Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / July 24, 1914, edition 1 / Page 2
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JNIlTMTIONAL liTSdlOOL I IALLIE CPMINIi: (By E. O. SELLERS, Director of Evening; Department, The Moody Bible Institute, Chicago.) ILLUSTRATIONS r LAUREN 3TOUT LESSON FOR JULY 26 j j Jill! LESSON dives 10 SYNOPSIS. John Valiant, a rth society favorite, suddenly discovers that the Valiant cor poration, which his father founded and which was the principal source of his wealth, has failed. He voluntarily turr ever his private fortune to the receiver for the corporation. His entire remaining possessions consist of an old motor car, a white bull dog and Damory court, a neg lected estate in Virginia. On the way to Damory court he meets Shirley Dand ridge. an auburn-haired, beauty, and de cide that he is going to like Virginia Im mensely. Shirley's mother. Mrs. Dand ridge, ai.t Major Ertstow exchange rem iniscences during which It is revealed that the n.jor. Valiant's father, and a man named Bassoon were rivals for the hand of Mrs. Dandridge In her youth. Sassoon and Valiant fought a duel on her account In which the former was killed. Valiant finds Damory court overgrown with weeds and creepers and decides to rehabilitate the place. Valiant saves Shirley from the bite of a snake, which bites him. Knowin? the deadllness of the bite, Shirley sucks the poison from the wound and saves his life. Valiant learns lor the first time that his father left Vir ginia on account of a duel in which Doc tor Southall and Major Brlstow acted as lits father's seconds. Valiant and Shirley become good friends. Mrs. Dandridge faints when she meta Valiant for the first time. Vahapt discovers that he has a fortune in did walnut trees. The yearly tournament, a survivaJ of the jousting of feudal times, is held at Damory court. At the last moment Valiant takes the place f one of the knights, who is sick, and enters the lists. He wins and chooses Shirley Dandrige as queen of beauty to the dismay of Katherine Fargo, a former sweetheart, who is visiting in Virginia. The tournament ball at Damory court draws the elite of the countryside. CHAPTER XXIV. Continued. To the twanging of the deft black Angers, they passed in gorgeous array between files of low-cut gowns and flower-like faces and masculine swallow-tails, to the yellow parlor. Once there the music ceased with a splendid crash, the eleven knights each dropped upon one knee, the eleven ladies-in-waiting curtsied low, and Shirley, seat ed upon the dais, leaned her burnished head to receive the crown. What though the bauble was but bristol board, its jeweled chasing but tinsel and paste? On her head it glowed and trembled, a true diadem. As Valiant set the glittering thing on those rich and wonderful coils, the music of her presence was singing a swift melody in his blood. His coronation address held no such flowery periods as would have rolled from the major's soul. He had chosen a. single paragraph he had lighted on in an old book in the library a history-of the last Crusade in French black-letter. He had translated and memorized vuc x i atK uiaiug, net y iu.f lug quaint feeling of the original: "These noble knights bow in your presence, fair lady, as their leige, whom they know as even in judgment, as dainty in fulfilling these our acts of arms, and do recommend their all unto your Good Grace in as lowly wise as they can. O queen, in whom the whole story of virtue is written with the language of beauty, your eyes, which have been only wont to discern the bowed knees of kneeling hearts and, inwardly turned, found always the heavenly solace of a swaet mind, see them, ready In heart and able with hands not only to assailing but to pre railing." , r A hushed rustle of applause not loud: tlie merest whisper of silken feet and feathered fans tapped softly- testified to a widespread approbation. It was the first sight many there had had of John Valiant and in both looks and manner he fitted their best ideals. The queen's curtsey was the signal for the music, which throbbed sudden ly into a march, and she stepped down beside him. Couple after couple, knights and ladies, ranged behind them, till the twenty-four stood ready for the royal quadrille. It was the old- . fashioned lancers, but the deliberate strain lent the familiar measures some- thing of the stately effect of the min net. Quadrilles were not Invented as aids to conversation, and John Valiant's , and Shirley's was necessarily limited. "The decorations are simply deli cious!" she said as they faced each other briefly. "How did you manage 1 It?" "Home talent with a vengeance. Un cle Jefferson and I did it with our lit