The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-03-04
CHAPTER I.-(Continued)

and his sister, the new Mary, 2, they
lived with their parents in q thriving
Georgia town. the home place OF the "a
ther and his father before him. Old
Mr.. Blagden resented his daughters
marriage to the handsome, whllOm
Midthorne. The young man once had
been q visitor in Corinth, coming from
Harvard with college mates for the
summer, and his ca~rryings-on had
quite thoroughly s~candalised the staId,
puritanical element in the town, al
though affording great delight and en-
couragement to h youth Of the place.
It is said that the spirit Of emulation
which thrived in Corinth long after he
wen his joyous way. following that
first and only visit, was such that II
had been as vigorously directed In an
other cause might have produced moth
Ing but saints among the young men or
Corinth. But 1t took a different d.
Eectiop altogether: For 9 time y MAS
the lads. They went a dreadful pace
and seemed proud Of It Old MI, Blagden
took hold up Horace in good time, lie
commanded him to have nothing In
common with Phil Midthorne, pro-
claiming him to be an imp Of perdltion.
The young men had been friends.
Horace made the fatal mistake OF anub-
bling the Georgian on the street ole
akJ ~ AbO ~ ~ ~
handing an explanation and getting 1t,
proceeded to thrash his future brother
lnlaw. II Is needless to say that
Horace despised him from hat day
forth. II 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 belaboring of Horace increased
rather than checked her interest
She never got On well 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
1 n love with h girl. But he had To
thrash Horace, Just the same. You cum
well imagine his qualification whom he
found, almost at once, that he went up
considerably In the girls estimation at
ter that disgraceful encounter. n
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 hat Is what Midthorne
grew to be-and promptly abandoned
Corinth forever. Horace never quite
got 1t out of his head that she married
Phil in order to annoy the family.
Be that as 1t may. they made a sorry
failure OF it, 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
them caring much whence ~sustenance
came, Just so long as 1t 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 1t re-
corded, to Phil's credit. he would no
more have 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, n was gay, n was
witty. It was not long before gossip
attached itself to her. Soon after Tho
second child was born, Mary Midthorne
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.
4IlblGdu III "dS SlO"ly oAlLt1l A1lO q
disgusting state OF complacency-and
complacency 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 than had been
their wont. He was getting so that he
would not even take h trouble to
quarrel with her over h attention
other men paid herewith her per-
mission. She went farther and farther
In q spirit Of defiance to him-and his
complacency. She got owe her love
for him, but It was like gall and worm
wood to feel that he did o 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 been
talk about them. He ~upbraided her,
In the presence Of the man. That night
she did not come home He followed
her to New Orleans, and from that city
to Pass Christian. Out on the famous
Shell road he came upon her n the
man.
He took her to the county seat with
him, but. he left the man lying by the
roadside, a bullet through his heart.
The unwritten law! He was discharged
by a chivalrous Mississippi jury, and
journeyed amiably back to his home
and his babies, but without the wife
and mother. 1t was a part of his ul-
written law that she should keep 20
the path she had chosen.
or course, in this grave emergency,
Horace Blagden and his father might
have been expected to come forward
with a helping hand outstretched to
the hayward outcast. But not they
They were Of Corinth and they were
great men and impeccable. They closed
their hearts and their hands against
her. She 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 it one of
luxury. She liked comfort and luxury.
She went to Paris instead. Two years
after the tragedy on the Shell road
she 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 expatrf-
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
ip Mldthorne died Of pneumonia in less
than a month after his wife's demise.
Within a year thereafter Horace
Blagden, now the great man Of Cor
NTH, since the passing away of his IA
Their, arose to the highest known point
In Blagden generosity. He journeyed
south with his wife and laid claim to
the Midthorne infants. proffering a
home, and an education, and other ad-