Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-02-11

I And he has been, there-ever since
till last nlght?"
"Yes. He has been well treated.
The very next day we had the most
famous physician in London on dis
eases of the brain come down and ex
anime him. He pronounced him, from
hereditary causes, hopelessly insane.
We could not send him to an asylum;
1t would create too much curiosity and
comment, and there was something re-
polling In the idea. Besides III the
affair got into the papers, troublesome
| Gallo friends might be turning up. SO,
acting on the Doctors advice, we had
Q room in the tower secretly fitted up.
Two confidents | have had--the old
butler and Guieletta. They have cared
for him and treated him kindly. Now
now il is all overt"
YES" Cynthia cried, with a strong
shudder, 1T is all over, thank heaven!"
She rose slowly to her feet, her face
white as death. with a great indigna-
ton and a great scorn.
and you" she went on, her earnest
voice quivering through the room clear
as a bugle call-'you would not allow
your son to marry the woman he loved
because she was the daughter of a gal
ley slave, when you knew that her
father mad been unjustly imprisoned
that he, an innocent man, had been
prosecuted for the crime OF another
that you, by your silence, when you
first learned of it, connived at that i'm
prisonment and that disgrace. Oh, it
was atrocious, 1t was inhuman!"
Cynthia" my lady cried, p~iteously,
you are very hard on me. You know
why I told him that! l thought it
would dissuade him. It wa sa fear
full shock to have my son come to me
after so many years and say, Il am 60
ing to marry the daughter of Laurence
Lisle!' | cried out In horror when he
spoke the name-I remembered 1t SO
startlingly well. | reasoned to my
self that whether her father had been
unjustly concerned or otherwise, the
fact that he had been q galley slave
remained"
at was barbarously illogical reason
ing" the girl said, cuttingly.
1T vas such an argument as the
world would have used" she answered,
quickly. do you suppose 1t would
have accepted the simple assertion Of
his innocence, without proof? And to
produce proof would be to drag into
garish daylight the story of that old
Partisan misalliance. Bah! what a
feast that would be for the vultures OF
scandal! go, In a moment of blind
passion. l drove him from me. If he
persisted, exposure would have been
inevitable. and exposure would have
killed me-"
Cynthia nodded slowly, her lips COM
pressed, her eyes still flashing with
honest anger.
II wonder" she said slowly, "if you
realize how darkly-in at first denying
| your husbands eldest son, how much
more darby in later blasting a love
| which might have redeemed and puri-
fed the wretched past-you have sin
ned!"
"Oh. l do realize IT." she moaned,
with a bitter cry. IL do realize 1t now,
when It is too latel l plotted, suffered,
sinned for him! He is gone from me!
is lost 10 me! He is dead! My pun
ishment has been sore and heavy. Oh,
my boy. my boy. my d~arling!"
She bowed her haggard old face in
her trembling hands and burst into
great, painting sobs. heartbreaking to
hear.
u But the girl, leaning upon the low
mantel. and gazing down into the dy-
ing fire with wide, somber eyes, said
never a word.
A thought. q suspicion, dark, trag-
ical, fantastic. growing ~momentarily
in strength and volume, was seething
to life In her brain.