Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-05-21

! life for the sake of fierce unholy pleas
ure which never satisfies, which drags
/ one hourly deeper and deeper into the
mire, which saps ones strength, body
and soul, and makes a man the despic-
able thing that you have seen me be-
come"
/ He paused and sighed heavily. In the
/ silence that ensued, he felt the young
mans thin fingers touch his with SYM
| pathetic action, and involuntarily ne
fastened tight grip on that fragile
hand.
Can You understand now what I was
doing? Ruin stared me in the face. For
myself, perhaps, l could have borne it;
( but then there was Haster, and when
thought of her / think lost my balance
altogether, and felt that l would do any
thing to provide for her future. | had
watched you two together, Hugh, hoping
! against hope that You might show some
! signs of affection for each other, for
knew what your position and prospects
were-knew not only that in you she
would have a good husband-but that she
would be sure all her life of the comforts
! she had been accustomed to. But when
| saw that you avoided and disliked each
other, / determined that l would force
! you into the match. You know the
course l pursued-a desperate and
wicked one-it failed, as it deserved to
do; l met with opposition where l least
| expected it, as | knew Hester's usually
docile nature, and had begun TO think
| too, whatever your feelings might be,
! that she had some sort of liking for you
which shyness prevented her showing.
| She refused, as you know, to marry YOU;
ever now l don't understand why she
was so obdurate, so indignant"
The young man in his excitement
raised himself on his elbow in bed, a
bright flush on his pale face.
| Mr.. Beale, is it possible that You
don't know, that you don't understand:
love Hester with all my heart and soul,
and have lover her from the frst!"
The hop merchant rose from his seat
with passionate exclamation:
what blind fool I have BEEN" he
cried, beginning to pace the room, Hugh,
can you ever forgive me-"
Indeed | will, sir" said the young fell
low TREMENDOUSLY, IF you will give me
leave to still try and win your daugh-
| ter's heart"
You would still care to mate yourself
to the daughter of a ruined. disgraced
mana penniless one into the bargain
l have scarcely anything, Hugh, except
the fire insurance money, a few hundreds
that will serve to keep the wolf from
| the door while ] look round fer respect
able employment"
Hugh tried to give some coherent an
swer. but the excitement of the interview
| had been too much for him; he lay back
on the bed, painting for breath.
Mr.. Beale hurriedly pulled the bell and
| summoned the nurse, and no sooner had
that autocrat arrived than he found him
| self unceremoniously hustled out of the
ROOM
He and his daughter were for the mo-
mcnt staying at an hotel, and thither he
| wendell MS way, with vet another pain.
full interview weighing like lead upon his
mind.
| He shrank, with intense distaste, from
! disclosing the depths of his ignominy to
his daughter, but he was not the man to
DO things by halves, and he was deter
| mined that for the future all pretense
| should be done away with between them
and that she should know him exactly
| for what he was.
/ He told her the whole miserable story
| that very day, without excuse or re-
serve; she received it less gently than
| Hugh had done. Perhaps it was natural
that the girl should resent more deeply
| the scheme that had attempted to force
he upon an apparently unwilling lover,
| and she found it hard to believe, in spite
of her fathers strenuous assertion of the
| fact that Hugh had in reality cared for
her all along.
| Mr. Beale abandoned the subject after
a little while, remembering his failure
when he had tried before to interfere in
| lIugh's behalf. and deeming it best if it
we're possible that so miserable an en-
| tanglemeI,t could come to happy end,
| to leave the young man to fight his own
| battles.
| IIugh's progress towards recovery be-
gan now to advance in leaps and bounds:
not many days after his interview with
Mr.. Bealc he was able to get up, and not
many days after that again, was sup.
ported on his guardians arm downstairs
and to the door of carriage that was
in waiting to take him for a drive
1t was pleasant if embarrassing sur
prise to find Hester seated in it; she had
come somewhat unwillinely, because her
father had represented to her that, quite
independent of any matrimonial transac-
tions in the past, it looked ungracious,
to say the least Of it, to avoid the man
who had almost given his life to save
hers; and she krew he was right.
CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.
Cn,,fkar, Exoc,