iting, writing. It is the last thing
on my mind when I go to sleep. I dream about it all night. And, it is
the first thing I think about in the morning."

Auntie Sue clasped her hands to her heart with an exclamation of joyous
interest.

Brian, with a quiet smile at her enthusiasm, went on: "I know exactly
what I want to say, and why I want to say it. There is a world of
people, Auntie Sue, whose lives have been broken and spoiled by one
thing or another, and who have more or less cut themselves loose from
everything, and are just drifting, they don't care a hang where, because
they think they have failed so completely that there is nothing more
in life for them. People like me,--I don't mean thieves and criminals
necessarily,--who have had that which they know to be the best and
biggest and truest part of themselves tortured and warped and twisted
and denied and smashed and beaten and betrayed and killed; and who,
because they feel that their real selves are dead within them, don't
care what happens to that part which is left."

He was walking the floor again now, and speaking with a depth of feeling
which he had never before revealed to his gentle companion.

"It is not so much the love of wrong-doing that makes people turn
bad,"--he continued,--"it is having their real selves misunderstood and
doubted and smothered and their realest loves and dreams and aspirations
never recognized, or else distorted and twisted and made to appear
as something they hate. I want to make the people--and there are many
thousands of them--who are suffering in the living hell that tormented
me, feel that I know and understand. And then, Auntie Sue, then I want
to tell them about you and your river.

"I would teach them the things you have taught me. I would say to every
one that I could persuade to listen: 'It doesn't in the least matter
what your experience is, the old river is still going on to the sea.
No matter if every woman you ever knew has proved untrue, virtuous
womanhood still IS. No matter if every man you ever knew has proved
false, true manhood still IS. If every friend you ever had has betrayed
your friendship, loyal friendship still IS. If you have found nothing
in your experience but dishonesty and falsehood and infidelity and
hypocrisy, it is only because you have been unfortunate in your
experience; because honesty and fidelity and sincerity are existing
FACTS. They are the very foundation facts of life, and can no