The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-03-04
I'LL iii iii
I'LL iii I'LL
CHAPTER I.-(continued)
MARY

CHAPTER I.-(Continued).
Up to the time Eric, the boy, was 5.
md his sister. the new Mary, 2, they
lVed with their parents in d thriving
Georgia town. the home place of the "a
lher and his father before him. Old
Mr.. Blagden resented his daughters
marriage To the handsome, whilom
siidtlorr1e. The young man once had
been a visitor in Corinth. coming from
Harvard with college mates for the
summer. and his carryings-on had
quite thoroughly scandalised the staId,
puritanical element in the town, al
though a~ffording great delight and en-
enlargement to the youth of the place.
1t is said that the spirit of emulation
which thrived in Corinth long after he
went his joyous way, following hat
first and only visit, was such that it
aad been as vigorously directed in an
Dtner cause might have produced moth
tng but saints among the young men of
Corinth. But it took a different di-
rectfon altogether. Tor a time it was
feared that there would be no stopping
The lads. They went a dreadful pace
and seemed proud of it. Old Mr.. Blagden
took hold up Horace in good time. He
commanded him to have nothing in
common with Phil Midthorne, pro-
claiming him to be an imp of perdition.
The young men had been friends.
Horace made the fatal mistake of snub-
Ding the Georgian or the street Ole
day, whereupon Midthorne. after de-
handing an explanation and getting 1t.
proceeded to thrash his future brother
lnlaw. 1t is needless to a that
Horace despised him from that day
forth. If Mary Blagden was not easily
managed by her father, Midthorne found
the task by no means difficult. She
was In love with him-as were all the
girls in Corinth, for that matter-and
his haIa hnrjnp of Hnroon incraa cod
rather than checked her interest.
She never got on we'll with her
brother. He bullied her after a polite
fashion, all his own, and, as she
couldn't retaliate so politely, he had
all the better Of her. Midthorne, to his
own intense amazement, fell desperately
in low with the girl. But he had to
we'll imagine his qualification when he
found, almost at once, that he yer up
considerably in the girls estimation af-
ter that disgraceful encounter. She
experienced a malicious delight in
standing up for him against Horace,
not only In public, but in the
bosom Of her own family. She
ended up" by marrying the family
bug-bear-for that is what Midthorne
grew to be-and promptly abandoned
Corinth forever. Horace never quite
got it u of his head that she married
Phil in order to annoy the family.
Be that as it may. they made a sorry
failure Of 1t, those Midthornes. Phil
was not heavily endowed with this
worlds goods, nor was he likely to
acquire anything. He was a good fell
low, a favorite, and it was his secret
belief that the world owed a living to
all good fellows.
Together they lived rather a thrift
less life in the Georgia town, neither of
th ~ 20 rim o. ro11o1 prLn~o0
came, just so long as it came. His
people were poor. He had but little help
from them. Mary's were rich, but she
would not have accepted aid from them
IL she had been starving. Be it re-
corded, to Phils credit, he would no
more ave taken from them than she
She was the kind of woman who
thrives on the attention Of other men.
There was a-plenty Of them in their
wide circle Of friends who were -eady
and willing to give it to her, for she
was beautiful, h was gay, she was
witty. 1t was not long before gossip
attached itself to her. Soon after tho
second child was born, Mary Midtnorne
began to chafe restlessly under the re-
straint of a quiet home life in the
southern town.
Phil had grown tiresome, commonplace
in the extreme. He was no longer the
dashing beau of her ante-nuptial days.
Instead. he was slowly drifting into u
disgusting state Of complacency-and
c~omplacency was the one condition that
Mary despised more than all others. He
loved his home and his children; he
was getting over his love for the world
They quarreled less han had been
their wont. He was getting SO that he
would not even take the trouble tC
quarrel with her over the attention
other men paid her-with her per-
-. LLn ~ 80
In a spirit Of defiance to him-and his
complacency. She got over her love
for him, but it vas like gall and worm.
wood to feel that he did not love her
at least, in the old, impassioned way.
She was still young, still pretty, still
worth while: she could feel.
One day Phil found her lunching with
q man he had particularly advised her
to avoid, as there had already beer
In the presence of the man. That night
she did not come home. He followed
her to New Orleans, and from that city
ito Pass Christian. Out on the famous
Shell road he came upon her and the
man.
He took her to the county seat with
him, but he left the man lying by the
roadside, q bullet through his heart.
The unwritten law! He was discharged
by a chivalrous Mississippi jury, and
tourneyed amiably back to his home
and his babies, but without the wife
and mother. 1t was a part of his u,,-
written law that she should keep "a
the path she had chosen.
OF course, in this grave emergency,
Horace Blagden and his father might
have been expected to come forward
with a helping hand outstretched to
the WayWa &outcast. But not they!
They We're of Corinth and they were
great men and impeccable. They closed
their hearts and their hands agains,
her. h wore a scarlet letter.
Mary was not Of the kind that goes
to the gutter. The gutter is not a COM
Portable abiding place. nor is 1t one OF
luxury. She liked comfort and luxury,
She went to Paris instead. Two years
after the tragedy or the Shell road
h came to a sudden and perhaps
timely end through an attack OF fever
while acting in the capacity of govern
ess In the home of a wealthy expatri-
ated New Yorker. whose wife, for rea
sons never made public. became
estranged from him after Mary had
been in the family a spare three
months.
A strange coincidence followed. Phil
fp Midthorne died Of pneumonia In less
than a month after his wife's demise