The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-02-03
CONTINUED from page 81
THE AWAKENING or JUDGE
FORSYTH.

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wife"
The Judge sat down rather heavily,
though he still held fast to his dig
nifty.
"And Edna" he managed to ask
sis she aware of your feeling towards
herr"
yes"
"You mean you have asked my
daughter to marry your
Yes, but"
Then" Numbered the older man,
rising and drawing himself to his full
height, presenting an imposing figure,
whom even Philip Carbon was forced
to admire-"then sir, you are scoun-
drel! Taking advantage of young
grill"
will you permit me to finish what
! I was about to say?" Carton inter
rupted, in the same quiet, repressed
tone-he had himself well in hand 81
love your daughter, and asked her to
marry me- Within the hour l learned
that was on the verge of bankruptcy,
and-I released her."
For full minute after his visitor
had gone Judge Forsyth stood star
! ing at the door through which he had
disappeared, as a fleeing criminal
might regard the swiftly receding ship
which had promised shelter and safety
What did the fool mean by rushing
off in that manner? 1t was just pos
sible that the matter might be COM
promised in some way.
Touching the bell sharply, he ordered
the servant who appeared in response
to send the man back-that he had not
finished what he had to say. But the
servant returned alone. The young
man had disappeared in the outer
darkness.
Judge Forsyth sank into the nearest
chair, where he sat like one stunned
by heavy physical blow. The last
loophole was closed. In a few min
utes Harrison and Stead would appear,
and-and-his benumbed faculties re-
fused to go further. Exposure!
RUM" The words seemed written in
letters of flame on the four walls of
the room. Turn which way he would,
they confronted him. Even the clock
on the mantel seemed to hurl the
words at him, hammering them in with
it's insistent tick-tack, tick-tack.
Springing suddenly to his feet, he
paced back and forth, like some wild
thing caught in a trap. The loss of
Edna's respect, the withdrawal of
her good opinion, on the one hand;
and ruin and exposure on the other!
That was the situation which con-
fronted him. And to add to the per-
plexity and torture of the moment his
llong-dormant conscience-a conscience
drugged into semblance of death by
persistent neglect and ignoring of
its demands, until its owner had ceased
to reckon with it as factor in his
life-asserted itself, bringing to mind
some ugly, raw facts that had for
years been ignored. To have these be-
come public, to be gloated over by
those who envied his position in the
financial world-men whose honor and
integrity were of no higher standard
than his own-was a humiliation too
deep lot contemplation.
Convinced that a shady transaction,
promising easy wealth, is immune
from the Intervention of the law, GER
tain men easily persuade themselves
that it is proper and legitimate. One
such transaction opens the way for
another; and once launched on the tur-
bid stream of money-getting, they are
swept away by the devastating food
of dishonesty and corruption-some to
sail smoothly out upon the broad sun
lit sea of success, while others are
dashed upon the rocks or caught in
the eddying whirlpool or exposure and
ruin.
!; Judge Forsyth, an authority in legal
as well as financial matters, had been
sailing the broad sea of success so long
that he had almost forgotten the rocks
and whirlpools. The scheme on foot
at present-which he had fathered, al
: lowing his name, power in the finan-
cial world, to be used as a lure-was
of gigantic nature and promised
gigantic returns. Harrison and Stead
and the other shareholders were mere
ly his tools, but managed so cleverly
that they were unaware of the fact.
: To draw back now at the eleventh
hour was to bring his house of cards
tumbling about his ears Such men
as Harrison and Stead would not hest
} tate to denounce him and use his down
} fall as a cloak to shield themselves.
He was kind-hearted when kindli.
ness did not interfere materially
with his own personal interests, and
the prospect of running the son OF
his old friend and benefactor Jared
on his finer sensibilities and caused
him more than one sleepless night
} But it was unavoidable. 1t was one OF
! the unpleasant circumstances which
often accompany great undertakings
D He had been trying for days to put
D 1t aside; but, like Banquos ghost, IL