The Irish standard., 1892-12-03

sslG s got your sASt01 -
ii It. = she said, .sand / guess you'd q nave
to respect an oath if you took it On this.
book. s.8 s8ss
The captain was standing before her
with his hands in his pockets gloWerlng,
and knitting his brows in his effort to
understand. can oath" said he aston
ished; sswhat do you mean?'
esI mean there's secret weighing on
NV mind. and if it does look bad for me
I've got to tell it,
keep your secrets for all me-, said
he. turning abruptly on his heel; Eve no
doubt it's some id piece of foolishness.
II can't keep it and | won't, George
Bligh. It's kiln me by inches. MY legs
are all a-treE:ple after sleepless night
when some hing comes and stands by
nv bed and says, You've got to do 1t.
It's about you and me and V1nle ana
them old times"
The capital, looked startled and his
keen eve rested suspiciously for mo-
ment on the woman's agitated face.
"Well,' said he, laying his hand lightly
on the book, I'll promise not to TELL as
you make such point of it.
She stood up and faced him, putting
herself between him and the door; eylng
him, too, much as mouse eyes big Cat
that is on the point of a spring.
''Well, George" her speech flowed on
with many hesitations and breaks, ''you
remember that picnic up at Burns Mill,
when you asked Vinie to go and Mother
Mayhem KEEP her at home ON the pre-
tense that she had a bad cold, and you
was pipin mad and looked black as q
thundercloul because you could see
right through it all. Mother Mayhem
Was always against you, George. She
hadn't no faith in seafa1in men. She
said they mostly all had wife and
family in every port they frequented,
and weren't hardly ever known to be
pious. She wanted Vinie to marry
minister. She sent Josiah and me off in
a buggy. and when we got to the Mills
you was there wanderin round, lookin
glum and disconsolate. So you kind OF
made up to me because you wanted to
talk about Vinie, and you asked me to
be your friend and her friend, and to
tell her to keep up her courage and to
believe in your truth and constancy.
You were going next day to join your
ship for three months voyage to the
West Indies. and you promised to write
to Vinie from the first port you touched.
You gave me SO many messages for
Vinie l couldn't charge my memory
with them ALL didn't so much as look
at Josiah all that day, and he was hoppin
fo orOSr1rr
home"
The captain was holding her with his
wary eye. A. kind of ashen hue had
overspread his dark cheek. "Well." he
said under his breath.
'sYou went away" she resumed slow
ly, quailing and dropping her eyes I'M
der his look, land guess the devil must
have entered into me with seven other
spirits. forgot all them messages you
sent to Vinie. partly because ! argyed
it out that it would be wrong to go
against Mother Mayhem. l never
breathed word about that letter you
promised to write, and the wild notion
got hold Of me that mebbe you would
take up with me it Vinie was out Of
your reach. guess 1 was half crazy.
and treated Josiah like the dirt under
my feet. But it didn't seem to make
any difference with him in the end-he
was almost too stupid to know it. Well,
Vinie was looking for that letter.
hadn't breathed word, but she knew
you would write could see it in her
face as she went every day to the post
office with light step and then came
dragging home with her eyes CLASSY and
her face kind of pinched and withered.
She grew whittier and whittier every day.
most as if you could look right through
her body. But she would drag herself
to the postoffice and come back disap-
pointed, and could not help exulting.
I don't know whether wanted her to
die or not. was wicked enough to.
But finally she broke down in the first
of her hysterical spells, poor r-eakly
thing that she was, and she would make
me go to the postoffice, and the letter
came that very day. | couldn't bear
she should have it, thought I'd rather
be tore limb from limb didn't know
what was about, guess. for walked
around long time in a kind of daze.
and at last found myself down by the
river at the old red bridge, and took
the letter out Of my pocket and tore it in
little strips and threw them out on the
water, and can see them now go bob
bing up and down on the current. "
Every particle Of color had left the
captains face, and his eyes were blazing
like balefres. He gave wildcat spring
and seized her two wrists in grasp Of
iron. And it was you that spread that
damnable story all over the town that I
had a wife and children in Saint Kits,
and was trying to commit bigamy. And
when came home her mother met me
and told me the report, and said her
daughter hated me and would never
willingly see me again. . .
s'Let me go" shrieked Sister Martha,
as the vicelike grasp frightened on her
wrists. ''Td have took you if you'd had
forty wives in all, the ports, but you
treated me as if I'd been toothless
II = TIE n.