The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-09-04
she took bis brides.

6lO bOOh hls OElpNs.
With Ii word to her master she
could probably lave saved his daughter,
but she did not feel she was in danger.
Even a word of warning to Lucy her
self might not have been thrown away,
but she did not give it. On the con-
trary, urged by many considerations
dislike of her master and his surround
ings, willingness to please her darling
and confidence in Powers professions
she assisted him to elope with her. | am
afraid there was even a time when Lucy
shrank from the audacity of that de-
sign and but for Rebecca would have
abandoned it, but it was because she
was herself deceived. Indeed at the
last. when Lucy had lost her head as
well as her heart and would have risked
all for love, Rebecoa stepped in and in
sisted upon being present at the mar
riage ceremony. 1t was a barren precau-
tion, though poor Lucy might after
ward have used it as a weapon of re-
venge if she had had the heart for re-
venge, for in a few weeks she discov-
cred that he whom she had believed to
be her husband was a married man. In
that brief space she had lost all, for
tune, frienCs and home, for her father
closed his doors against her, and the
unhappy girl found herself thrown on
her own resources, which consisted only
of a scanty wardrobe and a few jewels.
Then, like a wounded tigress, she
turned upon Rebecca with, SIT is you
who have been my ruin!'
The fury that might reasonably have
been poured on her deceiver seemed
quenched in the very catastrophe he
had caused, as flame deserts the black
ened ruin. So far as he was concerned,
the crime of which she had been the
victim was so overwhelming that in
place of indignation she felt only
w~retchedness and despair. Too weak to
seek relief in self destruction she yet
desired to hide herself from her fellow
creatures and especially to be seen no
more of men.
What remained to her of vitality took
the form of passionate reproach of her
late ally and assistant, and not a word
did Rebecca say in her own defense.
Instead of leaving her young mistress
to a fate only too easy to be foreseen,
she devoted herself with penitence and
mors to smooth the rough road she
must needs travel for the future.
Effort of her own Lucy never made
and accepted the others services not
only as her due, but as but a small in
stallment of the obligation she had in
Cured in having given her such bad
advice. That she had not forgiven her
she made very plain even, as has been
shown, up to the last moment of her
life, but Rebecca never thought herself
hardly used.
"There was nothing l could do, as
you may believe" she said, shat de-
served thanks. 1t was owing to me that
my poor dear mistress, SO young, so
beautiful, so tender, had fallen into the
hands of a villain, and, unfit as she was
to bear hardships, was compelled to live
upon a crust. Was it to my credit that
these hands, which had taken his brides,
provided the crust?"
If Miss Lucy had complained, she
said she could have better borne the
consciousness of her crime, but after
that first outbreak she kept silence-a
cold, r%eproachful silence that for years
had chilled the others very heart. All
she stipulated for was to be alone, not
to be spoken to, not to be seen, and
even when her illness had become Sc
we're it was only on Rebecca's promise
to obtain professional advice without
the DOCTORS presence that the sick girl
had permitted her to apply to me.
This was the story of Rebecca's re-
morse.
I did what I could to reason with the
poor woman by pointing out how pen
ance atones for wrong, but if I had not
been so fortunate as to obtain for her
Lucy's deathbed forgiveness she would
certainly never have forgiven herself.
AS it was, she was in some degree COM
forted. I got her a situation in the
country with some friends of mine,
where she was greatly esteemed and re-
manned for years. She always took a
day or two's holiday in the summer
No one knew where she spent it, for
she had no friends, but at that same
time whoever visited an east end ceme-
terry would have found ON Lucy Testers
grave fresh flowers.
TIT CHrD