The St. Louis Republic. [volume], July 23, 1905, SUNDAY MAGAZINE, Page 9, Image 53

About The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Missouri; Columbia, MO

                
SUNDAY MAGAZINE fmr JULY 23. 1M5
A PEBBLE FROM INDIA
II.
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BOUT the mid
dle of last June
was crossing
Madison Square,
Xcw-York, diagonal
ly, from Broadway
to Madison-ave. The
day was warm and
K-autiful. and there
were many jiersons
sitting on the lench
cs. One man I hap
jcned to notice jar
ticularly; he occu
ieil a beat ne:ir one
of the fountains. He
was alone, for the
1 cnch was exposed
to the sun. which,
however, was mi far
from incommoding
him that he wore
an autumn overcoat,
v.ith the collar
turned uj. A soft
felt hat was pulled
over his 1 irons, and
the lower part of his
face was covered
with a short silky
Ward, which did not
disguise the molding
of hi- chin and lips.
I pasM.il this fig
ure, and continued
on my way: hut after
a few paces 1 slop-ted,
turned and went sjowly hack. There had 1-een
something altout him something that awoke mem
ories in my mind. I paused in front of him. At
last he looked uj. It was he!
" Edward Beauchamp!" said I.
"Hello! Good to see vou! It's licen a lont time!
Sit down!" I
An hour passed over us unheeded on that blister
ing bench, while we recalled the past and interro
gated each other. Since we had parted at Jabalpur
a month after the night o'T Aden, now yeaiis ago.
I had heard nothing from him. Physically, my
friend was greatly changed. He was emaciated and
languid and feeble as an old man. "Nothing
jovial the matter: hut lost my appetite and that
sort of tlung." he remarked cheerfully enough.
He seemed to me like a dying man. though he mut
have Kvn tinder forty: hut. it struck me that he
was gratified, rather than con.crncd. at his de
plorable condition. Attention to outward things
au:-ed him a manifest e'Tort: he would lapse into
mumg. and sjeak from the pur-iiM-: he had lost his
gnp and initiative. Yet he was not depresMtl. and
his manner with me was Iran itiilly a'Tcclionate.
'lo certain questions which 1 put to him he rc
turned inconclusive replies. When had he come to
America? For what purjM'? What was lie do
ing1 Did he mean to remain? He would smile grave
It and answer in vague terms.
But at last he saiil. "If you've no engagement,
v tuld it 1-ore you to come up to my rin for
nhile5 We can chat comfortably there. It's too
1 right and lively out here to say things; and
there are a few things that I'd like to say to you.
, ou're the only fellow I could ever tell things to,
miii know
We roM". and he leaned u;on my arm. walking
sio-.ly and with difficulty he. who had lteen the
tvji of the Greek athlete, active a-id tireless! We
pr-needed up Ftfth-ave. for half a mile, then turned
down a Mile street to the left, and presently arrived
at a ta'.l bachelor-apartment building, near the
summit of which Beauchamp had his abode. The
riHmi had a broad outlook over citv and river,
and the clamor of the streets was hushed at that
elevation to a not unagreeable murmur. The
rooms were furnished and decorated as becatre a
wealth v and cultivated Anglo-Indian' pictures of
rejKtM'fuI )rient.il ruins and landscapes; exquisite
Uf like carvings from Agra, wonderful little caskets
an 1 'igures. in silver, bronze orivorv. from China and
Japan, silken hangings and draperies in quiet tints:
aid in one corner something was fastened to the wall,
r.id a urtain hung before it. Beauchamp took o'T
1-is oernat. and then, apologizing for fatigue, laid
h-VMit down on the divan, asking me to sit in the
Iniu.n extension-chair lieside him
I in glad you came" he said. "I've so often
theught of yen. I wanted you to know it. all.
Mystic Tragic Influenct Exerted on the Possessors of
a Wonderful Oriental
By JULIAN HAWTHORNE
'What U That Bosklo You. NodT Wkr. SmI- drl-Sho Ht
No. No I I Won! Bllrvo III"
and now, if you don't mind. 111 tell you. It isn't
a verjy long yarn. The cigars and things are on
the table at your left."
I liegan smoking accordingly; but my cigar was
nearly half done liefore Beauchamp found the breeze
to fill his sails. I never indeed have known another
man who so well understood the art, or the mystery,
of the harmonizing of ersonaI spheres; he would
not and probably could not disclose himself, tmtil
he felt that the adjustments were complete. This
might occur in silence or otherwise; but occur it
must, lnrfore anything of import could ensue.
"An American family came to Madras the year
after 1 met you," he finally said: "and when I heard
alKtut them I did what I could for them, mainly
for your sake. Franklin, their name was; father
and mother, and daughter Guinevere, alxml twenty
years old, educated and modern, eager to know
things, and, lcing in India, interested in the theo
sophical fad, as I myself still was at that time.
