Evening star., 1896-07-25

widow, in strange lard. You thought to
find him here, your protector. your hus-
band, and you found him dead. Your only
welcome was the grave.
Now, as l sat so commiserating my
self. could see in the mirror frightened
look steal into my own eyes and / grew
cold and trembled. What else was there
What other. fiercer. sharper grief was this.
that had been Gnawing at my heartstrings
these long weeks of oblivion? What was it
that thrilled me now with terrible an
guish-
''An of sudden the handglass dropped
to the tiled floor and broke into a dozen
pieces ard l shrieked with all my strength
My baby Oh. God! my baby hoy. and l
fell back once more into merciful oblivion
PART II.
"All through the racking pains and fren-
zies of the yet more dreadful fever which
now preyed upon me- continued Mrs
Peckham. Il talked and sobbed and prayed
and shrieked of just my baby boy
There was nobody there that knew me
except the consul; he didn't know anything
about my wee lad so far away. or how one
little bit of news from him might have
healed up the poor stricken mothers heart
ana soothed the throbbing of her brain. He
was sentieness and kindness itself. all that
manly, courteous gentleman should he
and I'll never, never cease to be grateful
to him for it,
Here she patted her husbands shoulder
as he leaned over her chair and held her
hand IN his, looking down all the while into
her beautiful melancholy eyes of gray.
50 you We're the consul, my fine fellow. !
thought
The doctors quite gave me ,,p this time
ana when l did regain consciousness they
say mad forgotten all about baby and
nome and husband. l could only sit on the
long portco and look out through the stone
pllasters to the smiling bay
1t was October before l was strong
enough to be moved, and when / started
1o1 Havre the consul and his good. patient
sister. whom I had learned to love. went
with me. 1t was they, too, sir who
Drought me back here to p, safe home
again But not to baby-I have never seen
my boy since the Saturday morning when
fanny rdnliy Bartlett held him up in her arms
idushihs and Growing, twenty years ago"
Mrs. Peckhams voice broke into a sob
ana, indeed. L. too. was much affected Her
husband. who l now understood, had re-
s!shed the consuship at Milan to accom-
up the story here for her
we found SIR said he. slowly and dis
unctly, that the Bartletts had gone to San
francesca to live Not hearing from the
and fretted. and finally made what NAV
nave seemed to them proper disposition of
,ne enid My wife had no near relatives
hVlhs and no other close friend here for
~ SNA &C, We nave CHOSEN our home NOT
lar away from where she and the Rartletts
ahen men hved- They had not written to her
about the boy, because they had never
neard from her. They could not know thar
sne was Ill among strangers, unable to
Miitc' broken down mentally and physi-
caiIy under her intense sufrerings So the,-
placed the child in the Children's Indus
trial Home highly respectable private in
ettution' as you know, and it is to find out
"hat became of him that this suit Won q re-
10" preparing for has been brought: for
appeared. N 'i'
For eighteen years we have sought him
IN Halh. we followed the Bartletts to Cali
fornia, and thence to the Sandwich Is-
lands, and would have followed them to
the bottom of the sea if the gale which
wrecked their steamer had not spared ours
we advertised and we hired detectives and
employed lawyers. l had no children. and
l longed to welcome the lost darling of INV
dear wife. 1t was not until last wear that
We found that he had been placed by the
Bartletts in the Childrens Industrial Home
just before they started for San Francisco.
1t nearly broke my wife's heart when the