The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-23
CHAPTER XVII.
The Woman's Plea.

Miss Brcnton,' said Whitaker
with the deepest gravity he could in
fuse in voice and manner, 'you have
been a most unfortunate, a most nm
happy woman. Allow me TO assure YOU
of my sinccrest commiscration, my
deepest respect, my most profund adj
miratlon. You have suffered, but in
noccntly. ! may speak the voice of So
ciety, if ] may stand for the world as
your companion has said, I can only eX.
press. my reverence for you and my
homage to YOU in this way
He stepped nearer 10 her, he seized
her hand He was an old fashioned,
humble minded. guiXotic sort of sailor,
If you will. for before anybody realized
what he was about, he bent his head
low over and kissed it, And the sailors
behind and the marines in rank broke
into hearty cheer,
"Therc, madam said Whitaker,
You have the appreciation of society
for my act. As for you, sir, he turned
toward Langford II should be untrue
to manhood If | did not say what you
only like a brute and coward, but.
sir. when | look at the lady. l am con-
strained TO add like Il fool''
Bangford started forward, but the
lieutenant checked him.
Having said all that. | must ad
nit that you have conducted yourself
SINCE that tlmc as n man of honor and
as n gentleman, | have no doubt but
that your offer will be accepted: that
the world will forgive You as it will ad-
! miro and respect your wife -
90 No!' cried the man of the island.
suddenly.
He had kept silence, resolved to hear
il all out without interruption He
had suffered as the miserable story had
been unfoded 10 such an extent that
all that he had gone through with be-
fore seemed like child s play. He had
heard Langford s noble confession, his
generous offer to repair his wrong but
without the appreciation of it which
the circumstances and its intrinsic
quality might have evoked. He had
heard the woman s defense, her splcn-
did justification of her course, the bit
ter repentance that had followed il, hut
without that appreciation of what JUS
tification there was for her and the
| value of her rcmorse which the account
should have brought TO him. He had
observed Whittakers s prompt and
touching expression of confidence and
reverence, but without understanding
its force and power. Indeed, he had in
stjnctive shrewdness enough TO realize
| that even though the sailors, touched
| by the act of gallantry and moved with
pity for the young, woman who stood
! there lovely in her sadness, had
chcercd, vet the world would be very
| slow 10 the same expression. He saw
T, that the woman was face TO face with
crisis, that she would either have to
! accept or decline Langford S offer to
| marry her at once.
! His heart was filled with bitter rage.
| He knew that he loved the woman;
| that he never would love any person
1x,,t tnn l,,, ~ hell hn
resentment against fate which had
| placed him in so awful position, of
whose malign purposes he had been the
| blind. ignoble victim. was so great that
| for the time being his love was IN
| allegiance. He piticd himself, be loathed
| lAangford, he was contemptuously in
different TO the world, and for the mo"
ment he almost hated the woman The
subconsciousness that he had, that this
was AS ungrateful as it was unwar
ranted. added TO his wretchedncss and
! misery.
He had the passions of the savage
and the civilized man at the same mo-
ment. He worshiped her, but lie could
| have killed her then and there. In his
| blind fury he could have killed them
all He could have wished that the
earth might open and swallow him and
all who stood upon il. Like Sampson,
he could have pulled the pillars down
upon the company, though he brought
| the rocks OF doom upon his own head,
and like Samson, he was blind, blind
with passion, blind with unreasoning
resentment, caught in net, striking
out violently on every side. cutting n
strand hero and there, but feeling gen
orally like one who beats tho air and
knows not upon what he strikes. lie
could keep silence no longer.
No. he cried, 'before any answer
is made, let mo speak,"
=" You pardon,'' said Whitaker,
"may ask who you areF'
He spoke with q tone of authority
tina. could not be gainsaid. Indeed,
] he largely represented law aud order