The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-02-15
"Hughp
Il speak truth. You have made


II speak truth. You have 1aada
your choice, Daisy, have detied my
authority /; have shown to all the world
! that you hold me lower than thief,
that you love and respect me less"
"You are mad to talk in this way,
she stammered, hardly comprehend
ing what he said. "You cannot mean
it ?"
"I do. am not mad. You were
when you went to that prison, when
you gave up home and husband for a
feloH.'
Daisy understood him at last. All
the pride of her gentle nature aroused.
'Do you mean that because l will
not renounce my brother, you re-
nounce me ?"
eyes. I will not share your heart
with him. l have too much self-re-
spect."
BE it so then. l will go to my un-
Gle. / cannot forsake Robert in his
hour of need" She was verypale, and
trembled from head to foot with un-
controllable emotion.
He did not look st her; he feared,
perchance, that if he did, lit would
shake his resolution. '.Do as you
please, " was his bitter reply. My de-
cision, as / told you before, is unal-
terable."
They separated. Daisy went back
to her uncle. He, too, disowned Rob-
ert, but loved and pitied her. 1t was
in vain, though, that he demonstrated
with her husband. Hugh was obsti-
nate, and could not be convinced that
he had treated her unjuslty. Intoler-
ant of human frailty, and peculiarly
sensitive as to his personal honor,
Robert had given him blow that he
found it impossible to forgive. 1t
was this that deadened his pity; this
that explained his cruelty. Strong
and self-reliant himself, he could nei-
ther understand nor sympathise with
weaker natures. That Daisy should
cling to the man who had injured him
SO deeply, was an evidence, in his pre-
judiced eyes, that she was lacking in
wifely affection. He almost consider
ed her disregard of his wishes in this
respect as a PROCLAMATION of the marri-
age tie. Measuring her feelings by
his own, he could not read the tender
heart outraged by his conduct.
Robert was tried, convicted, and
sentenced to three years imprison-
ment in the State penitentiary. His
case excited considerable sympathy,
not only from the treatment he had
received at the hand of his uncle and
of Hugh Campbell, but also because il
was supposed that he was the tool of
more experienced criminal. A eel
ebrated lawyer undertook his defense
voluntarily. An acquittal, however,
was impossible, under the circumstan-
ces, and all that could be done was to
make his sentence the shortest allow
ed by law for the crime he had COM
mitted. 1t was afterward commuted
by the Governor from three years i'm
prisonment to two.
Months passed on. Hugh and Dali
sy were still unreconciled. Robert
had served out his time, and gone
forth from prison changed mad
The seed that daisy had planted bore
good fruit. Love at last proved his
Even his uncle was fl
nally compelled to believe in the sim
cerity of his repentance, and give him
respect and esteem for the course he
pursued. Upright and honorable in
all his dealings, Ee succeeded in blot
ting out the past so far as it can be
UOn0 III GHlS WOflQ OF ours. fOr men
punish heavily the sins that are found
out; all others they ignore.
There came day at last when Hugh
Campbell, PROSTATE on bed of sick
ness, saw clearly the uncharitableness,
of which he had been guilty, and sent
for the wife he had wronged. She
needed no second bidding, for love
had been pleading in her heart all
these weary months, and the separa-
ton had made her even more wretch
ed than him. But little was said as to
the trouble that parted them. Hugh
was by nature reticent; Daisy was
willing to accept her happiness silent
ly.
"Women have keener spiritual in
sight than men," he told her later,
when health and strength came back.
We are of the earth, earthly; they
reach up to heaven, and draw from
thence such love, and pity, and ten
derness, as shame our coarser ma
tures."