The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-02-04

man should be. Many d1SappOlnt-
ments had already taught Lady Car
that her son had little of the ideal in
him, and nothing, or next to nothing.
of herself; but still he was her son.
and to think of him as the rude and
violent debauchee of the countryside
seemed more than she could bear.
Beaufort came in upon her miserable
seclusion like fresh breeze of COM
fort and hope. This was so far from
his usual aspect, that the effect was
doubled. Tender he always was, but
to-day he was cheerful. hopeful, full
Of confidence and conscious power
There must be no more 81 this, he
cried. "Come, Garry, have little
courage. Because the boy has been Q
fool once---or even twice-that is not
to say that there is anything tragical
In 1t, or that he Is abandoned to bad
habits. It is probably scarcely his
fault at ALA combination Of circum-
stances. Nobody's fault, indeed.
some silly man. forgettipg he was a
BOY, persuading him out OF supposed
hospitality to swallow something the
Boys head could not stand. How was
The boy in his innocence to know
hat he could not stand it? 1t is a
mere accident My love, you good
women are often terribly unjust and
sweeping in your judgments. You
must not from one little foolish mis-
1emeanor judge Tom.
"Oh, Edward.n she cried, Judge
MIN! my own boy! All that feel is
hat would rather have died than
seen than look. that dreadful look, in
my child's face"
Nonsense, Carry. That is what
.all Judging him. You should never
have seen it; but as for rather dying
would Tom be the better for it If
he had lost his mother, the best inlu-
snce boy"
She shook her head, but how to tell
her husband of the specter who had
risen before her in the house that was
his, claiming the son who was his,
his heir, and not Carry's. she did not
know. Influence! she had been help
less by the side of the father, and in
the depths OF that dreadful expert
ence Carry foresaw that the son, so
like him, so moulded upon that man
whom she had feared to the bottom Of
her heart, and alas! unwillingly
hated, had now escaped her, too.
There are moments which are pro-
phetic. and In which the feeblest Wis
ion sees clear. He had escaped her.
II, indeed, he had ever acknowledged
any influence of hers. AS child he
had been. obliged to obey her, and
still as youth the influence OF the
household-that decent, tranquil.
graceful household at Easton-which
henceforward Tom would compare so
contemptuously with his own "place"
and the wealth which was soon to be
his-had kept him in a fashion of
submission But Tom had always
looked at his mother with eyes in
which defiance lurked. There had
never been in him anything of that
glamor with which some children re-
gard their mother, finding in her
their first ideal. It had always been
q WEAKNESS to Tom to be confined to
the restraint of her society. When
they were children even, he and his
sister had schemed together to es-
cape from it. She was dimly aware
that even Janet-these things are
hard for a mother to realize, but
there are moments when they come
upon her with all the certainty of
fate. Her influence! She could have
laughed or wept. As it was with
the father, so would it be with the
son.. For that moment at least poor
Carry's perceptions were clear.
But what could she say? She said
nothing. not even to Beaufort could
she disclose that miserable insight
which had come to her. Your own
children-how can you blame them to
another, even IL he is your husband?
How say that, though so near in
blood and every tie, they are alien in
soul? How disclose that sad intui-
ton? Carry never said word. She
shook her head; not even perhaps to
their own father could she have re-
vealed that discovery. A mothers
part Is to excuse, to pardon, to bear
with everything, even to pretend that
she is deceived and blinded by the
partiality of love. not to disclose the
profound and unalrerap.e discourage
ment with which she has recognized
the truth. She shook her head at
Beaufort's arguments, leaving him to
believe that It was only a woman's
natural severity Of judgment against
the sins with which she had no sym
pathy. And by and, by she allowed
herself to be comforted. He thought
that he had brought her back to good
sense and the moderation of less
exacting standard. and had convinced
her that q boyish escapade, however
blamable, was not OF the Importance
she thought. He thought he had per-
suaded her not to be hard uDon Tom.
not to reproacn MIN, to pass it over