend in the 
 winding road where they had walked and driven. That 
 Edith was not there was the only boon of Fortune s that 
 he was willing to acknowledge. He was glad it was not 
 demanded that he should try his strength by looking 
 upon her face. 
 
 He spent the forenoon in hot debate with the exec 
 utive committee of the operatives. They were in 
 clined to defend their action on general grounds, even 
 while admitting that in this case it might have been 
 based upon a misapprehension. But if the reports on 
 which they had acted had been true, and Rodman had 
 been about to bring down an outside force to man the 
 Works, then, in the name of labor and organization, what 
 would there have been to regret or retract ? He recog 
 nized some of his own phrases and arguments, turned 
 now against him to meet the demands of their emergency, 
 and he laughed bitterly at the idea that this was all he 
 had proved in the end. Had he thought he was talking 
 to casuists and philosophers ? Had he thought that be 
 cause they had suffered wrong they would have no im 
 pulse to deal out wrong ? He had talked to them on the 
 broad basis of humanity, and they had answered him in 
 deeds from the standpoint of personal ends.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 325 
 
 He flung away at last, hot and bitter and in a mood to 
 forswear his whole life s work. The peaceful little village 
 seemed to mock him with its dispassion. Here was peace 
 and he had brought discord. Even to her, to Edith, 
 he had brought nothing but bitterness. His touch 
 wrought nothing but ruin. He went down to see the 
 Works. There were knots of people everywhere, but the 
 groups were apt to fall apart as he approached. Strikers 
 and citizens alike watched him curiously, but kept aloof. 
 If he noticed it, his saturnine countenance betrayed noth 
 ing. He tramped over the blackened and scattered tim 
 bers to the old doorway, and looked in. The walls were 
 still partially in place, but the interior had been burnt out 
 and a mass of twisted iron at the bottom of the debris 
 was all that remained of the heavy machinery. The win 
 dows were gaps in the wall and nothing more. He 
 looked at it grimly and with the end of a charred stick he 
 wrote on the door post, " Karl Bahrdt, his mark." 
 
 " You see we don t stagnate in your absence," said a 
 voice. Prof. Hamill was picking his way toward him, 
 with an air of boyish exhilaration. He had caught sight 
 of Bahrdt, for whom he had always had a fancy, and had 
 crossed over to him at once. " I wish I had been awake 
 when it happened. I would have liked to see the flames 
 burst through the roof. The old buildings had a glorious 
 funeral pyre." 
 
 " It was a funeral pyre for more than the buildings," 
 said Bahrdt. He scratched over the markings he had 
 made on the door-post and set his shoulder against it. 
 
 " You mean Rodman s prospects ? He has been so busy 
 I have only had a glimpse of him, but he seems philosoph 
 ically inclined." 
 
 Bahrdt nodded. He was not wholly in sympathy with 
 Rodman s attitude. " He has the good fortune to be 
 blessed with an easy temper."
 
 326 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 " His fortune would have been better if all our friends 
 had been blessed in the same way." 
 
 " Do you mean this piece of work ? This signifies little, 
 one way or the other." 
 
 " No ? " said Hamill, thrusting his hands into the pock 
 ets of his loose coat and throwing back his head to view 
 the thing artistically. " No ? Now it seems to me that 
 it does. That is one of the advantages that we non-com 
 batants have over you men who go into the thick 
 of the fight. We stand off and see how the tide of 
 battle flows and flatter ourselves that we gather more 
 facts to support our little theories than you can. You 
 have faith enough in your theories to act upon them, to 
 be sure, which we haven t, as a general thing. But then 
 we have the consolation of seeing that people who act are 
 covered with mud while we keep comparatively clean. 
 There we have the advantage of you again. Then you 
 are enthusiasts. Perhaps you don t properly appreciate 
 the stigma that attaches to enthusiasm, particularly to 
 enthusiasm that tries to work itself out, in the minds of 
 us critics who keep out of the turmoil in order that we 
 may tell you where you have missed it." 
 
 "We can see that ourselves, after it is over," said 
 Bahrdt gloomily. " You scoff at yourself, but there is lit 
 tle need for that. We enthusiasts run blind often, I sup 
 pose, and do harm where we did not mean to do anything 
 but good." 
 
 "Ah, there is another of the penalties you have to pay 
 for your capacity to be a leader. Yet one of my conclu 
 sions, as an irresponsible observer, would be that the 
 masses need nothing so much as a leader, so at least you 
 have the consolation of considering that you are useful in 
 your place. The masses are the raw material of human 
 ity, and when you take away the co-ordinating power of 
 superior intelligence, the muscles may go into convulsions
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 327 
 
 of activity and the limbs kick and the jaws work with vi 
 cious energy, but there isn t really much healthy life in it 
 all. Life means progression. Progress is slow, down at 
 the beginning of the evolutionary process. All of which 
 means, my friend, that the masses need a mind to govern 
 them, so you might as well go in and sacrifice yourself. 
 It also proves that Homer didn t live at the very begin 
 ning of the world, since there had already been time for 
 him to draw the conclusion that the worst of tyrants is a 
 usurping crowd." 
 
