The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-23

loved her when TO this day he cannot bear
&c speak OF her to hear her name" And
Leonie, with .'her heart as fire and ice,
forced ner paiing lips to assent
1t was not lost upon her that Penrose
was an altered man from the hour when
she had stood face TO face with him, and.
as q man might stare on the sheeted dead
rearsen, he had gazed at her Others might
think that the anxieties OF the on-coming
election weighed upon him. but there was
one who knew the truth
They were alone one day. Eva being
called away. had reluctantly left Mrs White
to her father for awhile. Leonie looked on
the haggard face, the hair that III a few
days had grown nearly white. the sunken
eyes of the man she had once loved. the
husband who had wronged her. as woman,
wife and mother. Love could not survive
the terrible ordeal that had burnt the life
out of hers. But long after love is dead and
laid in its grave. the tenderness born of
passion survives its parent. There was
womanly compassion in her grave grey
eyes as she said. Paul. you look H.
do I? Wondrous strange!" he rejoined
bitterly.
She was silent for moment. then. You
need no. fear" she assured him, in tone
too infinitely sorrowful for bitterness.
You are safe, and she is safe. from any
harm at my hands. II in all these years my
heart had hardened, IL is hard no longer.
Let me only see her for a little while, and
1 will pass out Of your life again. and
leave you at peace"
''You will?' ne said, with the same bit
ter mockery of a smile. You cam" No
reproach is bitter as that OF the sinner to
the sinned against.
But after awhile the reaction came. Had
Leonie reproached him, overwhelmed him
with just reproaches. he would have de-
Tended himself. Had she sought to ruin and
destroy him, as she might well have done,
he would have deemed himself the injured
party. Her silence, her forbearance, left
him prey to his own conscience. Some
where deep in his hidden heart he had
remnant of conscience still, and that
remnant spoilt all his success for him had
been the grinning skeleton at his life's
feast.
The sight of the wronged woman and the
innocent girl together was to him as the en-
| bodiment OF his double crime. Looking on
| them, he knew himself for the vile thing
| he was. The sleeping remorse that he had
drugged into torpor Weakened into a living
| serpent, that bit and ate his heart away.
And in this association with her I'M
| acknowledged child, even Leonies strong
| self-command began to melt and tremble.
| She sometimes felt that this was more than
| she. even she, could bear. To leave the
| child would be martyrdom, but she was
1 IN RI IN, int 80
| eyes and keep her secret was torture.
| Penrose felt that the mine was laid the
| slow match lighted. He could even now
have trampled 1t out, he could have ruth
| lessly parted mother and child once more.
1t could have been managed. but the
awakened knawing remorse at his heart
| whispered TO him that he had wronged
Leonie basely. cruelty enough already
| He owed 1t to her not to snatch frem her
such poor harvest as she could CLEAN from
the blighted field. She was loyal still; he
could not for shames sake-even he.-take
advantage of her loyalty yet again.
And soon-soon- the crisis came. The
| Penroses' drawing room was divided into
two apartments by a curtained archway.
Entering by the back door, Penrose paused
! as he heard the voices in the front room
| the tones of which were danger signals
"Don't-dont CO." pleaded Eva.
IF you knew all and Leonie's accents
betrayed that the strain on her self-con-
troll went near to breaking, IF you knew
all, perhaps you would not say that. My
| story is sad, tragic one"
81 knew itr' breathed Eve, bending "a
| kiss her hand.
| hand, you might shrink from me If you
knew what the story is-how it units me
for the companionship of one young ami
innocent and pure as you! For once.
have spent the best years of my life in
lin PRISON.
'But you were Innocent" cried Eva, un.
hesitatingly. For the instincts of the pure
in heart are marvellously true.
Penrose drew back the curtain, and as
man might advance upon the leveled gun:
that are to deal him death, he moved to-
wards the woman and the girl.
Eyes. She is innocent" he said. "Sht
suffered for another's crime
1T can believe it, exclaimed Eva
Wrought up to white heat of calm, know.
ing the crisis was upon him at last, feel
ing in that moment that it had been mad
ness ever to dream he could escape it, HI
had spoken unfalteringly. 1t was Leonit
who paled and quivered like tense chord
''Snce you have heard so much" Pen
rose went on. you may as well know
more"
"She knows enough" interposed Leonie
why dig up the buried bones of dead
past-an ugly past to recall?"
Eyes, it's a very ugly past, for one OF
the actors in it, but that one is not you.''
"She sacrificed herself in some way fol
another" guessed Eva, clasping her hand.
you have hit the mark. She sacrificed
herself-that was her sin. And it was
sin-a sin against the guilty man her sac
rnce tempted to deeper guilt" II,
| scourged himself with the words; his eye.
cleaned with that strange wild light o
the border-land that hovers on madness
as he added, ''Since she has told you O
the years she has spent in prison, / will
tell you how she came to be there!"
"Paul--no, Why distress the child by 81
painful a subject? You see, knew you
father when your mother was alive. dea
Evar' she explained markedly, casting
a quick warning glance at him. ''and i
seems natural to me to call him by hi
Christian name"
| "She screened the crime of a man t