tle hatchets. But the roses " They were swooped apart and Shir ley found herself curtsying to Chilly Lusk. '"More than queen!" he said under his breath. "I had my heart set on naming you today. I reckon I've lost my rabbit-foot!" Opposite, in turn, Betty Page had slipped her dainty hand in John Val iant's "Ah haven't seen such a lovely dance for yeahs!" she sighed. Isn' Shirley too sweet? If Ah had hair like hers, Ah wouldn't speak to a soul on earth!" The exigencies of the figure gave no space for answer, and presently, after certain labyrinthine evolutions, Shir ley's eyes were gazing into his again "How adorable you look!" he whis pered, as he bowed over -her hand "How does it feel to be a queen?" "This little head was never made to wear a crown," she laughed. "Queens should be regal. Miss Fargo would lave " The music swept the rest away, but aot the look of blinding reproach he gave her that made her heart throb wildly as the glided on. . The last note of the quadrille slip ped into a waltz dreamily slow, an Valiant put his arm about Shirley an they Coated away. Once before, in th moonlighted garden at Rosewood, she had lain in his arm for one brief in stant then she had seemed like some trapped wood-thing resisting. Now, her slender body swaying to his every motion, she was another creature. Un der the drooping tawny hair her face was almost as pale as the white satin of her gown ; her lips were parted, and as they moved, he could feel her heart rise and fall to her languorous breath. CHAPTER XXV. . By the Sun-Dlal. Eyes arched with fan-shielded whis pers, and fair faces, foreshortened as they turned back over powder-white shoulders, followed their swallow-like movement From an ever-widening circle- of masculine devotees Katharine Fargo watched them with a smile that cloaked an increasing and unwelcome question. Katharine had never looked more handsome; a critical survey of her mirror at .Gladden Hall had assured her of that. Never had her poise been, more superb, her toilet more enraptur ing. She was exquisitely gowned in rose-colored mousseline-de-soie, em broidered in tiny brilliants laid on In Greek patterns. From her neck, in a single splendid loop of iridescence against the rosy mist, depended those fabulous pearls "the kind you sim ply can't believe," as Betty Page con fided to her partner on whose news paper reproduction (actual diameter) metropolitan shop-girls had been wont to gaze with glistening eyes ; and with in their milky circlet, on her rounded breast, trembled three pale gold-veined orchids. Watching that quadrille through her drooping emerald-tinted eyes, she had received a sudden enlightening impres sion of Shirley's flawless beauty. At the tournament her fleeting glimpse had adjudged the other merely sweetly pretty. The Chalmers surrey . had stopped en route for Shirley, but in her wraps and veil she had then been all but invisible. This had been Kath arine's first adequate view, and the sight of her radiant charm had the effect almost of a blow. For Katharine, be it said, had wholly surrendered to the old, yet new, at traction that had swept her on the tourney field. And what had lain al ways in the back of her mind as a half formed intention, had become a self admitted purpose during the motor ride. In another moment the waltz fainted out, to be succeeded by a du3x-temps, and presently the host, in his crimson cloak, was doffing his plumed hat be fore her. Circling the polished floor in the maze, there was something gratefully like former days in the as sured touch, the true and ready guid ance. The intrusive question faded. He was the John Valiant she had al ways known, of flashing repartee and graceful compliment, yet with a touch of dignity, too as befitted the lord of a manor which sat well upon him. After a decorous dozen of rounds, she took his arm and allowed her perfect Katharine Had Never Looked More Handsome. figure to be conducted through the varimis rooms of the ground ncor, chatting in quite the old-time way, till a new eallant claimed her. Thfi mellow strings made on ineir rrmrrv tune and at length the Wash ington Post marched all in flushed linitv of DurDose to the great musnn- wsllPrt norch with its array or taDies ercanine under viands concocted by Aunt Daphne for the delectation or the mlate-weay. And then one? more the waltz-strain supervened and in the yellow parlor 1ov was aeain u,iconfined. Again Valiant claimed Katharine and they elided off on "The Beautiful Danube." Her paleness now had a tinge of color, but nevertheless he thought she drooped. "You are tired, he said, "shan't we sit it out? "Oh. do you mind?" she responded gratefully. "It has been a fairly stren umis dAV. hasn't