Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-11-09

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her illness could not be long concealed:
she asserted tnat Sne was married, lnae
sne mad been Boyd kndlcott's wife Tor
nearly q year: but her father did not
Deileve her. For h had no marriage
...les. She did not even know the name
Vi the minister before whom their vows
mad been could tell only OF
a long drive through the dasntng rain
n night when her father had been
detained in town; Of a nasty ceremony;
Vt n drive home again. 1t was an
incoherent story. at the best, and n
told 1t in a half delirium which made
1t more tncoherent still. Her father
was nearly mad with rage: in his first
white wrath he was for sending her
forth into the streets. But hts sister
reasoned with him-there was no reed
Of a public disgrace; she would take
the child. h sight of 1t should
offend him. nor should his daughter
know aught concerning it. Doubtless
they would nave made some effort to
verify her story, but the news OF Bod
sary. For thei2' plan was laid.
So the child was born-a boy-and
the mother lay for days and weeks
lowering between life and death. When
she came again to consciousness. they
told her that the child was dead-had
never lived. indeed They told her. too.
no oub with a kind Of fierce exult-
ing-how Boyd Endicott had met his
end-a fit punishment from the hand
Of Cod! The past was buried with
him 1t must be as thought it had never
been
Mary jarvis acquiesced Life, It
seemed. held nothing more for her The
her a dark and lifeless thing. She
would have welcomed death, but it did
not come. She grew slowly better, and
at last she was able to go with her
father to Scotland for a long visit
among his people there. while he
pound Of flesh. Whatever fault she had
been guilty Of, she eNpiated by taking.
Without lOve-fOr h knew that love
would never come into her life again
the husband of her fathers choosing.
And seemingly she had never suspected
that her child was living: certainly she
never dreamed that her instructive
tenderness for her daughters lover was
that of a mother for her son.
So the years passed, and cast . veil
about this sorrow; not c~oncealing it,
but rendering 1t less sharp, less poig-
nant. To her daughter no whisper Of
this secret ever came until that terrible
moment when she opened the letter
marked "Important-read at once" The
blow, OF course. must have fallen-it
was right that 1t should fall-but oh!
how it might have been tempered. Hero
is what she read in that half darkened
library. whittier h had fed for refuge:
Marcia Lawrence: / suppose tina
you have never heard Of me, yet / am
your mothers only living relative, her
fathers sister. There are painful mem
cries, perhaps, which have caused her
to wish to forget me. and it is not to
claim relationship or ask for love or
sympathy that l write mis- letter. but
to fulfill a sacred duty. A merciful
providence turned my eyes this morn
ing to an article in the Tribune, de-
scribing your approaching marriage, of
which have hitherto been kept in fg-
norance. From h name, age. and cir
cumstances given concerning the
bridegroom's life. l am certain
a ne Is son your 'nnrn brother, your moth 9TH
ssa s 81 years. n's ago. 'a So a s1e the IN ,nla sai.
ties OF the parents visited upon the
children. Elk. 34:7: 20:5. See also LIE.
20:10: 1st Cor. 6:13: Ro. 6:23. I thank
God that He has enabled me to prevent
this last intquity. If any doubt remains
or come to me and I will tell 1t you
Margaret Heminway."
One can guess how this horrible let
ter palsfed her; how this first face-to-
face encounter with the worlds sin and
misery tortured and sickened her. but
0AAS sAAOOA IA0 WO0AAICSS OA=IkkOy
would be seeking her in a moment; she
must flee, must hide herself, until she
had time to think, to adjust herself to
this new. corrodfng fact which had
come into her life, So she sought the
Kingdom cottage. the nearest, most
convenient refuge. I'M there had writ
ten that hasty. despairing note and en-
trusted it to Lucy Kingdom, who had
brought her q gown to replace that
mockery Of satin. She had remained
there. hidden, during the long after
noon, secure In the knowledge that
these women. whose devotion to her
not quite understood. would not betray
her.
Then, as soon as darkness fell. she
Hemingway. She must be quite Ger
tain; h must know the whole truth.
And that old. old woman, with all tho
grtmness OF her creed, told her the
story bluntly n cruelty, as she told
1t to us. The child had not died. but
had been placed with the family Of tho
manager OF her husbands estate on
Long Island, who himself did not know
its history: who had, in the end.
adopted 1t and given It his name. There
could be no mistaking.
I nave called her merciless. for she
seemed to glory in an0ther's anguish.
counting It At retribution and a punish
ment from the Lord. Yet I trembled to
think how more merciless she might
have been had she withheld the truth!
, And when she had heard the story.
Marcia Lawrence could no lonxkr
: doubt. But n great load vas liffed
from her. for she knew in her inmoaf
heart that the story OF that wilA m1~a,f