The Contralto

Rev. Charles Maloy, C. M.
St. Joseph's Parish, Emmitsburg, Md.

Chapter 27 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 1

Cocksureeness is the attribute of the carpet philosopher, while the man of action does the right from day to day as God gives him to see the right. At the very time Nietzsche was telling humans to eschew the charity of the Nazarene in favor of the gospel of the hard. while he himself chased from mountain to sea in search of health, Damien was ministering with his life to earth's most forsaken wretches in Moloki. Believers in Christ fell under the walls of Paris. while Ronan, the superman, betook himself to safety to write of the failure of democracy.

The Professor had much time for reading now; the factory was running smoothly-; baseball practice was held after school; the Chronicle was waiting for something to turn up. He grew weary of the egoism, blatant or refined, of his favorites, his renewed health seemed to have aroused the ideals of youth; he went back to the philosophers of the City of the Violet Crown, and to the men whose outlook embraced the Orbem Terrarum. He drifted along in an atmosphere of physical and mental calm in which his very doubts were an clement of melancholy pleasure.

The circus came to town, none of your three ring monstrosities, traveling in gaudily decorated cars, which awaken the inhabitants with the crunching of wheels and the puffing of shifting engines, but a real old time circus, which, with tents folded like the Arabs, silently steals in unbeknown except to those who watch all night. The Professor was roused at four o'clock by Bob's whispered warning, the two boys going quietly forth to see the elephant cross Flat Ran bridge. For weeks before, a different boy brought milk each night for Doctor Brawner's bedtime coffee. On the grounds, as the poles were lifted from their wagon, Harry lamented to the physician that age and personal dignity prevented him from passing bills or carrying water for the animals to earn his way into the show. Dr. Brawner shifted his cigar, grunted, and walked over to hold an argument with the manager. The tent must be erected in a certain place, the plowing for the ring was to be here and nowhere else. When the circus man objected the Doctor took a document from his pocket, the reading of which settled the dispute. This was later handed to the Professor with a remark that he keep it and his ball field would not he spoiled; it was a six months' lease, in his name, for Bacon's lot.

The athletic meet for which Forman argued that it might show the mossbacks there were real gentlemen in the world of sport, was the next exciting event in the life of the village. Tom Greavy tore himself away from the enjoyment of perfect connubial bliss and the problems of furnishing his home, to aid in the work, obtaining the consent of the "German Tiger" to meet him in an exhibition of the exercise of the mat. The College authorities entered a relay team and some sprinters, while tradition was thoroughly respected by sack, potato, and obstacle races. The grand finale was a game of baseball between the College Juniors and the town boys.

The editor was not overjoyed with the prospect of the outcome of Harry's drifting policy. He desired to keep the young man in the territory and made anxious efforts to learn his plans for the future. Success in village politics had rendered Galt ambitious of a wider field, he would take advantage of the awakening of the people to give them a representative more worthy of respect than George Perry, whose political day was almost done. Walking up from the athletic field one evening, he urged on his assistant registration at the county seat as a step to permanent residence in the state.

"There's no telling what would be the luck of a young man, such as you, backed by the Chronicle."

"At the sacrifice of that which alone is lasting; Galt, you have never known the joys of contemplation. I am afraid the practical life is mere holiday for me, I cannot get up sufficient interest to take it seriously. You don't understand the craving for knowledge which dominates me, it amounts to a physical passion. When I think of abandoning it I grow weak. And you have never looked into the expanding souls of boys as they sat under your direction, you have never felt the exaltation, you know not the meaning of spiritual generation."

"But there are other joys as compensations."

"Eight months ago when you and I met as slaves to the same thrall, had anyone told me we would look today upon the changes we now see in ourselves and our world, I would have considered him an irresponsible optimist or a nerve specialist. Today I am a firm believer in the Hidden God, who arranges our places in His world-scheme. Would that He would give me one more sign!"

"And that is?"

"You told me at our first mutual confession that women are our greatest aids in the struggles of life. I believed you then, I know it now. What I fail to convince myself of is that we are licensed to ask their help for all time, especially when it would mean the blighting of legitimate ambitions for them."

