The Pulaskian., 1920-03-05

| InoroSe than ever OF late.
During the past week Marie had
been terrified at the way her father
looked at her. He had never meant
| very much to her and now, when he
was about to pass out of her life, she
felt no regret.
Her mind went travelling back to her
earliest memory. She was on the sea
shore with her mother watching for
the return of the fishing fleet, and her
fathers boat, and on the single lay
the sailing boat of young student
from Quebec whom she had seen often
at their cottage during her fathers
| absence. The young man was laugh
insly inviting her mother to go FOR a
sail, At last the girl consented.
The sail was very long one. Little
Marie, who had fallen asleep, was
awakened by the sound of her moth
er's screaming and the young students
laughing protestatiens that it was too
late in the day to return now. She
id not understand all that was said,
and her next memory was of squalid
! lodging in Quebec, and her mothers
| tear-stained face, and a sense of I'M
happiness.
Then she was back in the cottage,
standing beside the bed on which her
| dying mother lay, and the sick woman,
gripping her hand fast in her burning
ones. was repeating a name over aud
over. "say it again, child % she was
whispering.
She reiterated this demand over and
over again.
Say it !" she muttered. "Say it, and
never forget. And carry it with thee
through life, saying It in moments of
temptation, that thou mayest rcmem-
Der thy mother and understand. Now
swear by the Virgin to say it morning
and night, and never forget"
The frightened girl had sworn.
catching the words from her mothers
lips She had said the name morn and
night until it had become engraved
upon her memory foreveS. But it was
long before she understood its mean
ing.
Then she remembered her father
shaking her by the arms. "she raane
toy mother told thee-speak it. Ma
RE -
mo" answered the little girl OBJ
stinately.
He threatened her, bat the child OF
five years pressed her lips together
and would not utter word.
Listen, Mariee If You tell me thou
shalt have everything in the world. a
new dress, and thou shalt sail with me
upon my ship, and will buy thee the
big doll that opens and shuts her eyes.
The name, Marie! !"
Marie remained perfectly silent.
And for years she resisted her fathers
threats and premises and pleadings,
not understanding that it was q mental
! inhibition which she could not break.
The sight of her dying mother had
| inflicted 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. Bat 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 a
childhood that had been a torture,
Her estrangement from her father
was as complete as from the village
llfe At first the scandal had been
against her, and later her aloofness
had set the tongues of the st. Benifaee
women to wagging Like mother, like
daughterp-so runs the hard proverb
in every country. Marie Dupont grew
up friendless and utterly alone. The
girl had never had 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 q smuggling craft, had
| come to know the solitary figure that
paced the beach, In those days the
girls heart, cut off from natural co:n-
munication with the young people of
st. Boniface, had turned, with the
/ NQSuG VI yVolltS " VI ~ttAhc VI
the world outside. The repressed
spirit seeks its adventures in devious
ways IL not in action. then in magma
ton Marie Dupont longed for relesse
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 a lover, aud
hardly as man; he was a part of st.
Boniface, Of the hateful life that en-
eompassed 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
inns by guile. He listened to her con-
{idpupoc. c1,vlx- rivan IN ono who by