From Jest to Earnest

ack to the door leading into the hall, vis-a-vis to Mr. Dimmerly's puckered face, and give close attention to the game, was a trying ordeal to one who only consulted his own pleasure. And yet he

nd when he acted the role of martyr she usually rewarded him with a grea

hour to him was keenl

h by each for d

a giddy, wayward girl

dly know what to thi

your name,

es

e. I hope you won't

other way, I fear

itable. But I might naturally expect to be dis

think me 'go

a minister, if fo

also a

nnocently. "You a

ly; her demure face pu

think I am

t I think. Men of your profess

talk in that way any more." But she looked so s

state was an object of piquant interest. She had never had a flirtation with a man of this character, therefore there was all the zest of novelty. Had she been less fearless, she would have shrunk from it, however, with something of the superstitious dread that many have of jesting in a church, or a graveyard. But there was a trace of hardihood in her present course that just took her fancy. From lack of familiarity with the class, she ha

dly a fair w

ind me a myst

ministers have such strange theological ways of dividing the world up into saints and sinners, and you coolly predict such awful t

e young man next spoke caused her to

s perplexes you. If we believe the Bible,

ad people than living. He knows all about the Jews and Greeks who lived eighteen centuries ago, but next to nothing of the young of his own church. My motives and temptations would be worse than Sanscrit

became well acquainted with him, you mig

only a doctrine, he might study me up and know something about me. But there is so m

n, I find you more interes

rifles, but you will grow like the rest. As it is, you speak very guardedl

doctrine, M

ther our qualities or God's qualities. The only doctrine I even half un

teresting than the 'doctrine of total

ome to think I am s

een too much of yo

ng features h

e with an expression of such innocent sweetness that he said, a li

med, "a pun and flat

ke kindred, I was grateful for that which does not always accompany kindred,-genuine kindness. This feeling was greatly increased when instead of making my diffidence and awkwardness a theme of ridicule, you evinced a delicate sympathy, and with graceful tact suggested a better courtesy to others. Do you think then, that, after this glimpse dow

s during this speech. For a moment she wished she deserved his commendation. But she was not one to do things by halves, and so, recklessly throwing a

ut we all need help at times. You

our fine speeches and compliments. 'A mouse se

her animal that once donned a lion's

eat; but I imagine that you th

ou to ancient mythology, where one of these overr

the moon. I fear that if you have not visited 'questionable places,' you

hrough mythology; that is, under the guidance of reverend professors we make the acquaintance of a set of imagi

o I should lose my gentle 'captive' and become as disconsolate as aunt

Diana was an exce

r or w

he was a trifle cruel

proving me very

woman sh

her you know

angel-more pure, unselfish, and true

played whist to the utmost limit of my conscien

h our dear cousin Bel. See, she sits there alone. Good-by," and she sw

lliant waltz. Under its spell Addie and Mr. Harcourt came whirling up the hall, and Lottie, who had b

you know," she whispered

ithered heart of the coldest anchorite. The faint perfume which she seemed to exhale like a red rosebush in June was a pleasing exchange for the rather musty and scholastic atmosphere in which he so long had dwelt. As she glanced by as lightly as a bird on the wing, she occasionally beamed upon him with one of her dangerous smiles. She then little thought or cared that his honest and unoc

tional, and while readily unbending into mirthfulness, he regarded life as an exceedingly serious thing. As the eyes of artist and poet catch glimpses o

but a few brief hours. If there are those who can coolly predict "awful things" of the faithless and godless, Hemstead was not one of them. The young girl who

now was clearly on the sinister side of truth and moral loveliness. Surrounding influences had been adverse. She had yielded to them, and they had carried her farther astray than if she had been of a cautious and less forceful temperament. While therefore full of good impulses, she was also passionate and selfish. Much homage had made her imperious, exacting, and had developed no small degree of vanity. She exulted in the power and pre-eminence that beauty gave, and often exerted the former cruelly, though it is due to her to state that she did not realize t

was wholesomely averse to meanness, cowardice, and temporizing; best of all, she was not shallow and weak. Sh

rounded her, and been moulded by them. Her character was rapidly forming, but not as yet fixed. Therefore her best chance of

from infancy to age-are compelled to admit, however reluctantly, that the inner self of every heart is tainted and poisoned by evil. The innocence of childhood is too much like the harmlessness of the lion's whelps. However loftily and plausibly some may assert the innate goodness and self-rectifying power of humanity, as Tom Paine wrote against the Bible without reading it, not having been able at the time to procure one i

e for revenge? The chubby hand is not always raised to caress, but too often to strike. As mind and heart develop, darker and meaner tr

e excited the admiration of some, and the envy of more; and so was content. As for Mr. Marsden, what with his business, his newspaper, whist, and an occasional evening at the club or some entertainment or public meeting that he could not escape, his life was full and running over. He never had time to give a thought to

a "pretty foreign accent," which their mamma delighted to exhibit in the parlor; and at the same time they became imbued with foreign morals, which they also put on exhibition disagreeably often. When through glaring faults the stylish nursery-maid was dismissed, the obliging keeper of the intelligence office around the corner had another foreign waif just imported, who at a slightly increased sum was ready to undertake the care, and he might add the corruption, of the children in the most approved style. She was at on

have remained so long, even in the nursery, and as she stepped out farther and f

d with years; though now she had too much sense and refinement to display it publicly. While generous and naturally warm-hearted, the

at the time when Paul found among the multitudinous altars of Athens one dedicated to the "Unknown God," there were many Grecian men and women more highly cultivated than these two aristocrats of to-day. But in spite of external devoutness at church, it could easily be shown that to this gi

ng and everybody minister to her enjoyment. She rarely entered on a day with a more definite purpose than

ad become accustomed to the writhing of her victims, and soothed herself with the belief that it did not hurt them so very much after all. She considered no farther than that flirtation was

depraved and barbarous taste. And when even society-men had succumbed to her wiles, and in abject helplessness had permitted her to plac

be known as such. Her aunt also would detect the mischievous plot against her nephew and guest, and thwart it. By appearing as a well-meaning unguided girl, who both needed and wished an adviser, she might more safely keep this modern Samson blindly making sport for her and the others,

was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and in his crystal integrity he would have deemed it a foul insult to her to doubt that she was ju

if women did more to pre

subtile, unrecognized impulse of his heart led him to plead before the Divine Fath

moral symmetry and loveliness. Humanity in its most forbidding guise interested him, for his heart was warm and large and overflowed with a great pity for the victims of evil. In this respect he was like his Master, who had "compassion on the multitude." His anticipation of his life-work was as non-professional as that of a mother who yearns over the children she cannot help lovin