Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1891-01-09

Having reminded Xnu of this. may next
tell You that SANDY seal Pace was my moth
er's property Ii formed part of her mar
riagc portion, and it was settled on my faith
er if She died before him. and if She left no
female child 10 survive her am her only
child. Ny father was therefore dealing with
his own property when he ordered the house
TO be Sold. His vii! left the purchase money
to me. would rather have kept the house.
But why did my mother make him prom
Use To sell the place al his death?
a letter attached To my fathers will an
swers this question and tells 4 very sad story.
In Difference to my mothers wishes it was
kept strictly secret from he While my faith
er lived.
There was younger sister of my moth
er's who was the beauty of the famiy-!oyed
and admired by everybody who was ac-
quainted with her. 1t is needless to make
this long letter longer by dwelling on the
girls miserable story. You have heard it of
other girls, over and over again. She loved
and trusted; She was deceived and deserted.
Alone ami triendlesS in foreign country
her fair fame blem>hed. her hope in the tut-
IRE utterly destroyed-she attempted to
| drown herself. This happened in France.
| The best OF good womcn-a sister Of charity
| happened to be Near enough to the river 10
| rescue her. She VS. Sheltered; she was
| pitied; She was encouraged to return to her
| family. The poor, deserted creature Also
| lutey refused; she could never forget that
| she had diSgraccd them. The good sister of
| charity won her confidence. A retreat, which
| would hide her from the world and devote
| her to religion for the rest of her days, was
| the one end to her wasted life that she long
ed for. That end was attained in a priOrv
| of Benedictine nuns established in France.
| There she found protection and pcace-there
she passed the remaining years of her life
among devoted sister friends, and there she
died a quiet and even happy death.
| You will now understand how my moth
er's grateful remembrance associated her
| with the interests of more than one COM
munity of nuns: and you will not need to be
told what she had in mind when she obtain
ed my fathers promise at the time of her last
illness.
'He at once proposed to bequeath the
| house as a free gift to the Benedctines. My
mother thanked him and refused. She was
thinking of me. If our son fails to inherit
the house from his father she said. it is
only right that he should have the value of
the house in money. Let it be Sold
$50 here am-rch already-with this adj
ditional sum of money in my bankers care.
MY idea is to invest it in the funds, and
to let it thrive at interest until grow older
and retire, perhaps, from service in the navy.
The later years of my life may well be de-
voted to the founding of charitable institu-
ton, which myself can establish and direct.
If die first-Oh, there is a chance of it! We
may have naval war, perhaps, or may
| tnrn ont pf those inpnrriUih1a M m N
who risk their lives in arctic exploration. In
case of the worst, therefore, shall leave the
interests of my contemplated home in your
honest and capable hands. For the present
good-by and prosperous voyage outward
bound"
So the letter ended.
Sydney dwelt with reluctant attention on
the latter half of it. The story of the I'M
happy favOrite of the family had its own
melancholy and sinister interest for her. She
felt the fOreb0dng that it might, in some of
its circumstances, be her story tOO-with0ut
the peaceful end. Into what community Of
merciful women could she be received in her
sorest need? What religious consultations
would encourage her penitence? What pray
ers, what hopes, would reconcile her, Oh her
deathbed, to the common doom?
She sighed as she folded up Capt. Benny
decks letter and put it in her bosom to be
read again. IF my lot had fallen among
good people," she thought, perhaps l might
have belonged to the church which took care
Of that poor girl"
Her mind was still pursuing its own sad
course of inquiry. She was wondering in
what part of England Sandyseal might be.
She was asking herself if the nuns at the old
mOated house ever opened their doors to wO-
men whose one claim on their common
Christianity was the claim to be pitied, when
she heard Linley's footsteps approaching her
door.
His tone was kind, his manner was gentle.
His tender interest in her seemed to have re-
vived. Her long absence had alarmed him.
He feared she might be i'll. Il was only
thinking" she said. He smiled and sat down
by her, and asked il she had been thinking
Of the place they should go to when they left
London.