Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-05-06

N~>~~O~~O4OO ~~oa
II am glad" she said simply. II do
ot understand. but you must tell me
Mother time. Just now / can think
nly OF you and OF myself. You must
s. stem. Stephen. will do all that you
demand. hide myself anywhere. but
8ou must know everything When we
8artcd. when I deserted you TO nurse
&yIug man. ] was foolish and willful,
b. not wholly abandoned Nor have /
Ayer been I was rich enough TO graf
L. my whims. and for a time / lived
l. puris. on the Riviera. In Florence
No ia Blrritz. But / was always
ueet.ng people who knew you. and,
b .ltAough my wealth and perhaps my
hood looks kept me In a certain set, l
&elt that our friends invariably took
hour side and despised me. That i'm
Differed me the more. At last your IA
Hher died. and saw some vague refer
auce 10 your disappearance from soci-
betty | employed agents to trace you.
8They failed Then ! went to America
land lived on a ranch in Nebraska.
where ! obtained a divorce from you
ou the ground Of desert!on. Desertion,
stephen. That was the plea | raised"
She gave a hooking little laugh.
Brand thinking Il best 20 fall In with
s her mood. sat I'm silence on a chair
which lac had drawn close TO the WIN
dow. From his house he could see
tie wide sweep of Mounts bay. The
the harbor. II struck him as an ex-
ID traordinary fact that this was the day
OF bis relief had he served his full two
months on the rock.
Today by his own design the second
era Of his checkered career would have
come TO a peaceful close. Within a
n little while he would have taken Con-
stance and Enid. if unmarried, on that
long contemplated continental tour.
But the hurricane came when 1.-The
blast of the terrible ones is as a
n Storm" and the pillar, the refuge of
y his distress, became the center of infu-
euces destined to mold his life afresh.
What did it all mean? He bowed
n his face into his hands. He heard his
wife's low. sweet voice continue:
u lived there nearly six years. Then
my manager died. He was an English
man named Vansittart. Within a
month his wife died. There was some
fever about the place, and | became
frightened A longing for the old life
seized me, and | went east but not as
Mrs. Brand, the name which | always
bore in Nebraska. | had done with il
and with you. as | thought-COnstance
never entered my mind save as a fee
bic memory-so l became Mrs. Eta
Nansittart."
Brand raised his head and looked al
her again. She was speaking now in
a curiously subdued tone. She wa:
giving evidence against herself ant
giving it truly.
'In Newport. Saratoga and the Adj
rondacls in summer, in New Yorl
during the winter, | lived in a drows!
content. People who take drugs mus
reach that state, but their condition i
pitiable when they are aroused. Man.
men asked me to marry them. laugh
cd at the idea. At last met Mr.. Trail
came to Europe, to the Engadin'
where | found that Mrs. Stephe
Brands troubled life was forgotten
but Mrs. vansittart. the rich widow
was popular There l saw Mr.. Trai
again. He offered me marriage, and
fancied It would be well to ally m.
self with n man so distinguished an
widely known on both sides of the A
hntic. did not love him. respecte
and admired him-that was all. l a
cepted him. but stipulated that
should go back to the States and wiz
up my affairs there. returning to Par
for the wedding. That was necessal
II would maintain my deception. S
stephen. after a lifetime of vagary ar
wandering this is the result. am
spattered 10y the mud Of my own act
see my forgotten daughter grown
beautiful womanhood. 1 meet my hi
band. whom l might have loved a
honored. patiently following the pa
into which my neurotic impulses dro
him Stephen, do you think my puni
ment is complete?"
The bitter self condemnation IN
voice was not defiant, but subdu
She had Travelled far in spirit thror
the vale of tears since the Gulf RI
barred her onward progress.
Though she asked a question
seemed to expect no answer. Bra
thinking to render her task less tryi
was still looking through the wind
and watching the steady churning
the tender toward earn du and the
TO the lighthouse.
At last he spoke.
when / entered this room,' he s;
Il meant to avoid a scene which N
have been as exhausting to you as
painful TO me. Yet as it happens i
well for both of US that you have hf
the veil from what has gone Def
Now it should be dropped-forever.'
Tell me- what you wish to do
will obey"
Don't you think it will be bette
we defer n final settlement? YOu h