The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1907-01-03

GAG ~AN ASt4x ~ W
learn. He hoped for better things
from her mind as she aged, watching
anxiously for the buildings of reason
and religion, praying daily that she
should be Increased in wisdom as in
stature. He had become so used to
the look of her mother,in her face that
it now and then gave him an instant
of ~unspeakable joy. But the sound of
his own voice calling her Prudence
would shock him from this as with an
icy blast of truth.
AS he observed her day by day in
her joyous growth, it was inevitable
that he came more and more to OBJ
serve the woman who was caring for
her, and it was thus on one night in
late summer that he awoke to an
awful truth,-a truth that brought
back the words Of the woman's former
husband with a new meaning.
He had heard Prudence say to her,
You are a pretty mamma and sud-
denly there came rushing upon him
the sum of all the Impressions his
eyes had taken of her since that day
when the Bishop had spoken. He
trembled and became weak under the
assault, feeling that in some insidious
way his strength had been under
mined. He went out into the early
evening to be alone, but she, present
ly, having put the child to bed, came
and stood near, silently in the door
way.
He looked and saw she was indeed
made new, restored to the luster and
fullness of her young womanhood. He
remembered then that she had long
been silent when he came near her,
plainly conscious of his presence but
with an apparent c%onstraint, with
something almost tentative in her
manner With her return to health
and comeliness there had come back
to her a thousand little graces Of dress
and ann and speech. She drew
him, with his starved love of beauty
and his need Of companionship; drew
him with a mighty power, and he
knew it at last. He remembered how
he had felt and family thrilled under
a certain soft suppression in her tones
when she had spoken to him of late;
this had drawn him, and the new light
in her eyes and her whole freshened
womanhood, even before he knew it.
Now that he did know it he felt HIM
self shaken and all but lost; clutching
weakly at some support that threat
ened every moment to give way.
4 And she was his wife, his who had
starved year after year for the light
touch of a woman's hand and the
tones of her voice that should be for
him alone. He. knew now that he had
ached and sickened in his yearning
for this, and she stood there for him
in the soft night. He knew she was
waiting, and he knew he desired
above all things else to go to her;
that the comfort of her. his to take,
would give him e life, new desires,
new powers; that with her he would
revive as she had done. He waited
long, indulging freely in hesitation
bathing his wearied soul in her near
"NSo ASAO4A5 ALI AouCy. #E.Hl. "A. H# s3 E#
Then he walked off into the night,
down through the village, past the
light Of open doors, and through the
voices that sounded from them, out
on to the bare bench of the mountain
his old refuge in temptation-where
he could be safe from submitting to
what his soul had forbidden. He had
meant to take up a cross, but before
his very ayes it had changed to be a
snare set for him by the Devil.
He stayed late on the ground in the
darkness, winning the battle for him
self v e and over, decisively, he
thought, at the last. But when he
went home she was there in the door
way to meet him, still silent, but with
eyes that told more than he dared to
hear. He thought she had in some
way OWNED his struggle, and was
waiting to strengthen the odds against
him, with her face in the light Of a
candle she held above her head.
He went by her without speaking,
afraid of his weakness, and rushed to
his little cell-like room to fight the
battle over. AS a last source of
strength he took from it's hiding place
the little Bible. And as it fell open
naturally at the b~lood-washed page
a new thing came, a torture. No
sooner had his eyes fallen on the stain
that it seemed to him to cry out of
itself, so that he started back from it.
He shut the book and the cries were
stilled; he opened it and again he
heard them-far, loud cries and low
groans close to his ear; then long
piercing scream stiied suddenly to
low, horrible gurglings. And before
him came the inscrutable face with
the deep gray eyes and the shining
lips, lifting, with love in the eyes,
above a gashed throat. /,
To Be CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
ii III ra. Iii