Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1910 — PAID IN FULL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAID IN FULL

Novelized From Eugene Walter’s Great Play

...By... JOHN W. HARDING

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUB CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I—lntroduces Captain Amos Williams, president of the Latln-Amerl-can Steamship company, In very bad humor over a threatened strike of his dock laborers. Joseph Brooks, underpaid accountant and collector for Williams, expresses his sympathy for the strikers and is ridiculed by his fellow clerks. H —The president sends for James Smith, superintendent of the company's docks, and Instructs him to spare no expense In crushing the strikers. Smith advises pacific measures, but Is overruled and prepares to obey orders. Ill—Mrs. Emma Brooks, the handsome young wife of the discontented clerk, tries to encourage him on his return to their bandbox apartment, but he is bitter against his employer and also against his wife’s mother and sister, who dislike him on account of his Inability to gain position. In his desperation he turns on his wife and suggests that she must regret her choice of him when she might have had Smith, who had oltered himself. IV—Smith, who is the Intimate friend of the family, makes his appearance on the scene, and Brooks continues his bitter arraignment of his employer, and violent protest against his own impoverished condition. The discussion becomes rather personal, and Brooks takes his hat and leaves the premises. V—Accompanied by Captain Williams, who Is an old friend of the family, Mrs. Harris and daugnter Beth, mother and sister of Mrs. Brooks, enter the room. During the visit Brooks returns and makes a scene, accusing Williams of being the cause of his unhappiness. Mrs. Brooks reminds her husband of his breach of hospitality, and he apoligfzes and leaves the house. VI When Brooks returns he astonishes his wife and Smith by Inviting them to go to the theater. Smith offers to lend him $lO, but he declines. Brooks extracts $lO from a roll of money collected for the company. Vll—Smith prevents a •trike. Vlll—Williams and Smith go to South America, and Brooks’ prospects Improve. Brooks tells his wife that he has been promoted and money is plentiful.. The couple move into an expensive apartment hotel, and Mrs. Harris ceases to reproach them for their poverty. IX— Smith makes his appearance suddenly and Informs Brooks that Williams knows of his dishonesty and that the going to South America was only a scheme to entrap him and that he is shadowed by detectives. X and Xl—Smith tries to prepare Mrs. Brooks for the exposure by teUlng a story. Williams enters, and Emma thanks him for the change In their circumstances. He looks amazed, and Smith tries to avoid a climax. The captain takes the cue and holds his peace. Brooks enters suddenly and is terrified. Williams goes, and Smith tries to keep up the delusion, but Brooks breaks down and confesses all to his wife. She asks Smith to le: ve them. Xll—Emma endeavors to comfort him with her love and sympathy. Maddened by his disgrace and peril, he accuses her of being the cause of his downfall. She declares herself willing to do anything to save him, and he asks he to go alone, late at night as It is, to Williams’ bachelor rpartment and obtain his freedon. He tells her that the captain is fond of her and will do what •he asks. When she realizes the baseness of the proposition she is stunned, but finally consents. Brooks arranges the rendezvous by telephone. XIII— While waiting for Mrs. Brooks, Williams has a call from Smith, who offers to pay the amount of Brooks' stealings In full. Williams refuses, and Smith warns him to be careful in his treatment of the culprit's wife, awaits his wife’s return in an agony of suspense. Mrs. Harris and her daughter happen in and demand the reason of his wife’s absence. XV—Mrs. Brooks meets Captain Williams and secures her husband’s freedom. XVI and XVII— The wife returns home, informs Brooks that she has succeeded and tells him that she regards the debt paid In full; that there has been no loss of honor; but that her love for him Is dead. He attempts to shake her resolution to give him up and finally tries to strangle her into submission. She is rescued by Smith and goes home to her mother XVIII —Tells of the further doings of the separted pair. XlX—Brooks wearies of his release, goes to Smith and proposes that the latter act as mediator. Bmlth consents. XX—Smith interviews Emma, but she Is convinced that she will never have anything more to do with Brooks.

CHAPTER XXI. she had grown wise and come jjll to look upon Jlinsy’s visits ns pleasant breaks in the monotony of her existence, however, •he had obtained glimpses of his inner •elf, flashes of the profundity of his mind, an inkling of his elevation of sentiment that escaped him, in spite of himself, quite unconsciously. Her woman’s keen perception had divined • spirituality that was buried purposely by speech and conduct. This had Interested her and given her food for jthought, but she could find no satisIfactory explanation. The clew to the mystery, which, truth to tell, interested her but mildly, had come to her first on the evening of her husband's attack on Captain Williams in the lit tie Harlem flat, when, after he had let fall and smashed the < up. he had remarked a little ruefully that lie had let slip everything he bad ever had in his life that was worth while. TV confirmation of her deduction that his unrequited love for herself had been the death of ambition aud accounted for his aimless, lonely existence, whi Si she had been inclined to reject us absurd, was obtained on that momentous night just before her husband extinguished utterly and forever the few embers of love for him that still were live. After he had told her the story of his life In his quaint, everyday speech and her heurt bad gone out to him in that burst of irrepressible sympathy the consternatiou this had caused him had uncovered his secret as in a book, for in that moment she had seen beyond the mere start of timid modesty. Later, after the shock of Brooks’ action had ceased to obsess her and he had receded further and further toward a memory, she had set free her {lmprisoned inclinations. Once more her rejuvenated fancy had taken wing to the heights of the ideul and romantic. Somehow it bad come to associate Jimsy with its excursions. Possessor of his secret, she bad set herself. arbUe disguising her task with cuo.-

I nine, to the dangerous study of the | heart that had held it so long Inviolate. ' The knowledge that he loved her with j such steadfast intensity rekindled love jon the dead ashes her husband bad left behind, and for the very reason that Jlmsy betrayed bis sentiments in | nothing, held unswervingly to the line j of conduct toward her he bad followed I ever since she had refused to take serlI ously his offer of marriage, this love had grown stronger, fiercer, until it i had filled her life. She saw that she ! had passed happiness by. She exalted i Jiuisy’s secret passion until in her j imagining he became the incarnation ! of nobleness, of desire, of all mortal Joys. She brought, a heap of blueberries to him and poured them into his Joined hands, and they seated themselves on a rock to cat them and to rest. “This is the most enjoyable picnic I’ve had in years,” she said gayly. “It was quite an inspiration of yours to run up to visit us. Why don’t you Borne often instead of spending your week ends in the hot city? You ought lo take a vacation and stay here for a few weeks.” “I’d like to awfully,” he told her, “but the fhet is I’m too busy to think of getting away. Williams is piling a whole lot df work and responsibility on me these days. Williams, you know, isn’t what you’d call an easy boss. If he raises a man’s salary he sees to H that he gets his money’s worth. He simply won’t be bothered, even with matters that ain’t precisely details." “It's becaUSe he trusts you, Jlmsy,” ■he assured him with an intonation perilously near to tenderness. “So you see,” be went on, “it’s easier to talk about holidays than to get them. I shouldn’t be here now, for I’m working Sundays as well as other days at present, only that I had to come up on' a matter of importance.” “Oh,” she said, with a pout, “I thought you came to see us for ourselves, not on a business trip. No more berries for you.” “I came for the express purpose of seeing you and of talking to you alone.” Her heart fluttered violently, suffocat ingly, again. “T 6 me—alone?” “Yes. I’ve seen Joe-.” The pronouncing of her husband’s name was to her as a heavy blow. Sweet, timorous expectancy, hot, turbulent blushes that she had bent to hide vanished instantly, and she looked up at him startled. “Joe walked in on me five nights ago. H« looks well and is doing well-” “What is that to me?” The words came in chilling accents, and her eyes grew hard. “Emma, do you remember that on that night Just before you learned the truth I told you about that chap in

Denver who was long on love aud short on honor and kind of took the view that It was his wife’s place to overlook things and help him get right?" “Well?" “Well, I’m still of that opinion." "Do I understand that you-^that you"— She did not finish the sentence, but sat gazing at him with wide eyes, stark with agony and amaze. “I guessed you’d be kind of surprised to hear from him. Since you left Joe he's been leading a strictly honest life. He has a good job In a bank at a good salary, has saved money, and all he wants Is for you to forgive and forget and start over again. Joe’s all right now, there's no doubt about that, for I’ve looked up the record he’s made since you’ve been separated. Not only that, but he loves you more than ever That’s gospel truth, too, I know.” “Forgive and forget! Yes, I have forgotten, and oblivion enshrouds forgiveness with it. Joseph Brooks is dead, ns dead for me as though he were in his grave. I have even ceased to bear bis name. Sometimes I have wondered If he ever existed. If I remember him it is as one recalls a nightmare from which one is glad to have awakened." She laughed a little mirthless laugh and, plucking a fern branch, began to pick the fronds from it nervously, let ting them fall to the ground. “That’s all very well, Emma," he objected gently, “but Joe la none the less very much alfte, and he Is your husband. You mustn’t forget that ever. And he s all right, I honestly believe. If he did fall Into temptation he meant well. He thought he could

