Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-08-11
CHAPTER ".

The next morning daWnS upon bright,
cold day. Mrs. Hephzibah Horton rises
with the lark This morning, however,
she intends to devote to the interests of
her friend.
Among the most ardent admirers Of her
freedom of thought and action is her legal
adviser Mr.. Bond. This little man and
Mrs. Horton are always quarreling, and
yet neither of them is happy without the
other. Mrs. Hephzibah, armed to the
teeth with an umbrella, boots and water
proof, steps into the Office in Holborn and
asks for Mr.. Bond. The clerk in attend
ance having given her q dusty seat, tiies
to inform his principal that this wells
known client seeks an interview.
"Well, my dear Mrs. Horton, this is an
unexpected pleasure" commences the So
licitor as she is ushered into his pres
ence.
Don't talk nonsense! Why shouldn't
you expect me one day as well as an
other?'
And here Mrs. Horton details as much
as is necessary Of Della Moray's circum-
stances and history, to which Mr.. Bond
listens attentively, lying back in his OF
fee chair, with his eyes closed. and his
hands slowly rubbing one over the other.
"You wish me to understand, say
Mr.. Bond, when she has concluded, that
your friend is DESTROYS to separate from
her husband and to maintain herself?'
THAT'S it, She wants to get rid Of a
brute who il-treats herself and her child
and squanders all her earnings"
There is family, then?'
There is one child"
"Well, it seems to me that the best
plan would be for your friend to establish
herself in a home of her own, and if her
husband persecutes her, then to take out
a protection order against him. But II
he can and will support herself and the
child, there is no law by which she can
leave his protection"
"All she wants is permission to support
herself and her child away from that
man."
"Of course your friend is aware that
if her husband chooses to claim the child
she will have no power to oppose him?'
What! Can't she keep her own child!
"Not If it is above seven years old, and
the father will not consent to her doing
So"
'Then, if I understand you rightly,
should Mrs Moray take out a protection
order against him, she won't be able to
claim the boy-as part of her right"
"Certainly not. The child belongs to
her husband"
Mrs. Hephzibah Horton does not speak
for few moments. If she were q man
she would swear horribly-as she is a
woman, she bites her lip and is silent.
But the same choleric Indignation that
produces oaths is rising in her breast the
while, and as soon as she thinks she has
obtained sufficient command over herself
to speak it bursts forth.
"So-this is your LAWS it?' she eX-
claims, rising from her seat. Il wonder
an honest man like yourself is not asham-
ed to sit smuggling in your chair and
weighing it out as a grocer does his sand,
pretending to think it sugar all the while.
You must know what a horrid cheat and
fraud it is What! You tell me there is
no chance of redress for this unfortunate
woman, unless she consents to part with
her child-the only creature for whom
she longs to burst these unnatural bonds,
and live in peace! But if she had been
frail instead of honest she would at this
moment have been free to quit her task
master and take her boy out Of his
clutches Here let me go-do! ! must
tell poor Della the upshot Of this as soon
as possible, for I'm afraid | raised her
hopes last night for nothing. III come
and see you again, some day, when I've
got over this. and feel in better tenn
per; or, perhaps FL run out to Hamp-
stead next Sunday and have tea with YOU
and the boys. But let me go now, for the
air of your room STILES me. Injustice and
robbery! Robbery and injustice! That's
what the whole system amounts to-"
Saying which, in no inaudible tone, Mrs.
Hephzibah stalks through the outer office
into the street, leaving the clerks in q
state of bewilderment as to what particu-
lar wrong she alludes to.
Ito be continued.>
The Lesser of Two Dangers,