The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-02-28

widow and child. Their residence was
soon discovered in the fourth floor Of
rickety house up squalid alley. With
trembling steps the Sergeant followed
policeman there He found the widow
frenzied with sorrow for her husbands
loss. She may have been only seullery
maid, but she adored with her whole heart
and soul the young gentleman who had
loved her with an honest love. She had
never seen the Sergeant, and did not know
him; but when the policeman who had
guided him there told her who he was she
greeted him with wild cry of "Murder-
err The old man, Mortified beyond ex-
preston, tried to appease her by profers
of assistance, but she spurned them with
furious contempt The scene was horribly
painful, and on the old lawyers already
shattered nerves it had fearful effect
When at last he left the wretched apart
meut and the raving woman he was so
weak that it was only by the policeman
help that he was enabled to get down the
shaky stairs and into the cab that awaited
him below
That night when he returned TO Kings
Bench Walk and sat down before the fire
his face was as white and CHASTITY as the
face of the dead He had not been a kind
master to his old laundress, but so pitiiul
was his condition that her heart was melt
ed toward him. She stayed long in the
room in the hope that she might be OF
service to him, but he seemed to be uncon-
scious of her presence. At last she asked
him if she could do anything for him.
The sound of her voice startled him from
his reverie, but when he realized who it
was that spoke he irritably told her to get
home. With bitter feeling that no trials
or Affections could ever change him she
obeyed his order.
After her departure he sat motionless
for long time, gazing in silence into the
glowing fire before him. What agonized
feelings of sorrow and remorse tore his
broken spirit What bitter recollections
of the long distant but unforgotten past
of his dead Edith and his dead boy
passed through his whirling brain With
heart so firm and mind so strong as his
tie little griefs which vex little men pass
unnoticed but when the great griefs that
t can break such heart and unsettle such
; mind, the agonies suffered are those Of a
: giant
, The storm which had ragged the previ-
Gus night was now gone and dead calm
: reigned in its stead Not sound was to
f be heard among the leafess trees and de-
serted courts without; not whisper of the
| wind, not an echo of human voice or
t step. Inside still deeper silence, if pos
d sible, prevailed Not a draught rustled
: the heavy curtains; not mouse scampered
o behind the ancient wainscoting. Even the
fire itself had ceased to hiss and cracklt
, and lay in glowing embers on the hearth
q No noise broke the oppressive silence save
n one The great old clock in the corner
went on, tick-tick, tick-tick, ceaselessly and
: calmly, like the footsteps of an ever pursu
Y ing, inevitable fate.
/ As the old lawyer sat that night amid
n that profound silence gazing into the glow
= ing Goals and musing mournfully over his
e sorrows, a strange thought entered hi
O. troubled mind Hitherto he had been
It emphatically the strong man who relied OF
d his own strength. He had laughed al
e those weak souls who trusted to luck, ol
e fate, or Heaven; by whatever name they
n called it he cared little For himself, he
e trusted only to himself, and he was con
o vinced that by his own right arm he could
# and would shape his own destiny. Now
t. it occurred to him for the first time that
k after all perhaps he-he, John Stronge-
lie was a plaything in the hands of an ire
,r sistible and unknown power.
g The thought startled, staggered him
le Could it be that what he had laughed a
as foolishness was the highest wisdom
,e Could it be that his whole lifes work haC
r. been planned on a wrong principle-that HI
20 had not considered what should have beer
m the chief consideration? In his weak
as spirit-broken state he felt inclined to be
,e lieve it,
- Influenced by this to him unusual trail
Of of thought, he reused himself and searche'
ID out from among his books one that he ha
not opened for many year. 1t was
~ present given to him during the courtshi
ht by his dead Edith. What recollection
Q. that old book recalled what recollection
Is of youth, and love, and happiness Of tha
as sweet past, before fiery ambition had hard
ened his soul as clay is hardened in a fur
e. mace
he That book was the Bible. Opening
A at random he read. As he read the still
ness around seemed to become more an
h more profound Outside not murmur VIZ
to be heard; inside the very ticking of II
10 great old clock seemed for the time to ceas
he A strange, intense, unnatural silence pc
vaded everything.
er, He read on, only half realizing what
Mt read; his mind was too much occupied
tha fearful scenes and experiences of Il
dy day to be easily fixed on anything els
md But gradually his attention became mo
of and more attracted, until at last it was ri
eted on the page before him. A feeling