Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-04-13

DO not 3,t0l Yourself" he said,
raising his hand. with smile, half sad,
half bitter. e T VII. ther vou have
done me full justice or not you have
taught IL" sanitary lesson. You have
shown M how others regard me-" He
la1~,l and walk / acres the room with
bowed H. I'd. Mean and cowardly,"
l,at... rs If to himself Am in
decd that
There WIS pain in the girls face now
as she VIII he'd him in his humiliation,
f.r l'y nature She was gentle and full Of
sweet sympathy. She had spoken in
inli -nation and had struck deeper
than >hc n.it. Thought This man was
revealing an entirely new aud unsuS-
l,irl ~,,l.tr his character. She hcd
meant merely In sting his vanity
iAI,5.-h the thick she'll Of selfish apathy,
and she had drawn blood.
Listen To me. Ralph, she said ear
Mostly, using the familiar name as she
had been wont when they were boy and
girl together. You must listen to me,
FIR if have been unkind wish IL he
gust. From my standpoint what you
PROPOSED was mean and cowardlv. l
ran I Withdraw that. Your father left
Won master Of these mines. with the
hundreds who toll in them. When You
took possession Of Your inheritance, you
assumed IL responsibility which you
haIr H. right To- cvade or lay upon 9TH
tis. When yuu first came here, your
mon were prepared to give You hearty
welcome. You could have soon won
their love and confidence. \ few kind
words, the smallest evidence that you
had their welfare at heart, would have
done it. instead Of which you have
utterly ignored them. You have shown
that you despised them. and even these
rude. ignorant people have pride which
may be outraged. You deputed your
own proper duty to a hard, narrow
souled tyrant, whose brutality and in
justice have driven those who might
have been made humble and devoted
friends into revolt. The Monckton
mines have an evil reputation through
out the whole region for poor pay, hard
work and danger. The mines are no.
toriously unsafe. That part called the
Ten Foot Drive is liable to be flooded
at any moment. to the certain destruc-
ton Of everything living within it.
Your overseer was notified of the fact
and requested to take precautions. Act
ing in your name, he refused, though
the expense would have been triling.
Acting in your name again, he has cut
down wages, SO that many families in
the village were in want, even before
the strike began. At this hour, as we
sit here, there are helpless women and
children slowly perishing Of hunger
the wives and little ones of your men,"
The tears were running down her
cheeks now as she spoke, and the
beautiful face turned toward him was
full of angelic pity and sorrow that
moved the mans soul as it had never
before been moved in his whole life.
Are you speaking from hearsay?"
he asked in low voice. do you
know these things to be trueT"
Il have gone into their poor homes"
she replied, land l have seen sights to
make the heart bleed. You were not
ignorant that great wrong was being
! done, Ralph. 1 told you myself, but
you would not heed me. The subject
bored you, and you waved it aside with
jest. But you could not put aside
your responsibility. For every child cry
ing for bread in yonder village, for ev-
cry broken hearted woman's tears, for
every act of madness and despair which
those men may do, yours is the blame,
Ralph, yours alone"
He opened his lips as if to speak, but
his head dropped upon his chest again,
and he remained silent.
when those patient creatures could
bear no more and declared a strike
against you," she went on, though with
evidently increasing effort, for his atti-
tude of complete nonresistance discom-
fitted her, You manifested the most
perfect indifference. You took no in
terest in the struggle, either ON your
own behalf, as owner of the mines, or
as a redresser of crying injustice
wrought by your hireling, Joyce. But
and am ashamed to say it, Ralph
one day, when your own proper person
seemed to be threatened, you suddenly
awcke, not to sense of neglected duty,
but to the possibility of physical in
jury. Then your resolution was prompt
ly taken-not to fulfill long neglected
duty, but to slip away and so evade
both danger and responsibility. You
have become accustomed to my society"
"a red spot came into her cheek, and
she raised her head haughtily-"and
you offer me the bride of your name
and fortune to accompany you in your
fight. You have no love to offer, and
you cannot respect me, or you would
never have proposed such marriage to
me-"
She stopped, and with her hands
clasped before her gazed earnestly at
the bowed figure of the man. For many
minutes he neither moved nor spoke,
appearing to be buried in a profound
and gloomy reyerv.
CHAPTER K.
THE STORY OF MISSPENT YOUTH.
Rarely, Think" said Monckton at
length, has any man listened to ouch
accusations as You have brought against
me today. You certainly have not
spared me, but meted out full judg-
ment on my SINS. Yet, all unworthy as
am, might rake together a poor de-
Tense from the ashes of a misspent past.
My father, as you know, began life as
a common laborer in the mines that
afterward became his own. He worked
his way upward by methods which,
whether my moral sense approves Of
them or not, am too weak of fiber to
initiate. Like many Of his class, he
did not comnrphend the diOuitv of <oi1