Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-01-06


by this faith, she was bold to con-
front her father.
She tapped at the door and entered.
She saw at once that he had heard
her voice without, and was expecting
her. There was anger in his strange
eyes, and a hectic color in his hollow
cheeks. He was partly dressed. and
sat on the side of the bed. In his hand
he held the stick with which he was
wont to rap when he needed assist
ance.
Where are the clothes that lay on
the floor last night? was his saluta-
ton, pointing with the stick to the
spot whence Barbara had gathered
them w.
They are gone, papa; have taken
them away
| She looked him firmly in the face
with her honest eyes unwincing. He,
however, was unable to meet her
steadfast gaze. His eyes dickered and
fell. His mouth was drawn and set
with a hard, cruel expression, such as
!
wave of weakness. Now, however, the
expression was fixed.
I forbade you to touch them. Did
you hear me-?
Yes, dear papa, have disobeyed
you, and am sorry to have offended
you; but I cannot say that l repent
having taken the clothes away. l
| found them, and I had a right to re-
move them
Bring them here immediately
I cannot do so. I have destroyed
| them
You have dared to do that?' His
eyes began to kindle and the color
left his cheeks, which became white
as chalk. Barbara saw that he had
/ lost command over himself. His
feeble reason was overwhelmed by
passion.
Papa she said, in her calmest
tones, have never disobeyed you be-
fore Only on this one occasion my
conscience
'Conscience!' he cried. I have a
conscience in a thornbush. and yours
is asleep in feathers. You have dared
to creep in here like a thief in the
night and steal from what / ordered
you to leave
He was playing with his stick,
clutching it in the middle and turning
it. With his other hand he clutched
and twisted and almost tore the
sheets. Barbara believed that he
would strike her, but when he said,
Come here she approached him,
shrinking.
She knew that he was not RESPONSE
BILE for what he did, yet she did not
hesitate about obeying his command
to approach. She had disobeyed him
in the night in a matter concerning
another to save that other; she
would not disobey now to save her
self
His face was ugly with unreasoning
fury, and his eyes wilder than she
had seen them before. He held UP the
stick.
Papa she said, not your right arm
or you will reopen the wound
Her calmness impressed him. He
changed the stick into his left hand.
and, gathering up the sheet into a
knot, thrust it into his mouth and
bit into it.
Was the moment come that Bar
bara had long dreaded? And was
she to be the one on whom his mad.
ness first displayed itself?
| Papa she said, I will take any
punishment you think fit, but, pray,
do not strike me, l cannot bear that
not for my sake, but for yours
! He paid no attention to her remon-
STRANGE, but raised the stick, holding
it by the ferule.
Steadily looking into his sparkling
eyes, Barbara repeated the words he
had muttered and cried in his sleep
De profundis CLAIMANT ad te, Domino.
ST iniquitates observaveris, quis sus
| tinebit?'
Then, as in a dissolving view on a
sheet one scene changes into another,
SO in his wild eyes the expression of
rage shifted to one of fear; he drop
ped the stick and Jasper, who at that
moment entered, took it and laid it
beyond his reach.
| Mr. Jordan fell back on his pillow
and moaned, and put his hands over
his brow, and beat his temples with
| his palms. He would not look at his
daughter again, but peevishly turned
his face away.
| Now Barbara's strength deserted
her: she felt as if the floor we're roll
ing and as if the walls of the room
were contracting upon her.
| 7 must have air. she said. Jasper
caught her arm and led her through
the hall into the garden.
Eve, alarmed to see her sister so
colorless, ran to support her on the
other side, and overwhelmed her with