Margaret Cameron

“ They followed her to a comparatively quiet spot near the west end, and there, while the locomotives without rumbled a mighty triumphal paean, the simple old words of the marriage service transformed, for that little company, the resounding vault of the railway station into the lofty spaces of a cathedral, and the multitudinous voice of the hurrying throng became to them a hymning choir, chanting unceasingly of the love that is brave to meet life and strong to endure. ”

“ Late in the afternoon they had put up the cover of the car, buttoned down the side curtains, and were scudding toward New York, while occasional hurrying pedestrians cast envious glances at them as they whirred past, for the air had grown even more sultry, the sky was obscured by a heavy, sweeping curtain of cloud, and the landscape had taken on a grotesque aspect in the weird, greenish light that frequently precedes a thunder-storm.
"Lots of these people are going to be drenched, aren't they?" said Marjorie, at last, in a carefully casual tone. ”

“ CARMODY stood in the doorway, hat in hand, while Lucia, his wife, limply leaning against the wall, surveyed him across a chaos of open trunks and bags, empty trays, and piles of scattered raiment.
"That's the honest way, isn't it?" he asked.
"It's the quixotic way," she retorted. "Nobody else does it. It isn't as if we were importing things for sale, Bruce. They're just for ourselves—well, ourselves and one or two friends, then. Anyway, we're not going to make any profit on them, or anything like that, so—why should we pay the silly duties?" ”

“ In those days not even a locomotive's whistle was heard in that languid old town, and the thin stream of visitors came by unpleasant little steamers over seas often choppy, or by rocking red stages over mountain roads choppy at best. There were no pavements and few sidewalks, and one diminutive, ramshackle street-car ambled unpunctually through State Street, from the Arlington to the wharf and back again. ”

“ Then said she, sighing:
“Why do we always have to wait and wait for a street-car, if we happen to want one, when at home we can hardly hear ourselves think for the clatter of their continual passing?”
“Why in thunder don't we own a car?” grumbled her husband, voicing with keen relish an oft-repeated lament. “Who are all these motoring people, that they should roll by in gaudy glory, puffing smoke in our faces, while we sizzle on a curb waiting for a contemptible street-car? Insolent, vulgar, blatant ostentation, I call it!”
Marjorie laughed. ”

“ He fights within himself the ancient fight, and if he win that, his eternal battle is won. Thereafter, he is part and parcel of the forces of construction.
“Purpose answers freely only to its kind, freely and fearlessly it responds to the call of self. If a man be captive to destructive forces, he responds to the cry, Destroy! But if he be given to powers of progress, he builds, though his eyes be blinded and his hands cut off.
“In every man captive to forces of disintegration the builder lies dormant. To reach that faint glow of Eternal Purpose is the first duty of every constructive force. ”

“ I never heard of anybody who liked James Mason—except Tom. He seems fond of him. The men all say he's 'able' and 'square,' in an eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth sort of way, but everybody grants that he's a regular old curmudgeon. He's never had the least sympathy or patience with Bob's scrapes. If he had, the boy might not be so utterly irrepressible. As it is, Tom's the only person in the world who has the slightest influence over either of them. Bob's such a brilliant fellow too! ”

“ Sudden realization widened her eyes, and her tone grew sharper. "Dwight, must you go to Japan—now?"
For a moment he pulled at his mustache, while she stood anxiously watching the sterner lines appear in his face, half unconsciously noting the streaks of gray over his temples, and about his eyes the traces of sleepless nights. From a neighboring bench an elderly woman yielded them, with tender reminiscence, the tribute that all the world pays a lover. ”

“ Yarnell shrugged a careless shoulder. "But one can be sufficiently distinguished, and a lot more comfortable, at home—in a place like High Haven."
"Elise, I simply cannot understand your point of view!" exclaimed Mrs. Fairweather, with a touch of exasperation. "You must be mad! Are you in love with that good-looking boy? Is that it?"
"In love! With Bob? Good heavens!" The widow laughed.
"Then do try to be sensible! Money isn't everything."
"Isn't it?" cynically drawled the other. "It's the root of everything. I notice nothing I want grows without it." ”

