The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1920-03-27

! gripping her hand fast in her burnin;
ones. was repeating a name over an'
over. Say it again, child" she wa
2 whispering.
! She reiterated this demand over ant
t over again.
: Say it," she muttered. Say it, ant
never forget. And carry it with thee
/ through life, saying it in moments o.
: temptation, that thou mayest remem
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 anC
night until it had become engraved
upon her memory forever. But it was
long before she understood its mean
ing
Then she remembered her father
shaking her by the arms. 'The name
thy mother told thee-speak it. Ma
riep
mo" answered the little girl OBJ
stinateIy
He threatened her, but the child of
five years pressed her lips together
and would not utter Il word.
Listen, Marie! 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 father
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 childs 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 a
childhood that had been a 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
II oh FOR r1Inc hn a rI
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 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 it's 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 a lover, and
hardly as a man; he was a part Of st.
~ ~ hax o<,,J 90 <hn<
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 |
tales that he told, seemed the exact |
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,
tally When her lover, who had
brought her to Ste. Marie. abandoned
her. she worked in a large and cheap
summer clearinghouse.
Pierre promised her that the man
would return to her If she obeyed him.
She met Marie upon the beach, and
insinuated herself into her confidence.
At last she took her to Simeon's dance
hall.
The lights, the dancing and the
music were a revelation TO her. On
the first night she cried from happi-
ness. Wholly ignorant of life. her in
nocence protected her and sealed her
And Simeon's place
was better In the early summer
If that year than afterward, and some
If gthe lumbernen would bring their
,weethearts there.
The girls innocence found an ally
n the lumbermen, who protected her,
md she was in fact. as safe there as
n her home Pierre was angry at
irst, but afterward he was glad, for
he saw her dancing in Simeon's place
md began to conceive an infatuatiOn
or her. He renewed his advances,
cling her of Quebec, Of the free life !
f the world beyond. When her mag
nation was enkindled and her cheeks ,
Iushed and her eyes sparkled at the ;