But her impulse was to investigate and to analyze,
and so to broaden her outlook ujion human nature
and the mind no notion at all of self-abnegation,
of abating the individual virus; she loved reasonings,
but she balked at In-licf. For all her modernity,
she liehl to the old conception of character, morality,
heroes and heroines. i-crsons absolute and inde
endent in themselves; the idea of thoughtless
spontaneity as the secret of the true life never oc
curred to her. That was her conscious self, the sort
of mind she cultivated. But uneoiwioiisly. natural
ly, she was exceedingly winning and agreeable, clean,
v. hole-some and handsome. Her influence was like
broad daylight, with a crisp breeze blowing, and no
mists or obscurities visible. Her vitality was
stimulating, like a plunge into coo! spring-water.
Her assertion of the feminine prerogative was capti
vating, for she was perfectly w-11-brcd; and to a
fellow who was rather tirnl from governing a native
Province, it was comforting to feel a pttrson who
really liked to hold the reins; and thought, will
and authority over others were fine things.
"One's e.xerience in life, if you notice, isn't con
tinuous, a logical, progressive development; it
i omes in areas, as I might sav. related to one another
sometimes as reactions, sometimes as higher or
lower jtlar.es. or may 1-e only seeming to 1 e caiiMil
by outward circtnistrinr ?. but, however, it may be,
I suspect that underlyirg them always is the decree
that every man of us is to have the opportunity
to explore all the piss-ibilitics of the phase of our
common nature that has been given him. The
thread of personal identity runs through them all,
of course: but while each of them lasts we live
lives more or less diTcrent one from another. Well,
at the time Guinevere r.imc I had just traversed
one of mv areas of experience, and was readv to
lt Hot Anu-
enter upon another.
You know what the
former one had
been.
"I had Kved
through the emo
tions and intuitions,
and my time had
come for subjects of
fact and intelligence.
The mystical light
had gone out. and I
was to kindle the
rational one. The
change was from
deep to shallow,
from higher to lower
I don't deny that
at all events, the
change was there:
Inda had vanished,
and Guinevere had
arrived. You may
call this a sophism.
to excuse an infidel
ity; but I've thought
it over, and I doubt
the soundness of the
conclusion. The man
who had known Inda
hail not the same
attributes as the man
who knew Guine
vere; Inda's earthly
life had ceased, and
with it had ceased
the springs of the
life I had led with
her. She had taken
away with her the lctter and purer ideals in me
which had made me her lover and husband, but had
left lichind the existence that had served them as
foundation. Now, an inferior stimulus had caused
to grow upon that foundation ideals that were cor
respondingly inferior. Root out of the soil of your
garden the roses and lilies, and in their place, if the
soil remains, weeds will spring tip.
"One state is not comparable with another, any
more than a rose is comparable with an apple.
Such happiness as I had with Guinevere would have
apjiearcd to me like misery, seen from my elevation
with Inda; but it was not so that 1 saw it. And
looking back to Inda was like rememlK-ring a
glorious, inspired childhood, forever passed away.
This is the humiliation ami tragedy of our finite
compass; no doubt there's a deep significance in it
few decpter but we can't fix the conditions, or
prevent the issue. We must accept it as it comes,
and learn from it, if we will, what we are not, and
what we are.
" I resigned my position in the service, and trav
eled with the Franklins for two years or more.
Guinevere and 1 liccamc engaged; but we loth
were content for the time in that intermediate situ
ation: to put e:T settling down till later on. Mean
while, we conversed a good deal about America and
the American idea. It liegan ti attract me. fier
haps Iiecause of its utter contrast with the ideas
and scenes I'd known hitherto. It seemed to har
monize, as she herself did, with my new phase.
Never a word, though, did I titter, or think of utter
ing. alotit what had gone before. 1 never so much
as consciously thought of it; a wall of oblivion had
risen to shut it out. Who would lte-lievc. on the
testimony of the snow, that summer had lieen. or
that spring was "to come? For aught Guinevere
knew, she might have K-en the first woman I had
known intimately: and I was not deceiving her
either, for nothing that she knew or could ever
know of me no ossibIe manifestation of me in
her presence had ever existed for Inda. Besides,
it seemed physically impossible for me to speak
that name in Guinevere's hearing. When Lucifer
fell from Heaven, he lost the faculty of angelic
language.
"When we got to England, in the course of our
journeying, I found tilings of my own to attend to;
and Guinevere and her parents went on meanwhile
to America, where I was to rejoin them. A year
passed 1-efore I could do so. Then her father -lied,
and our marriage was again put off. But at last
the date was fixed for the autumn of last year; and
Mrs. Franklin. Guinevere and I went for the summer
to a watering-place near Boston. While we were
there some luggage reached me w hich had 1 en
packed and stored ever since I left Madta. It was
taken to my rooms in the hotel, and Guinevere and
Iter mother were present when the 1 o.xes were