 Bahrdt had thought, fifteen minutes before, that he was 
 ready to throw his whole cargo of socialistic ideas over 
 board, but the breath of argument made him instinctively 
 trim his sails to the course again. 
 
 " But this mass, of which you speak so easily, is made 
 up of individuals, and each individual is just as much a 
 man as any of those who have risen far enough to look 
 over the heads of their fellows and see them as a mass." 
 
 " Perhaps, and perhaps not. One of the attributes of 
 manhood is judgment. Don t you think yourself it was 
 well, say hasty, for these ardent followers of your gospel 
 to burn down the Works ? They served the useful pur 
 pose of providing these same malcontents with the means 
 of earning a living. In so much, they were almost as 
 good as a public institution. That is something the men 
 overlooked, in their zeal. It strikes me they were a bit 
 hasty, and not absolutely just." 
 
 "Why do you expect absolute justice of them? It 
 would be well if they were possessed of wisdom and mod 
 eration, undoubtedly, but they have been kept in tutelage 
 too long to permit these powers to develop. They will 
 make mistakes, they will work injustice, they will strike 
 down friends in place of foes. But I hardly think they 
 will do as much wrong as they and their ancestors have 
 suffered. They are timid from long oppression, and they
 
 328 APPRENTICES TO DESTIXY. 
 
 have not the sublime audacity of their long-time masters. 
 You make a mistake when you measure one event like 
 this. If the ignorant classes, ignorant because crushed, 
 overstep the lines of just demand, you are ready to cry 
 out. But it is inevitable that they should. Not right, 
 but inevitable. You forget the pendulum s swing. 
 Things have gone wrong so long that they must go wrong 
 longer before they can settle down to equilibrium." 
 
 " And equilibrium isn t in sight, even ! My friend, you 
 have a risky position if you are going to sit on the box 
 seat and guide the team of Progress and Evolution. They 
 have a good pull ! I think I am wiser to sit back and 
 watch you doing it. 
 
 " But I am whipped with scorpions when I rest idle," 
 cried Bahrdt vehemently. " How can I hold my hand 
 when I see how things go ? It drives me to frenzy, and I 
 feel like Samson when he clutched the pillars and felt 
 them bend under the power of his arms. What matter if 
 he were crushed in the fall ? The place was a place of 
 abomination, and his work was to throw it down. So the 
 blinded Samson of to-day will throw his weight, without 
 ruth for himself or for others, upon the pillars that uphold 
 the edifice of modern injustice. When the dust clears 
 away the plain will be clear for a new structure to rise 
 over the bones of the self-immolated giant." 
 
 " What guarantee have you that the new structure 
 will be any better ? " asked the Professor. " The same 
 sort of people would have to build it, and they would 
 probably build it in the same way, unless they saw where 
 the fault lay in the first design. That perhaps is the point 
 where we take different views. What you call the poorer 
 classes are not the only ones that suffer unjustly, not the 
 only ones that are ignorant and narrow, and to be pitied 
 for that reason. There are people who never lacked a 
 meal whose lives are yet poverty-stricken, unlovely, the
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 329 
 
 lives of slaves. The same discontent, the same bitter 
 ness and grasping, the same barrenness, runs through 
 stratum after stratum of society, and I am not sure that 
 those who suspect their poverty least are not the most to 
 be pitied." 
 
 " These are theoretic wants and ideal pangs. They are 
 not real, like the pangs of hunger." 
 
 " Do you think not ? Then you would name the physi 
 cal needs of man as the most vital, and conclude that he 
 who is best fed and clothed has best achieved the end of 
 his existence. It hardly seems to me that the long climb 
 of the race has been worth while if it is to be crowned by 
 a well-kept animal." 
 
 Bahrdt knit his black brows. 
 
 " What you say may be true from your plane of thought, 
 but it would be absolutely false to these men, because to 
 them their animal needs are the highest, and they are so 
 because their growth has been unfairly stunted. See that 
 they have enough to eat and then preach to them the 
 ethics of higher living." 
 
 " It is impossible to preach that to any class which 
 ranks the lower living as the higher. They must see that 
 the ethics of the higher living are beautiful before they 
 will strive very hard to attain them." 
 
 " And that they cannot see because they have been 
 robbed in the past." 
 
 " None of them see it," the Professor said mournfuliy. 
 " The difference between us is that you arraign the 
 wealthy classes for defrauding the poorer, and I arraign 
 them all for defrauding themselves. Their standards are 
 wrong, and their lives cannot rise above that level." 
 
 "And the day of deliverance will never come until jus 
 tice is done the disfranchised." 
 
