Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-11-24
CHAPTER Viii.

CHAPTER VIII.
"She is gone" said Martin Ray,
hoarsely, as the sound OF the carriage
wheels reached them. "She is gone,
Hettie, from our home and lite for
ever. She is dead to US
And the man whose ends and aims
in life were all selfish, who would
have trampled over hundreds OF
human beings to attain the object he
sought, buried his face in his hands,
and sobbed aloud.
The sobs aroused Hettie, who in
her whole life never remembered to
have seen her father weep-startled
her into forgetting her own grief, for
time, to console him.
She went to him, and knelt down
by his side.
81 will love you doubly, dearest"
she said, Ito make up for it. l will
be two daughters in one to you
He stood up, gray, worn, and bag
CARED, a prematurely old man.
You are the best Of daughters,
Hettie," he said, slowly; but she
we'll, you see, she was more than a
daughter to me. l wanted to live
again in her. You are all that is
sweet, kind, and gentle; but she had
fire and passion, she had power and
eloQuence, she would have been a
light in the darkness. | shall never
be the same man again, Hettie. | diu
not know that | could tie so human.
l did not know that | was capable Of
valuing so highly the love Of a slip of
a girl think better Of myself fol-
my own grief, Hettie.'
She whispered to him, after the
manner OF loving daughters, that he
was perfect, that no man could be
better; and unconsciously the gentle
1attery soothed him.
How strange" said Hettie, "for
all this to occur in one day! This
morning how little We knew Of what
was about to happen! This morning
hardly remembered that mamma
had a brother. She talked to us
about him sometimes, but l had near
ly forgotten him. Now"
'eAh, now, sighed Martin Ray,
spreading out his hands in speech
less distress-'now all is changed"
Hettie looked up at him with visit
full eyes.
Father" she asked, gently, was
my mother really an aristocrat?"
Good Heaven, no Hettie Ger
tainly not. She was lady; she came
from very ancient and honorable
family"
THAT is something to be proud of,
is it nOt?" she asked, innocently.
And Martin Ray glared at her with
angry eyes. He could not say mo,
and he would not say yes" 1t
seemed to him that these children OF
his, so long docile and Elind in then
belief, were suddenly rising up
against him.
why do you hate my mothers
brother, father? Why could you not
be friends with him." she persisted.
SIT would have been so pleasant to
have an uncle. Why could you not be
friends?"
"Why were not Napoleon and Wei
lington friends?" he asked prompously.
"Why are the hare and the hounds,
the dove and the hawk, not friends!
We are enemies naturally, as are
they"
cit seems so strange" said the girl,
who was still child. How angry
his face was, and how stern his
voice He thought you had been cruel
to my mother. Why did you not tell
him it was not SOP"
Martin Ray paced up and down the
little room; the sickly yellow light
from the sIuClng sun still lay upon the
foOr-the door through which his
daughter had passed out for evermOre
was still open. Hot anger was rising
had been mastered and distressed by
surprise and pain; now the wonuer
was past, the pain deepened, and he
grew wrathful. What right had this
man, his dead wife's brother, to come
and take his child from him? If il
had been Hettie, it would have been
more kearable-fOr he was by no
means averse to money-but Leah,
bright, beautiful, proud Leah, who
was to have crowned the name of
Ray with fame-it was worse than
parting with his Iife's blood to lose
her. Angry passion surged in his
heart against the man who had taken
her. He could not endure the simple,
innocent prattle of the child who had
been faithful to him. He turned to
her with a darkening face that almost
her.
''Hettie," he said, "you are too
young to know all that VOW imports;
but you understand it's solemnity?"
With beautiful wondering eyes she