The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1897-06-19
CHAPTER XLyII,

More than once on one ana the same day
the captain had been guilty of q weakness
which would have taken his Oldest friends
by surprise if they had seen him at the mo-
ment. He hesitated.
A man who has commanded ships and has
risked his life in the regions of the frozen
deep is u man formed by nature and taught
by habit to meet emergency face to face, to
see his course straight before him, and to
take it, lead him where it may. But nature
and habit, formidable forces as they are, find
their master when they encounter the pas
sion of love.
At once perplexed and distressed by that
startling change in Catherine which he had
observed when her child approached her,
Bennydeck's customary tirmneSs failed him,
when the course of conduct toward his be-
trothed wife which it might be most becom-
ing to follow presented itself to him as a
problem to be solved. When Kitty asked
him to accompany her nurSemaid and her
self on their return to the hotel he had re-
fused because he felt reluctant to intrude
himself on GATHERINGS notice until she was
ready to admit him to her confidence of her
own free will. Left alone, he began to doubt
whether delicacy did really require him to
make the sacrifice which he had contem-
plated not five minutes since. 1t was surely
possible that Cati crime might be waiting to
see him, and might then offer the explana-
ton which would prove to be equally a re-
lief on both sides. He was Oh his wa to the
hotel when he met with Sydney Westerfield.
To see a woman in the sorest need of all
that kindness and consideration could offer,
and to leave her as helpless as he had found
her, would have been an act of brutal indif-
ference, revolving to any man possessed of
even ordinary sensibility. The captain had
only followed his natural impulses, and had
only said and done what, in nearly similar
cases, he had said and done OH other occa-
sions.
Left by himself he advanced a few steps
mechanically, on the way by which Sydney
had escaped him-and then stopped. Was
there any sufficient reason for his following
her and intruding himself on her notice?
She had recovered, she was in possession Of
his address, she had been referred to a per-
son who could answer for his good inten-
tons; all that it was his duty to do had been
done already. He turned back again, in the
direction of the hotel.
Hesitating once more, he paused half way
along the corridor which led to GATHERINGS
%sitting-room. Voices reached him from per-
sons who had entered the house by the front
door. He recognized Mrs. Presty's loud,
confident tones. She was taking leave of
friends, and was standing with her back to.
ward him. B%ennydeck waited, unobserved,
until he saw her enter the %sitting-room. No
such explanation as he was in search Of could
possibly take place in the presence of Cath.
crimes mother. He returned to the garden
Mrs. Presty was in high spirits. She la,
enjoyed the festival; she had taken the lead
among the friends who accompanied her to
the palacei she had ordered everything and
had paid for nothing, at that worst of all bad
public dinners In England, the dinner which
pretends to be French. In a buoyant frame
of mind, ready for more enjoyment il she
could only find 1t, what did she see on open
ing the %sitting-room door? To use the ex
pressive language of the stage, Catherine
was discovered alone"-with her elbows or
the table, and her face hidden in her hands
the picture Of despair.
Mrs. Presty surveyed the spectacle before
her with righteous Indignation visible In
every line OF her face. The arrangement
which bound her daughter to give Benny.
deck his final reply on that day had beer
well known to her when she left the hotel II
the morning. The conclusion at which Shit
arrived. on returning at night, was expressed