Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-07-17
A FAMILY AFFAIR.
AUTHOR or "CALLED BACK" DARK
DAYS ETC.
By HUGH CONWAY.

Conilnued from sunday, May sist.l
me elder woman arranged Al she hr
her mistreN a. q servant leaves; 81
prepared a place, and Whan the time cam'
Beatrice found her grief lightsnsd by all Z
loving woman can do To- another IN such q
plight. OF course there was d~eceit-deceii
seemed TO have forced itseif into the girls
life! There was a long visit to pay some-
where. a visit from which Beatrice returned
q shallow Of Der former self. But none
knew, none even guessed the cause.
Until the child was born Beatrices prayer
was that both she and It might die. Can a
sadder, more pitiful prayer be framed by a
womnni The truth could then be told 10 all.
The early death would be the full expiation
Of her folly. The few who loved her would
forgive and pity her, But her prayer was
unanswered-death never even threatened
mother or babe.
The child was born, the tiny head nestled
on the mothers breast, and q strange new
feeling awoke within her-the overpowering
instinct Of maternal love. Her thoughts
which had once been, in case the child lived,
to hate il for the fathers sake, turned 10 pure,
sweet affection for the innocent, helpless
little being. So far from wishing it dead,
she would not now have wished it unborn.
When she returned to her home she left it
with many tears in Sarah's charge.
For years she saw 1t by stealth, saw it
grow more and more the picture of perfect
childhood: loved it and worshiped it more
each time she saw ii, and at last, when she
returned TO her fathers house, and felt that
her visits to her treasure would now per-
force be less and less frequent, a wild crav-
ing to have it with her always, to see it
every day, every hour, awoke in her passion
ate heart.
Then cam the second quarrel, and the
new home. And even as she settled to go
down 10 her uncles' the nucleus Of the daring
scheme for regaining her boy framed itself
in her brain, and was eventually shaped into
form and acted upon with perfect success.
But the five years were passing, passing.
At the end Of them stood what Beatrice
shrank from picturing, a convict who would
come and claim his wife. Beatrice had, in
iced, expected that when first arrested no
would find some way of proclaiming his
marriage, IL only in fulfliment Of his threat
Of dragging her name into the dirt.
Yet he made no sign. He was crafty and
celebrating. The term Of the sentence was
not to him an eternity. When it ended be
knew that by keeping the secret he should be
in more advantageous position to turn
matters TO his own benefit. Beatrice would
be well past twenty-one, and in command Of
alarge income. He meant to be thoroughly
revenged for the obstinacy she had displayed
in refusing to perjure herself, and 50 find
him means 10 buy up the forged bills, but he
meant TO have money also.
This is the story Of the life of the last five
years upon which Beatrice looked back that
afternoon. These are the pictures Of the
man aud the woman-the husband and wife
who were 10 meet ON the morrow like foes in
deadly duel.
And over and above all this, there was
another matter ever present in the girls
m~ind-another name which came TO her lips,
not in accents of hate, but love. She had at
tempted to deceive him, but not herself. In
tact, il seemed part Of her punishment-the
hardest part Of all-that she loved Frank
Carruthers. She bad sobbed out the secret
On the faithful Sarah's breast. She had wept
through the weary hours Of many a night as
she thought Of the utter hopelessness Of love
between them. His coming to Oakbury had
doubled her grief. She had not only 10
lament "what has been" but toregret what
might have BEEN
Blame her If you mustl Forgive her If you
canl At least pity her!