The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1896-06-26
CHAPTER H.
Too Late Repentance.

It was several minutes before Sir
Loghlen O'Meara could find courage
to address the mother Of his victim;
and when at last he spoke 1t was with
a trembling voice, his face very pale
and his lips quivering with agitation.
Twill you promise me, Mrs. Will
oughby," he began. "that you will not
only pardon me the questions I am
about to put to you. but that you will
also reply to then?"
Mrs. Willoughby, in some trepida-
tion, and her looks expressed great
surprise, gave, without hesitation, the
required promise.
The baronet assured Mrs. Willongh-
by that he was guided only by the in
terest with which her family had in
spired hip; and then proceeded with
his first question.
you have had a daughter?"
eyes, SIR" was the reply, uttered not
without emotion. "Rosa was her name,
and she was the wife Of good and
honest man."
Eyes, I know" said the baronet, an
expression Of pain for moment con-
tracing his features, "but her-her
husband is dead"
He died soon after his wife, and
with grief that he had lost her"
And then again there was pause,
ere the baronet proceeded hesitatingly:
"And since then you have remained
alone?"
with their two children" said Mrs.
Willonghby.
''Their two children?" questioned Sir
Loghlen.
1.-TWO sons" replied the old lady.
And then with cautious management
he asked: But Of those two children,
who are now two men and who bear
the same name, is there not one of
them who might Justly claim another
appellation?"
Greatly astonished, Mrs. Willoughby
asked of her interrogation how he had
known that?
And was answered by the baronet
that for the present it must suffice her
that he did know it.
Mrs. Willoughby would reply to no
further questions, she said, until she
had been told by her strange visitor
how he had learned that secret Of her
daughters unmerited suffering and Of
a villains perfdy.
The dearest-the most trusted Of his
friends, had, the baronet said, made
him the confidant of that terrible
crime which in his youth he had COM
mitted.
you must, indeed, have been his
dearest friend. Great, indeed, must
have been the confidence he placed in
you," Mrs. Willoughby very bitterly
exclaimed, ''since he could dare avow
to you the base hypocrisy, the das-
tardly outrage Of which he had been
guilty"
The words Just spoken stung the
his just and but very feeble portion
of the punishment which he had mer-
tied.
He could not to himself-had, indeed,
no wish to deny that-and so he bowed
his head and was silent before the I'M
happy mothers reproachful indigna-
ton.
II wept with my poor daughter and
my arms were open to console her."
resumed Mrs. Willoughby. "Heaven
beheld those tears, and blessed them;
an honest man came to repair the
wrong a villain had committed; to
make glad life which, but for him,
had been but one long day Of bitter
misery"
Sir Loghlen still continued silent,
and with his head bowed down upon
his breast.
with what motive, sir, have you
come hither to awaken those cruel re-
membranes" And now Mrs. Will
oughby spoke with marked intention.
"Come you on the part of that friend
who has confided to you his great
treachery?"
Eyes, yes!' stammered the baronet.
what would he, then? Now that
my poor Rosa is dead-as is, too, her
true and honest husband-what repara-
tion," added Mrs. Willoughby, point
eddy and looking the baronet through
and through, what reparation, then,
can your friend offer to those two
graves?"
"Alas, good lady, her wrongs can
now never be repaired, nor Justly
atoned for!' sighed the baronet.
"But,' he said earnestly, "remains
there not to him still q sacred duty to
PERFORM
"Of what duty, then, is he now at
last reminded?" demanded Rosa's
mother. "And what can there be that
is sacred to one who has proved him
self SO base?'
"A father may resign himself to be-
hold his son bearing another's name"
said the baronet with great effort, 'but
can he think Of the difficulties Of life
without the wish to smooth them all
away?'
II acknowledgements 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.
II 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 1t by placing him
in presence Of son who would de-
mand from him by what right he Of
fered that protection-the boy needs
1t not-what, then would your friend
say to him to compel him to accept
IT."
Mrs. Willoughby paused for d reply,
but none came; and SO she resumed:
"YOu would. perhaps. tell him that