Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1895-03-15
CHAPTER Continued.

CHAPTER Continued.
"Oh, Rody, do not be hard upon ME! 1
have nobody in the world to come to but
band? Not harming him-lll not harm
him-only let me escape. from him. l will
do it, and I'm right; your wife says So"
Rodcrick started.
Eyes, she is quite right" said Silence,
not lifting her eyes, but speaking as her
husband knew she could speak sometimes,
with ~unmistnkable decision.
MY wife is IL daring woman to say
such Il thing"
"Am II"
She looked up n minute with n quivcring
lip. and did not attempt to put back her
hand, which he had let go, but folded her
fingers together, after Il way She had, as
If to give herself strength, when she had
any difficult or painful thing to do.
"This is q very strange advice for my
wife-I hope n happy wife-to give to
oy sister. Your reasons?"
"They are not easy to explain, but l
will try" She stopped, thcn with II firm,
clear voice went on again. eff Bella had
only herself to sacrifice she might do it.
though l am not sure. 1t is a sin against
heaven to condone sin, even in ones own
husband. But in this and similur cases
) woman does not sacrifice herself alone.
There are others upon whom the sins of
the father may descend, generation after
generation. She must think of them.
She is responsible to God for them. If 1
were in Bella's place"-her voice sunk al
most to n whisper; she turned deadly pale
and then flushed crimson all over her
face-"if l were i'll your sisters place 1
would die rather than be mother to a
a%runkard's children"
There was n total silence. Bella, accus-
toned to make self the standpoint of all
her opinions and acts, perhaps could
scarcely understand; but Rodcrick did.
Startled he might be, yet there was some
thing in his wife's stern righteousness
which he could not gainsay. AS he looked
On that small, sweet face, so sweet, yet
70 strong, he saw in her for the first time
not merely his wife, but the woman, the
cojoint and yet separate existence, in
trusted by God and nature with far more
than her WI petty life, inheritins-and
conscious that she in~heritcd-the destiny
which came to her from sacred Eve,
another of NIL living"
Man as he was, with n mans natural
leaning to the masculine side, with Il
mans natural blindness to much that
om see by instinct, still his wife's
words smote him with n certain respect,
yer That she had strength to say
them at all, she SO timid, SO shy, so reti-
cent, proved how deeply she must have
thought and felt on the matter.
"Dear," lie said, holding out his hand,
IF all women were like you-cspccially
K all sons had mothers like you-there
would be fewer bad men in this world"
She answered nothing: but her whole
lace frightened in recognition of what is
70 women like her as sweet as being loved
-hOnorcd. And so, without more argyll
nents, all three seemed tacitly to accept
he position which poor Bella had so
tercely insisted upon-tllat for her, mar
sicd life, or rather that unlloly travesty
If marriage which had been her self-in-
aicted doom, was over and done forever.
"Let her live as n widow" Silence
,aid. "Hcr life is lost know that-but
let the sacrifice end here. Let her not
inbmit to be the ruin of some other lives"
But she may be the ruin of her hus-
bands whom she tool, for better, for
worse How do you answer thatY"
Silence shrunl back. full of pain. ooh.
It is difficult. so difficult, to see the right:
worse, perhaps. to do it. Still, still No."
and again the strong. clear Abdiel look
same into her cyes-'no. there can be
but one right and but one wrong alike for
nen and for III She must leave him.
Think. Rodcrick, if the case was reversed,
4 YOU, or any other husband, were expect
ed to keep as mistress of your house, MS
mother of your children, a drunken wom-
an"
"God Forbid"
SsfV1NN> ,,., ,,-IA ~ fNY IA L.
Drunkenness, ~dissoluteness, anything by
which n man dcgrades himself and de-
stroys his children, gives his wife the
right to save them and herself from him,
to cut adrift, like n burning ship, and be
free. Poverty, contumely, loneliness-let
her endure all. Pity her lot, if you will,
but to ignore it, to accept it, and submit
to 1t, above all, to let the innocent suffer
from it-nevcr! Bella tells me that the
law gives her possession of her child for
seven years. My advice is let her take
It in her arms and ~fly-anywhcre, so that
her husband cannot get her back, or make
the law follow her. Nay, if I were she, I
would defy the law; 1 would hide myself
1t the worlds end, change my name, arm
ny bread rs a common working woman,
but I would save my child and CO."
As Silence stood, holding close to her
breast the poor babc-she had fetched it,
and was walking up and down the room
with it, for III one else seemed to have
patience with the miserable, sickly, vail
Ing creature-she looked the very incarna-
hon of womanhood in it's highest form
motherhood: absolutely calm. absolutely
fearless, rs mothers ought to be.
Roderick, touched with many new
thoughts which come crowding to n man
when he has ceased to be merely II young
man., absorbed in himself alone, and begun
to look into the far future, the future of
those who may yet bless or curse him for
his part Observation-Disclosures caught her
arm as she passed and drew her to his
side.
perhaps you are right do not quite
know. We must take time to think. But
just at this moment you must give baby
to its own mother and come and sit down
by me. Remember, you are nine"
Yes"
She obcyed, apparently without a
thought of d%isobeying, for the authority
was that of love, and the voice. though
decisive, was thrilled with unspcakablt
A-l..>z. &SNf:..Vs A. H., So eel