The Damnation of Theron Ware

roofing of weather-beaten boards marking on the stunted tower the place where a spire was to begin later on, it dwarfed every other e

heirs, and was troubled in his mind about Rome generally. But this evening he walked along the extended side of the big structure, which occupied nearly half the block, and then, turning the corner, passed in review its wide-doored, looming front, without any hos

in a ring of metal work. He picked at this for a time with his finger-nail, before he made out the injunction, printed across it, to push. Of course! how stupid of him! This was one of those electric bells he had heard so much of, bu

ief against the radiance of the hall-way while Theron, choosing h

h-voiced answer. "He

evening hour and this midday meal. Then he began to say that he would call again-it wa

reatly altered tone. "Sure, he'd not have you

dark sour face, glowering black eyes, and a twisted mouth. Then he saw that he was not alone in the hall-way. Three men and two women, all poorly clad and obviously working people,

returned to ask. She led Mr. Ware along the hall-way to a d

e this ring of illumination points of fire sparkled from silver and porcelain, and two bars of burning crimson tracked across the cloth in reflection from tall glasses filled with wine. Th

holding out a white plump hand in greeting. He took this proffered hand rather limply, not wholly sure in the half-light that this really was Father Forbes, an

sed us better than your joining us here tonight. It was quite dramatic, your coming in as you did. We were speaking of you at that very moment. Oh, I forgot-let me ma

efore him as if she heard nothing. Thus committed against a decent show of resistance, the young minister did eat a little here and there of what was set before him, and was human enough to regret frankly that he could not eat more. It seemed to him very remarkable cooker

sal to drink wine had annoyed them-the more so as he had drenched a large section of table-cloth in his efforts to manipulate a siphon instead. He was

fallen in with it for the sake of a quiet life; so that when we do have com

s more healthful to talk at meals," said Theron. "Of course-

ch upon the quality of the meals!" he re

to the face. There were gold-rimmed spectacles, through which shone now and again the vivid sparkle of sharp, alert eyes, and there was a nose of some sort not easy to classify, at once long and thick. The rest was thin hair and short round beard, mouse-colored w

nk I am probably less of a doctor than anybody else now living. I haven't practised-that is, regularly-for many years, and I take no interest whatever in keeping ab

that Science was the most engrossing of pursuit

ence and Medicine!" commented the doctor. "My

chair. "It will be more comfortable to have our coffee th

himself from the suggestion of being a kill-joy. "I don't

l belle, there was no hint of the feminine in his bearing, or in the contour of his pale, firm-set, handsome face. As he moved through the hall-way, the five people whom Theron had seen waiting rose from their bench, and two o

n explanation of his errand. Somehow the very profusion of scholarly symbols about him-the great dark rows of encased and crowded book-shelves rising to the ceiling, the classical engravings upon the wall, the revolving book-case, the reading-stand, the ma

ent on their faces. Father Forbes took the added trouble to nod understandingly at the variou

you know, there is perhaps not another man in the country who

elcome to anything I have: my books cover the ground pretty well up to last year. Delitzsch is very interesting; but Baudissin's 'Studien zur Semitis

German readily," Theron

eld, but in most others. And they do so much that the mass defies translation. Well,

ead mournfully. "I don't seem

s exchang

ugh his spectacles, "why do you specially hit upon Abraham? He is full of difficulties-eno

gar: see the splendid contrast between the craft and commercial guile of his dealings in Egypt and with Abimelech, and the simple, straightforward godliness of his later years. No, all those difficulties only attract me. Do you happen to

furtive glance across the young minister

s an individual. The word 'Abram' is merely an eponym-it means 'exalted father.' Practically all the names in the Genesis chronologies are what we call eponymous. Abram is not a person at all: he is a tribe, a sept, a clan. In th

ery new, this theory, is

ars ago. As for this eponym thing, why Saint Augustine called attention to it fifteen hundred years ago. In his 'De Civitate Dei,' he expressly says of these genealogical na

ot know it now, then," commented Theron; "

rth was just as round in the days when people supposed it to be flat, as it is now. So the truth remains always the truth, even though you give a charter to ten hundred thousand separate numskulls to examine it by the ligh

ron; "it is ver

Ith, or Heth. That is supposed to be comparatively modern-about the time of Solomon's Temple. But these independent Irish myths go back to the fall of the Tower of Babel, and they have there an ancestor, grandson of Japhet, named Fenius Farsa, and they ascribe to him the invention of the alphabet. They took their ancient name of Feine, the modern Fenian, from him. Oddly enough, that is the name which the Romans knew the Phoenicians by, and to them also is ascribed the invention of the alphabet. The Irish ha

That peroration is from an old sermon of mine, in the days wh

" asked the Rev. Mr. W

peculiarly modern, up-to-date, doesn't it? Well, it is the oldest name on earth-thousands of years older than Adam. It is the ancient Chaldean Meridug, or Merodach. He was the young god who interceded continually between the angry, omnipotent Ea, his father, and the humble and unhappy Damkina, or Earth, who was his mother

and casting desperately about for means of defence and escape. For the instant his mind was aflame with this vivid impression-that he was among sinister enemies, at the

nd found himself all at once reflecting almost pleasurably upon the charm of contact with really educated people. He leaned back in the big chair again, and

ays about its babyhood," he said. "All I have done is to try to preserve an open mind, a

feet on the floor, and took out

alf-smile and purring tones. "You finish your cigar here with Mr. Ware

rom the mantel a strange three-cornered black-velvet cap, with a d

on his knee. Some trace of that earlier momentary feeling that he was in hostile hands came back, and worried him. He lifted himself upright in the chair, and then became conscious that

ng way beyond the point of good manners; bu