The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-08-22
VOLUME III

the old man, her husband, suffering the
constant fear that she, though married,
was not a wife, and that her idolized
son, though born in wedlOck, was ille-
gitimate, had yielded to the intense
strain upon her reason, and for years
had been a lunatic. But now old man
Worth, alias Killingsworth, was dead.
The valuable Darcy homestead, which
his cunning wiles had wrested from the
Possession of the weak grandfather whom
political associates had ruined, had long
before been sold, that he might glut his
growing ayarice upon the sight and
sound of gold. He had immured his
wife within the walls of a private asy-
lum during one of her attacks of lunacy,
and through all his remaining life gave
her no opportunity for escape.
The son, long grown TO mans estate,
saw his mother but seldom, and never,
while his father lived, except in the
presence of the matron of the asylum or
her aids. Edgar Worth was unhappy.
Some dark mystery surrounded his fam
lily. OF that he felt certain, but he could
get no real clue to it; so, partly to quiet
his constant apprehensions of evil, and
partly to crafty his love for adventure,
he had betaken himself TO the busy
West as soon as his college days were
over, where he first met Ellen Dowd,
and where he had acted as her juror in
a most revolving case of legal inhuman-
ity. He had studied for the ministry,
and had been for years an active, zeal
Gus worker in the Church.
During Ellen's stay in her Mississippi
Valley home, after her awful trial had
awakened her TO a knowledge of herself,
she had not met him except upon an
occasion she lOnged to forget-a dismal
day when he, as clergyman, had Joined
in legal marriage the author and abet-
ter of so many of her woes with one
who, though an unfortunate sufferer
from the base deceits of man, was in
her relations to Peter Dowd as guilty as
himself The ceremony being over, the
dark-eyed stranger clergyman had gone,
and Ellen had almost ceased TO think of
him. Life, as she had found it, had
had too many hard and practical reali-
ties to allow her time for romantic rev.
erie, and if, in times past, the earnest
eyes that now thrilled her as they gazed
into her own had possessed hidden
charm, she had as suddenly dispelled it.
The mother Of Edgar Worth, of whom
as her governess she had in early life
been excessively fond, possessed that
peculiar sagacity so common with the
partially deranged. After having told
her story, during the recital of which
Ellen had stood dumb and bewildered,
her wrinkled features broke into a
meaning smile, and rising from her
chair she said significantly:
life is before you, children. 1t is
behind me. You do not need my pres
ence; neither do you desire it. I will
60"
''But where will you 20, my mother
dear?" said Ellen quickly, while ;
bright blush mantled her beaming face
'You surely do not mean to leave my
roof. Remember that my own mothe
died when 1 was born. 1 have neve
known a mothers love. Will you. le
me love you, and will you love me il
return?"
Shaking her thin finger at her host
ess, the woman answered:
"Don't talk of love to me. 'Tis
sweet word, but Pve lived three scor
years without it. You may love Edgar
Then I shall be satisfied. see hoy
things are going. Don't detain me.
will gop'
"But / entreat you not to CO." sal
Ellen earnestly. "There is room in m.
home and room in my heart. Abid
with me and 1 will make your life
grand perpetual joy if act of mine ca
do it."
: "Who said that I would leave you
house, you silly, addle-brained child?
am only going to my room to give m.
son and daughter an opportunity to set
tie their private affairs. Do you thin
e 1 have lost my senses ?" and laughin
immoderately, she left the two alone
Gaining her chamber she threw hersel
n upon the bed, and relapsing into silen
= reverie, lay quiet till the shades of even
ing settled over the house; then sinkin
It into peaceful slumber, in which Ellie
Ie many hours after found her serenel
n locked, she dreamed away the moment
'. while happy smiles played over her fe:
n lures and settled themselves in radianC
around her firmly-closed mouth. Di
7, seraphs hover near?
1t For a few moments after his moth
lr had left them, Edgar paced the roo
h abstractedly, while Ellen sat in silen,
y at the open window, gazing out upC
% the open lawn. The gorgeous clout
that had been hanging over the cit
s. and dipping their dripping fringes in
I the shipping and the bay, had roll'
re themselves back and away into gre
mountains of sapphire, alabaster al
le pearl. The balmy sunshine had dri'
d. the rain drops from the shrubbery AZ
h, lawn, and glistened now upon accac
a. blooms, and now again upon the fou
lg tain's silvery spray, around which sin
II. ing birds fitted, and at whose ba
c. bright gold fish flashed in beauty.
c. "Ohl" said Ellen, and her sudden e
as clamation arrested the abstracted wa
of of her companion, who turned, and sea
ing himself beside her, said simply: