Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-23
Chapter 6

As he stood there Hugh came from the library His head was down. and he went furtively and slinkingly, as though drending even a casual regard. He snatched his hat from the rack. passed out of the house and was swal- lowed up in the. dusk. David Stircs had followed his son into the hail. He answered the gloomy question in liar rvs eyes.
 "He is gone," he said. "and hope to heaven may never see his face again" Then slowly and feebly he ascenGed the stairs.
 Ten, fifteen minutes passed. and old David Stires re-entered the room, went feebly to his wheel chair and sat down. "I have told her." he said presently In broken voice. You are kind, San- derson. very kind. God help us!' What has God to do with it?" fell voice behind them. Harry faced about. It was Jessica as he had first seen her in the upper room with the j. bandage across her eyes.
 "What has God to do with it." she < repeated in q hard tone Perhaps MT. Sanderson can tell us It is in his line"
 Please said Harry.
 He could not have told what he would have asked, though the accent was almost one of entreaty. The harsh satire touched his sacred calling. Com ing from her lips it affronted at once his religious instinct and his awakened love. It was all he said. for he stopped suddenly at sight of her face. pain : frosted. white as the folded cloth.
 Oh" she said. turning toward the voice, "I remember what you said that night right here in this very room that you sowed your wild oats at col lege with Hugh-that they were a tidy cropr You were strong. and he was weak. You led. and he followed You were Satan Sanderson' abbot of the Saints, the set in which he learned gambling. Why. it was in your rooms that he played his first game of poker. He told me so himself. And now he Ills SOHc tO Ut tih oulSdNt. uuu .Sou stand in the pulnit in cassock. you. the Rev. Henry Sanderson. You help ed to make him what he has become! Can you undo it?"
 Harry was looking at her with a stricken coUrtenance He had no an- Swer ready The wave of confusion that had submerged him when he had restored the bandage to her eyes had again welled over him.
 Fl am not excusing Hugh now," she went on wildly. "He has gone beyond excuse or forgiveness. He is as dead to me as though had never known him, though the word you spoke an hour ago made me his wife I shall have that to remember all my life that and the one moment l had wait ed for so long, for my first sight of his face and my brides kiss. must carry 1t with ne always. can never wipe that face from my brain or the sting of that kiss from my lips-the kiss of forger. of my husband!"
 The old man groaned. '1 didn't know he had seen herr' he said help lcssly. "Jessica, Hugh's sin is not San dcrson's fault!'
 In her bitter words was an injustice as passionate us her pain. but for her life she could not help 1t. She was a swoman wrenched and torn. tortured beyond control. numb with anguish.
 To Harry Sanderson her words fell with wholly disproportionate vio- lence It had never occurred to him that he himself had been individually and actively the cause of Hugh's ! downfall. The accusation pierced through the armor of self esteem that \ he had linked and riveted with habit