Litchfield enquirer., 1881-07-14


 short of an explosion would have , distract. ed her attention from the business in hand
 How long the hour seemed to Florida, alone in her state-room, breathing the close, heated air, unable to fix her thoughts for moment on the book she had taken mechanically to stifle thought and reflection. It was too late now. She had promised-she had taken an oath so fearful that her lips trembled to pro. nounce 1t, and in three days mere 1t would be
 sealed by marriage vows
 Already she obeyed Legarra as if she had been his slave i; ever since that terrible night, and those days of utter prostration which followed, when she was maddened by their separation and his danger, frown. an ap- proach to agitation on his part, triumphed. It was the same unquestioning servitude she had SO often wondered at in Mrs. Thomas.
 when she first knew the secret bond between them, and how even her jewels were pawded to furnish the sums he demanded, always to be paid by those remittances that never came. A hard, unnatural feeling rose up whenever she thought of her father; but now that dis. tance, and oaths, and lifetime were separat. ing them, it gave way to an anguish that al. most forced her ocry out. The narrow berth seemed like coffin inclosing, stif1ing her.
 Was this foretaste of the days that were to come? What was remorse like?-penitence nnavailing, and finding no place for forgive ness, though sought carefully with tears
 gentleman, Miss" and the yellow turbaned face of the stewardess followed the slight. tap that announced her at the door,
 ''Yes directly" she said, almost sulleuly, so unlike the greeting the coming of be- trothed lover should receive. It was his own arrangement that they should remain in their respective state-rooms until they had crossed the bar, to avold the possibility of any un- comfortable encounter or questioning. Why had he intruded on her so soon? She waited to wrap shawl about her and shade her face with vail before she went out to meet him. But it was not the dark form of the Cuban that filled up the narrow entrance of the pas- sage leading to the saloon. John Habersham's kindly face. softened into strange gravity. startled her more than her fathers would have done. And behind him, with a package of letters and 6usiness-like papers, Judge Pick ems raised his hand warningly
 She followed them without word, clinging 10 John Habersham's arm as she threaded the crowd, passing the state-room, where Legarra was content to remain voluntary prisoner, and so close to the unconscious Mrs. Thomas that their vails f1u.tered together for an in- stant they crossed the slippery gangway it was withdrawn the next moment; black, tur- bid, impossible waters swelled up between them and the heavy hull turned seaward. She felt that her father was dying and that she deserved it.; and she felt, besides. as Peter might have done when the angel guided him past the sleeping guards, and he heard the great iron gates of the prison clank together behind him.
 Mrs. Thomas, "weak but not wicked" /" pur- chased the absence of her vindictlve and re- eliminating escort by nearly the full amount of the liberal check received from her hus- band for her expenses Northward and Flor ida's trunks, strange to say, were added to the russet box inscribed ''C L., GaEueSton, Tee. Gs, though what use he could possibly make of ladY's wardrobe Mrs. Thomas could not divine. Nevertheless it saved her all thought and perplexity regarding them, and she was too thankful to purchase liberty at any price.
 Mrs. Pickens wonders to this day how ..'that runaway barber from New Orleans, who im- posed on Flory Clayton so shamefully, ever learned French and Spanish so beautifully, and got money enough from Mrs. Thomas to pay his board bills: above all, how he ever managed to hold that stuff that everybody took for blood in his mouth, and talk, too. when he had those turns! No wonder Flori- da was frightened, poor thing ith that hor. rid story of aD inward wound, and she had come as near as anything to offering to nurse him herself when he was pretending to be sick after it" She admires her husbands shrewdness and sagacity more than eyer, and thinks he ought to be made Judge of the Su- preme Court, since she fonnd how quietly be tracked the antecedents of their late foreign acquaintance by telegraph and detective, and proved that letter of Major Clayton,s to Madame Dubois forgery, though he said anybody might have seen that with half an eXso in shs AdaaS ta apE pey G acanantagcs hde only romance in real life in which she ever enacted part. v fE
 Florida Clayton is Mrs. Habersham nova noted housekeeper, and excellent mistress to a crowd of sable attendants, whose clothes she cuts, and whose children she looks after, as well as two of her own, Clayton and Calhoun, mistaken by most people for twins. When the busy day is over, and she sits by her bus. band on the broad piazza, while he smokes his cigar and caresses the dear head laid upon his knee, she looks thoughtfully out from the deep shadows of the magnOlias on to the far off lights of her fathers house shining faintly through the distance, and thinks how grateful she ought to be that he is spared to her. and that John f0rgave her so nobly, and made her loved and honored wife when he kneW all
 Yes, all; for pure wife and mother as she is her face burns with a sudden glow of shame as she wonders if he does not sometimes rec- ollect with bitterness that her forehead has been touched by other lips than his-polluted lips that she shudders to recall. But this memory is her punishment, not his bane; for when she kneels by his side and winds her arms around him in mute plea for forgive. ness, burying her face-for at such moments she can not raise her eyes to his- he lifts her brow and banishes the guilty flush with gen. tla ewomo n 1v kiases that sneak more vinulv than words.