The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1890-04-18
mony, and had sold his commission, ane

mony, and had sold his commission, ant
thrown himself almost penniless on the
world, after the name Of many other gen
tlemen, English as well us Irish. Twice
had he married in ten years, and twice fol-
love. Nothing could have been more hon.
orable or less prudent than either marriage,
and now he was living from hand to mouth
In furnished lodgings in Brussels, writing
little for the English newspapers, getting
little help now and then from his own fami
ly, and now and then a %ten-pound note froIt
a wealthy maiden aunt of his wife's-tht
punt from whose handsome house in tho
Circus Bath, pretty Kathleen Reilly had
run away with her handsome Captain. Til,
aunt had not forgiven or taken her back to
favor; but she sent a little help occasional.
ly, ont of sheer charity, and always accom-
panied by n lecture which gave a favor Of
bitterness to the boon.
Captain O'Hara and his wife were not I'M
happy, In spite of their precarious fortunes,
1t was summer, and the scent of the lime
blossom was in the air of the park and the
boulcvards; the lamplit streets and cafes
were full of brightness and music in the
balmy eventides of July. The young wife
was looking forward tremblingly, yet hope
fully, to the cares and joys of maternity.
The dark-eyed s~tepdaughter adored her.
Too young to remember her own mother,
who had died in Bengal, where the girl was
born, the child idolised the Captains fair.
haired wife, and was fondly loved by her IL
return. Never was there a happier family
group than these three, and when the ex.
pected baby should come, it was to be a boy,
the Captain declared in the pride of hi,
heart; a son and heir-heir to empty pockets,
wasted opportunities, bankruptcy, and gaol,
He WAS pining for n son to perpetuate tina
noble race of O'Hara. The baby was to be
christened Patrick, after some famous Pat.
rick O'lara of days gone by, the age of war
and chivalry, and poetry and pride, when
Ireland had not yet yielded her sweetness
to the proud invader.
Alas for the unborn child on whom such
hopes had been founded, such dreams had
been drcamt! The fatal day of birth came,
and the child was a girl; and before tho
wailing infant was six days old the young
fair mother, with the ripping golden hair
and innocent blue eyes, was lying in her
coffin, strewn with white lilies and roses,
and all the purest flowers of summer-tide.
The brave young heart, which had never
tlinched or faltered at poverty or trouble,
was stilled for ever. The wife who had
.3een content to bear Fate's worst ills with
the husband of her choice was gone to the
shadowy home where his love could not fol-
low her.
Captain O'Hara never looked the world
or his difficulties bravely i'll the face nftel
that day. lie lived to see Kathleen aiovcly
girl Of five years old, but he was a broken
mar from the day of his wife's death. He
roamed from foreign town to town, living
| anywhere for convenience or c~heapncss,
He spent six months at Brest, q year III
| Jersey, the two girls with him everywhere,
nursed and cared for by Bridget Ryan, the
faithful Irish maid-servant who had taken
Rose from the arms of her Indian ayah, and
had followed the Captains fortunes eve
since. He led a wrotched on t-at-elbows life
getting a little money by hook or by crook,
and leaving a little train of debts behind
| him, like the trail of the serpent, in every
town he left.
In Jersey, where cognac was convenl ent
ly cheap, the Captain took TO drinking O
good deal-not in dreadful drinking bouts
which would have frightened his poor chill
dren out of their senses, but in a gentle
homeopathic sort of sottishness which KEEP
his brain in a feeble state all day long, ant
gradually sapped his strength and hi!
manhood. While the Captain was dawdlin!
away his day-strolling down to the taverl
or the club, lounging on the esplanade, gos
slipping with the goers and corners, meetin!
old acquaintance, and sometimes getting al
invitation to dinner, with 4 cigarette Away
between his lips-the two children, o
whom the elder was not eleven, and tht
younger only four, used to play together al
day UpOn the golden sands in front of thei
shabby lodgings, while the Irish nurse COS
slipped with the landlady, or sat in the SUI
darning and patching the clildren's well
worn frocks or the Captains decayin,
skirts.