Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/327

AFTER that first moment of sheer pathos when he heard of the birth of his natural daughter, Abner Teeftallow's thoughts were drawn, in time, to the position in which he now stood in Lanesburg society.

The gossip spread over the village with the speed usual to small-town salacity. In reaction certain girl acquaintances of Abner's grew distantly polite, while others "stopped speaking"; a misnomer, since both distant and silent ones now discussed Abner incessantly. The youth's invitations to parties and dances dropped away to nothing. Such criticism discomfited Abner. In the garage at Irontown his liaison with Nessie had been admired, but the feminine world of Lanesburg censured him keenly. Abner never before had dwelt in a feminine world.

The men of Lanesburg sympathized with Abner in a semi-humorous way. The man who came in for their serious contempt was Nessie's husband, A. M. Belshue. The jeweller had broken that unworded law forbidding any easement or comfort to the enemies of society. In marrying a social outcast, Belshue weakened the village discipline and imperilled its whole structure. His sin was, in reality, subtler and more insidious than was Abner's in deflowering the girl. The village folk would forgive Abner in time, but they would never forego their bitter contempt for the jeweller because he had rescued the unhappy girl from degradation and utter destruction.

One day Abner was complaining to Jim Sandage about his social boycott.

"It's jest freshened up for a while," philosophized Jim