The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-03-14
copYRt6HL 1898. BY me AUTnoR.)

me MUCH duAl6ly. Duo lOOhS IlhO coAAo
rare, beautiful flower, fading out Of ex-
istence before my eyes. If it were not
for the monotony of her days, do not
believe she would be alive now. am
sure any agitation would be harmful to
her. That is the reason do not want
you to interfere with my arrangements.
Northcote had listened to her with
fixed attention. He wanted to judge of
the practicability of securing Whitney
an interview with the wife he had not
seen for 30 years. If he did not conduct
this matter with extreme diplomacy,
the man was quite capable of asserting
his legal rights with a coarse persisten-
cy. The thought of Whitney brought
him back to his momentous errand. He
dared not tarry about it another second.
He plunged into the matter with awk-
ward preoipitance.
!, IT have not the slightest intention Of
removing your aunt or OF interfering
with any Of your arrangements. She
may stay here forever. I-I-Miss Bas
com''-he came toward her, where she
still stood stirring the rose leaves, and
took forcible possession of her hand, as
if it's restless activity annoyed him
Ibid you ever-were you ever-struck
by anything strange in your-in Colo
mel Bascom' attitude toward you?''
Jessica drew her hand out Of his clasp
with some show of displeasure and seat
ed herself before answering.
"Toward me? I think don't quite
understand.
''Did it ever occur to you that your
relations toward each other as father
and daughter were perhaps trifie
strained?'
cat first, yes. admit it with shame
for my own girlish exactions I came
home to him an entire stranger at
time when his hesrt and brain were full
of the cause to which he has given his
life resented having been allowed to
grow up away from him and my home.
I said great many spiteful things, no
doubt, but he was always the tender,
generous man you knew SO we'll. He
would laugh my ugly hints out OF exist
ence and show me in every possible way
that if mistakes lad been made in my
rearing he had always done what he
thought would be for my best happi-
ness. "
She dashed a tear from her eye and
went on:
SIT comforts me now to think that
all that had passed away long before he
left me and that he had the satisfaction
Of knowing that his daughter loved and
trusted him utterly"
"You are making my task harder
with every word you speak, said
Northcote, with gfoan that seemed
!! wrung from the very depths OF his be-
ing.
"Your task? What task?'
She sat looking-up at him with her
hands clasped upon her lap. She was
mentally consigning him to the realms
of 1nelodrama, when he broke silence
violently,
"What do I gain by hesitating:
Where can look for words to clothe it
deoently-the task of telling you that
Merriman Bascom was not your father
at all; that you are the daughter OF
Ellen Basoom and Dennis Whitney, the
son of her fathers overseer? They were
married secretly in this very house by
that old imbeoile you call your gentle
pilgrim. -
He stopped and looked at the girl to
see what effect this revelation was hav-
ing on her. She sat with her hands
clasped on her lap as if she was listen
ing to some strange story that had no
particular bearing on anything. Her
lips were more tightly compressed than
usual, and her face was the color OF the
white marble mantelpiece against which
Northcote was supporting himself. She
was simply waiting for him to go on.
II know, my dear child, that this
must come to you as frightful and a
degrading shock. Whitney S turning up
after a disappearance that warranted
everybody in supposing him dead and
the coming to the front Of the old imbe-
cile who did the mischief have recon-
ciled me to Bascom' g death. This would
have brought about trouble
"Why did he deceive me? Why did
he not let me know I was plebelanl
Why did he claim me as his own daugh-
ter?"
Because he was the grandest man
that ever lived Rather than let the
shadow of suspicion rest upon the sis
ter he adored he allowed his own fail
name to be aspersed.
! ITO be continued.)