The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-05-04
FROM A FAR COUNTRY
BY ALLAN lNGLIS.


come to meet him except the report |
ers, but that caused Larrimore no dis |
tress. OF course Laura would not |
have come to the prison gates. She |
had pride, and, though he had been |
unjustly condemned, Laura was not |
going to publish her shame before the |
eyes of the newspaper men.
Larrimore had done no wrong
True, he had beggared a few score of
women and trusting men who had put
| their all in his wildcat scheme, but
then everybody did things like that
every day in the course of business.
The five years in the penitentiary that
he had served had been a gross injus-
tice. Larrimore felt no degradation.
He meant to repeat his trick, but
more craftily, in order to secure the
funds to start things going again.
Still, he was thinking, as he sat in
the train, lot of things which dis
tressed him; and yet he could not
shake them out of his mind. He had
gone to the metropolis twenty years
before, a gawky farmer boy, to make
his fortune He had become wealthy
in an incredibly short space of time,
for Larrimore was quick to adapt
himself to the dubious ways of finance
In ten years he was married and had
a house on the avenue
He had married the daughter of his
employer. He had not loved Laura
exactly. but she had thought he had.
After his marriage he seldom went
home. He made his old mother an
adequate allowance, but he had not
seen her for three years before he
was sentenced With his connections
{ he could not afford to have it known
that his mother was an illiterate old
2 woman. Laura had never seen her;
Larrimore had been ashamed to let
her know
E Still there had been trying episodes,
/ which, as man of the world, he had
S found difficult to explain to his wife.
For instance, old Mrs. Larrimore's
letters. The old woman had been
growing lonely She wanted to come
= to town and live with her son. OF
q course that was impossible, and he
r had told his mother so frankly But
i Laura had seen one of the ilLspelled
: letters, and Larrimore had been
|. ashamed.
e you see, she never could learn to
spell very well. he explained to his
wife. I'VE are of good family, but
h mother was always the Ounce at
q school"
n The look in his wife's eyes when he
il apologized for his mother had vague
ly annoyed Larrimore.
&c After his conviction Laura had come
to see him regularly each three
: months. Three months before his sen.
4 tence expired she had told him that
. she thought it would be no use their
a living together. The house had been
% sold, and she was living then in a
n boarding -house- Larrimore had not
answered her, because he meant tc
II go to her as soon as he came out OF
- prison and explain that he would be
;! rich man again within a year. and
10 that he could provide her with every
s. luxury. That would alter his wife's
decision, he knew.
Nevertheless, when he got out OF
the train he was dissatisfied with him
self. Something of conscience had
begun to prick the thick skin of the
;, man. When he called at the boarding
" house he discovered, to his dismay
that his wife had gone away. A letter
4. was handed to him, and the dool
as closed on him. Larrimore did mo-
ly mind the closing of the door; he wen
u into the park and read the letter.
"a Il am leaving you for ever, Henry,
- his wife had written, because | can
90 not live with you again. For years
I have borne your callousness. but m!
ct eyes have been opened You are tn,
most selfish, worthless man that eve
of lived. / am going to the last place
II on earth where you will think of look
al ing for me-"
9g The letter was signed simpl,
20 Laura
nd None of US is so bad but sooner o
'e- later the day comes when we see ouI
Up. selves in the mirror of our souls. LaI
n, rimore said afterward that it was tn
hd reading of this letter which shool
down the palace of his colossal sell
- conceit. He sat for hours in tn
s+ park, dazed with the hideous self-rey
,h. citation.
1t And, like the prodigal in the pare
- pAS, SACSpc tAlab Tie iAOIS lONAuS Pal
w ent remained alive to him, Larrimor
said:
2, & will arise and go unto m
mother
on The following morning he took til
train out to the little village wher
his mother lived. And as he dismoun
is ed upon the platform a great terro
ties came over him that his pilgrimag
er- was vain, and his mother dead
i He hurried UP the wellremembere
co. street. He reached the little cottag
ri. The place was occupied. He knocke,
ST An old woman with white hair cam
to the door and peered at him wit