The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-06-28
PRISCILLA'S LOT.
A story i'm Three Chapters.
BY GEoRGIANA NJ. CRAIK.
IcoNcLUDEp.1 3g;E

There was something in the faces OF
both of them next morning which
struck Skeeton when he came, 81
What's the girl been saying to
your" he asked the old man. And be-
fore long, by threats and importantly.
he wormed enough of the truth out of
Gregory to kindle his rage against her.
For the love he had for Priscilla was
of kind which would hinder him
from no brutal act or feeling towards
her; there never was a day or hour,
even when he followed her most hum
grily, when he would not have treated
her savagely; born ruffian, she never
crossed him in word or deed but he
could have struck her. He went to
her to-day. He had been drinking,
and his temper, reused by what Greg
DRY had let fall, was at it's savagest.
He went to her, knowing that she
knew all now, to intimidate her with
threats of revenge. She was in his
power, he thought, and he let loose
the foodlgates of his brutality upon
her. =
But returned upon him. She had
done enduring now; fear was swept
away, and she flung out her scorn at
him; a noble and dignifed woman, she
stood before him and trod upon him.
1t was her one moment of triumph
her one moment of fierce revenge for
all that she had suffered; and she
stood up and defied him with the reck
less courage. of despair. It was only
when it was over-when he had feft
her with as dark an oath upon his lips
as ever man swore, and she sat down
with her own words ringing in her
ears-that she knew, and could think
of, what she had done. The reaction
came then. She had only hurried on
the inevitable end perhaps by a few
hours or days, but in this first hour
of knowing that the thing was done,
she reproached herself for her part in
it with bitter wall of remorse. Only
one hope remained to her now-the
last hope to which she clung-that
she might still persuade her father TO
attempt to fly.
But that hope, too, left her, The
miserable old man had grown too ter
rified by the neafness of his danger to
have, Strength left, either by body or
mind. for fight;a kind of fascination
had seized nina panic fear and hor-
ror. A bully all his life, he had be-
come the weakest of towards now
Except to curse his daughter when she
spoke to him he scarcely opened his
lips throughoutp the day. oven his
wretched whine of self-pity had ceas-
ed. He sat for hour and hour after
Skeeton had left the house, hud-
died together in his chair, star
ing with his vacant eyes into the
FIRE, with one hand sometimes rails
ed and clutched about his throat.
He started and shook at any unusual
noise; once towards evening, at the
sound of strange voice speaking to
his daughter at the door, he started
from his chair with wild scream.
He was standing in the middle of
the floor like hunted hare, when the
man who had spoken pushed past
Priscilla and came in. He had guess
ed rightly who it was, aud, coward as
he was, for moment showed fight,
and leaped upon the oficer-for it was
no other-like wild beast. But the
short struggle was ended in a few
seconds. He was struck down and
secured and before FIVE minutes had
passed he was walking handcuffed be-
i tUCCA tW.O FAACn,
| faces along the village street. 7
Priscilla stayed in the cottage alone.
Sl.c I'D s:ood IS while they took her
father. with such look upon her face
as, accustomed though the officers
were to the sight of every form of
wretchedness and despair, moved even
them to kind of awe. She neither
spoke nor moved till they had set the
handouts on him; she only said
| then
MAY | come with your"
The man she spoke to answered,
| mo; you couldn't get in to see him
to- night" and then added compass
ionately But come tomorrow if you
like, and you'll hear the result of the
examination. ufs oan,
She said nothing more. She and
the Oldham never spoke to one another.
| She passed that night alone, sitting
4 up during the whole of it. When
morning came she dressed herself, and
set out, and walked to the police-sta
/; ton. It was in the next town, four
miles away. She reached it early
too early by several hours to learn
anything about her fathers fate,
and when she found by inquiries
at the prison gatesgthathe was not to
be taken before the magistrates who
| would meet for his examination until
the afternoon, she had nothing to do
but to wander about the streets of the
town, a weary eircuitround and round,
with its only terminus and resting
place at the Jail wallis But:she was
too sick at heart to mind fatigue of
body. After the night that she lad
passed, motion, of whatever kind, was
sort of blessing to her.
Sho unllnI aho.,t almost oil dor