The One Woman

ched twenty millions of people through the daily press every Monday morning. It had become necessary to is

otice. The growth of Gordon's influence within the year had been

nd smooth, serious face. Yet he was a regular attendant. The preacher's eloquence, the vibrant tones of his voice, full of passion, or trembling with prophetic zeal

d organized kindergartens, night-schools for teaching domestic science to girls, established a reading-room, and opened a coffee house on the corner near th

d their comradeship had become so constant and so sweet t

ily life, its hopes, its poetry, its dreams of social and civic sa

in the worship of his strength, as the soul of the strong man ever desires of his ideal woman, she

rely seen at the church on Sundays or at its weekday functions. She had w

nothing, looking past the things that bound her, back into the sunlit years of girlhood, or forward into the future whose shadow's c

he no longer troubled her with their discussion.

t its highest, a wave of reform had swept over New York. In his sermon he had arraigned the city g

ok the city by storm. Day and night with voice and pen, with all the f

movement. The reform Mayor wa

ore; gambling, drinking and the social evil flourished as before; and the press, that had val

and felt that one of his fairest

r back upon his ideas of a Socialistic revolution which should destr

ith keenest sympathy. She had read every book

h our half-way measures and our f

We must make the Fat

ur daily life, not m

sacrifice for the city's poor and fallen. They seem to make little impre

always are," she responded, un

s. Greed, commercialism, competition and the monopolistic instincts are the cause

phet to lead humanit

yes enfolding him with

accursed for the truth's sake, defy social law and convention, breast the storm of the world's hate

rk," she cried

way for the s

lower the blackest hour of t

her full lips, and he looked

ly answered. "And I'm more

Her voice rang c

h words; or if you are thinking of one t

things I've never dare

ament and brain can live under the conditions here, feel the grip of

social revolution

and locked his powerful hands behind his head. "This presentiment of overwhelmin

life. Our hurrying cars carry within the corporate limits daily more passengers than all the railroads of the western hemisphere. I thought of the rivers of human flesh that flow unceasingly through its streets and flood its market places. And these millions ar

hough to shut out the roar, while

city below. I was not asleep or in a trance, but wide awake, only a little feverish. With increasing horror I watched this monster stretch his enormous body, covered with scales, and sh

pider crawling down his slender thread on the window close to my eye. It

ls are shifting, and that Religion, Society and Civilisation must

d or Bible. Esthetic forces now draw people to non-ritualistic churches that once came for prayer and preaching. The preacher must secularise his sermon or talk to vacant pews. Historic Chr

fe. But for you I would be listening to idiotic platitudes, cultivating sham, my very soul 'crucified bet

, flushed with emotion, so close to his that he caught the perfu

, without authority from the Board of Trustees, and make

heart glowing with the consciousness of the i

a plan for engaging every force of the church and i

is congregation and the world for the million-dollar fund needed. It was eleven o'clock befo

urs in this woman's companionship the paradox of his return in a few minute

less. Yet its ardour had cooled. He could not say it was his fault, not altogether hers. It seemed as inevitable in its decline as its onrush was resistless. Yet at the thoug

re very real and very sweet. And the faces of his children haunted him with strange powe

Was not this the one unpardonable sin and shame? And yet to break that bond and form the oth

soul and body, this new birth into the liberty and love of a great Brotherhood? Was no

he went past his station to the end of the line and had to take