The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1896-06-16

is sacred to one who has prov n him;
self so baSe?'
"a father may resign himS9lf to be-
hold his son bearing another'S 1Rme,
said the baronet with great effort, "but
can lie think of the difficulties OF life
without the wish to smooth them all
away?"
Il UNDERSTANDING Mrs Will.
oughby contemptuously exclaimed.
'There are, then, crimes which money
can diminishY'
''There are wrongs which repentance
may SOFTEN" humbly replied the bar.
onet.
Il wish to hear no more, SIR said
Mrs. Willoughby with much dignity.
you are come to bring to me your
friends repentance. If that remorse
has really penetrated his soul | have
no wish to aggravate it by placing him
in presence of son who would de-
mand from him by what right he of
fered that prOtection-the boy needs
it not--what, then would your friend
say to him to compel him to accept
it?'
Mrs. Willoughby paused for reply,
Mt none came; and so she resumed:
lou WOu1O, @cjl IT'LL lASkS
you are his father?"
The baronet, by mis- GESTURES, dis
claimed any such intention.
mo, true" pursued Mrs. Willoughby,
''you would not dare TO ~ sa2t, for my
poor boy would demand Of you how it
came that he did not bear your name
that through all his boyhood he had
never seen your face-and how it was
that, grown at length to manhood it
had not been your voice which had
said to him, My son, be just and hon
est throughout your life-never be
guilty of a bad action, for only re-
pentance and remorse can come from
it,
The baronet, unable longer to con-
tinue speaking in anothers name con-
fessed himself the guilty and repent
ant man he really was. And had he
not been punished for his crime? Did
he not now deserve some pity, since,
a father to that only son, he must to
that son always pass as stranger!
And Mrs. Willoughby had, for the
last few minutes, we'll understood that
she was speaking to SIR Loghlen
O'Meara himself and calmly and firm
ly told him that she had already de-
tected who in reality he was.
And the baronet entreated that she
would spare him further reproaches
for the past, since, from the moment
of his guilt his conscience had never
ceased to torture him.
For his crime he had, he said, but
the excuse of neglected youth, which
had received but evil counselS; he had
been reared to think that all beneath
him had been born for the service of
such as he.
But he vowed, and it was true, that
he had loved poor Rosa Willoughby;
that compelled to a marriage with the
woman his father had chosen for him,
his heart had been with Rosa then
and always, who, before heaven and to
his own conscience, was already his
wife.
Sha, who had been forced upon him,
dead, every effort was then set on foot
and continued year after year, even
until the present time for the discov-
cry of the unhappy girl he had SO
shamefully wronged-and by a crime
for which, but that he had removed the
evidence which would convict him, he
had been sent to herd felons of less
lofty birth than himself but above him
by the courage which had been re-
Quired to accomplish the guilty acts of
which they stood condemned.
He had hoped, the barOnet said, to
find Rosa living and free, and then
had it been his purpose truthfully to
ratify before the world those vows, of
which the first utterance had been, on
his part, but shameful mockery;
though Rosa, in believing that all was
real was Justly to heaven and to her.
self his wife.
And Mrs. Willoughby trembled and
was silent. Long years had passed
since that fatal time which Sir LOgh-
lens presence now so wildly recalled
to her memory. She had grown old,
and was now near to heavens gates,
which would, she hoped and trusted,
open to receive her. CurSingS and up
braidings were not for one SO closely
yerging on the tomb. Rosa, living
would now have pardoned her treach-
erous lover of days long past and gone
that her mother knew; and she her
self could not be without mercy for
sincere repentance, nor without pity
for life whose luStre had been dim
med and Swallowed over by remorse.
And very grateful was the baronet
to Mrs Willoughby for her forbear-
ance now.
He urged that he was wealthy-that
he possessed a title and honors-and
entreated of Mrs. Willoughby that he
might be permitted to bestow portion
of all that upon his son.
Mrs Willoughby could have no wish
to obstruct the making of her eld-
est grandson's fortune; and so
she asked of the baronet in what way
he would be able to carry his good in
tentions into effect.
1.-THE fortune l cannot offer to him."