The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-02-28

that Clifford Mohun had never appeared
in such a weak and d%espicable guise as
now. AS throughout, she had loved
him unwisely; so in this last revulsion
Of feeling she judged him without
equity. Having chosen Matty for his
wife, he ought, she averred, to hold by
Matty in all things. What did it avail
now to make lament over his past
Inconsistency? How could he tell that
he would have been different if he had
married her in his youth? A mans
strength should be in himself, not de-
pendent upon the outward circum-
stances of his life. 1t was well, very
we'll, for Mr.. Nohun that he was to
fall for the rest of his days into such
hands as Matty Fergusson's! He would
not lack counsel, he would not have to
complain of hesitation or over-sanctty
with Matty for his wife!
I have heard that slaves. when set
free, become cruel shareholders; l know
that gentlewomen, who have sub
mitted to-, and rather courted, the heel
of the ,oppressor for years. are, when
the tardy hour of insurrection comes,
pitiless in their turn. The recollection
of all her deserted youth, Of her wasted
hopes. her recent, her still throbbinS
love for him, swelled at Miss Grand's
heart, and steeled it against this man
who-now that he had positively given
her up-would, if he could, have talked
covert sentiment to her still! And so
her voice was steady. her eyes were
fearless, every nerve in her face was
unmoved, as she pronounced the fol-
lowing de profundis over the passion
that had been the very food of her life
during the last half-score of years:
1.-THE past is dead and gone, Clifford.
Let it remain so. We can never bring
it back, and if we could I don't think
we should do wisely to alter" all that is
gone before. You would not have been
happy if you had been married to me.
Your sense of the stain of my birth,
and of what the world thinks of such
a stain, would have weighed heavier
than all the poor love and faithfulness
that 1 should have brought to you. If
you had loved me very fervently, you
know, you would have taken me as l
was-as I would have taken you. what
ever i'll fortune had CHANGED to come
upon you. But you did not; and lack
ing such love. you would have had no
strength to support you under the dis
grace of having me for your wife. I
have loved you, 1 think, as much as any
human being can love another! Yes, l
don't mind saying it now that all is
over between US forever. During those
seven years after you left me I just
spent my life in one long, miserable
thought of you, Gifford-of you and of
the cause that had broken off our mar
riage. You say I have been sanctified
and cold since you came back to Vat
ton. Do you know that every day till
the last week Hooked for your coming
Just as I did when I "a a girl?cthat
1 would have given up my life, still to
have been of the least use or happiness
to- you? Well. you don't know all this.
but I will tell it you now. I tell it
you, and I also say-well for me that
the past 4 Interchangeable, and that /
am free again. Clifford, 1 hope you
will be happy with Matty Ferguson
and l. hope while you live you will
count me as your friend"
1t was the longest speech Jane
Grand's lips ever put together-the
longest, and certainly the cruelest. Gift
ford Mohun got quite white as he lis
tened to her. Could this be Jane!-his
Jane, who, through good and evil re-
port. through Inconsistency, through de-
sertion, had aver been so utterly and
without q struggle his slave?
"You love some one else, Jane, or you
would never cast me off like. this. l
know you too well to think you would
be so bitter with me-even after all my.
brutal conduct to you yesterday-;if l
was first withyou still as I used to be!'
Intensely mean and selfish minds do
occasionally show keenest insight In
their judgment upon noble natures.
Till Clifford spoke out his singularly
coarse view of the case a suspicion OF
her own capability of change had
never crossed James thoughts. But as
he spoke a ray Of light dawned upon
her mind; and bitterly confirming Mo-
hun in his %suspicions) a blush, guiltily
deep as she had ever blushed in her
young days for him, rose into her
cheeks and brow, and neck. She knew
that another voice than Gifford's had
haunted her for months past: she knew
by what standard she had mentally
measured Clifford in his frequent short
comings; she knew what feeling had
made her linger shyly in the sunset by
the vicarage gate.
You are very wrong to speak 50,
Clifford" but she said this with falter-
ing lips and downcast eyes. You
know that what withheld you will also
withhold any honorable man from
wishing to make me his wife. You
know that your lips are the only ones
that have ever spoken to me of love-"
And you will never listen to love
from any other. Jane"
She stood silent and confused, her
face blushing still like a girls, her
frail hands clasped with the nervous
gesture so familiar to Clifford in the
old days of her youthful love for him.
He felt at this moment how fair, how
excellent the woman was whom he Lad
lost: he felt-and Matty's foot was al
ready on the stair-that he would soon
er marry Jane, with all her inheritance,