The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-12-18
AFTER SIX YEARS.
BY MARY C. PRESTON.

BY MARY C. PRESTON.
~ am giving you a%treasure, my son..
Why do you hesitateH Surely you
have no other lover"
The sick man lifted himself on his
pillow, and looked eargerly, fearfully
in the face above him.
1t was a naughty, yet frank coun-
teuance-a face which mingled strength
Of will with pride, and tenderness
with truth, yet had enough poetic fire
in it to make the request his father
made OF Clarence Livingstone a very
hard one tor him to grant.
For Elmar Livingstone, dying, re-
membered the wrongs done byhim sin
the days of nature" and, recalling a
lucky venture, which, by ~enriching him,
had beggared another, asked his son
to take that others orphan daughter
for his wife.
Clarence knew nothing of the hour
oftemptation which saw his fathers
tall-knew of no reason morepowerful
than Christian charity which had in
duced his father to adopt the penni-
less girl, when she was left alone in the
world; and, full OF fair dreams for his
future, he shrank from q marriage
with on whom he had rarely seen, in
his years of study and travel, and who
was to him only O. shy, awkward child
no more.
~ have no love-" he answered.
"Whydo you ask this of me, my dear
tatheri Make any provision you wish
tor Miss Munroe; dover her as richly
as you choose. But leave her, as l
pray you to leave me, free. / haveno
love Tor her, nor she for me; we are
strangers. Let us remain so, lest in
mating us as you would you do both
lives injury"
"Stoop down, Clarence. She loves
you; you have been her hero, her idol
LOT years. have fostered her idola-
Try Tor have wished to atone for the
wrong did her; and there is but one
way-to make her the wife of my only
son; My boy, you will not refuse to
make my last hours e~asier?"
Rather, | would purchase your
peace with my. life, were it possible.
put there is surely some other way
man this, and / will find it. What is
.e wrong OF which you speak? /
must Know it, since | am to atone;
auu trust me, my father, though it
.ake my life, ! will not fail to make
1 'M gVonement a complete one"
i. inere is no other way" moaned
VIC SICK man; "and since you bid me
uaseal my lips, | will tell you how /
h. anaea my wealth, and planted my
M NJ aloes OF remorse, my SOL
way, cIrolall Thestoryi is not long, but
Wy nard to tell-very hard my boy
iather.p ae ioi your
and, while the SUMMER night closed
s =, sfay and spectral, clarence Living
Il ', listening to hisx fathers story,
eredulous friendM betrayed. and
hsa aasn snatched fromSa too trusting
is,;~5 pent his young head in a humil-
s IJon wholly new and wholly intoler-
dW.a.nout, in the c~lr1tering shadows
Is .ae veranda, drooE;ng like q lily on
is 'sen, stood Lenal Munroe drink
~ IN the tale, with pulses beating as
Cls vagiy as those in DC breast Of her
SS;rence, in her own girllsh bosom
kadl ~ Keen, regret ~ bitter; for she
sseau loyed Elmar livingstone as a
d dTvuu iather, and fet the sin Of the
dead. 0iy as IL wrong uono 'no
ca s : / another 4 ng was hers-for
s uab' S;ss had begged Ma father not to
Lsl u'ln 70 be more p astrangerto
~ T1 s.s ywast told, j the old man
janpp a mi ! on his lows, his face
fs r ~ with dews Of CO Ibg death; and
o. n Pam darkened ex Jaw Clarence
sronO l aes me, nv sonl did the
tonaas lor You, cana M0arsely to her
'ne drawn I'M oi the dying.