The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1898-12-13
streets.

81 %AaesSsSsRaea%/El sons were journey
SY}ap@a1s>fa - ing toward the city
i:2SEE3539p of London by the
PK tG9 night mail.
One was M s S
Hetherin G on of
the Castle; the other was John Suth-
erland.
For fully an hour neither of them
had spoken; the old lady, looking fully
twenty years older than when we last
beheld her, lay back among the cush-
ions of the carriage, and fixed her eyes
upon a letter which she held in her
hand. For about the tenth time that
night she raised the paper, and read
the words which were hastily scrawled
thereon:
Dear Mother am in great trouble.
| am in sore need. Will you help me?
do not mind for myself, but to see my
little child in want breaks my heart.
"MARJORIE."
She read it through; then with a
moan she let it fall again upon her
lap.
"Marjorie" she cried, "my BARN, my
bairn!'
From his corner of the carriage
Sutherland watched in silence He
was utterly in the dark as to what it
all meant. He only knew that they
were travelling to Paris and to Mar
jorie.
On the day before, as he had been
quietly working at his pictures at home,
his father having partially recovered,
Miss Hetherington, whom he believed
TO be in Edinburgh, had suddenly ap-
peared like specter before him, and
without a word of explanation had COM
manded him to return with her to
Paris.
On fastening with her to the Castle
he found that stormy scene had been
enacted there; that Miss Hetherington,
beside herself with rage, had actually
struck her old attendant in the face
and turned her from the door. What
it was all about nobody seemed to
know, and after one glance into Miss
Hetheringtons wild eyes Sutherland
knew that he had better not inquire.
So he quietly obeyed her orders, and
the two started together by the night
mail for the south But although Suth-
erland had been silent he had been
none the less curious; and now, seeing
that Miss Hetherington' wild excite
ment was passing away, he ventured
to speak:
sMiss Hetheringtonr' cried Johnnie
Sutherland "Is that letter from Mar
jorie?"
cay, from Marjorie"
She held forth her thin white hand,
which now was trembling violently,
and as Sutherland took the letter she
uttered a low moan again, and for the
first time that night her tears began to
fall.
Sutherland read the letter, then he
looked at the date, and exclaimed:
October! why, it's more than four
weeks old!''
cay, more than four weeks!' she
moaned; then suddenly sitting erect,
and looking fixedly into his face, she
added: Johnnie Sutherland, what has
happened to her now?''
"God knows; but maybe after all we
are in time; but how did it chance to
be SO long in coming to your
st went to the Castle, Johnnie, and
Mysie kept it there. When [ came
home from Edinburgh yesterday
found it lying on my desk waiting for
me. 1t had been waiting for me for a
month, you see.
Sutherland was silent. He was more
troubled than he cared to say. A
month! All! he thought, what might
not happen in that time to woman
and child penniless and alone in the
streets of Paris?
He returned the letter with a sigh,
and did all he could to rouse and cheer
his companion, who, now that her ex-
element was over, suffered with
frightful reaction, and trembled and
cried like child.
fro BE CoNTINUED.l