Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-10-12

me IN me pursuance of an ideal, only
to find my ideal realized, after mucn
suffering, on lonely rocks and bleak
headlands. With strict economy we
existed happily until you were born.
NV wife at first was sufficiently de-
lighted to exchange Jersey society for
Paris and the distinguished circle IN
which we moved there. But you were
not many months old until change
came. A Frenchman, rich fop. began
to pay her attentions which turned her
head. / do not think she meant any
harm. People never do mean harm
who accomplish it most fatally. 1 did
that which a man who respects himself
loathes to dol protested. There was
q scene, tears and wild reproaches.
Next day the crash came. She endeay-
ored to mislead me as to an appoint
ment. God knows I only wished to
| save her, but it was too much to ask
me to pass over in silence the schemes
of a libertine, though he, too, was IN
| fatuated by her beauty. discovered
| them in a clandestine meeting, and
and-my blood was hot and the coun-
| try was France. We fought next
ulOTnluS, anu AiiiAA'
Constance bent her head and kissed
| his right hand. Here at least was a
| lineal descendant of nine generations
of border raiders, who held their swords
| of greater worth than musty laws.
! Brands eyes kindled. His voice be-
| came more vehement. The girls i'm
! pulsive action seemed to sanctify the
/ deed.
| 81 did not regret, / have never regret
ted. the outcome of the duel. He was
mortaIly wounded and was carried to
| his house to die I fed from Paris to
escape arrest, but the woman in whose
defense 1 encountered him behaved
most cruelty She deserted me and
went to him. Ask Mrs. Sheppard. She
was your English nurse at the time,
Constance. 1t was she who brought
YOU to England. I never met my wife
again. 1 believe, on my soul, that she
was innocent of the greater offense.
think she rebelled against the thought
that l had slain one who said he Wor-
| shiped her. Anyhow, she had her price.
1 She remained with him, in sheer de-
fance of me, until his death, and her
reward was his wealth. Were it not
for this we might have come together
again and striven to forget the past ID
mutual liberation. The knowledge that
she was enriched with that mans gold
maddened me- could not forget that
loathed all that money could give
the diamonds, the dresses, the insane
devices of society-to pour out treas
ure on the vanitias Of the hour. By
idle chance I was drawn to the light
house service. 1t was the mere whim
of friend into whose sympathetic
ears gave my sorrows. 1t is true
did not intend to devote my life to my
present occupation. But its vast 81
lences, its isolation, its seclusion from
the petty, sordid, money grabbing life
ashore, attracted me. I found quiet
Joys, peaceful days and dreamless
nights in it's comparative dangers and
privations. Excepting my loyal serv
ant and friend, Mrs. Sheppard, and the
i agent and solicitors of my estate, none
knew of my whereabo was
lost man and, as I imagined, a fortu
nate one Now, in the last week OF
my seryice-for would have retired
in a few days, and it was my inten
ton to tell you something, not all, OF
my history, largely on account of your
Islovemaking, Enid =. the debacle has
come, and with it my wife"
"Father," asked Constance. sis my
mother still your wife by laWE
"She cannot be otherwise"
Il wonLer if you are right. am too
young to Judge these things. but she
spoke Of her approaching marriage
with Mr.. Traill in a way that suggest
ed she woull not do him a grievous
wrong. She does not love him as
understand love. She regards him a.
man admirable in many ways. bu
she impressed me with the idea thai
she believed she vas d.ing that which
was right. though she feared some un
forcsncn difficulty.
Brand looked at her with troubled
eyes. It is always amazing to paren1
to find unexpected powers of divinat1o1
in a child. Constance was still a little
fri II his heart. What had conferred
this insight into complex nature like
her mothers?
There is something to be said fol
that view" he admitted. 'I recollec1
now that Pyne told me she had lived
some years in the western states, but
he said, too, that her husband, the mar
whose name she bears, died there. My
poor girls, do. indeed, pity you II al
this story of miserable intrigue, this
squalid romance of the law courts, Il
to be dragged into the light in town
where you are honored. Enid, you sex
now how doubly fortunate you are In
being restored to a fathers arms
"Oh. no, no.'' walled Enid. ..'Do no
say that. 1t seems to cut US apart
What have you done that you should
dread the worst that can be said? Ani
why should there be any scandal a
all? I cannot bear you to say sucl