Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-22

Jack If her father were only an innocent
man. Love surely created a desire for pu-
rity, for, since she had learned to love Jack,
her fathers sin had grown and grown
upon her, and before that the sin had been
tempered by her plying love and her
prayers for heavens forgiveness.
The daughter of a thief! Oh, why had
| she met Jack? Why had she allowed her
self to care for him? Why had she let her
| self feel glad when she knew that he loved
her? Why had she greatly desired that he
| should tell her that he had given his heart
to her and demanded her owl in return?
How many sadly confused questions did
| she put to herself as she sat there in the
miserable silence, her mother and her IA
ther at a greater distance from her than
they had ever been before, while she vain
ly tried to accuse her heart and her
daughterly affection OF transgressing, even
| though Jack called through the silence
that, but for her fathers crime, she might
have claimed woman's perfect happiness
on eartbi
Her mother and yer father apparently
failed to realize how much she was going
through. 1t was only her lack of response
to their love that touched them. Her ado
ration of u man who might have been her
husband was merely a foolishness of hers
and not to be placed in the same category
with her duty as a daughter-the daugh-
ter of a thief! That miserable word, that
disgraceful word, would come uppermost
to her. But for Jack would this have been
SO? The daughter Of a thief!
There came a tap on the door, and it
sounded on her ear like thunder.
Her mother went to the door and opened
it.
MARK" she said to her husband, at is
cook. She wishes to speak to me about
dinner. We are going to have all the
things you used to-all the things you
like. OF course the servants know moth
ing, dear. You have been west, you know.
The servants have only been with us since
| we moved here. Would you like to come
down stairs, or will you stay here in the
library?"
81 will stay here, " he said in his hushed
way. Here"
Every WE'LL" returned his wife. II
shan't be gone long. See, here is all the
old furniture, all your books, just as you
used to like them, and the pictures"
She leaned over and kissed him before
she went tut and closed the door behind
her.
Annie vas alone with her father. She
heard him moving carefully around, tax
ing up a book, only to lay 1t down again.
He went up and looked at his wife's pic
ture hanging between two tall bookcases,
then at that of his wife's father. Before
this last picture he fingered, making no
sound, but looking at the face of the old
bank manager who had fallen dead the
day his trusted cashier and his only daugh-
ter's husband had gone to serve a sentence
in prison. Annie could not see him, but
she knew all that her father did. Her back
was toward him as she leaned over her
sewing, and her heart beat fast when he
turned from the picture at last and swiftly
crossed the carpet.
When his hand was laid upon her arm,
she almost shrieked aloud.
"Annie!' said her fathers voice. 1t
was a firm voice now, no quaver Of doubt
in it, and it forced her like a command
she dared not disobey.
She rose from her seat and faced him.
Despite the physical changes in him she
saw before her his old self-strong, not
unbrave, not disloyal, not a criminal.
"You have given up your lover, - he
went on rapidly. "You have given him
up because of me. Pay attention to me. 1
will tell you what | had hoped never to
tell a living soul on earth. And / must
speak before your mother comes back, for
she must never know. But you must
know, and the man who had asked you to
be his wife and whom you refused on ao-
! count of me. l will go to him, and l will
Aoll Et~, M I Toll Won chat 7 n W. rrvaoolyol
no life, that have not wrecked my daugh-
ter's happiness. DO you hear meY l have
not interfered with your right to be happy
with the man you love. l have been ad-
judged a criminal. l have served a Grim
malls sentence. But / am an Innocent
man, and"-he turned and pointed to the
| picture of his wife's father-''that man
knew it. l sacrificed not your mother, not
you, but my own standing in society and
the minds of men for tho sake of my wife's
| father and his invalid wife"
She gasped. She understood him, and
she trembled from head to foot.
"I would never have told you" he went
on, "only that you gave up your life's
happiness because of my disgrace. Your
forfeited love for me would never have
brought this confession, for what I did
was done to save an old man and an old
woman who had been as q mother to me.
| If nature could not make your love sur
mount my shame, that love is of little ac-
| count. Your mothers fathers sin made
me a prisoner. 1t was he who took the
money, and l the blame. l have proofs of
all this, and I am glad I never destroyed
| them, for l must show those proofs to the
daughter whose lack of love makes my
word of no account"
"Father!'
There was a quality in her cry that
told him more than many words. She
sprang to his arms, her heart held closely
to his. He was innocent, he was innocent,
and though her life's greater love might
be over and done the man who had asked
her to marry him had not loved the daugh-
ter of a thief.
There was some one in the room, though
neither of them needed till the girls name
was spoken by the newcomer.
"Jack!' she cried out and chung the
closer to her father. "Jack!"
"You did not hear me knock" said he.
II came to tell you that I refuse TO obey
your note. You love Inc a. I love you, and
you will be my wife. And, coming in
here, I have heard what your father said
to you. Your faths.-will he not let me
call him mine?"
Her fathers head vas raised, and he
looked deeply into the young mans eyes.
"Well, well!" said the bustling voice of
the wife, coming into the library. "And
Jack here! Mark, my dear; Annie-Mark,
Is this the happy end Of all your sadness
and pain?"
eyes, said the guilty man" as he
placed tho hand of his daughter into that
of her lover. eyes. Spare Moments.
Colossus Of Rhodes.
The Colossus Of Rhodes, a bronze statue,
san, III, foot hi,b IT, was made nv Charea