 "The day of deliverance will never come," said the 
 Professor calmly, " till men see that money does not re-
 
 330 
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 present the highest attainable good. The two great lacks 
 of the world at present are comfort of body and peace of 
 mind. The first lack can be supplied by increase of 
 material prosperity, provided the fruits are scattered, 
 not accumulated. The second lack can only be supplied 
 by the moral growth of the people. The amount of 
 money in the world is limited. If one man accumulates 
 much, some one else is deprived. But the mine open to 
 the mind and the spirit is inexhaustible. The more 
 wealth of that coinage any individual accumulates, the 
 wealthier is each and every one of his fellowmen. And I 
 incline to the belief that a world where the material 
 prosperity was raised to say the nth power and the moral 
 tone remained at its present level would be less of a suc 
 cess, cosmically considered, than a world where comfort 
 of body remained at its present rather unsatisfactory 
 state and the moral tone was, conversely, raised to the 
 nth power." 
 
 " If the moral tone were raised, the present material 
 conditions could not exist," put in Bahrdt. 
 
 " Thank you," said the Professor sweetly. " You have 
 capped my argument for me better than I could have 
 done myself." 
 
 They had walked slowly on as they talked, picking 
 their way over the fallen debris, and had reached the 
 street which swept around the Works from the lower part 
 of the town and led to the upper bridge. An open car 
 riage with two occupants was slowly approaching. 
 Bahrdt s restless eyes fell upon them first, and he stopped 
 so abruptly that the Professor, too, looked up, and then 
 discreetly turned for another look at the ruins they had 
 left. 
 
 Edith and her husband, returning from their shortened 
 wedding journey, had driven around on their way up from 
 the station, to see the town s much talked of wreck.
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 33! 
 
 Hale s face was as impassive as ever, but Edith It 
 needed no lover s eye to see that something had fallen 
 athwart her life. She leaned back with indifferent eyes 
 and drooping lips, so cold, so still, so unmoved, that to 
 look upon her face was like reading a sentence of doom. 
 There was no change even when she saw her old friends. 
 She bowed automatically, and then the carriage moved 
 slowly on. 
 
 The two men walked on, but Bahrdt s head was bent 
 and his lips drawn as in pain, while the Professor talked 
 with unwonted fluency and irrelevancy until they reached 
 High street. 
 
 " You will come in ? " 
 
 " Yes," Bahrdt said, rousing himself. " I hear that 
 Miss Mabie has come down from the city. She is with 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I wish to see her before I go back. I will come in." 
 
 Joyce came down at once, and if he was struck by her 
 weariness and pallor, she was even more shocked by the 
 marks which the last two weeks had left upon his face. 
 There was a hint of a tragedy which she did not under 
 stand. 
 
 " Have you been ill ? " she asked anxiously. " Was 
 that why we heard nothing from you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I am well enough," he answered with the ungra 
 ciousness of a man to whom sympathy is unfamiliar. " I 
 forgot about the paper, or I would have come back sooner 
 or sent you word." 
 
 Joyce blushed and her eyes fell. The paper was a sore 
 subject. 
 
 " Rodman told you that I wished work stopped on the 
 paper. It is because I mean to stop the paper itself. I 
 am going away for a time, and there is no one to take it 
 up and carry it on. I do not wish it to go on, and I am
 
 332 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 bound to no one to continue it. It has been my own 
 affair from the beginning. I will arrange with some other 
 paper to take my subscription list and fill out the con 
 tracted subscriptions, and that will end the matter." He 
 looked at her with narrowed eyes, ready to flash out if 
 she betrayed any inclination to protest. But she had 
 been too well trained to his humors to show any surprise. 
 Besides, she had been warned by Rodman s words, and 
 she was glad in her heart to have the very memory of 
 her work on " Justice " wiped out. 
 
 " Shall I send you what papers I have ? " she asked 
 quietly. 
 
 " No, burn them. Let there be an end," he said. He 
 was relieved by her way of taking it, and he threw his 
 head back against his chair and turned to look at her 
 more at ease. " About yourself. What will you do ? " 
 
 " Nothing, till after Monday," she said in a very low 
 voice. 
 
 He sighed heavily. 
 
 " So it is again." 
 
 He fell into a deep musing, and she did not speak. She 
 was dismayed to see how worn he was. When he spoke 
 the old fire flashed out, but when his face fell into re 
 pose it was drawn and gray as it had never been before-:. 
 Yet there was an indefinable hint of gentleness in it that 
 was new, too. She had seen it when he asked about her 
 own plans, and again at the reference to her father. 
 After a few moments he roused himself and smiled to find 
 her eyes fixed upon him. 
 
 " Goethe says that those who work together, like those 
 who dance together, come to learn each other s step. We 
 have worked together, and I think we understand each 
 other as not all our friends do. So I wish to say some 
 thing to you before I say farewell. It was partly because 
 of me and what I said that you took up the idea of social 
 istic writing, was it not ? "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 333 
 
 "Yes, certainly." 
 
 " When I say that I shall stop the issue of " Justice," and 
 that I shall neither speak nor write again until I find 
 some clearer truth to guide me through the fog, you may 
 guess that I have lost some of my old faith. It may 
 come back. I only know that at this moment I stand in 
 a maze, waiting. I have been little inclined to wait for 
 anyone else, but now I must wait for myself. But of you. 
 Will you go on with this work ? " 
 
 " I do not know," said Joyce hesitatingly. 
 
