The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-23

ihe Librarian ofCousress 40 Washington CIty.l
CHAPTER XVIII
"Gracie, darling, have you not one
kiss Of love and forgiveness for me be-
fore We part, perhaps forever ?" asked
Alonzo, as he approached his wife with
a hesitating air, and looked into her
eyes with shadow Of the old faseiua-
tion cleaning from his own.
"a kiss for you, Alonzo Suowden &?
You who have betrayed me to my
ruin ?"
''Your ruin? o, Oracle, don't say
that, please. You DO me great Injustice.
Indeed, you do. You are my wife; law
fully and hOnorably so. / have never
offered you hurt or harm, and ! call
heaven to witness that ] never wiII.n
81 see, sir, very plainly, that you do
not comprehend the faintest import OF
your own wickedness. You do not un-
derstand the value of a moral obliga-
tion. You are blind TO the holiest in
stincts Of honor. You have ruined me
because you have destroyed my faith in
you, and you are my husband. But
stay here till / return. Do your duty.
Be son TO my now childless mother.
/ do not believe iu total depravity. else
] should despair of ever seeing you de-
velop into a nobler manhood. feel
that you have fallen into evil practices
through the Influence Of wicked COM
panions whose willy sophistry has
blurred your sense Of right. In the
companionship Of my good father and
mother, and away from the tempta-
tions that have led you into crime, there
isa possibility that you may thoroughly
reform. Aud now, goodbye. Let
us not part in anger. Aud, above all, let
Us be careful lest we furnish food for the
forked tongue aud fanged tooth Of gos-
sip. Small business is it to the world
around Us as to what our motives may
be-"
"But what shall say to the horde Of
inquisitive busybodies who will come
prowiing around me here and prving
into my business? How shall I ac-
count 20 them for your remarkable alb
sence ?'
''Say to them that your wife is absent
on avisitto your fathers family. Ifthey
ask why she went, you can tell them
truly that it was because she chose 10
90. Gou can put brave face upon the
matter, and make il appear to them
that have gone al your request, il you
wish. Oryou can assume the air Of the
hen-pecked husband il you prefer it, and
lead the neighbors to infer that I have
abused you. It matters not to me what
the people think, 80 know that we are
doing right"
With this, Grace hurried away 10 pre-
pare her travelling toilet and pack her
trunk, her mother following her around
the house like one distracted, and be-
seeching her continually not to digrace
her family through the disreputa6le
conditions afforded by the divorce
court; not even if the worst came TO the
worst.
Outwardly the poor girl was as calm
and complacent as though neither the
shadow nor substance Of a great sorrow
had fallen upon her life But inwardly,
and SO thoroughly hidden from human
vision that even her own mother could
not detect her secret agony, a storm Of
conflicting emotions ragged, under which
she wondered that she could not die.
81 will have a good, long talk to-
night with Lillian. Possibly she may
help me to see my way more clearly, I"
she said to herself, as she moved me-
chauically about her hurried duties
with no heart at all in her impromptu
labors. A hasty. conference with her
father and mother resulted, as she had
predicted, in their thorough sanction OF
her quickly-conceived designs; and
without waiting even 10 partake Of the
evening meal, The bride. accompanied
by her mother-in-law, entered the car.
riage and turned her face cityward.
AlOnzo Snowden now began to realiz,
in earnest that the way of the trans
gressor Is bard. The shame he felt il
facing his kind pareuts-in-law was to,
abject 10 be depicted in words. And vet
10 was the shame which is born only n
discovery, and not at all the repentape,
which comes Of sorrow for sin. Had b
been able to keep his crime coutinuall
hidden from the knowledge Of those q
bis friends who were shocked over il
he would have continued to consider
all a. a practical joke, aud boast Of
as an exploit in secret conclave wit
his own convivial companions in th
club-roOm or at the lunch-table. b,
now the scenes had shifted, aud he fe
himself stranded upon a rock.
Mrs. Emerson, dear, good soul, ws
ashamed to look him in the face, and u
wonder. True feminine modes,y is a
ways so intensely shocked at the di
covery of any sinful breach Of propr
ETY.. that it uneOnsciously takes upon i
self so much Of the anticipated cond
tions Of the culprit as TO cause a refiep
tion Of the guilt ia its own idea.
But Captain Emerson was not er
cumbered by any Of the finer sensibil