Part 14 (1/2)

Then he shut the box and sat down at the table to think, opening the sluice-gates of histhe sea of misery flow in, as it were

This, then, was the woiven and loved and honoured for all these years This was the end and this the reward of all his devotion and of all his hopes And he smiled in bitterness of his pain and self-contempt

What was he to do? Go back to South Africa? He had not the heart for it

Live here? He could not His existence had been wasted He had lost his delusion--the beautiful delusion of his life--and he felt as though it would drive him mad, as the man whose shadow left him went mad

He rose from the chair, opened the , and looked out It was a clear frosty night, and the stars shone brightly For so at them; then he undressed himself Generally, for he was different to most men, he said his prayers For years, indeed, he had notProvidence in theht he said no prayers He could not pray The three angels, Faith, Hope, and Love, whose whisperings heretofore had been ever in his ears, had taken wing, and left him as he played the eavesdropper behind those blue velvet curtains

So he sed his sleeping-draught and laid himself down to rest

When Madeline Croston heard the news at a dinner-party on the following evening she was o hohtful warning against the careless use of chloral

LITTLE FLOWER

I

The Rev Thoination than a rock Of good birth, good abilities, good principles and good repute, really he ought to have been na as he was a typical representative of the Britishto the balance of his mind, not subject to most of the weaknesses which often afflict others, very early in his career he deterreater is teer than Time, it ise to devote himself to the spiritual and leave the teood people, earnest believers in the doctrine of rewards and punishments, who take that practical view With such

”Repaid a thousand-fold shall be,”

is a favourite line of a favourite hymn

It is true that his idea of the spiritual was limited Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it was unli that was to be found within the four corners of what he had been taught As a boy he had been noted for his prowess in sing the largest pills

”Don't think,” he would say to his weaker brothers and sisters, especially one of the latter whose throat seeed to cut up these boluses with a pair of scissors, ”Don't think, but gulp 'e else in life; Thoulped it down Thus in thesefolk ventured to talk of ”allegory” or even to cast unhallowed doubts upon such points as those of the exact method of the appearance on this earth of their Mother Eve, or whether the sun actually did stand still at the bidding of Joshua, or the ark, filled with countless pairs of living creatures, floated to the top of Ararat, or Jonah, defying digestive juices, in fact abode three days in the interior of a whale, Tho smile and remarked that what had been written by Moses and other accepted prophets was enough for him

Indeed a story was told of him when he was a boy at school which well exe their labours a very noted geologist who had the art of interesting youthful audiences andthe rocks of the earth tell their own secular story, was brought to lecture to his House This eminent man lectured extrelobe we inhabit, one speck ofin the sea of space, had existed for millions upon es of countless ages it had at length become fitted to be the habitation of men, who probably the there for at least a er

At the conclusion of the entrancing story the boys were invited to ask questions Thoe, beetle-browed youth, rose at once and inquired of their titled and aged visitor, a ht it funny to tell thereatly interested, put on his spectacles, and while the rest of the school gasped and the head e lad, then said:

”I am outspoken myself, and I like those who speak out when they do so fro friend, why do you consider that I--well, exaggerate?”

”Because the Bible says so,” replied Thomas unabashed ”The Bible tells us that the world was made in six days, not in millions of years, and that the sun and the ht it; also that man was created four thousand years BC Therefore, either you are wrong, sir, or the Bible is, and _I_ prefer the Bible”

The eminent scientist took off his spectacles and carefully put theical and conclusive Pray, young gentleman, do not allow any humble deductions of my own or others to interfere with your convictions Only I believe it was Archbishop Ussher, not the Bible, who said that the world began about 4,000 BC I think that one day you gest that a certain sugaring of manners sweetens controversy”

After this nobroke up in confusion

Froathered that since none of us is perfect, even in Thomas there eak points For instance, he had what is known as a ”teood idea of himself and his own abilities, and had a share of that intolerance by which this is so often accoical student Rarely was there such a student He turned neither to left nor right, worked eight hours a day when he did not work ten, and took the highest possible degrees on every subject Then he was ordained About this time he chanced to hear a series of sermons by a Colonial bishop that directed his mind towards the mission-field This was after he had served as a deacon in an East End parish and becoery in its western form