The Clio messenger., 1921-10-06

far apart as noon and midnight. The
law has said the only thing that can
be said upon It."
She sank down again upon the
wooden bench. "Oh, how mad you
were, not to tell the whole truth long
ago! You would not have been con-
demned, and then"
She paused, overcome. and his self
control almost deserted him. With
strong feeling he burst out: "And
then we might have come together?
No, your mother-your friends. myself
could not have let that be. See, Sheila,
l will tell you the whole truth now
aye, the whole absolute truth. have
loved you since the first day | saw
you on the hills. Not day has
passed since then, when you were not
more TO me than any other woman in
all the world"
A new light came into her face, the
shadows left her eyes and the pallor
fled from her lips. You loved me?"
she said in n voice grown soft-husky
still, but soft as the light in n sum
mer heaven. you loved me-and
have always loved me since we first
metz"
II have always loved you, Sheila,
and shall do so while / have breath
and life. / have always given you the
best that is in me, tried TO do what
was good for us both, since my mis-
fortune-crime, Lord Mallow calls it,
as does the world. Never sunrise
that does not find you in the forefront
of all the lighted world never a flower
have seen that does not seem sweeter
lit brings thoughts of you; never a
crime that does not deepen its shame
because you are in the world. In pris-
on, when / used TO mop my floor and
clean down the walls; when / swept
the dust from the corners; when
folded up my convict-clothes when
/ ate the prison food and sang the
prison-hymns when ! placed myself
beside the bench in the workshop to
make things that would bring cash to
my fellow-prisoners in their need !;
when / saw minister of religion or
heard the Litany; when / counted up
the days, first that i had spent in Jail
and then the days had still to spend
in jail; when l read the books from
the prison library of the land where
you had gone, and of the struggle
there; when l saw you, in my minds
eye, in the cotton fields or on the We
randn of your house in Virginia;
had but one thought, and that was the
look in your face at Playmore and
Limerick, the sound of your voice as
you came singing up the hill just be-
fore first met you, the joyous beauty
of your body"
"And at sea?" she whispered with n
gesture at once beautiful and pathetic,
for it had the motion of helplessness
and hopelessness.
"At sea-" he answered, with his eyes
full of intense feeling-"at sea, was
free at last, doomed as / thought, an
guished in spirit, and yet with wild
hope that out of 1t would come deliv-
erance. / expected to lose my life,
and l lived each day as though 1t
in a shipful Of rogues, chief sinner
in hell of sinners, and yet / had no
remorse and no regret. l had done
all with an honest purpose, with the
good of the sailors In my mind; and
so / lived in daily touch with death,
honor and dishonor. Yet never saw
a sailor in the shrouds, or heard the
night watch call AIS well J in the
midst Of the night and mutiny, that
did not long for word from you that
would take away the sting.of death.
Those days at sea for ten long weeks
were never free from anxiety, not
anxiety for myself only for the men
who had put me where l was, had
given me captains rank, had"
Suddenly he stopped, and took from
his pocket the letter he was writing on
the very day she landed in Jamaica.
He opened it and studied It for a mo-
ment with a dark look in his face.
"This l wrote even as you were land
ing In Jamaica, and knew naught of
your coming. 1t was an outbreak of
my soul. 1t was the truth written to
you and for you, and yet with the
feeling that you would never see 1t.
was still writing 1t when Michael
Clones came up the drive to tell me
you and your mother were here. Here
ii Is with all the truth and terror In
it-aye, there was terror, for 1t gave
the soul of my life to one never
thought to see again; and, If seeing,
should be compelled to do what l have
done-tell her the whole truth at once
and so have 1t over.
"But do not think that in telling IL
now repent of my secrecy. l repent
of nothing; would not alter anything,
What was TO be is, and what is has its
place in the book of destiny. No,
repent nothing, yet here now l give
you this to read while still my story of
the days of which you know Is in your
ears. Here 1t is. 1t will tell the whole