an end
now, without hope of salvation,--crawling out of his cellar in dumb
amazement, when the sun rose as usual the next morning.
Knowles sat, peering at Holmes over his paper, watching the languid
breath that showed how deep the hurt had been, the maimed body, the
face outwardly cool, watchful, reticent as before. He fancied the
slough of disappointment into which God had crushed the soul of this
man: would he struggle out? Would he take Miss Herne as the first step
in his stair-way, or be content to be flung down in vigorous manhood to
the depth of impotent poverty? He could not tell if the quiet on
Holmes's face were stolid defiance or submission: the dumb kings might
have looked thus beneath the feet of Pharaoh. When he walked over the
floor, too, weak as he was it was with the old iron tread. He asked
Knowles presently what business he had gone into.
"My old hobby in an humble way,--the House of Refuge."
They both laughed.
"Yes, it is true. The janitor points me out to visitors as
'under-superintendent, a philanthropist in decayed circumstances.'
Perhaps it is my life-work,"--growing sad and earnest.
"If you can inoculate these infant beggars and thieves with your
theory, it will be practice when you are dead."
"I think that," said Knowles, gravely, his eye kindling,--"I think
that."
"As thankless a task as that of Moses," said the other, watching him
curiously. "For YOU will not see the pleasant land,--YOU will not go
over."
The old man's flabby face darkened.
"I know," he said.
He glanced involuntarily out at the blue, and the clear-shining,
eternal stars.
"I suppose," he said, after a while, cheerfully, "I must content myself
with Lois's creed, here,--'It'll come right some time.'"
Lois looked up from the saucepan she was stirring, her face growing
quite red, nodding emphatically some half-dozen times.
"After all," said Holmes, kindly, "this chance may have forced you on
the true road to success for your new system of Sociology. Only
untainted natures could be fitted for self-government. Do you find the
fallow field easily worked?"
Knowles fidgeted uneasily.
"No. Fact is, I'm beginning to think there 's a good deal of an
obstacle in blood. I find difficulty, much difficulty, Sir, in giving
to the youngest child true ideas of absolute freedom, and unselfish
heroism."
"You teach them these by reason alone?" said Holmes, gravely.
"Well,--of course,--that is the tr
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