Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-12

A DOM ESTIC STORY,
BY WILKIE COLLINS.
CHAPTER LII.


waited i'll the passage, eager to see what the
captains face might tell her. 1t told heI
nothing.
But Catherine SAW a change il him. There
was something in his manner unnaturally
passive and subdued. It suggested the idea
of y man whose mind had been forced into
an effort at Sef-cOntrOl which had exhausted
its power, and had allowed the signs OF de-
preston and fatigue to find their way to the
surface. The captain was quiet, the captain
was kind; neither by word nor look did he
warn Catherine that the continuity of their
intimacy was in danger of being broken
and yet her spirits sank when they met at
the open door.
He led her to n chair, and said she had
come to him at q time when he especially
wished to speak with her. Kitty asked if
she might remain with them. He put his
hand careSSingly on her head. mo, my dear;
not now"
The child eyed him for moment, con-
SclouS of something which she had never no.
ticed i'll him before, and puzzled by the dis
cOyery. She walked back, cowed and SILENT
to the door. He followed her and spoke to
Mrs. PreSty. Take your grandchild into
the garden; we will join you there in a little
while. GOOd-by for the present. Kitty"
Kitty said gOOd-by mechanically-likea dull
child repeating lesson. Her grandmother
led her away in silence.
Bennydeck closed the door and seated him
self by Catherine. II thank you for your let
ter" he said. eff such thing is possible, it
has given me higher opinion of you than
any opinion that l have held yet"
She looked at him with a feeling of sur
prise so sudden and so overwhelming that she
was at a loss how to reply. The last words
which she expected to hear from him when
he alluded to her confession were the words
that had just passed his lips.
You have owned to faults that you have
committed and receptions that you have
sanctioned" he went on-"wIth nothing to
gain and everything to lose by telling the
truth. Who but a good woman would have
done that?"
There was a deeper feeling in him that he
had ventured to express. 1t betrayed itself
by mOmentary trembling in his voice.
Catherine drew a little closer to him.
''YOu don't know how you surprise me,
how you relieve me" she said warmly-and
pressed his hand. In the eagerness Of heI
gratitude, in the gladneSS that had revived
her sinking heart, she failed to feel that the
pressure WIS llOV Returned.
What have L said to surprise you?' he
asked. "What anxiety have / relieved,
without knowing it"'
Il was afraid you would despiSe me-"
''Why should [ despise you?''
Have [ not gained your good opinion I'M
der false pretenses? Have not allowed you
to admire me and love me without telling
you that there was anything in my past life
which had reason to regret? Even now ]
can hardly realize that you excuse and for.
give me; you who have read the confession
and my worst faults; you who know the
shocking inconsistencies of my character"
Say at once" he answered, ''that know
you to be a mortal creature. Is there any
human character, even the nobleSt that is
always consistently gOOd?"
''One reads Of them sometimes" she sug-
geSted, I'm books"
Yes" he said. In the worst books you
could possibly read-the only really immoral
books written in our time"
why are they immOral?'
For this plain reason, that they deliber.
ately pervert the truth. Claptrap, you i'll
nOcent creature, to catch foolish readers!
When do these consistently good people ap-
pear in the life around us, the life that we
all see? Never! Are the best mortals that
ever lived above the reach of temptation to
do i'll, and are they always too good to yield
to it? How does the Lords prayer instruct
humanity? 1t commands us all, without ex-
ception to pray that we may not be led into
temptation. You have been led into temp
tation. In other words, you are a human
being. All that human being could do
you have done-yOu have repented and con-
fessed. Don't know how you have suffer
ed, and how you have been tried! Why,
what a mean phariSee | should be if | pre-
Sumed to deSpise your
She looked at him proudly and gratefully;
she lifted her arm as if to thank him by an
embrace, and suddenly let it drop again at
her side
"Am tormenting myself without cauSe?'
she said. ''Or is there something that looks
like sorrow showing itself to me in your
face?'
You see the bittereSt SORROW" he an
Swered, that | have felt in all my sad life"
rs it sorrow for me?' she went on, trying
to speak calmly.
mo. Sorrow for myself
HAS it come to you through me? Is it my
fault?''
'It is more your misfortune than your
fault"
Then you can feel for me?"
Il can and do"
He has not yet set her at ease.
Il am afraid your sympathy stops some
where" she said Where does it stop"
For the first time he shranll from directly
answering her. Il begin to wish / had fol-
lowed your example," he owned. 'It might
lave been better for both of us if l had an
Swered your letter in writing"
Tell me plainly" she cried, losing all
fear of him in her anxiety to know what
was in his mind-"tell me plainly, is there
something you can't forgiven
There is something can't forget"
What is it? Oh, what is it, When my
mother told poor little Kitty that her father
was dead are you even more sorry than L am
that L allowed it? Are you even more
ashamed of me than l am of myself?'
mo. regret that you allowed it; but |
understand how you were led into that er
rcr. Your husbands infidelity had shaken
his hold on your respect for him and your
sympathy with him. and had so left you
without your natural safeguard against Mrs.
PreSty's sophiStical reasoning and bad exam
pie. But for that wrong-doing there is a
remedy left. Enlighten your child as you
have enlightened me; and then-I have no
personal motive for pleading Mr.. Herbert