“ Again the brave, bright smile. "And I do have good times in spite of it all."
"And you give good times to so many other people," interpolated Dolliver.
"Not as often nor to as many as I'd like," she returned, her smile grown wistful. "One of the saddest things about being poor is one's inability to do things for other people. Do you know, that's the only thing I really envy you two? You have such wonderful opportunities, with your cozy home and your little car and all, to make other people happy. Yet nobody can begrudge you these things, for you share them so royally! ”

“ Just as you came in I was saying that it must be very pleasant to have plenty of money and to be able to do all the things one would like to do."
"But we have to do so many stupid things that we don't like to do, for no better reason than that everybody does them and they're expected of us," said Mrs. Manning. "And one gets tired just buying things. Of course, I have a good time. I enjoy life hugely, but sometimes I feel that I enjoy it in a very foolish, useless sort of way; and I suspect that you get a lot more out of it than I do, Mrs. Dolliver." ”

“ The clerk and the valet departed, and Oakley charged about the room, raging and impotent. Even had he been willing to lie, a plea of sudden illness would have been an obvious artifice from a man of his invariable health, and he felt that to confess the truth—the idiotic, humiliating truth—to Warren Haslett would be deliberately to brand himself as an irresponsible fool and to lose a great part of the confidence he had won. ”

“ I have betrayed him, and he was—all I had!"
"I know," said Bobby, his voice deep and tender and broken by emotion. "I wish—I have wished all along—that I could spare you that. But I couldn't."
"Oh, isn't anything real?" she cried. "Isn't anybody sincere and simple and honest?"
"Yes; you are," said Bobby. "And big and brave and strong and fine. And there are men in the world who are as honest and as big. Some day you'll meet one of them, and then you'll be more than ever glad that you did the right thing to-night, no matter how it hurt you or him or anybody." ”

“ Give unto each his opportunity to grow, and to build for progress. Freedom to strive is the one right inherent in existence, the strong and the weak each following his own purpose, with all his force, to the one great end. And he who binds or limits his brother’s purpose binds himself now and hereafter. But he who extends his brother’s opportunity builds for eternity. ”

“ When he told her she knew that he and Patterson had been classmates, too, but dared not ask if they were friends, since she could not explain how she knew the other man. For the moment it gave her an uncomfortable furtive feeling where before had been only the sense of a delightful secret shared with her uncle. To be unable to speak of one man to another was to Ruth a new sensation, and not a pleasant one. But to be riding in the scented sunshine with some one near her own age, who knew her friends and shared her interests and talked of places she had always known, savored of rapture. ”

“ Haslett was ever on the alert to find energetic and able young men for his business, and rumors had recently reached Oakley that there was soon to be a vacancy in the New York office—one which he felt himself qualified to fill; hence it was not strange that his head should be full of speculations as to a possible connection between these facts and the increasing favor shown him by the older man. He was smiling tenderly at the vision, back of all these hopes and plans, of Alice's face when he should tell her—if he should tell her—that they were to live in New York, when the telephone bell rang. ”

“ Light, Justice, Truth, Production, Healing, Building. Each divided and divisible by any of the others, yet pure and perfect in itself. Light may dwell with Healing or Production, but only Light calls unto Light, only Justice unto Justice.
“All forces of construction work together, yet each purpose separate unto itself. Choose ye, therefore. Build or tear down, produce or destroy, illumine or obscure, free men, or hold them captive to themselves. Choose daily and hourly the purpose ye serve. ”

“ More effort, more concentration, more force applied for purpose, is the thing to strive for first. I can’t tell him how to build. That’s for him to choose.... You can build together. Each of you helping the other, each of you bringing effort, willingness, perception, force of various kinds. But first and foremost, devotion to the purpose of progress, regardless of intervening difficulties and discouragements. Habit is strong in every human force. Remember that, and watch—watch for the little masquerading devils of destruction. They are clever and subtle, and come in plausible guise. ”

“ Poor man against wealth. Labor against development. Criminal against law. All are false distinctions.
“Seek ye the man of your own purpose, and cleave to him. If ye would build, seek a builder. If ye would heal, seek a healer. If justice absorb ye, seek a man furthering justice. But be not misled by the slave-driver, without or within. Beware of the bell-wether, and of personal or material motives. Govern yourselves first, and then choose ye whether to fight for progress or for disintegration, for unity or for destruction. Then choose ye the purpose ye will serve forcefully through eternity. ”