The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-06-13
M AID CAP;
Or
THE STORY OF A SIN.

By HELEN b. MATHERs.

~ GU told me that BEFORE" she said,
slowly, "and | might have listened to
you then. I'd only got taste of hap
piness; and a soul that's faint with
starving III sometimes lay the bit of food
down, feeling that she's got beyond it,
and it's easier to die than to worry on.
But when you've got to love your life.
S Sea epes og no Se fed ana nght your
man nature to go away to oblige some
body who's been cruel to you from the
beginning"
Warped and stultified as was the wo-
mans instinct of right, even now it yet
moved her toward the father of her
dead child. She could have forgiven
him, she thought, if it had lived in his
image, representing the good he might
have brought to her life, and not the
evil; but implacable and stern, Mr..
Eyre stood, the Judge, not the sharer in
the sin, and the moment of relenting
scorched up in her breast as suddenly
as it had been born.
"You can be reached through her."
she said, with one of those impulses Of
reckless untruth that sometimes will
sweep good as we'll as a bad woman
away: "if she came in here now, this
minute, I'd tell her before your eyes. 1t
would not take very long to saviour
husband is the father of my dead child.
Lord Lowell told you lie!'"
She came close to him, possessed by a
rage that tempted violence; but Mr..
Eyre returned her glance with calm
ness that still further maddened her.
perhaps you'll keep us apart after
we'll as words; and when you see her
heart wrung, and her cheek white with
misery. perhaps you will understand
little Of what 1 felt when I lost my
baby"
She ceased abruptly, terrified lest she
should have given him clew; but as
she moved step away, her foot struck
against something that lay on the
ground.
Her lips quivered, her eyes softened
as she stopped and lifted the little shoe
and put it to her lips, crying out below
her breath, "Oh, my little love! my lit
my arms-and 1 don't hate her then
Fm not jealous Of her them"
If a woman had been by, she must
have understood what was in this poor
wretch's heart; but Mr. Eyre saw moth
ing in the outburst but one frenZied wo-
mans jealousy Of another, salved over
in her own eyes by sentimental fond
ness for child.
'Gol" he said, and held the door
.Shall II" she said. pushing back the
masses of black hair from her wild
beautiful eyes. "Ay, but I'll come back.
You shan't turn me from my purpose:
I'll carry it out to the end"
UNLESS you die first" he said.
''Die!' she repeated; "and may not
she die, as well rs other people? Have
you ever thought OF that-how some
day you may lose her, and so get your
punishment at last? Even now she is
ILL.,"
"Who said so?" cried Mr.. Eyre, start-
$50 that touches you," she said bit
terly; "but when your child suffers-is
not that his voice?" she added abruptly,
and went to the window and looked out.
Madcap was passing with the children,
glowing with health and happy smiles
as the boys ran beside her.
A look Of bitter jealousy clouded
Hester's face as she gazed; perhaps she
had never before been so struck by the
difference in their two lots than at that
moment; and Mr.. Eyre, catching that
look, was to be excused IL afterward il
came back to him with significance
at once fatal and sinister.
AS the three disappeared, Hester
moved to the door, but paused on the
threshold and looked at Mr.. Eyre.
"I'll come back, she said. "You
may think to save her from me, but you
won't; perhaps after all there WON'T be
word spoken between us; but Pm go
ing to reach her heart for all that-and
if she dies, mind it's not that killed
her, but you-uOttr sin and yO,tr punish
ment." Then, wrapping herself more
closely in her cloak, hurried down the
steps and was gone.