 He gave her a keen look, and the conscious color that 
 flashed into her face told what she would not. He looked 
 thoughtfully away, and when he spoke again he seemed 
 to have gone on to another thought. 
 
 " We have dreamed dreams of serving our fellowmen, 
 and brave dreams they were, however we may have blun 
 dered in trying to realize them. We need not give them 
 up altogether because the lesson of humility comes rather 
 sharply. The Justice may go. I accept my lesson. 
 Somewhere else there is work for me to do. And for you, 
 too. That is what I began to say. If any desire remains 
 to help the world on, to bring about the day of deliver 
 ance of which we have talked, turn it to account by teach 
 ing women to be true. The hope of the world rests with 
 its women and its workers, some one has said." 
 
 " Yes, Ibsen." 
 
 " Is it ? Others, too. There is much talk of woman s 
 mission nowadays, and woman s emancipation, and women 
 are beginning to complain that but one talent has been 
 entrusted to them while to their brothers were given five 
 talents and ten. You are given to religion, you women. 
 It might be well for you to remember what was said to 
 the servant who betrayed the trust of the one talent, yet 
 asked for more." 
 
 " What is woman s one talent ? asked Joyce, with a
 
 334 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 hint of her old smile. Karl Bahrdt was Karl Bahrdt 
 still ! 
 
 "Is it not love? You wondered what I was doing 
 while away. I was trying to understand. And I saw that 
 in some ways I have been wrong. Not wrong in thinking 
 that it is enough for a woman to love but wrong in not 
 seeing that to love she must think. My attitude has been 
 that of man in general. We have taught women to be 
 false in the matter of love by making it her merchandise, 
 with which to gain what man gains by wit, energy, intelli 
 gence. We have made her pay Caesar s tax with the coin 
 of God, and have starved her into falsehood until the lie 
 has entered her soul and colored her nature and God 
 knows whether it is possible for her ever to recover her 
 soul s dower of honesty." 
 
 " Now you are unjust," cried Joyce. " There are many 
 women who are as sweet and true as any dream of woman 
 hood could be." 
 
 " A pleasant belief to hold," he said, with a touch of his 
 old cynicism. " But your many must be many more 
 before they become a majority. Do you deny that ? " 
 
 " I don t believe it," said Joyce stoutly. " Why, it 
 seems to me that most people are good and happy." 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " You are learning from another master, my old pupil ! 
 Well, keep your faith as long as you can, for it is hard 
 to live without it." Then he turned upon her sharply 
 and quickly. " But do not fall into the happy woman s 
 mistake of believing that because her own sky is clear 
 and her own lot pleasant, there really isn t enough pain in 
 the world for anyone to take much bother about. The 
 condition laid upon humanity, and most of all, it seems, 
 upon women, is that one must suffer to keep from grow 
 ing blind to the suffering of others. Your lot will be a 
 happy one, if signs hold true, and I do not grudge you
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 335 
 
 the happiness, but this is my parting injunction to you, 
 my old pupil, never to let your own happiness become 
 an anodyne to deaden your sensitiveness to the pain of 
 the world. That, and this, too, that when you have an 
 opportunity to show women the need of being true to 
 their truest self, you dare not keep silent." 
 
 " Your parting injunction ? " asked Joyce anxiously. 
 " Are you going away." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " For long? " 
 
 " I cannot say," he answered evasively. " Indeed, I do 
 not know," he added, meeting her questioning glance. 
 
 " But you must know," she persisted with a vague 
 uneasiness. " Are you going east ? To Europe ? You 
 need not think you can throw us off. We have a right 
 to know." 
 
 " Do not fear," he said with an amused smile. " I shall 
 not make away with myself." He paused, then added 
 steadily, " Neither would I have you think of me as 
 going about the world maimed or crippled because of 
 what has been. If I have lost something, the wound has 
 healed, and when a man has .work to do it is well for him 
 to be free. Fate is sometimes a wise surgeon." 
 
 " But at any rate you will write," she urged. 
 
 " If there is anything to tell, I will write," he said 
 quietly. " That will be when I see my way clear. Just 
 now, I wait." He took her hand and held it with a 
 kindly pressure, and a smile came into his eyes. "Your 
 way seems clear ? I am glad. For me, I go to prove 
 my soul. " 
 
 He pressed her hand again, and smiled as though he 
 would willingly blot out all sadness in her last thoughts 
 of him, and then he said farewell.
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 BEN BAILY was waiting for Paul in the Chicago depot 
 when the Hereward train came in at noon on Sunday. 
 He had stipulated that he should be let alone and his 
 plan of operations left free from interference, and Paul 
 had not seen him since bringing him to the city. Now 
 he was lounging in a doorway, his queer attire drawing 
 all eyes upon him, but he was as serenely master of himself 
 as a prince. Paul stopped to watch him for a moment, and 
 wondered whether he would ever reach a stage of such 
 supreme indifference to ordinary concerns. Not while 
 Joyce lived, at any rate ! 
 
 But Baily came forward with some confession of inter 
 est on his face when Paul appeared. 
 
