Martin Eden

gether into a cigarette. He drew the first whiff of smoke deep into his lungs and expelled it in a long and lingering exhalation. "By God!" he said aloud, in a voice of a

swinging along in splendid unconcern. He was only dimly aware that it was raini

ills and frailties of bodies. Her body was more than the garb of her spirit. It was an emanation of her spirit, a pure and gracious crystallization of her divine essence. This feeling of the divine startled him. It shocked him from his dreams to sober thought. No word, no clew, no hint, of the divine had ever reached him before. He had never believed in the divine. He had always been irreligious, scoffing good-naturedly at the sky-pilots and their immortality of the soul. There was no life beyond, he had contended; it was here and now, then darkness everlasting. But what he had seen in her eyes was soul-immortal soul that could never di

penitent form. He was convicted of sin. But as the meek and lowly at the penitent form catch splendid glimpses of their future lordly existence, so did he catch similar glimpses of the state he would gain to by possessing her. But this possession of her was dim and nebulous and totally different from possession as he had known it. Ambition soared on mad wings, and he saw himself climbing the heights with her, sharing thoughts with her, pleasuring in beautifu

runken man, murmuring ferve

ner eyed him suspiciously,

get it?" the po

pable of flowing into and filling all sorts of nooks and crannies. With the poli

e laughed back. "I didn't k

next," was the po

a match an' I'll cat

he ejaculated under his breath. "That copper thought I was drunk." He smiled to himsel

yes and a loose-lipped mouth. That fellow was vicious, he decided. On shipboard he would be a sneak, a whiner, a tattler. He, Martin Eden, was a better man than that fellow. The thought cheered him. It seemed to draw him nearer to Her. He began comparing himself with the students. He grew conscious of the muscled mechanism of his body and felt confident that he was physically their master. But their heads were filled with knowledge that enabled them to talk her talk,-the thought depressed him. But what was a brain for? he demanded passionately. What they had done, he could do. They had been studying about li

mere wording. A personality of smallness and egotism and petty underhandedness seemed to emanate from the letters themselves. Bernard Higginbotham had married his sister, and he knew him well. He let himself in with a latch-key and climbed the stairs to the second floor. Here lived his brother-in-law. The grocery was below. Th

nd chair. He glanced across the top of the paper he was reading, showing a pair of dark, insincere, sharp-staring eyes. Martin Eden never looked at him without experiencing a sense of repulsion. What his sister had seen in the man was beyond him. The other affected h

n demanded. "

inbotham half whined, half bullied; "and you know

it seemed that now he was seeing it for the first time. It was cheap, that was what it was, like everything else in this house. His mind went back to the house he had just left, and he saw, first

a gh

there leaped into his vision, as on a screen, the same eyes when their owner was

I seen a ghost. Good nigh

m, tripping over a loose se

or," Mr. Higginbot

ins, but controlled himself and c

m looked at his

oclaimed in a hoarse whisp

her head

didn't have no collar, though he went away with one.

watched him. He couldn't walk across the floor without stu

's cart," she said. "He co

ay he effaced himself in the store, reserving for the e

recious brother of

die of a machine. His wife sighed and remained silent. She was a large, stout woman, always

" Mr. Higginbotham went on accusingly. "An' he'll

drunk. They did not have it in their souls to know beauty, or they would have known

hed she would oppose him more. "If he does it again, he's got to get out. Understand! I won't put up with his shinanigan-debotchin' innocent children with his boozing." Mr. H

ad sorrowfully, and stitched on. Mr

board?" he shot across

added, "He stil

e goin' to

to San Francisco yesterday looking for a ship. But he's got mone

im to put on airs," Mr. Higginbo

y to go off to some outlandish place to look for buried

job drivin' the wagon," her husband said, but with

ed alarm and

work for Carruthers. They pa

she cried out. "He was worth

"for the thousandth time I've told you to keep you

as a good boy." Her husband glared a

as worth his salt, he could

o long as he don't owe you money you've got no right to be jumping on him all t

e him for gas if he goes on

napped vindictively, while his ears joyed in the sniffles she emitted. He extracted great happiness from squelching her, and she squelched easily these

, that you'd better send for Marian to-morrow to take care of the children. With Tom quit, I'll have

wash day," she

do it first. I won't st

per viciously and