"There is only one legitimate ambition, recognized in my old-fashioned philosophy, for a woman, and that is to marry the man she loves. I don't know Nietzsche, nor Schopenhauer, nor G. Bernard Shaw except from the newspapers and magazines, but I know the lessons that were world old, when those fellows were doing the porpoise act," with asperity.

"Suppose the girl refuses?"

"Refuses?"

"Practically, by setting a task of soul-finding, which seems impossible of fulfilment."

"But you have found your soul."

"How am I to show her?"

"My boy, I have found you wondrous wise in prescribing for others, you are an adept in healing the ills of humanity, and do you now confess your-self impotent in face of a personal impasse. Out upon you for a quack in your own calling."

"All of which does not answer my question," retorted the Professor, laughing.

"Don't attempt to show Miss Tyson, for it is she, by arguments that you have found your soul, make her feel it. The brightest women don't reason in such matters, they feel. Follow the advice of the advertisers, the next time you are alone with her: ‘Obey that impulse.' "

This counsel entered into his mind, he ruminated upon it far into the night. He reviewed his stay in Emmitsburg discovering that most of his work had been the result of impulse. His anger, for which he had despised himself, was the cause of his efforts in helping to break the grip of the Annans, his impulsive love for boys as he beheld the beseeching eyes of Bob Crittendon, had led him out of his Tower of Ivory to his ultimate physical and mental health. Perhaps it was written that impulse guide him in the most important step of his life.

He had recourse to his nightly soporific, he read the works, now of world-builders and legislators, instead of system-makers and theorists; he found Cicero more to his present phase of mind than Marcus Aurelius, the superman, of world degeneracy. The old time orator told him in his sonorous prose: "Every service tending to the strengthening of the bonds of human society is to be preferred to that which ministers to mere personal development and knowledge." He slept with the antepanendum keeping time to his breathing.

Next morning he telephoned Miss Tyson a request that she join him in a ride. The horses galloped side by side up the mountain road, which leads towards Fairfield, the dog racing joyously ahead. Up they rose amidst the giant oaks, chestnuts, and poplars, the air of the hills intoxicating the animals, their muscles responding in rhythmic effort. Telepathic influences communicated their spirit to the riders and heart called to heart, whenever laughing eyes met. Before reaching the mountain village, Marion's gaze sought an opening to the left of the way, and finding it she pulled her horse in. They threaded the path, dodging overhanging brambles until they halted on the bank of the creek; it was the spot where he had ferried the party over in the dying days of summer. He slipped from the saddle and held out his arms to the girl. As she dropped into them he whispered: "I have found it."

"It took you a long time," laughing as they sat on the bank after loosing the reins that their pets might nibble the green twigs.

"It began down there," tossing a piece of moss towards the middle of the creek, "when did you feel it first?"

"Before the world was made I think."

And so on through the age-old sentimentalities which seem new to each discoverer. The dog was not interested, his attention being fully occupied in the work of extracting a belated bun, which threatened 'the permanent disarray of his beautiful white shirt-front. The Professor had not even in his supreme moment shaken off the development of a life time.

"Do you feel I am fully cured, sweetheart?"

"Mr. Berry was a pretty harum-scarum chap, before he met his Missus," with a perfect reproduction of Uncle Bennett's toothless manner.

"God bless his old heart!"

"Are you going back to teach, boy?" leaning over and kissing him of her own initiative.

"Never, I shall ‘gird up my loins, seek my kind and do a man's work in a world of men.' "

"And I shall not be a leader in the society of the Immortals, shall not know the exhilaration which comes to the wife of a superman," playfully lamenting.

"Never."

"You are giving up a great deal for me, Harry." "What of you, your voice?"

"That was never meant for anyone but you; I carried out your suggestion in going to New York, merely to help you, I would not adopt the stage were 1 guaranteed immediate and lasting success; some women can resist flattery."

"You, too, are giving up much."

"Life's game is a series of compromises."

"And compensations."

They rode into the village as the town clock was announcing noon-hour, aided by the saucy screeching of the factory whistle, and there was a light on their faces which comes but once to the sons and daughters of men. Galt and Higbee seeing them, waved, looked again, then shook each other's hand. Vinny Seabold, stepped from the sidewalk as they passed her home, tossed a kiss to Marion, then in a whisper: "Daisy has preempted the right to act as flower-girl."

Epilog

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