Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-02-20

| big doll that opens and shuts her eyes.
The name, Mariep
Marie remained perfectly silent.
| And for years she resisted her fathers
| threats and promises and pleadings,
not understanding that it was a mental
inhibition which she could not break.
The sight of her dying mother had
! inflicted a wound in the child's soul
that never healed. And every week at
first every month later, the scene with
her father was renewed.
She never pretended to have forgot
ten, as she might well have done. AS
she grew older her fathers outbursts
became less frequent. But the insane
rage which agitated him grew rather
than lessened as the years went by.
Sixteen had passed; she was now
twenty-one, and she looked back on
childhood that had been torture.
Her estrangement from her father
was as complete as from the village
life. At first the scandal had been
against her, and later her aloofness
had set the tongues of the st. Boniface
|
daughter"-so runs the hard proverb
in every country. Marie Dupont grew
up friendless and utterly alone. The
girl had never had a friend, nor had
she ever even had a sweetheart until
six months before.
Pierre, in the course of his peregri-
nations along the coast, at that time
as assistant on a smuggling craft, had
come to know the solitary figure that
paced the beach. In those days the
girls heart, cut off from natural COM
munication with the young people of
st. Boniface, had turned, with the
vague yearning of youth, to dreams of
the world outside. The repressed
spirit seeks its adventures in devious
ways; if not in action. then in imagina-
ton. Marie Dupont longed for release
from her Imprisonment, and dreamed
of the prince who was some day to
come and take her away.
When Baptiste began to show an in
terest in her she hated him. She had
never thought of him as lover, and
hardly as man; he was part of st.
. Boniface, of the hateful life that en-
compassed her, clutched at her and
, would not let her go free. She came
to invest Baptiste with the qualities of
, all that she loathed.
Pierre scraped acquaintance with
! her. He had the intuition of the base
man who must perforce win his vic
, tins by guile. He listened to her con-
fdences, shyly given to one who, by
his wandering life and through the
tales that he told, seemed the exact
, opposite of all those whom she had
known. He sent Nanette to see Marie
choosing the time when Dupont was
away.
| Nanette was not bad; like most OF
, her kind she was below normal men
{ tality. When her lover, who had
{ brought her to Ste. Marie, abandoned
j her, she worked in large and cheaI
lumbermen's summer clearinghouse
4 Pierre promised her that the mar
r would return to her if she obeyed him
t She met Marie upon the beach, ant
o insinuated herself into her confidence
o At last she took her to Simeon's dance
hall.
r The lights, the dancing and the
: music were a revelation to her. Or
r the first night she cried from happi
r ness. Wholly ignorant of life, her in
v nocence protected her and sealed he
[ consciousness. And Simeon's plac'
n was better in the early summe
S of that year than afterward, and som,
l. Of the lumbermen would bring thei
a sweethearts there.
The girls innocence found an all.
e in the lumbermen, who protected her
s and she was, in fact, as safe there a
l. in her home Pierre was angry a
s first, but afterward he was glad, TO
o he saw her dancing in Simeon's plac
e and began to conceive an infatuatiol
!. for her. lie renewed his advances
d telling her v1 Quebec, of the free lif
S of the wUrfd beyond. When her imae
l. ination was enkindled and her cheek
flushed and her eyes sparkled at tn
e, picture, he asked her to accompan
,r Nanette with him on board his vesse
d, come to Quebec, and marry him.
e That was three days before, and
d was of this that the girl was thinl
IS ing as her father walked back towar
the cottage after his meeting wit
ID Hilary. On the same day Dupon
running a small load along the shor,
ID had learned the gossip about HI
se daughter from gabbling woman {
Of Ste. Therese, twenty-five miles away
n so far the news had travelled. Sh
w had gone to Ste. Marie In his absenc
lg to dance with Hilary, who assured
had a wife in his own country; if h
n, had not, he was not likely to seek OF
IS among the habitants.
Id The story burned into the captain
brain. 1t was the solvent of his sal
ity, the swapping of the only bond tn;
had linked him to the common lif
For Marie's sake he had hidden
heart this score of years, and silence
those impetuous voices calling TO hi
to leave all and go out into the wor
!, and seek the sign which was to
found branded upon some stranger
forehead.
He stood at the cottage door, loo
ing at his daughter, who had ris'
|. and faced him. Jean Baptiste I
mained outside.
81 sail for Quebec tonight" sa
Dupont. "Jean waits two days
complete his cargo"
She nodded; her thoughts were f
away. But it came across her mir
with momentary compassion, that S
: would never see her father again.
"Perhaps 1 shall not see thee agaiI
said Dupont somberly; and the wore
) echoing her own thoughts, frighten
D her. She shrank away, and Dupo
put out his hands and grasped her
the wrists. '"The name!" he said.
She shook her head; she never spo
when he made this demand.
"The nameI 1 have been very |
tient with thee. Now thy reason
red Withholding it is gone. The name
vas "What do YOU mean" she sta