The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-01-04


what was apparent to everyone else
In the settlement; that Mans open
Haison with the engineer, grown
more fragrant since my Intellectual
attempt to break it off. Macpherson
told me, was at the bottom of Sell
ter's feud with Wykamp. And yet it
was no time to fence with dissimula-
ton.
"Haven't you seen?" asked.
"Jacob Setter is plain man, and not
prescriptions, as we all know. But
he is father"
Her eyes went wide in deeper
trouble and the shock of 1t filled
them with quick tears.
81 have been very blind" she said.
"It must be prevented. l will go to
Nan and tell her what she ought to
know"
'Pardon me; you must do nothing
Of the kind. She would not believe
you. and-she knows already"
There was bewildernent in her
faltered rejonder.
IL don't understand. How can
she know? Surely, he could not b.
base enough toto boast"
cut in swiftly. you very we'll
know he is base enough for any
thing. He gave her his own version
long time ago, and knowing that
he had done SO, gave her the facts.
1t was a blunder on my part. Miss
Winnie; wellmeant, but q bunder,
nevertheless. She did not believe me;
and when she was finally convinced,
she used the information against
your"
Against me? How could she do
that?"
1t was not altogether the weak
ness of illness that set the perspira-
ton thick on my forehead.
MAY l speak as freely AZ your
brother might, Winifred?"
al have given you the right" she
said; and her voice was low and tear
shaken.
"Thcn let me tell you what you
tween Nancy Setter and the man
whom she really loves. 1t was to him
that she went with the miserable
story OF what an un just world calls
your shame"
1t crushed her as feared it would.
For a long time she sat with her face
hidden in her hands, and her sobs
were so many dagger-thrusts for me.
When she lifted her eyes to mine
there was the light of a new pur-
pose in them.
II must go away from herc-at
once" she said. 81 should have gone
at first. / would have gone, If had
not been afraid"
81 know. But you may trust An
gus. And it is for him that l must
plead. Winifrcd. He knows the worst,
dict of an uncharitable world is
nothing to him. Won't you give him
leave to speak to you, Winifred?"
She started back with little cry
of anguish. ....
"You speak of shame, and it is you
who tempt mel" she said, in sor-
rowful reproach. "That would be
shame. indccd-shame and sin. You
say you know the facts. Are you
quite sure you know oil Of the1n?"
LET me tell you what know. and
you shall say if it be the truth. Two
years ago the nameless one had q
business engagement which domi-
ciled him in village in New Hamp-
shire. While there he met q young
girl, an orphan, whose father had
left her modest competence. I
know not If it were for the sake of
the money that he wooed and won
her, and was willing to dare the con-
sequences of a crime punishable by
law. But the thing was done, and
the crime was scarcely committed
before another woman came with q
child In her arms to claim him as
her lawful husband. He fled, like the
coward that he was. and the young
girls people copnived at his escape
to bury the shame of it. And since,
the girl-wife who was no wife has
paid the penalty of sin that was
not hers. That is what I learned
through a friend of mine in Massa.
chusetts who has known the man
and the evil heart of him from his
youth up. Was my informant COR
rect, Winifred?"
She had heard me through with
out flinching, and her eyes met mine
steadily.
mot entirely correct" she said
with hardness in her voice which
I had never heard before. "Bitter az
1t would be, could almost wish he
were. 'Wooed and won, you said
but that is hardly fair toto the
young woman. There were constrain.
ing circumstances; her guardian was
urgent-strangely urgent, it seemed
to her at the time"
"Why should he have been?" ]
queried. Surely, the most ordinary
inquiry would have shown the young
man up in his true character"
'"There were reasons why the In
quiry was not made; why any past
of his, however despicable, would not
have weighed an ounce in the scale
You said that the young woman.
father had left her competence
That is true; and it is also true tina,
her guardian had-had-"
began dimly to see the drift Of
it and supplied the reluctant word.
-"Had stolen it. Go on"
'There was chance for him to re-
trieve, through speculation to which
the other man, as the chief engineer
of the Improvement company, helt
the key. He was willing to sell thu