Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-12-31


draw any thread Of sane proc edure
out of the revulsionary tangle III.
which Charlotte's confession had in
volved him. He told himself bitterlI
that she had failed him at the
crucial moment; that she had
| stepped down from the pedestal Of
the ideal to become woman of
flesh and blood, loving, condoning
and forgiving everything in the man
to whom she had given her heart.
But very quickly he was made to
| see the injustice of this; to see first
that he had deliberately gone about
to build wall of personality around
| her Judgment, and then, by his own
confession of love, to apply test
too severe for any loving woman to
| withstand.
More than that, he saw that he
had played the hypocrite with her
even at the last moment. When he
had gone to her, nothing had been
farther from his thoughts than a
confession of his guilt. The resolve
| to tell her all had come suddenly,
and he had yielded to the impulse
on the spur of the moment. None
the less, he had let her believe that
| it was well considered; that he had
determined beforehand upon the
course he had outlined in the brief
! farewell.
Taking it all in all, he had an ex-
ceedingly bad half-hour after Griffin
| left him, and out of the fiery fur
mace of it emerged man altogether
| different from the hot-hearted
proletary who had robbed the Bayou
bank. He had stood alone against
the worlds condemnation in that
act, and had thought it defensible
from an impregnable position forti-
fed by the rights of man. But now
he was made to see the act and it's
culpability through the magnifying
glass of another's personality He
had called it social necessity, and
no sin; and yet the direct conse-
quences of it had been to destroy
his ideal of uprightness to make
pure, God-fearing woman his accom-
plice after the fact.
While Griswold was thus fighting
his way blindly out of the darkness
| into the light, the net in which he
had enmeshed himself was cut at
| the point where it was the strong
est. When DR.. Farnham returned
from a visit to the iron works neigh
borhood he found his daughter wait
ing for him at the gate.
"Please don't get out" she said
II want you to take me over to the
hotel on the Point. Will you?'
The father cut the buggy and gave
her hand to climb up beside him.
"What's gone wrong, Lottie?-Any-
thing that may know about?" =
She shook her head. *Not now,
PoPPa dear; but must CO.,
She was silent and dry-eyed on the
short drive; and when it was ended,
and the good doctor had waited a
long half-hour for her at the hotel,
he drove her home and was no wiser
than he had been. She had had him
go in with her to send her card to
Mr.. Andrew Galbraith, but beyond the
fact that she had been closeted for
half-hour with the haired
banker, the father knew. nothing
nor did he seek to know, having per-
feet confidence in his daughter.
What took place in Andrew CAL
braith's sitting-room at the summer
hotel was never known to any save
the two who were the actors in the
little drama. But when Charlotte
came out Andrew Galbraith accom-
panied her and put her into the
buggy with her father. And she was
crying little, though not as those
who weep without hope.
The old banker watched the buggy
as it melted into the darkness of the
driveway, and shook his head.
There goes a woman that any man
might be proud to give his name TILL"
he said. ''Now, if the young deevil
has half her courage
"A gentleman to see you, Mr.. GAL
braith,' said the voice of the night
clerk beside him. Il thought you
were in your room, and 1 sent him
there"
Griswold was standing, hat in hand,
in the middle of the comfortable sit
| ting room when the banker entered.
II beg your PARDON" he began.
1.-THE clerk told me you were here,
and found the door OPEN"
"sit down." said the banker, not in
Hospitality, drawing up his own easy
chair. But Griswold remained stand
ing. ..r-.. ..,.-:-
"No," he objected. ''What have
to say may be said standing. Mr..
Galbraith, did you ever see me be-
fore you came to Wahaska?
The shrewd old face was unreada-
BILE by any, but if there was certain
CLINT of hardness in the eyes, it was
tempered by the lines about the
mouth.
lyon wore q heard who,, W., -x,,,o