The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-11-23

you have any doubt upon the point?
think not Argument is useless.
There is but one road for such as we,
unless we choose to add greater crime
! to that already committed 2
"But I understood . said the
preacher, suddenly regaining his self
possession through the influence of a
| hopeful thought, that you were per-
! suing your studies in Rome and that
you intended to get married this fall
to the man whom you admitted to rae
had won your heart
The girl listened to these words as
] mechanically as though she had antici-
pated them, her large, thoughtful eyes
fixed upon the speaker with an ex-
preston of contemptuous forbearance
and her answer evidently prepared
when the time should come for her to
| speak.
| After she had concluded she replied
in cool, steady voice, in which there
was scarcely perceptible undertone
of bitterness:
Eyes; loved Arthur Maynard as
deeply as woman could love. would
sacrifice everything to marry him even
now If my conscience would permit of
such dastardly piece of deception,
but 1 have not yet reached that depth
| of baseness that I would deceive a
true and honorable nature, nor could
you dare to violate your sacred trust
by uniting him at the altar to one you
knew had SO basely deceived him."
The perspiration stood in huge
beads upon the preachers forehead,
but he did not answer one word.
LAS l cannot deceive Arthur Nav
nard, continued the woman in earn
est tones, 80 it is with regard to the
rest of the world. If 1 live among
good people every word they speak in
condemnation of those whose actions
! have condemned them to the criticism
of respectable people is like a dagger
piercing my soul, and the constant
dread that they sh,uld discover the
secret OF my vileness gnaws at my vi
tails until am shadow of myself. A
miserab BILE, skulking shadow, ashamed
OF the light of day lest it expose it's
corruption. Go where I will my
guilty secret haunts me, driving me
insensibly towards that moral plane
where the consciousness of my own
baseness is lost in the equality of
those with whom come in contact.
"You would never have known"
continued the speaker, that 1 had
drifted to what l may call my level
but for a wish that felt to see you
once again before the effects of my
present life should be too plainly con-
spicuous to permit of my calling upon
respecta BILE people. The last sermon
you preached 1 read carefully and
thought you might perhaps wish to
modify it after seeing me. If you
could come among us Samaritans. you
might lind peril Lips more to pity than
blame, and rather than pursue the
helpless victims of mems blind passions
as you have been doing in your
crusade against the social evil, you
might possibly wish to ease lot more
intolerable than any others on this
earth rather than permit in persecut-
ing those. who, by misfortune, have
fallen into the abyss from which there
is no escape on this side of the grave.
Console yourself, if there is any conso-
lation in the thought, with the fact
that am willing to bear my punish
ment alone. 1t would be no gratifca-
ton to me to know that had dragged
another down to share the lot that
have accepted as my penalty. / only
ask you to abstain from harsh criti-
cisms of those who openly bear the
brand of shame once imposed upon
the whole human race"
Appalled,, Mortified, exacerbated
even, SO far as temporary feeling was
concerned, the Rev. DR.. Manister
listened to this harangue as one who,
whilst yet awake, dreams.