The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1909-01-21

that she was beautiful. I would be
'unIv, :u~Nu5neIoN IofeW .'ueuioM.
proud to cry aloud, This is my daugh-
ter" To prom enade with her on my
armand I must hide this secret from
all the world That is my torture. And
it is the chastisement of all that has
not been right in my life. All, sad, un-
happy Lowest That same malediction
for the past anne to his lips as it had
come to his thoughts. The old work
man, burdened with labor throughout
the week, who could promenade on the
Boulevard de Clichy OF Sunday, with
his daughter on his arm, was happier
than Revere. And-a strange thing,
sentiment of shame and remorSe-feel-
ing himself travelling fast to his last
resting place in the cemetery, he ex-
pressed no wish to see that child, to
send for her to come to Blois under
some preteXt or other, easy enough to
find.
No, h experienced a fierce desire
for solitude, he shrank from ar inter-
| view in which he feared all his grief
would rush to his lips in a torrent of
words He feared for himself, for his
weakness, for the strange feeling he
experienced in his head.
1T seems as If it oscillated upon
my shoulders he said. If Marthe
calne-and he repeated the name as a
child would have pronounced 1T who
was just learning to name the letters
of a word-I would give her but the
sad spectacle of a broken down mar
and leave on her mind only the impress
sion of a human ruin. And then-and
then-not to see her, not to nave the
right to see her, that is all right-it is
my chastisement.'
Let it be so. I understood. I feared
that an interview would be mortal; he
had been so terribly agitated when he
had sent for me that other time.
but L at least wished to recall to
MIN his former wish which he had
pressed of providing for the girls flu
ture. I desired that he should make UP
for the past, since money is one of the
forms of PREPARATION. But I dared not
speak to him again in regard to it or Of
that trust of which he had spoken.
He said to me, this strong man
whom death had never frightened and
whom he had braved many times, he
said to me now, weakened by this ILL
ness which was killing him hour by
hour:
1T I knew that my end was near. I
would decide. But I nave time
Time! Each day brought him a lit
tie nearer to that life about which I
feared to say to him, The time has
come The fear, in urging him to a
last resolution, of seeming like an exc
c%utioner whose presence seemed to say
NONN piSNS lltS me- II III
understand, monsieur? And why not?
I ought to wait no longer. Rovere's
had made of me a second
tower who possessed the strength and
force of will which the first one now
lacked. I felt that I held in my hands.
to speak, Marthe's fate. I did not
her, but I looked upon her as a
in her vocation of nurse to the
old paralytic to whom she was paying,
in love, the debt of the dead wife. I
so "a ~ ~ ~,y~~1r, - T a. - -
alone, that Revere must give i%nstruc-
tons of what he wishes to leave to his
daughter, and it is for me to urge him
do this. 1t is for me to brace his
weakened will I was resolved. It
was a duty. Each day the unhappy
ruin. One morning, when I
went to his apartments, I found him in
q singular state of terror. He related
a story. I knew not what, of a
thief, whose victim he was. The lock of
ais door had beer forced, his safe
Then suddenly, interrupting
himself, he began to laugh-a feeble
augh, which made me Ill.
am a fool he said. T am dream
lng awake. / continue in the daytime
The nightmares of the night. A thief
here! No one has come. Nine. Monfche
las watched. But my head is so weak.
80 weak! l lave known SO many ras-
GALS in my life. Rascals always return,
lein!'
HE made a "a attempt at a laugh.
1T was delirium-a delirium, which |
soon passed away, but which frightened
1t returned with increased force
each day and at shorter intervals.
well, I said to myself, during a
ucid interview, He must do wha he
las resolved to do, what he had willed
% do, what he wishes to do!' And I
le~cided--it was the night before the as
,assination-to bring him to the point,
20 aid his hesitation. / found him |
that day. He was lying on his
OUNCE, enveloped in his dressing gown,
a travelling rug thrown across his
hin legs. With his back skull cap and
his grayish beard he looked like a dying
1oge.
He held out his bony hand to me.
giving me a sad smile, and said that he
'elt better. a period Of remission In
his general condition.
{Continued Next Week.)