The Debatable Land

milton and Sai

dies and from England, whalers, too, and many fishing-smacks. The Common is half a mile from the docks. The old church stands in the centre of it. Century elms and oaks are scattered about, not planted in regular rows; but wherever it had seemed to be a good place for a tree, there the tree had grown. On the south side, or Main Street, are the courthouse and city hall; on the east side, or Charles Street, are the Constitution and Wyantenaug clubs and a church with twin steeples; on the north side, or J

examine their consignments. North and east of the Common in the angle between Main and Academy streets lies the section in which those for the most part used to live who maintained mahogany tables and were able to exercise choice as to where they would live. Shannon Street runs from the northwest corner of the Common diagonally northeastward, crossing three irregular openings, miscalled squares, where muddles of streets came together, and monuments have bee

d a securer social position, but the commissioners were not persistent enough, and nature was against them. The name hinted it once to have been an Indian trail, or at least that some person had said so; and whether this person was truthful and informed was forgotten, too. The chronicles but mentioned the tradition. The road showed a certain furtive vagrancy, running from the theatre at the corner of the fair

ring vestibules and curtains; then from the south window, and saw a house with a large, glowing window beyond a vacant space of lawn, over it the apse at the rear of a church, with two small steeples, and farther on and up the big steeple and gilded cross glittering in

d voices calling and crying above. More voices gathered; they struggled, strained, shrieked reproa

t it was not exactly-a-civilized; that, in point of fact, it appeared to be at times-it might be said to be at times-a kind of description of society among the fallen angels-an objectionable subject for comment so public, I should say, distinctly. It appears, I might say, to lack restraint-a-good taste. I seem to see a person in im

m too, Un

word!

e was acting th

bless m

dham's ghosts the next thing. No more than likely. She has an imagination tha

is paces on the track. The day was cold, dry, blue, and still, but on the track the speed made a rush of air against her face

ease. Such controlled crescendo of speed seemed to mean deep

like it,

glor

you like it

tuff, Nell," he sai

d because to have one's mind filled with Morgan was to be forced imperiously to look at things in Morgan's way, which was an absolute way. It brought one to despise decorations, mannerisms, whatever did not come to the point and justify itself; to summon all vague emotion and half-formed ideas of one's own to pay their way or admit bankruptcy and disappear; to expect other people to meet one with the same solidity of surface. Conversation, according to Morgan, which consisted of an exchange of intuitions, was a kind of inflated currency; the

judging Thaddeus severely, sil

young, delightfully young. I am pleased that you enjoyed your drive. Our friend Morgan is an i

ncle Tad?" she said,

apacity good, and goes its way with-with congratulation. It is striking; really, there is an impressive simplicity about it; but, dear me, you know it will never

l egoist. He is-a-aggressive, carnivorous. I am a social egoist; your father, who wished, with emphasis, to be remembered, was, pardon me, a regretful egoist; your mother is a contented and unaggressive egoist. And so every one has, so to speak,

over the apse of Saint Mary's. She looked from her window at the roofs where the organ player's spectre had seemed to be dancing then, mist

and the power to do? Helen had no name for the spell. Only of late had she thought of it in detail. In old

ered and knew gradually how vast was the weight of the masonry; how the power beneath that raised it foot by foot was vaster still; how sure of itself was the power beneath, for certainly it only used one hand to force tha

her face to the cold pane. S

ned the main building, and within was a swing-door which yielded noiselessly. It was quite dark there under the gallery, but a few gas-lights flickered in the chancel and shone on lower ranges of gilded organ-pipes, banked away beyond in a kind of t

he organ was murmuring down among the old foundations of the world, communing with the beginnings of time, meditating to

nt on, more bacchanal now. There were perfumes, garlands on hot foreheads, shrieking and whirring of stringed instruments, high laughter, and swinging in circles. The loud, cold voice spoke again, and left no echoes or after-murmurs. Something more quiet followed, as if the memory of fear could not be quite put away, or remained in the form of an altered mood. People walked hand-in-hand. There was warm twilight and the ripple of

hand fell on Helen's hand which gripped the edge of the s

your

er thoughts into the darkness, and that the darkness had given forth an apology. A shadow the other

was it not?" and H

tried and tried, but it never was a

clear? He's be

s cradle is rocked? Wake, then, if you may not sleep, but only to watch the moon rising and hear the croon of the sea. Murmur and motion, motion and murmur; but remember wonder, remember beauty, and let not anything persuade you from them. A moon and a sea be in your heart, a hush of an inner place. Ora pro nobis, and f

ther, passed from the shadow of the

the other. "Mine is Rachel Mavering. You