The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1903-03-13
A Knave of
Con science
By FRANCIS LYNDE.
GcoDyEAShG 10. ~ FrAnels Lynds-l
CHAPTER xXxy.

NhAI Il En- AAAN.
For long time after the detective
had gone Griswold paced the floor of
the s-hall Office, treading out the
winc3rSss of humiliation and defeat,
and trying. as a man may under such
hard conditions, 10 decide upon a
course of action which should be
fair to all and decently fair for him.
self.
Fo. time il seemed impossible to
draw any thread of sane procedure
cut of the reyulsionary tangle IN
which Charlotte's confession had i'll
volv, d him. He told himself bitterly
that she had failed him at the
crucial moment; that she had
stepped down from the pedestal of
the ideal to become a 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 its
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 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.
81 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 l may know about?"
She shook her head. Not now,
poppa dear; but I must GO"
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 ne 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
a half-hour with the white-haired
banker, the father knew nothing
nor did he seek to know, having per-
feet confidence in his daughter.
What took place in Andrew Gal
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 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 i
clerk beside him. Il thought you
were in your room, and l sent him
there"
Grswold was standing, hat in hand,
in the middle of the comfortable sit