it!" He glided her to a corridor, where branches of rhododendron screenea an alcove of settees and seductive cush ions. Here, her weariness seemed put to rout. There was no drooping or fringed lids, no ' disconcerting si lences; she chattered with ease and p'quancy "I have been listening to paeans all the evening," she said. "And you de serve them. It's a fine big thing you are attempting the restoring of this old estate. And I know you have even bigger plans, too." He nodded, suddenly serious and thoughtful. "There's a lot I'd like to do. It's not only the house and grounds. There are . . . other things. For instance, back on the mountain on my own land is a set tlement they call Hell's-Half-Acre. Probably it has well earned the name. It's a wretcned collection of hovels and surly men and drabs of women and unkempt children, the poorest of poor-whites,. Not one of them can read or write, and they live like animals. If I'm ever able, I mean to put a manual-training school up there. And then " He ended with a half laugh, sudden ly conscious that he was talking In a language 6he would scarcely under standin fact, in a tongue new to him self. But there was no smile on her lips and her extraordinary eyes cool gray, shot through with emerald were looking into his with a frankness and sympathy he would not have guessed lay beneath her glacial pla cidity. To Katharine, indeed, it made little difference what philanthropic fads the man she had chosen might affect as regarded his tenantry. Ambitions like these had a manorial flavor that did not displease her.. And the Fargo mil lions would bear much harmless ham mering. A change, subtle and incom municable, passed over her. I shall think of you," she; sighed, 'as working on in this splendid pro gram. For it is splendid. But New York will miss you, John." "Ah, no. I've no delusions on that score. I dare say I'm almost forgotten there already. Here I have a place." Her head, leaned back against the cushion, turned toward him, the pale orchids trembling on her bosom she was so near that he could feel her breath on his cheek. A new , waltz had begun to sigh its languorous meas ures. "Place?" she queried. "Do you think you had no place there? Is it possible that you do not understand that your going has left avoid?" . He looked at her suddenly, and her eyes fell. Before he answered, how ever, the big form of Major Bristow appeared, looking about him. It has-left a void," she said, her eyes rftill downcast, her voice just low enough, " for me." The major pounced upon them at this juncture, feelingly accusing John of the nefarious design of robbing the assemblage of its bright and partic ular star. When ' Katharine put her hand in her cavalier's arm, her eyes were dewy under their long shading lashes and her fine lips ever so little tremulous. It had been her best avail able moment, and she had used it. As she moved away, her faint color slightly heightened, she was glad of the interruption. It was better as it was. WThen John Valiant came to her again . . . But to him, as he stood watching her move lightly from him, there was vouchsafed illumination. It came to him suddenly that that placidity and hauteur which he had so admired In the old days were no mask for fires within. The exquisite husk was the real Katharine. Hers was the loveli ness of some tall white lily cut in marble, splendid but chill. And with the thought, between him and her there swept through the shimmering candle-lighted air a breath of wet rose- fragrance like an impalpable cloud, and set in the midst of it a misty star- tinted gown sprayed with lllies-of-the- valley, and above it a girl's face clear and vivid, her deep shadow-blue eyes fixed on his. The, music of a two-step was lan guishing when, a little later, Valiant and Shirlsy strolled -down between the garden box-hedges, cypress-shaped and lifting spire-like toward a sky which bent, a silent canopy of mauve and purplish blue. Behind them Damory court lay a nest of woven music and laughter. The long white muslined porch shimmered goldenly, and beside it under the lanterns dal lied a flirtatious couple or two, ghost like In the shadows. "Come," he said. "Let me take you to see the sun-dial now." The tangle had been cut away and a narrow gravel-path led through the pruned creepers. She made an excla mation of delight. The onyx-pillar stood in an oasis of white moonfiow ers, white dahlias, mignonette and nar cissus; bars of late lilies-of-the-val- ley beyond these, bordered with Arum lilies, white clematis, iris and bridal wreath, shading out into tender paler hues that ringed the spotless purity like dawning passion. "White for happiness," he quoted "You said that when