The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-10
The Minister'S Rescue +;
BY Ethel NJ. COlsOn. :
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GfnHE Little Minister" everybody
BY Ethel NJ. COlsOn.



everybody, before the Lucretia was
three days out from Liverpool, was
gossiping about the little minister's
devotion to one of the women passen-
;2ers-the woman with darkened eye
brows and hair a thought too golden.
Everybody would have gossiped still
more had everybody heard and under
stood the whispered words which
aroused the curiosity and wonder of
the head Stewardness on the evening
when the little minister set everybody
agog by escorting the yellow-haired
woman down to the very door of her
state-roOm.
"Couragei Courage! Do not de-
spair!" was the half-comprehended
ejaculation with which he bade her
&adieu.
And everybody, again, would have
been nearly frantic with excitement
had the manner in which the two be-
came acquainted been publicly known.
The yellow-haired woman was lean
ing over the rail of the promenade
deck, well forward, upon the second
day of the voyage, when the little
minister, who had been watching her
keenly from his unobserved seat be-
hind a music room portfolio, strolled
easily to her side.
81 wouldn't! Don't think of it," he
said, softly. at really wouldn't be
worth while. Pluck up heart and take
courage. Your present sorrow will be
over in lifetime, anyway; you'll be
sorry for all eternity if you jump over
board, poor child"
"Why do you speak to me like this?''
cried the woman, turning wide, des-
perate eyes on his kindly face.
because I, too, have been very
close to despair" he made gentle an
swer, "and, perhaps, with far less
reason than you have. l have known
despair for my own sins rather than
the sins of others. You have sinned,
also doubtless, but you have been
.sinned against as we'll"
For a moment the woman looked as
though she would kill him. Then, sud
denly, she laid her weary head down
on the rail, and he could feel, rather
than see, that she was sobbing. Pres
emily he stepped little nearer, and,
affecting to be deeply interested in
the tossing water, spoke to her again,
in a very low tone.
'Don't give way here-and now," he
" eXhorted, tenderly. "Others are
watching us; you don't want to at
tract attention. Bear up little long
. er; you have been silent so long,
am sure. Let them think you are i'll
it is only natural. Steward" to the
blue iacketed functionary of the lower
. deck, "some hot beef-tea for this lady,
Immediately"
A'Let me give you my arm to the up
per deck" he suggested, when, the
p. beef-tea having been absorbed in a
sheltered corner, the task of screen
ing her from the inquisitive glances
of casual deck-strollers became a
little difficult. And there on the up
per deck-which was altogether too
exposed and too windy to be anything
but deserted-the yellow-haired wom-
an related her story. She was moved
thereto partly by the knowledge of
his cloth and his fatherly manner,
partly because she looked through the
clergyman, and saw that he was
man and a gentleman as well; more
than all, perhaps, because she had
reached the point where she could no
longer contain the guilt-burdened mis-
cry from which a womanly listener
might have shrunk with repellant dis
gust.
1t was a pitiful story, more pitiful
even, than the teller of it realized. A
desolate child, fatherless, motherless,
she had never known a real home or
affection. Tossed and buffeted from
one unwilling, unloving relative to an
other, she had f1outed them all, at
is, TO fall in love with a man many
years her senior, and who had never
borne a good name. She had gone
through the preliminary punishment
of the lost in order to be true to him,
In his absence. When, a year after he
had hidden her good-by until 81 can
come back and marry YOU" he had
sent her money and directions to
cross the ocean and become his wife
IN Liverpool, she had sacrificed her all,
decming it no sacrifice, but Joyous
privilege, to obey him. Two years
LATER, inf1amed with the fire of a new
passion, he had offered her a goodly
sum of money to sign an agreement
protecting him from any future de-
mands or embarra ssments, and leav-
ing him free to marry the woman of
his later choice as he had promised
untruthfully-to marry her.
Stung to the quick of the sensitive
nature which had lately known love for
the first time, all but maG1ened, des-
perate, she had left him-but without
taking the money. Now, another year
later, she was using the proceeds of
IL months of hard work and semi-dis-
sipation to go back to America. The
slow passing of the long 14-days' voy-
:nge, desirable for financial reasons,
had left her time for the bitter think
ing and forecasting so long deferred.
The Giant Despair had her fast in his
iron, relentless clutches when the
little minister had interfered
He heard her through in silence
the sympa thetic, comprehensive 81
lence so rich in balm and cheer He,
too, had been lonely; he was return