 " So they actually burnt the Works," he said, as they 
 walked out of the building together. " Made a clean job 
 of it! I hadn t giv them credit for so much spunk. I 
 didn t really mean that they should go so far." 
 
 " What did you have to do with it ? " 
 
 " Oh, mebbe nothing," he said indifferently. " I just 
 had an idee that if I went in there would be a strike. 
 And I counted on your obstinacy, you see." 
 
 Paul stared at him in astonishment, and when he 
 grasped the idea he looked as though in doubt whether 
 to laugh or be angry. 
 
 " You villain ! Do you mean to say that you have 
 been plotting for this ? Have I been the center of one of 
 your particular schemes without knowing it ? I have a 
 mind to "
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 337 
 
 " I gave you fair warning." 
 
 " I have a mind to go back into business, just to prove 
 that obstinacy you counted on." 
 
 " Oh, no, you won t. You ain t no fool. Lord, you 
 know you wan t no good at the business. If you had 
 been, I wouldn t have interfered, any more than I d in 
 terfere with the corn a-growing. You were going in for 
 philanthropy, and it wasn t your business." 
 
 " Why, philanthropy is everyone s business, for that 
 matter." 
 
 " Oh, no, it ain t. Every man s business is to live right 
 himself, and then there won t be any philanthropy 
 needed. That is for those who are no good to the uni 
 verse themselves, and so have to throw a little charity in 
 to boot in the bargain., But you are worth par value." 
 
 " If I could afford to quarrel with you, I d do it in a 
 minute, but I suppose I must put up with your atrocious 
 machinations until I see whether you can do anything for 
 Mabie, and then I ll get even with you in some way." 
 
 " You won t have to wait long, then. Mabie s all 
 right. I forgot to tell you." 
 
 "Do you mean that he is cleared? Ben, do you really 
 mean it ? Confound you, why didn t you say so ? How 
 did you do it ? " 
 
 " Why, I got the janitor to see that he d better confess. 
 Hamon changed the pictures after he bought the copy of 
 Mabie, and the janitor knew enough to be paid to keep 
 quiet. It was easy to see. The only thing was to get 
 him to speak out." 
 
 " How did you do it ? " 
 
 " Oh, well, that s my affair," Baily protested, looking 
 down. 
 
 " Oh, come, Ben, it is my affair, too ! You have no 
 idea how much it is my affair. Does Jordan know ? " 
 
 " Yes, he s taken it all down in due form so that he can
 
 338 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 use it before the Grand Jury, to-morrow, a disposition, 
 or something of that sort. Hamon has been arrested. 
 It is all straight." 
 
 " But how did you do it ? " 
 
 " Didn t you ever see one of them cheerful and inspirit 
 ing pictures that the manufacturers of burglar-proof safes 
 send around at Christmas, of burglars tying up a cashier 
 that didn t have a burglar-proof safe, and asking him 
 questions, with emphasis ? Well, I took a hint. If it 
 works in a bad cause, why won t it work in a good one, 
 says I. And it did work, first-rate." 
 
 " Torture ? " 
 
 " Morally applied, of course. Nagging, in other words. 
 I nagged him. Had to do it. Nothing to be proud of. 
 There wasn t no other way. I nagged him, morning, 
 noon and night. I slept with him and woke with him, 
 not much sleeping, altogether, because I was afraid he d 
 give me the slip. He tried it. I let him see that he 
 couldn t dodge me or shake me, and that he had me on 
 his hands until death us did part, unless he spoke out. 
 And I kept up the nagging. Ashamed of myself, but it 
 had to be. I knew I could stand it longer than he could. 
 It is a powerful weapon. There weren t no question but 
 of how long it would take. He caved yesterday and gave 
 up the game, and I had him around to Jordan s office im 
 mediate." 
 
 Rodman found that the story was true. Mabie s inno 
 cence of connection with the robbery was completely es 
 tablished by the janitor s evidence, and when the case came 
 up before the Grand Jury the next day it was dismissed 
 without making a ripple. Paul telegraphed the news to 
 Hamill, and then took charge of the artist with filial en 
 thusiasm. Mabie had only just been able to leave the 
 hospital, and was still pale and gaunt from his illness. 
 The sense of being a martyr brought some consolation,
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY, 339 
 
 however, and he accepted the flattering attention of the 
 younger man with a graciousness that it was a delight to 
 see. 
 
 " What an unpleasant thing this same law is, however 
 you look at it," he exclaimed when they were back in 
 Paul s apartment. " It is like an octopus. When it once 
 gets its rudimentary mind turned in your direction, there 
 is no escape for you. I have been going through this 
 thing in anticipation for five months, and I suppose it will 
 take five months more before I succeed in quite forget 
 ting it. But what is that to the octopus ? What does it 
 care whether it feeds on artist or arrowroot ? " 
 
 "You say you anticipated this?" Paul could not re 
 frain from asking. 
 
 " From the time I discovered that my copy was hanging 
 in the gallery. You may imagine my sensations at that 
 moment. I wasn t clear as to whether it was witchcraft 
 or hallucination, but I saw at once that other people 
 might give it a still more unpleasant name. Of course I 
 suspected Hamon must have something to do with it, but 
 I didn t see my way to proving it. Besides, it might as 
 easily have been one remove further on. Besides, I my 
 terms with Hamon were such that Oh, I hated to be 
 mixed up with it in any way." 
 