you brought me here the day we planted the ram blersr Do you remember what 'I said? That some day, perhaps, I should love this spot the best of all at Damory court." He was silent a moment, trac ing with his finger the motto on the dial's rim. "When I was very little," he went on "hardly more than three years old, I think my father' and I had a play, in which v lived in a gri.t TDEBsicn l'V thi3. It was called Wishing House, and it was In the mid dle of the Never-Never Land a sort of beautiful fair? country in which everything happened right I know now that the Never-Never Land was Virfjja, and that Wishing House was DamtJry court. No wonder my father loved it! No wonder his memory turn ed back to it always! I've wanted to make it as it was when he lived here. And I want the old dial to count happy hours for me. Something had crept Into his tone that struck her with a strange sweet terror and tumult of mind. The hand that clutched her skirts about her knees had begun to tremble and she caught the other hand to her cheek in a vague hesitant gesture. The moon flowers seemed to be great round eyes staring up at her. . "Shirley" he said, and now his voice was shaken with longing "will you make my happiness for me?" She was standing perfectly still against the sun dial, both hands, laced together, against her breast, her eyes on his with a strange startled look. Over the hush of the garden now, like the 'very soul of the passionate night, throbbed the haunting barcarole of "Tales of Hoffmann:" 'Night of stars and night of love" an Inarticulate echo of his longing. He took a step toward her, and she turn ed like one in sudden terror seeking a way of escape. But he caught her close in hla arms. "I love you!" he said. "Hear it now in my bride's garden that I've made for you! I. love you, I love you!" For one instant she struggled. Then, slowly, her eyes turned to his, the sweet lips trembling, and something dawning deep in the dewy blue that turned all his leaping blood to quick silver. "My darling!" he breathed, and their lips met. In that delirious moment both had the sense of divine completion that comes only with love returned. For him there was but the woman in his arms, the one woman created for him since the foundation of the world. It was Kismet. For this he had, come to Virginia. For this fate had turned and twisted a thousand ways. Through the riot of his senses, like a silver blaze, ran the legend of the calendar: "Every man carries his fate upon . a riband about his neck." For her, some thing seemed to pass from her soul with that kiss, Bome deep irrevocable thing, shy but fiercely strong, that had sprung to him at that lip-contact as steel to magnet. The foliage about them flared up in green light and the ground under her feet rose and fell? like deep sea-waves. She lifted her face to him. It was deathly pale, but the light that burned on it was lit from the whitest altar flres of southern girlhood. "Six weeks ago," she whispered, "you had never seen me!" He held her crushed to him. She could feel his heart thudding madly. "I've always known you," he said. "I've seen you a thousand times. I saw you coming . to meet me down a cherry blossomed lane in Kyoto. I've seen your eyes peering from behind a veil in India. , I've heard your voice calling to me, through the padding camel's feet, from the desert mirages. You are the dream I have gone searching always! Ah, Shirley, Shirley. Shir ley!", CHAPTER XXVI. The Doctor Speaks. Whilfl th vibrant strings hummed and sang through the roses, and the couples drifted on tireless ana con tent, or blissfully "sat out" dances on the stairway, Katharine Fargo held her stately court no less gaily for the stealthy doubt that was creeping over MADE HIM FEEL LONESOME Sam Blythe, on , the Water Wagon,. Found That He Had No One to Plav With, Two yearB ago Sam Blythe, ' the writer, elected to mount the water cart. He became boastfully, painfully, selfishly arid. For a time false friends tried to lure him back into the shack les between September 15, 1911, and June 23, 1912, he received 418 bottles of whisky from 312 persons but they finally gave it up as a bad job. The other day Blythe was talking with two serfs of the demon at the Waldorf. By and by their mania came upon them. They began to edge toward the bar. "Well, Sam, see you later," they said. "No," said Blythe. "Dunno. You may not care to have me in your lit tle party, but I am going right along. I will drink water, or buttermilk, or ginger ale, or any non-alcoholic thing you pay, but I am not going to stay out here ail alone." "Why, Sam, you're welcome," said the b'nid slaves, Iq'.'jIv. her spirit. She had been so certain of what would .happen that evening that when her father (between igars on the porch with Judge Chalmers and Doctor Southall) had searched her out under a flag-of-trnce, she had sent him to the right-about, laughingly de clining to depart before royalty. But number followed number, and the knight in purple and gold had not paused again before her. Now tht scarlet cloak no longer flaunted among the dancers, v and the white satin, gown and sparkling coronal had disappeared. The end of the next "round-dance" found her subsiding into the flower-banked alcove sudden ly distrait amid her. escort's sallieB. It vas at this moment that she saw, en Ceriryr t&e corridor from the garden, the missJ? couple. It was nA the feint flush on Shir ley's cheek that was not deep nor was It his nearness to her, though they stood closely, as lovers might. But there was in both fjieir faces a some thing that resurgent conventionality had not had time to cover a trem bling reflection of that "light that never was, on sea or land" which was like a death-stab to what lay far deep er than Katharine's heart, her pride. She drew swiftly back, dismayed at the sudden verification, and for an tor stant her whole body chilled. A craving for a glass of water ha served its purpose a thousand 1 times; as her cavalier solicitously departed to fetch the cooling draught, ' she rose, and carelessly humming the refrain the music had just left off, sauntered lightly out by another door to the open air. A swift glance about her showed her she was unobserved and she step ped down to the gracs and along the winding path to a bench at snme dis tance in the shrubbery. Hre the smiling mask slipped from b?-r face and with a shiver s?ie dropped tsr hot face in her hands. There were no tears. The wave that was welling over her was one of bitter humiliation. 1 She had shot her bolt and missed she, Katharine Far go! For three yeu-s she had held John Valiant, romal tically speaking in the hollow of. her shapely hand. Now the had all but thrown herself at his feet and he had turned away to th?s flame-haired, vivid girl whom he bad not known as many months! Heavy footfalls all at once aproacV ed her two men were coming frora the house. JThere was the spitting crackle of a match, and as she peervt out, its red flare lighted the massive face and floating hair of Major Brit tow. His companion's face was in the shadow. She waited, thinking they would pass; but to her annoyance, when she looked again, they had seat ed themselves on a bench a few paces away. To be found mooning in the shrub bery like a schoolgirl did not please her, but it seemed there was no re course, and she had half arisen, when the major's gruff -Tolced companion spoke a name that caused her to alt down abruptly. 4 tTQ BE CONTINUED.) t Sometimes Yhus. That cry in a London paper of a Jour nalist who "finds it impossible tc maintain that appearance so essentia.', in his profession", carries' one back to the past with a Jerk. Back to the days when appearance "vas not al ways "so essential" to the writer. One recalls Samuel Boyse, a contemporary of Johnson, for instance, who worked only when his clothes were in pawn. His dress pledged, he would spend a few shillings thus acquired on meat to eat with his truffles and mushrooms and then take to his bed. There he would get under a blanket, slit to al low free play of his pen hand, and start work with a will. "No, I am not," said Blythe. "1 can tell by the toi. of your voices. I spent the best 20 yecrs of my life making a collection of drinking friends, and now I have no one to Dlay with." Cincinnati Times-Star. - Concave Cinema Screen. Eliminating false perspective and making every portion of the picture equally distant from the projecting light, a Chicago inventor ha patent ed and placed on the market a con cave screen for which much is claim ed.- The screen is a segment of t sphere, the lens of thm projecting ap paratus being at the focal point ol the screen, and as a result all tho rays of. light strike the surface al the same anglo, and sire reflected to the visitors without distortion. An other virture claimed for the c6ncave screen, says Popular Mechanics. Is that it Improves the a coustij proper ties of the hall, or theater, ia which it . is used. As sound Raves are pro jected and reflected in the same mat ner, the concave screen reflect1 th music of the orchestra and songs S all parts of the thea'or, nviidiaf v.ry common fault THE POUNDS AND THE TALENTS. LESSON TEXT Luke 19:11-27, cf. Matt. 25:14-30. v GOLDEN TEXT "Well done, good ami faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter into the Joy of thy lord." Matt. 25:21 K. V. We are told plainly why Jesus spoke the first