Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1905-06-17


his wife in his hand, never taking his
gaze from off it. And amidst all these
racking doubts and fears of the present
there rose up images of the past-bright,
beautiful, gloomy, and sad. Let us pho
tograph some of these pictures, connect
ing them by links that have dropped
out of his memory, and adding many de-
tails of which he Is ignorant.
He Is one-and-twenty, wild and some
what dissipated, but not vicious, just
returned from college to his stately
home. But great change has come over
that home since he saw 1t hast. His
noble, loving mother is dead. His father
has returned to The Willows; but not
alone. Two strangers-ladies- ac-
companed him from Switzerland-Mad-
anne Berne and her daughter. 1t was
at the house of the former that his
mother resided during her last illness.
She is a rigid. austere fanatic, acting
up in all things to the letter of her pro-
fessions, but denying the existence of
any good beyond them; all virtue and
all holiness are confined within the limits
Of her creed-beyond it, all is sin and
death. She has acquired powerful
ascendancy over Mr. Morant's mind,
weakened as it is by the affection of his
her home to fill the position of house
keeper and in a short time she reigns
absolute and undisputed mistress over
him and the household.
From the moment she Is first introduce
ed to Edward Morant, she conceives a
hatred for him. The gay, light, mischiev
Gus bearing, even subdued as 1T is now
by the sorrow of his mothers death, Is
repulsive to her gloomy SOUL There Is
soon open war between them. But Ed
ward is no match for his powerful ad
versary. His father, under the prose-
lytism Of Madame Berne has become
as gloomy a fanatic as herself; all gaiety
of heart, all amusements, are sins In his
belief. The Willows soon become an
uncomfortable home for the young man,
and were 1t not for one all-powerful at
traction, he would have quilted it long
ago.
That attraction Is Frances, Madame
Berne's daughter, a beautiful. melan-
choly girl Of sixteen He loves her pas
sionately, possibly because she Is so en-
tirely opposite to himself; and she loves
him, possibly for the same reason In
the course Of time Edward prevails on
Frances to consent TO clandestine mar
riage. They are quietly married at a
SuDuTDuu CHURCH, anu TeluIn TO Line w IL
lows the same night
A fortnight afterwards, yielding to the
prayers of his young wife, Edward de-
clares his marriage to his father. The
old man is willing to forgive the act, but
Madame Berne is furious. Her daugh-
ter shall not be delivered over to the
satanic influences of this vicious man.
A terrible scene ensues. Edwards
fiery temper Is thoroughly aroused, and
all the bitterness and hatred that have
been seething in his heart burst forth.
There Is not an insult, an epithet of
loathing, that he spares his enemy. The
end Of all Is a fathers curse, and his
expulsion from the home. the doors of
which he will never darken again. He
would claim his wife by force of law. but
he has no home to take her to-he is
! penniless and an outcast She is kent
close prisoner-he will never SEQ ser
face again.
Very soon he falls into vagehJndage,
and, gnawed by the burning sense of the
wrong that has been done him-savage-
ly reckless, from vagabondage he sinks
into crime, becomes implicated, through
his associates, in a robbery, and is con-
demned to three years penal servitude.
In the meantime, a child has been
born to him, of whose existence. or prob
able existence, he is ignorant A sad
life is that of the mother. Mr.. Morant
would have been kind and good to her.
but Madame Berne cannot pardon her
In the eyes of that fanatic, she is a
lost soul-she has strayed from the paths
of righteousness and to show mercy to
her would be to participate in her guilt
In this daughter she had hoped to Gre
ate second self-a perpetuation of her
own austere bigotry-a mirror in whose
reflection she could worship her own i'm
age.
Frances only consolation was her in
FAINT son; Madame Berne would have de-
prived her even of this had not Mr. Mo-
rant interfered. and for once carried his
point. At the end of three years the
poor girl died of a lingering decline.
When, at the end of his term of inn
prisonment, the unfortunate husband.
now thoroughly vicious and hardened,
came back to The Willows to claim his
wife, a funeral procession stopped the
way. An awful scene ensued; not even
the sacred presence of the dead could
check the wild tempest of passion that
burst from the wretched mans lips. He
knelt down and cursed the woman the
cause of all his sufferings. From that
time he was utterly lost-remorse, con-
science, every better feeling, were crush
ed out of his nature.
After the mothers death, the child
against whom Madame Berne felt a vir-
ulent hatred, only exceeded by that
which she felt for the father-spite of a
weak opposition on the part of Mr.. Mo
rant, was banished to the care of a
nurse. Two years afterwards the poor