The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-03-23

~ LII = N0A
if he stood here before me-
He might come himself, madam"
"And the way I would answer it is
this: I'd tear it to bits and cast them in
his merciless facer'
Long after the door had closed upon
the footman she sat there, white, silent,
unmindful even of Ted's furtive caresses
and tender questioning. She seemed to
see the words of that cruel letter still be-
fore her-yes, every sentence was burn
ed on her brain:
Your note of appeal reached me when l ar
rived here from San Francisco on q trip
around the world. You are weak, you say, and
poor. You ask me for help. You say you would
not do this but for your child's sake-that If
you cannot work he must starve. Ihave con-
sidered the matter, and / have decided to give
you one more chance. The facts of the case are
these:
You married Terry Mason against my ex-
pressed threats. He was the son of the only man
i hated, one who tried to ruin me financially
and socially for reasons l need not state here.
l told you that if You chung to your absurd in
fatuation for Terry Mason you lost your father
forever. Perhaps you thought l did not mean
It Ibid.
However, Terry Mason is dead. Come back,
then, If you will, and I'll receive you, give you
. home, but his child / will never permit to
live under my roof. SEND him to the beggarly
relatives his father has bequeathed to him or
put him in some institution where he can be
paid for. Do as you please about that. He
cannot live with me-and more than that, you
must drop the Mason and be my daughter
again, in name and i'll spirit. There must be
no reminders of your sorry past. For your i'm
mediate need / inclose $50.
JuN1us T-REvELYoN.
''The money would have scorched my
fngersi" the girl muttered. "And yet,
oh, how / wish / might have kept Just a
few dollars to buy something for Ted for
Easter-poor darlingr"
What fancies passed before the young
widows sad, blue eyes, what pictures of
the pasti
She saw herself SO happy as a girl at
Trevelyon House, her fathers ancestral
home IN England. She saw Terry Ma
son, who had won her heart the very
first time she had met him, during the
London season. She saw herself so hap
py, so happy with him during their short
honeymoon together-happy, despite her
fathers estrangement and bitter words.
But the happiness had died SO soon.
She thought of n sunshiny April
morning when they were in the Alps, a
few months before Ted was born. Terry
had gone up n of the mountains with
partyof men. His last words still echoed
in her ears:
Don't worry, Mildred, dear. FL be
back before you are up in the morning."
Ali, death had its shadow over him
ever as he spoke! He never came back.
Into one of the treacherous raj
that Turk in the still. white depths of the
eternal SHOWS he had disappeared. His
companions, reaching the top, had called
and waited for him in vain. Search par
ties sent out had returned without a
hope. The earth had literally swallowed
him and with it all Mildred's joy in life.
Yet-not all-for when Ted was born
poor, pretty. crippled Ted, with his
eyes like the sky that arched the peaks of
snow-there was something to live for.
Money went, i'll luck came like q shadow
that persistently kept pace with her, but
her love for Ted grew stronger with sick
ness and disappointment.
Like 81 many other hapless ones, she
had eventually drifted to America, the
land of promise, but it had brought no
fulfllment to her. What weary years
of struggle had passed, yet abe had been
brave, had fought the fight alone, and
no prayer for help had reached the iron
willed master Of Trevelyon House.
But just q week before this Eastertide
she had seen her father step from his
carriage into one Of the hotels on Fifth
avenue. This was her first intimation
that he was in New York. An irresisti-
BILE impulse had led her to appeal to him
for Ted's sake. Despair was the result.
"Oh, is this all of hfe7' was her dreary
protest on this Easter Thursday as she
listened to the slow, silvery notes Of a
church bell drifting over the battered
rooftops that crowded Mingin's alley.
SIS this all, dear Ted7'
But Ted. leaning his elbow in its frayed
sleeve upon her knee, only shook his yell
low curls and looked with wondering
eyes into hers.
The ext morning, after q breakfast Of
dry bread ano susplclously blush milk,
Ted was left alone. Mildred had gone to
seek q position in one of the big shops, q
quest she had started on daily for al
most a month, while her small horde of
savings "a decreasing with terrifying
rapidity.
Ted was used to being left alone, but
this morning he was restless. Themem-
CRY Of his mothers tears the day before
seemed to burn his baby heart. His
wooden horse didn't amuse him. he
couldn't find any interest in his tiny
reading book nor prepare his spelling les
son of one syllable words for his mother
BY the time she came back. He Just sat
with his crutch ACROSS his knee, thinking.
Suddenly his eye caught sight Of . tat
tered newspaper on the table. It had
come around the bread that morning.
Was that . picture he saw upon tia
picture Of Q big hen harnessed to q nest