The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-06-11
VOLUME .XXI---NO. g.
tHe is. honorable, them I said,

f Madge said, the bright rose-color
j, flaming out on her cheeks in one
instant. Don't frighten yourself,
) Helen. There is no little Irritation
of picking up brushes and pressing
hands between. r,I IF he loves me, as
J, I think he does, he feels he had
!; better not, and if he ever tells me
of his love, he will have told my
father first
She looked so superb and SO
stately, 50 pure and 50 proud, as
she said it, that I dared not doubt
or fear about her any more. For
the future I;left her to 60 to the
South Kensington untrammeled by
anything save her own integrity.
Some time after this my father
returned to England with his wife,
our sweet, mysterious step-mother,
and we went and joined them glad
~ at the Langham Hotel, where
they had taken up their abode. For
dlthe first few days of our residence
athere we made the big public saloon
Jour reception-room !; but at the end
Fof that time he found it necessary
to institute. US into private draw
'Iing-room, in order that we might
see our friends comfortably. {.
i One morning-I can no longer
narrate events as an eyewitness,
for I am dependent on my father.
for an. account of the Transaction
the young artist whom I had seen
at the South Kensington was an
nounced for Mr.. Leyton.. I hear
that as he entered at one door, my
step-mother, pale and trembling,
tottered out at the other; though
she had not caught sight of him,
something in his name - Mr..
Broughton-had affected her.
Briefly he told his name, his
mission, his desires. He was an
artist lately returned to England
after a seven years absence. "a.
seven years. absence where? my
father asked. The answer was a !.
thunder-bolt., He had been fulfill
ing his term of seven years trans
portation for forgery!
Ny father was a good, clever,
rigorous, noble-hearted man. I'm
derstanding fully that he was these
things, can you doubt that he lis
tened to all that was to be told in
extenuation of the crime of which
this Young gentleman had been
guilty?
, Mr.. Broughton had been placed
when a boy as a clerk in a mercan-
tile office, with a taste that rebelled
against his employment, and a heart
that yearned for all and everything
connected with art. In an evil hour
he had invested in things that were
beautiful, because they pleased him,
because he thought they would
serve as models. In more evil
hour still he forged his employers
name ins order to obtain money to
pay for them, feeling sure that his
widowed mother would furnish him
with the funds to make restitution.
When he went to her she was PEN
nlless, and he was found out, con-
victed and transported
Now he had come back again,
with that stain upon him, and was
daring to love art again. and daring
to love Madge, and to demand her
of her father.
One question my father asked
him, Did he know where that wild,
owed mother was?' and his answer
was a grievous, piteous assertion
sthat he did not; that he had from
false pride abstained from answer
ing her letters; that, in fact, he
could not have answered them,
since he made it his practice always
to tear them up unread. Now he
had lost the track, and had come
back to England to find himself
motherless.'
Then my father rose and rang
the bell, and asked that Mrs. Ley
ton should be sent for; and I, un-
demanded as I was, insisted on ac-
companying her.
We went in together, and I saw
those two, whom I had thought
strangers to each other, look into
the face of each other, then sigh
and gasp, and falter forward into
such an embrace as I never saw ex-
changed between man and woman
before. And from my step-mother's
lips I heard the words, MY son!
my son = and when T heard them I
knew that I had fathomed my step
mothers secret.
She had been no dreary old maid
when my father married her. She
had only been an anxious, broken
hearted widow and mother. o.
But Madge .refnses to believe that
her perfect, loving, noble-natured
husband, Cecil Broughton, can
ever have caused anxiety to any
one. And for bright, believing
Madge's sake my ste' mother keeps
her secret om.her daughter-in-hw
still.
| TheV have arrested Mr.. Annie