 Paul listened with the gravest courtesy. 
 
 " Then one day, it was the very day that Joyce went to 
 Hereward, I saw in the papers that the substitution of the 
 pictures had been discovered. I felt that the bottom was 
 dropping out of things, and I wanted to be as far away as 
 possible. So I went off on a sketching tour. But I 
 couldn t sketch. I couldn t do anything. I knew all the 
 time how it was going to end, and at last I came back to 
 see Hamon and have it out with him. As luck would 
 have it, the original had just turned up in New York, and 
 had been traced to Hamon, and everything had come to
 
 340 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 a focus, and they were trying to find me. Hamon had 
 been called upon to explain how the picture came into 
 his possession, and it was a simple stroke of genius on his 
 part to say that he had bought it of me as a copy. He 
 knew of course that the real copy would be identified as 
 my work by those who knew my style. It all hung to 
 gether beautifully. It was too simple a story to have 
 any weak points. It never occurred to me that the jani 
 tor could be implicated. I had more faith in him ! " 
 
 " So had Hamon, apparently. But Ben Baily possesses 
 an eloquence of his own." 
 
 " Who is this Ben Baily ? " 
 
 " He is a Hereward genius. You must know him. We 
 will all go up together this afternoon." 
 
 Tom Garner winced. 
 
 "Hereward? So soon?" He evidently felt that the 
 contamination of the prison still lingered in his at 
 mosphere, but Paul s deference gradually restored his 
 wounded self-respect, and after a little persuasion he con 
 sented to go up at once.
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 TOM GARNER S return to Hereward was in the nature 
 of a triumph. When he came up to Mrs. HamilPs door, 
 wrapped in shawls and leaning on Paul s arm, his beauti 
 ful long face pale and his beautiful gray hair more silvery 
 than before, there was a little group of friends waiting 
 on the piazza, to do him honor. His heart swelled with 
 innocent gratification. The half-dozen people were a 
 modest multitude in his eyes, and he himself was draped 
 about with the glory of unmerited suffering. Joyce came 
 down the path and caught him in her arms and laughed 
 and pretended she wasn t crying in a way that was very 
 unlike the self-poised Joyce of old. Then the others 
 came to be presented, and Mabie was the hero of the oc 
 casion and Paul the chief lord-in-waiting, and the old 
 wide piazza was the scene of an ovation that brought a 
 flush into the pale cheek of the graceful old man. He 
 bent over Drusilla s hand and murmured something about 
 her goodness to Joyce that made her eyes glisten. Prof. 
 Hamill beamed upon him with the delighted enthusiasm 
 he only gave to his own antitheses, and even Hale, who 
 had been prejudiced against him, felt that a man who had 
 suffered unjustly by the law was in a manner entitled to 
 the protection of all officers of the court. 
 
 Miss Estee, too, was there, at Mrs. Hamill s urgent in 
 vitation. Why should she not come, she, the old friend 
 of Tom Garner and of his wife ? No reason, surely. Yet 
 she sat a little apart with a restless sparkle in the depths 
 of her eyes. For years her life had flowed an even cur-
 
 342 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 rent, carrying the trifles of quiet days and only at times 
 rippling with memories that had grown gently sad. She 
 had come to rest on it and to dread the introduction of a 
 new element, and it is a dangerous thing to evoke ghosts 
 out of the past. They may bring desolation in their foot 
 steps. 
 
 " Eleanor Estee," the ghost said, with the familiar, 
 lingering intonation, and he held her hand and looked 
 into her face. " I thought I was old and that the world 
 had gone by me. I see now that I was mistaken." 
 
 "Are you so sure of that?" she asked, smiling back 
 serenely. "Joyce is as old as our Helen was when we 
 last were here together." 
 
 " True," he said softly, and he let her hand go. 
 
 " I remember very well the days when I thought Here- 
 ward a Paradise," he went on, when they had enthroned 
 him in a big chair where he could see the old Jefferson 
 tower, and the familiar street of the old town, and Joyce had 
 wrapped rugs and shawls about him like an oriental. " It 
 has preserved the character wonderfully well, for its 
 years ! What a very pleasant arrangement it is that the 
 Paradises of the earth keep up their old trick of blooming 
 through all the generations of angels, eh, Joyce ? " She 
 looked so defenseless that he went on, to cover her em 
 barrassment, " I think that my old ambitions might come 
 back here, and perhaps some of my old enthusiasm." 
 
 "Why can t you stay? * asked Hamill eagerly. "It 
 would be delightful for us, and now that Joyce is a landed 
 proprietor in Hereward, you certainly ought to." 
 
 "What do you say, Joyce? Shall we spend the autumn 
 in the old house with the tower ? " 
 
 " If you would like it." 
 
 He looked at her with a quiet smile and half sighed. 
 Then he glanced at Edith and his artist eye lit up. 
 "Yes, I would like it. I could make some studies."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 343 
 
 Edith had been sitting by, rather listless and indifferent 
 in the midst of the general excitement, but she found an 
 opportunity to turn to her husband with a flash of interest. 
 
 " Doesn t he paint portraits, Stephen ? " she asked 
 guardedly. " Why can t you have him stay here long 
 enough to paint mine ? " 
 
 " Why, what for ? " he asked with frank surprise. 
 
 "Oh, just for fun. I have always wanted to have my 
 portrait painted. It is one of the little dreams of great 
 ness I have always indulged in, and I have never had 
 anything but photographs." 
 
 " Why, you wouldn t want your own portrait staring at 
 you all the time. 
 
 " You ought to pretend at least that you would want 
 it," she pouted. 
 
 " I am not good at pretending," he said shortly. " That 
 is what you are always saying. I ought to pretend to be 
 this and pretend to be that. What s the use of it ?" 
 
 It was a subject that had come up often enough already 
 in their married life to have an edge. Edith looked 
 down and said nothing. 
 
 " I ll ask him about the portrait, if you like," he said 
 after a moment. 
 
 " Oh, I don t care now," she retorted loftily. 
 
 He looked baffled and impatient, but there was no 
 chance for further converse. 
 
 " By the way, where is Bahrdt ? " Mabie was asking. 
 
 " He went away Saturday/ Dru said quite cheer 
 fully. Hale darted a quick look at his wife. Dru saw, 
 though she was talking so busily. Joyce did not see, for 
 she dared not look up very often. Paul s eyes seemed 
 always to meet hers, and though she need not fear to 
 understand their language she could not answer here and 
 now. 
 
 "Bahrdt is a child of the age," Mabie said, with the
 
 344 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 gentle assumption of authority which sat so well upon him. 
 " In my time, we malcontents took the esthetic line of 
 revolt. We protested against the hampering bonds of tra 
 dition and convention. We wanted to be free from them, 
 and we declared ourselves Bohemians and wore rolling 
 collars and disdained meat. Now the same spirit of dis 
 content has taken the ethical form of manifestation and 
 its devotees are reformers. They see the injustice of the 
 world standing in the way of its redemption, just as we of 
 a former generation blamed its hard and fast customs. 
 That is why I have always liked Bahrdt. He is a mod 
 ernized and moralized version of a certain youth I knew, 
 how many years ago, Eleanor? Better success to 
 him ! " 
 
 " His success will be less in doing anything in particu 
 lar, I fancy, than in just being himself," said the Professor 
 with sparkling eyes. " He was fond of talking of the day 
 of deliverance which might come to humanity, but I think 
 it will come, if at all, more by his indirect influence than 
 by his direct efforts. You can t preach people to a 
 reform, but you can lift them to it. He is a power, 
 because he is so absolutely true." 
 
 Edith Hale sat silent. 
 
 " He is sincere, I ve no doubt," said Hale impatiently, 
 "but there is no use ignoring the fact that he is a mis 
 chief-maker and a firebrand. What can he do with all his 
 scheming ? Only make people a little more discontented, 
 a little nearer anarchy, than they would be otherwise." 
 
 " Oh, he does a good deal more than that," cried Paul 
 loyally, " and I wish I had him here now to help me out. 
 What am I going to do with these people who have 
 thrown themselves out of work, with winter pretty near ? 
 Wash my hands of them, I dare say, though that isn t the 
 ideal thing. If I were an Englishman, now, I could pack 
 them off to America, but being in America I don t see
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 345 
 
 what opening there is. America needs an annex, where 
 we can send people we want to be rid of and pretend 
 we are philanthropic and magnanimous at the same 
 time." 
 
 " What ought to be done," suggested the Professor 
 placidly, " is to send them to school and give them a 
 course of social science, philosophy and economics, with 
 Marcus Aurelius to top off with." 
 
 "But what are they going to do ?" asked Dru, with 
 visions of blue, famished faces and bare feet drifting be 
 fore her. She had seen them like that in pictures. 
 
 " Oh, they will go away and be dissipated among the 
 community at large." 
 
 " The problem is not solved so." 
 
 " No, and I can t solve it," said Paul. " I acknowledge 
 myself a failure. I suspect no one can solve it but the 
 people themselves. They must work out their own deliv 
 erance, and learn by practically knocking their heads 
 against the walls that there are certain limits. They will 
 come to see that ignorance is undesirable and crime un 
 profitable and that power over others is not what it is 
 popularly supposed to be." 
 
 " What would make peace on the earth ? " asked the Pro 
 fessor musingly. " Would it come if each individual were 
 so firmly bound by a net-work of laws that wrong-doing 
 would be impossible ? That is what some of our advo 
 cates of a golden socialism claim. They do not object to 
 the present system of law-making, only to its application. 
 If they could make the laws, and a good many more of 
 them, it would be all right. But I m not sure the day of 
 deliverance won t come nearer when each one learns that 
 he must be a law unto himself and abide by that law- 
 making so faithfully that it will be impossible for him to 
 be upset by the pressing of his neighbors." 
 
