Elbert County tribune and Elbert County banner., 1920-06-04

| fnOrOse tnan 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 feet. and her
fathers boat, and on the shIngle lay
the sailing boat of young student
from Quebec whom she mad seen often
Mt their cottnge during her fathers
absence. The young man was laugh
lngiy inviting her mother to go for
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 protestations that 1t was too
lnte in the day to return now. She
| did not understand all that was said.
| and her next memory was of squalid
| lodging in Quebec, and her mothers
tear-stained face, and sense of un-
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 and
over. "Say 1t again, child !" she was
whispering.
| She reiterated this demand over and
over again.
SAY 1t ~ she muttered. "Say 1t, and
never forget. And carry it with thee
through life. saying It in moments of
| temptation. that thou mayest remem-
ber thy mother and understand. Now
swear by the Virgin to say 1t 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 1t had become engraved
upon her memory forever. But 1t was
long before she understood Its mean
| ing.
| Then she remembered her father
| shaking her by the arms. ''rhe name
thy mother told thee-speak it, Ma
rier"
NO" answered the little girl OBJ
stinately.
He threatened her, but the child of
five years pressed her lips together
| and would not utter word.
Listen. Mariel II 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, Mariev'
Marie remained perfectly silent.
And for years she resisted her fathers
threats and promises and pleadings.
not understanding that 1t was 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 agltated him grew rather
than lessened ms 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
women to wagging. Like mother. like
daughter"-so runs the hard sproverb
| in every country. Marie Dupont grew
up friendless and utterly alone. The
girl had never had friend, nor had
she ever even had sweetheart until
six months before.
| Pierre, in the course of his peregri-
| nations along the coast, at that time
as assistant on 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 yearnlng of youth. to dreams of
| the world outside. The repressed
spirit seeks Its adventures in devious
ways; If not In action, then In imagina-
tion. 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 a lover, and
hardly as a man; he was a 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-
| fidences, shyly given to one who, by
his wandering life and through the