Jiiles  HoUister  when  he  had  sternly  forbidden  his  daughter's
name  to  be  mentioned  in  his  presence,  which  had  made
these  people  outcasts,  there  welled  up  within  me  an  intense
sympathy  and  pity.  By  an  instinctive  process  somehow
linked  with  other  experiences,  I  seemed  to  be  able  to  enter
into  the  feelings  of  these  two  outcasts,  to  understand  the
fearful  yet  fascinating  nature  of  the  impulse  that  had  led
them  to  elude  the  vigilance  and  probity  of  a  world  with
which  I  myself  was  at  odds.  I  pictured  them  in  a  remote
land,  shunned  by  mankind.  Was  there  something  within
me  that  might  eventually  draw  me  to  do  likewise?  The
desire  in  me  to  which  my  father  had  referred,  which  would
brook  no  opposition,  which  twisted  and  squirmed  until  it
found  its  way  to  its  object  ?  I  recalled  the  words  of  Jarvis,
the  carpenter,  that  if  I  ever  set  my  heart  on  another  man's
wife,  God  help  him.     God  help  me  !

A  wicked  man!  I  had  never  beheld  the  handsome  and
fascinating  Mr.  Jennings,  but  I  visualised  him  now;  dark,
like  all  villains,  with  a  black  moustache  and  snapping  black
eyes.  He  carried  a  cane.  I  always  associated  canes  with
villains.  Whereupon  I  arose,  groped  for  the  matches,  lighted
the  gas,  and  gazing  at  myself  in  the  mirror  was  a  little  re-
assured to  find  nothing  sinister  in  my  countenance.  .  ..
Next  to  my  father's  faith  in  a  Moral  Governor  of  the
Universe  was  his  belief  in  the  Tariff  and  the  Republican
Party.  And  this  belief,  among  others,  he  handed  on  to  me.
On  the  cinder  playground  of  the  Academy  we  Republicans


36  A  FAR  COUNTRY

used  to  wage,  during  campaigns,  pitched  battles  for  the  Tariff.
