Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-04-06
Euening Story
BILL PoUGE's MOTHER.
BY Alicia Ram.
Copyright, 1916, by Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.)

"The worst of it is-the secret that
l have dreaded so to tell you the
secret is that I am not Margaret Bar,
chester l am just Orphan Maggie
The girl sat very erect among the
cushions of the window seat in the
sun parlor of Eagles Nest, the newly
built abode of Mr.. Bachester, head OF
the gigantic business corporation OF
which Bill Pogue was proud to be con-
sidered one of the promising younger
members. There was not culver on
| her pretty face or a tremble in her
! voice But beneath this apparent COM
| posture her heart beat rapidly and her
cheeks, burning crimson, told Bill
Pogue, sitting before her, what the con-
fession had cost her
"That's why l didn't want to say that
l would marry you; because you could
not marry me, of course, when you
knew that I was just an orphan who
had been brought up by the sisters
with a hundred or so other orphans all
| in gingham pinafores. That was till l
was seven years old and then the Bar
| chesters adopted me. They called me
; Margaret and made out papers that
gave me the name of Barchester. But
! that doesn't make me truly their child,
| does it? It doesn't make me any less
! the moor little orphan in the gingham
pinafore."
! The girls eyes were bright with ex.
| citement and she seemed not to heeo
! the attempted protestations OF the
young man before her. Two or three
times he had tried to interrupt, but
Margaret continued her painful task:
Bill, please don't hate me for BE-
| ing ashamed of it.. for it wasn't quite
that. But Mr.. and Mrs. Barchester
have been so good to me, and they
made me promise never to tell any one
that was not their truly really daugh-
ter, They wanted to forget the days
with the sisters when used to sleep IN
a dormitory with fifty other little girls
all tucked away to bed in exactly the
same kind of little iron cots. And then
when you began to come to see me ana
when YOU told me that you wanted me
to marry you l knew that Daooy bar
chester wanted me to like you. FOR ne
is very proud of you, Bill, and always
calls you his boy. I know ne oeheVes
that you will some day be president
of the company some day AFTER ne mas
cot quite old and has retired.
ooh, I have tried so hard to tell you
Bill, but Just couldn't. Then wnen
you told me that you were going to
take me to see your family l knew
would have to tell you. | couldn't de-
ceive you any longer Bill, your moth
err would hate me If she thought l had
made YOU think was really and truly
Mr.. Barchester's daughter, Bill, can't
Won see it now" Look at me and see
that I don't look like the Barchesters.
And Won can tell by my voice. too. You
know they say that little orphan girls
never get over that monotonous way OF
talking as long as they live. 1t comes
of living with so many other children
and always having sisters to take care
of YOU instead of real mothers
For the first time, Margaret paused
in her talk. but Bill forgot all the COM
forting and reassuring things he had
intended to say.
"I am sure" he said that your
voice is the dearest voice in the world.
II is so different from other voices.
Yours is soft and low and musical
Margaret, I like it best that way
But you think I ought to have told
YOU. don't you? You don't hate me for
not having told you sooner. 40 you'
Bill?"
She held out two imploring hands
and now that her little speech was
over, her eyes were filed with the
tears that she had been keeping back
so bravely.
But Bill did not yield to the tempta'
ton to comfort her. He rose from his
chair and paced back and forth in the
room, looking beyond the pretty girl
to the stretches of green lawn In the
garden.
I'm glad you have told me. Mar
garet. OF course, it was the only thing
to do" he said, still avoiding her en-
treating eyes, I'm glad, too to know
your reason for not giving me your
answer" He paused again as If think
ing deeply and then turned and faced
the girl, watch in hand. His voice was
entirely changed when he said, well.
let's start now for that long promised
visit to my old home. It's in the other
end of town. l suppose the proper
caper would have been to bring my