 " I m afraid I have delivered myself from little but
 
 346 APPRENTICES TO DESTIA Y. 
 
 cash," cried Mabie, with rather a rueful laugh. " What 
 have you done in the world, Eleanor ? " 
 
 " Looked on and made remarks about people and per 
 suaded them that I was very wise," she answered promptly. 
 " Oh, I have my problems, too. For one thing, there is the 
 little fact that book-reviewers are mostly men and the 
 readers mostly women. If you write with an eye to get 
 ting good notices your book isn t read, and if you write 
 for readers the superior critics sniff at you." 
 
 "Which way do you let your heart mostly incline ?" 
 
 " Oh, I take them alternately, like homoeopathic medi 
 cines. By and by, when I am famous enough to dispense 
 with notices and rich enough to dispense with readers, I 
 will be a law unto myself and write for my own delecta 
 tion. Then I shall have an audience able to appreciate 
 all my little things ! There will be no moral reflections 
 too deeply hidden for recognition, no careless mistaking 
 of pathos for bathos." 
 
 " Have they done such things to you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don t complain. As a whole, I like it all. 
 People come and go and make groups and separate and 
 cross from L to R and up stage and down to C, and some 
 times they are effective* and I enjoy the effectiveness, and 
 sometimes they are unutterably stupid and never know it, 
 poor things." 
 
 " There, at least, we have the advantage of you." 
 
 " Oh, I don t know. I m not sure but what I am wil 
 ling to endure the stupidity for the sake of the superior 
 feeling it gives me to recognize it. The easiest way in 
 the world to assure yourself of your own superiority is to 
 criticise others. To climb to superiority is much harder." 
 
 They all laughed, but presently Mabie, leaning back, 
 sighed a little and closed his eyes. Joyce saw it at once. 
 
 " You are tired ? Will you not come in and lie down ? 
 It has been a hard day."
 
 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 347 
 
 " It has been one of the brightest days in the calendar," 
 he said, but he suffered her to lead him away, graceful 
 and debonair to the last, as he waved his hand to them all 
 from the doorway. 
 
 Miss Estee, too, rose. 
 
 " I must go," she said. " I have been idle for a long 
 time, but to-night I am going to write. That is my way 
 to the day of deliverance," she said gaily. " Ah, you 
 people may talk, but art is the only reality ! " 
 
 " Law is the only reality," Hale said. " That is what 
 these hare-brained dreamers will learn some day. Edith 
 and I will walk around with you. 1 
 
 Edith rose indifferently, and though she walked beside 
 her husband she had no look for him, even when they left 
 Miss Estee at her own door and went on alone through 
 the twilit street to the house they called home. 
 
 " I know what the reality is," Uru whispered to her 
 husband when they were gone. And he looked into her 
 eyes and smiled. 
 
 " Do you ? Wise little woman ! " 
 
 When Joyce came out again there was no one there but 
 Paul. She drew back with a sudden shyness at meeting 
 him alone, but he sprang up at once and came to her. 
 
 "Don t go in. Come out into the garden. The sum 
 mer is going so fast we mustn t miss any of the sunshine. 
 Isn t the old garden beautiful after those dusty weeks in 
 town ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 It wasn t much to say, but her look said more as it 
 rested upon the old-fashioned flowers and the paths 
 flooded with the low sunlight. They walked on and he 
 watched her in silence for a few moments, content to see 
 the tranquil light that had come over her face. The ask 
 ing look, the aloofness that had marked the Joyce Mabie 
 of the early summer, had been lost in arrowing sweet-
 
 348 APPRENTICES TO DESTINY. 
 
 ness which was not new to his eyes, though it might seeoi 
 so to others. He had always known it was there, and he 
 never knew how much his love had had to do with bring 
 ing it out. 
 
 She felt his eyes upon her and looked up to meet them. 
 
 " Is all right with the world at last ? " he asked with a 
 deep thrill in his voice. 
 
 Her steady eyes did not fall, but into them came a 
 light of gladness, of triumph, of humble, wonderful love 
 that made him tremble. 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 " I am not particularly proud of my Hereward experi 
 ment," he said later, when he had told her about the Al- 
 lentown prospects. " I thought I was going to be a sort 
 of shining example to the nation, and I haven t shone 
 worth mentioning. I have always thought rows both fool 
 ish and vulgar, and I have been drawn into the biggest 
 sort of a row, and, what is worse, was beaten in it. I had 
 a whole outfit of beautiful ideas. They are in rags. I ve 
 swamped my newly-got fortune and destroyed a valuable 
 branch of industry in the community. As a social revolu 
 tionist, I certainly have made as successful a failure as 
 most men, with no greater opportunities, could have 
 done." 
 
 " And for how much of it all am I responsible ? " Joyce 
 asked with drooping head. 
 
 " For a good deal of it, thank Heaven," he answered 
 with great cheerfulness. " If you think you haven t been 
 particularly nice to me of late, there is a chance now for 
 you to reform. Don t look so tragic ! Take it right 
 through, I don t think the summer has been altogether a 
 failure ! "
 
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