Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1914-07-30

4
accused. must have been mad all
these months, l have no other defense
to offer. You may take 1t as you see
| 1t for yourselves. do not ask for
pardon. After deliberately had set
about to shield this unhappy girl--to
cheat the law, IL you please-to cheat
you, perhaps--I conceived the horrible
thought to avenge myself for all the
indignities had sustained at the
hands of you Wrandalls, and at the
same time to even my account with
/ the one woman whom / could put my
finger upon as having robbed me Of
| my husbands love. You see put 1t
| mildly. | have hated all of you, Mrs.
Wrandall, even as you have hated me.
Today-now--I do not feel as I did In
other days toward you do not love
you, still l do not hate you. do not
forgive you, and yet think | have
come to see things from your point
of view. can only repeat that
do not hate you as | once did"
| She paused. The Wrandalls were
too deeply submerged in horror to
speak. They merely stared at her as
If stupefied; as GREATNESS, as motion
less as stones.
There came day when l observed
that Leslie was attracted by the guest
In my house. On that day the plan
took root in my brain. l."
Good Cod" fell from Leslies lips.
"You--you had that in mind?"
/ 1T became fixed, inf1exible pur-
pose, Leslie. Not that l hated you
| as | hated the rest. for you tried to
be considerable. The one grudge held
against you was that In seeking to sus-
tain me you DETAINED your own brother.
You came to me with stories of his
misdeeds; you said that he was a
scoundrel and that you would not
blame me for showing him up Do
you not remember? And so my plot
involved you; you were the only one
through whom l could strike There
were times when faltered. | could
not bear the thought of sacrificing
Hetty Castleton, nor was it easy to
thoroughly appease my conscience In
respect to you. Still. IL could have
had mys way a few months ago, If
coercion had been of any avail, you
would now be the husband of your
brothers slayer. Then | came to
know that she was not what had
thought she was. She was honest.
My bubble burst. came out of the
maze in which l had been living and
saw clearly that what had contem-
plated was the most atrocious-"
"Atrocious?" cried Mrs. Redmond
Wrandall between her set teeth Ola
bolical! Diabolical. My God, Sara,
what devil you" She did not CON-
plete the sentence, but sank back in
her chair and stared with wide, horror
struck eyes at her rigid daughter-in-
law.
Her husband, his hand shaking as
IL with palsy, pointed a finger at Het-
| ty. And SO you are the one we have
been hunting for all these months,
Miss Castleton! You are the one we
want! You who have sat at our table,
you who have smiled in our faces"
Stop, Mr.. Wrandall!" commanded
Sara, noting the ashen face of the girl.
Don't let the fact escape you that l
am the guilty person. Don't forget
! that she owed her freedom, If not her
life to me. alone kept her from
| giving herself up to the law All that
has transpired since that night in
| March must be placed to my account.
| Hetty Castleton has been my prisoner.
| She has rebelled thousand times and
have conquered-not by threats but
| by love! Do you understand? Be-
cause of her love for me, and because
she believed that loved her, she sub
mitted. You are lot to accuse her,
| MIR. Wrandall. Accuse me! am on
! trial here Hetty Castleton is a wit
ness against me, il you choose to call
upon her as such. II not. | shall ask
| her to speak in my defense, II she can
DO So"
This is lunacy." cried Mr Wran-
dali, coming to his feet Il dent care
what your motives may have been.
They do not make her any less Inur-
deress. She
I'VE must give her over to the po-
lice" began his wife, struggling to
her feet. She staggered 1t was
Booth who stepped quickly to her side
to support her. Leslie was staring at
Eetty.
Vivian touched her fathers arm.
She was very pale but vastly more
compoaed than the others.
Father, listen to me-" she said. Her
voice tSenbled in spite or ner effort
to control 1t. I'VE are condemning
Miss Castleton unheard Let US hear
everything before we"
Good God, Vivian! Do you mean
| to-"
How can we place any reliance on
what she may say?" cried Mrs. Wran.
| dali
| Nevertheless, said Vivian firmly,
Il for one shall not condemn her un-
heard. l mean to be as fair to her as
Sara has been. 1t shall not be said
that all the Wrandalls are smaller
| than Sara Gooch!"
MY child" began her father in.
i aradtIIDuelv HE low frnppad God