' put the money back easily enough? and he wanted you to have mom comfort and be happy. The best of us ain’t no better than we sbould be IT you come right down to the contemplation of the naked fact. You know that the book says, ‘There is not s i Just man upon earth that doetb good and sinneth not.' -To me the man who is real sorry for having done wrong, especially when his wrongdoing had snch a pardonable motive as Joe’s had, is as good as he was before he did the thing.” “Yon are the one man I know whom I would never have suspected of harboring a treasury of such homely platitudes,”, she said scornfully. “If It were only a question of forgiving a man who had sinned so weakly as that, but it isn’t,” he went on. “More is involved—his absolution and salvation by duty if not by love. Emma, you are Joe Brooks’ wife. You took oath before God—and you meant It thep—to stick by him in adversity ks In prosperity, to help him in time of trouble. Your place Is by bis side now. Yours Is the only band that can guide him right.” She rose and placed both of her little gloved bands on his shoulders and: looked into his eyes. “Do you believe what you are telling me, Jlmsy Smith?” she asked gently. “Do you, speaking from your Inmost heart, order me to return to the arms of that man?” He rose, holding her wrists (Irmly against his shoulders and speaking With intense earnestness: “Emma, there are some things on this earth that we’re called on to do, ordained by an all wise and merciful Providence. We may not like to do them, but it is not a matter of inclination. We have to make our decisions by the rule of right or wrong. Is it right or is it wrong? It's an arbitrary rule, but I guess it works out for the best In the eml. It has always seemed to me so. Therefore I say go back to Joe, your husband, Joe pleads to your heart that was his. ‘Tell her,’ he said, ‘that I’m more sorry than I can express; that I’m sorry and miserable. Tell her that there is no light In life Without her.’ Those were about his words.” He released her wrists. She had listened to him at the last with averted face that was bloodless and looked ghastly under Its coat of sun tan. She walked away wrestling with herself. Smith stood as Impassive as fate. But on his brow a (fampness had gathered, and she had seen the sweat beads ooze there as he spoke. The little cool clad form with its clinging skirt returned slowly. . “Jlmsy, why did he charge you to tell me these things?” “Why? I don’t know. Because I’m his friend and yours, I suppose. Because there was no one else could do It”

“And, like the good man you are, you were governed in your decision by the rule of right and wrong.” “That was about it, if you cut out the qualification of me.” “And, having been influenced to assume this role of ambassador by a -sense of duty and loyalty, feeling bound to do so for the very reason that would have deterred a man of ordinary moral caliber, you would have adhered to the rule though every word of your counsel had been to you as the sear of a white hot iron and Its utterance had been death.” For the first time in her life she saw a look of sternness pass over his face. And it was mingled with pain. “Emma,’’ he said, “I guess we’ll go down now. And we’d better take a short cut, If there is one, or we won’t be home for dinner. You must be hungry, and of all the”— “No, Jimsy, hear me,” she interrupted. /*You must and shall hear me. Yogf have said what you had to say. Now It is my turn, and I, too, will speak plainly. You believe—you know —I am and always have been a good woman. You believe that I was faithful, as far as was humanly possible, to the spirit as well as the letter of my marriage vows, made fervently, trustingly. I swore to love and honor Joe Brooks. It was easy, for I did then lovfe and honor him beyond understanding now. But neither love nor honor Is kept alive eternally by the virtue of an oath In the face of delusion and worthlessness. Gold was tinsel; diamond was glass. You were witness to the slow murdering of love, and you saw It strangled and thrown down at the last as he would have strangled me had you not prevented.”

He would have spoken, but she cheeked him with a gesture of command. “No, don’t Interrupt. Hear me to the end and then speak. What Is this thing that you are asking me to do? You are asking me to go to a living death, to make of my heart a sepulcher of all sweet or .elevating emotion, to surrender my lips to the fetid kiss of an Iscariot, ta deliver my body to his loathsome embraces, while my soul sickens with disgust and horror—my body that he would have betrayed, hired out for a piece of silver and, gloating, taken back again. Yod are asking me to immolate myself with all that I hold sacred and beautiful on an altar that you style duty. Now apply your rule to this. Is it right? Is It wrong? Oh, Jimsy, answer me! Before God, is it right?” She stood trembling with the vehemence of her defense and the strength of her feeling, her arms outstretched Interrogation and appeal. A great sigh was the Indication of the conflict that was raging In Smith's heart, and for one single Instant the mask of impenetrability fell from his face. She read the answer there. 1 Removing feverishly the glove from her left hand, she forced from her finger the wedding ring that In the years had tightened closely upon It

| ar.d hurled It from her. Tt ricochcttcd on a rock and went bounding over the outer edge of the plateau far down into the pathless, tangled brush of the almost perpendicular declivity. Smith turned away In silence, and lo silence they made their way back along the little path up which they had come. Neither spoke, even at the difficult places when he stretched out his hand and helped her with Its strong, sustaining clasp. Jlmsy was grave and abstracted. In his Gethsemane he had drunk too deeply of the waters of knowledge and they were bittersweet, heavily Impregnated with regret and dismay. Emma had discovered the secret which for years he had guarded so Jealously and—oh, the blissful torture of It!—had revealed to him that she loved him. This was the outcome of his self sacrificing mission on behalf of the husband who stood between them with the right of the might of law and the conventions and whose trust was in the keeping of his honor.’ His role of platonic friendship was ended. His privileged relations with the woman who was dearer to him than life could no longer be maintained. The home of the Harris family could no longer be the refuge of his loneliness, the pleasant oasis In the desert of his existence, where he could find consolation and rest for his suffering heart, beyond which the world lay dark and indiscernible. (To be Continued.)

“Do you believe what you are telling me, Jimsy Smith?"