Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-05-04

| %!sHnysss.e
CHAPTER NNNu.
THE pENoUMENT.
| When the remains OF John Trainor were
borne to the grave, the memory of his faults
were buried with him. Poor fellowlr was
the general ejaculation in Wall street-at
once his requlescat and epitaph. But the
greek Wheels of business moved on. bulls and
J bears Kept up their syer-reneYinS conflicts
ana secret machination; new glsdistors
stepped into the ring; new crowds waited the
turn OF the wheel Of fortune; and new Train
ors were ready to sacrifice themselves, If mad
were, for the Trillious of the exchange Who
believes in the efficacy of .iessons"l What
public execution ever deferred the murderer
from his designi What spectacle of drunk
enpess ever restrained the youthful debauchei
What accession, however notable, to the
ranks of the unfortunate" ever made the
fascinated woman pause in her first steps
toward ruini
No-human nature remains the same; and
the erring ones, predeStined TO sin by their
own unrestrained passions, wait only for the
overmastering circumstances to yield and
fall When any of these solemn warnings
are held up TO the yet callow sinner, what
does he propose to dos To stop and repentl
No-to be a little more careful and not be
caught.
Not that preceptS and examples are use
less. All together so 10 make up the moral
government of the world-pervadinc like
the atmosphere, and like it resting with the
uniform pressure upon the earth. Crime
and folly will always have their exemplars,
but retribution furnishes the restraining in
tluences that keeps evil down TO its average.
As locks and bolts are made for honest men,
not for thieves, SO the moral law and its
penalties are for those who have never
| openly sinned.
If Mr.. Trillion had been ten times the
| Shylock he was, he could not have disre-
garded the last injunction of Trainor. The
| turn in the market enabled him to make ad-
vantageous sales of his stocks and in less
than a week he resumed payment
The first thing he did was TO pay
over to trustees the notes he had given
Irainor, thereby securing the widow at least
decent support. He also sent Major & Co,
| the $4,000 for which their clerk had paid
| such terrible forfeiture. After discharging
all his obligations, there was still ample mar
gin left-a large fortune, in fact Mr.. Trii-
hon could now retire with comfort-could
| look forward to many years; so he fiattered
himself His will was made. his children
provided for; and some unsettled accounts.
accounts, not remembered by any save him
self and the recording angel, were adjusted
as well as the lapse of time would allow. So
he thought of purchasing country house for
the next season, and of giving the rest of his
days to the enjoyment of life.
But it was not SO to be. A swift and sud
den stroke smote him down. In the dead of
nluht apH olopa ba tba E..
summons all of us are waiting and went his
way without a struggle. The morning sun.
as its rays shot in between the blinds, lighted
the scanned and careworn face of an old
man, resting, as in serene, dreamless sleep.
Mr.. Sponsor found, on consulting the best
legal authorities, that he cauld not maint ain
his claim upon the notes he had received of
Norcross; and, rather than subject himself to
the expense of a lawsuit in which he was GER
tain to be beaten, he relinquished them TO
Jameson, and filed his claim for the money
against NorcroSS' estate. Ten per cent was
the amount of the dividend he received: the
remainder was charged to Profit and Loss
Experience being duly credited with the same
amount.
1t was with the greatest difficulty that the
Judloious Palette prevented his friend from
making second visit in the evening of the
same day. Oakhurst had come to a full con-
viction, in his own mind, that his difference
with Agnes ought to be settled. and he could
not conceive that it might take time to bring
her to the same conclusion. Some people
adapt themselves to circumstances Instantly:
the aversion of one hour becomes the delight
Of the next; but those who are guided by rea-
soning, especially where there Is shade of
rn4 N NJ EaI I,,r,o
opinion, and by the idea Of consistent self
respect-such persons are slow to change a
settled conviction; the course of feeling is too
powerful and too constant to be arrested and
turned backward. Palette thought--and per-
haps rightly-that Agnes needed only time to
become accustomed to the new view of the
case; and he believed that any precipitation
might be fatal to his friends hopes.
"Givs her the opportunity to think about
1t" he said; "if she loves you, depend upon
it, the wind will change with her. Due east,
to-day, according to all you have told me;
and the violets won't blossom till the sun
comes out of the sullen gray cloud and the
south wind breathes on them.-The very
contact with lover, you see, makes me poet
ical.n
"But her thoughts may take another dfrec-
ton. Who can tell what impression that
malicious vixen has made upon herr"
agnes, l fancy, is a sensible young
woman; and Miss Norcross, in her rage, must
have shown her hand too freely. To be sure,
Agnes might wonder how you could ever
have been captivated; but she could not
blame you for getting out of reach of such a
Tartar. Besides, the exemplary widow is
your friend, you know, and I'll warrant that
she will set the matter right. Irene won't
ll,HN&
happen twice. You are as safe as the sailor
who put his head into the hole where a can
non-shot had just come through. Lightning
doesn't strike the same tree twice in one
shower"
Oakhurst was at length persuaded to wait
and let events take their course If he re-
manned inactive, however, Palette did not;
from Mrs. NOrcrosS he heard daily the pro-
gress of affairs, and at length intimated to
his friend that it might be judicous to call
again.
Once more Oakhurst was seated in the
drawing-room of the boarding house. At
every distant footstep his heart beat almost
audibly; and when at last the breezy rustic
of woman's robes came in from the hall, he
thought, as many a man has, before and
since
She is coming, my life, my fate
She entered, not with the welcoming smile
he would have liked to see, nor with the for
bidding cloud of sadness which yelled her
face a few days before. But how lovelyl
Time had given fulness and perfection to her
beauty, while the effect of the trials she had
undergone was seen only in the look Of
womanly dignity and self-control she had
acquired. 1t was the freshness of girlhood
joined to the grace of maturity
Nothing is more inscrutable than the work
ing of the human will; argument does not
reach it, nor does persuasion overcome it.
1t holds out against reason, against interest, |
against passion; no sufficient motive can be |
found with which to control it On the /
other hand, it sometimes stoops in a way that
defies prediction; pride is vanquished or dis
armed, resentment melts away like frost, |
and the resolution that at first seemed firm
as the everlasting rock proves to be no bar /
rier. Nor is this uncertainty confined to the /
sex at whose foibes the satirists have been |
wont to let fly their arrors.
Feeling is deeper than thought; and as the
earthquake lifts the mountain with all the |
weight Of its rocky strata and Of the piled-up
edihces that crown its top, 50 there comes a /
time when the emotional nature rises up and 4
overthrows the carefully. wrought structures |
of the intellect and asserts its original and 4
supreme mastery over the soul of man