parable (v. 11). We must be ware of confusing these two parables though they are one in their essential teachings. The parable of the pounds was ut tered before the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem while that of the talents was spoken subsequently. This association does not mean iden tity for each has a separate lesson. Both have to do with an absent lord whose return was Imminent The Jews looked for a temporal visible Kingdom and many were associating: the earthly life of our Lord with that expected manifestation. Hence thi? parable as recorded by Luke. Issue Is Fidelity. I. "Occupy Till I Come," vv. 11-14. Both of these parables have to do with the return of an. absent lord who will then establish his kingdom. In view of this return and consummation, his servants are to give their undivided attention to their Immediate responsi bilities. They are to trade, to do busi ness with that that has been in trusted to them They are to actively discharge their duty. Ere the visible kingdom Is established, Jesus told these Jews, there must be a period of preparation. ' Jesus, himself, is the "nobleman" whose ascension intc heaven where he is td receive a king dom fulfils the "departure into a far country." He will return to set up that kingdom, Acts 1:9-11, with "all authority," Matt. 28:18 R. V., Eph. 1: 18-2S; I Pet. 3:22. He may return at any time. In neither parable is there a full description of the kingdom as it Is to be established, for both have to do with the servants. The issue J that of fidelity in each case. The "citizens" (v. 14) Include hi proper subjects the Jews, John 1:11; Acts 4:27-28, and in this connection we recall their cry, "Away with him, crucify," Luke 23:8; John 19:15. These "citizens," also include all of his pro fessed followers but not necessarily regenerated men, Matt 7:22-33. The king gives to each servant (v. 13) a pound (about $18.00). His deposit If equal in each case. In the parable of the talents there is a difference in the amounts bestowed. This last empha sizes the fact; that eacn ls t0 be nel responsible according to the measure of his own personal ability. Putting these two together we see that all the servants of the king are responsible for vhe one pound which is a symfbol of the common fact of the kingdom power. At the same time the servant Is also responsible for that common power according to the measure 1m which it is entrusted to him. in which he Ss able to deal with it. The small amount of one pound indicates our re sponsibility for . the smallest gifts. Parable of Pounds. II. "When He Was Returned." vv. 15-30. The parable of the pounds was spoken to those who thought he must at once establish he kingdom of God. That of the talents was given in an swer to the disciples' inquiry as to when certain things which he had fore told would take place. Upon his re turn all these servants will be sum moned before him, Matt 25:18, Rom. 14:10-12, II Cor. 5:10. As Jesus stood there, he, likewise of that as of all other ages, saw ahead of him Jeru salem with its scourging, suffering and death. He also saw beyond that his resurrection and departure to re ceive a kingdom (v 12), a period therefore in this world during which his servants shall be responsible for the case of his interests, a time dur ing which they shall oceupy, do busi ness with what he has entrusted them of the kingdom authority and power. All of this will culminate in his re turn when he will deal with those to whom this? responsibility has been, given, and then establish finally his klngdom. In the parable Jesus deals with each servant separately, and em phasizes the fact of stewardship. The pound belonged to the king. For his faithfulness the. first servant received, v. 17, (a) the king's commendation and (b) authority over ten cities. Later, (v. 24) he also received another pound. The second did not give quite so good a report, and his reward lasted the approbation of the king, though he is placed over "five cities." His reward was in proportion to hi faithfulness. The third report was" bad. It re veals neglect, laziness, and a wrong j conception regarding the king. He sought to excuse his sloth by blaming another. The excuses of the sinner always condemn himself, not God, and augment the sinner's guilt. The "wicked servant" lost what he would not use. If we will not use we must lose. Doubtless this servant considered himself unfortunate, thoughbe was judged "out of his own mouth." Re verting again to those citizens who bated him and would not have the king to "reign over them," Jesus closes his parable (v. 27).
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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