The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-16

brought me a packet of letters which
he entreated me to keep for him.
took them, Mr.. Sutherland, and L viii
keep them as he asked me to do, safe
from eVerybody's inspection, even my
own
Oh, why had he questioned her? He
did not want to know of these letters;
he did not want to know that Frederick
possessed anything which he was afraid
to retain in his own possession.
My son did wrong" said he, ito con-
fide anything to your care which he did
not desire to retain in his own home.
feel that 1 ought to see these letters
for if my son is in trouble, as you say
|, his father. ought to know it,"
u am not sure about that, She
smiled. His trouble may be of a diff
ferent nature than you imagine. Fred
erick has led life that he regrets. l
think his chief source of suffering lies
in the fact that it is so hard for him
to make others believe that he means
to do differently in the future"
Does he mean. to do differently?'
She flushed. He says so, Mr.. Suth-
erland. And !, for one, cannot help
believing him. Don't you see that he
begins to look like another man?'
Mr.. Sutherland was taken aback. He
had noticed this fact, and had found it
a hard one to understand. To aScer-
tain what her explanation of it might
be, he replied at once:
There is a change in him-a change
that more than one has noticed. What
is the occasion of it? To what dc you
ascribe it, Agnes?"
How breathlessly he waited for her
answer. Had she any suspicion of the
awful doubts which were so deeply
agitating himself that night? She did
not appear to have.
Il hesitate" she faltered, but not
from any doubt of Frederick, to tell
you just what l think lies at the bot
tom of the sudden change observable
in him. Miss Page (yOu see, can
name her, if you cannot has proved
herself so unworthy of his regard that
the shock he has received has opened
his eyes to certain failings of his own
which made his weakness in her regard
possible. 1 do not know of anything
else. Do you?"
At this direct question, which pierced
to the very quick of his trouble,
breathed though it was by tender lips
and launched in ignorance of the barb
which carried it to his heart, Mr.. Suth-
erland recoiled and cast an anxious
look upon the door. Then with forced
composure he quietly said: IF you do
not, who are so much nearer his age,
and let NE hope, his sympathy, how
should l, who am his father, but have
never been his confidant."
90" she cried, holding out her hands,
such good father. Some day he viii
appreciate that fact as we'll as others.
Believe it, MIR. Sutherland, believe it"
And then ashamed of her glowing IN
terest, which was a little more pro-
nounced than fitted to her simple atti-
tude of friend toward man protested
ly in love with another woman, she fall
tered a little and cast the shyest of
looks upward at the grand but troubled
face she had never seen turned toward
her with anything but kindness. 81
have confidence in his good heart, Sne
added, with something like dignity.
Would God that / could share it,"
was the only answer she received. Be
fore she could recover from the shock
of these words, Mr.. Sutherland was
gone.
Agnes was a little troubled by this in
terview: for after she had heard the
gate click behind these two friends and
had carried that precious something
away with her upstairs, there was 4
lingering in the step with which she
trod the little hite-embowered cham
Der sacred to her girlish dreams, that
bespake an oVerchanged heart; heart
that before she slept, found relief in
these few words that she whispered
into the night air laden with the sweet
ness of hOneysuckles.
Can it be that he is right? Did ]
need such a warning-I who have hated
this man and who thought shat it was
my hatred which made it impossible
for me to think of anything or anybody
else since we parted from each other
last night? O, me, if it is sou
And from the great, wide world with
out, tremulous with moonlight, the echo
seemed to come back:
''Woe to thee, Agnes Halliday, if this
be So