Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1921-09-08

cure the trouble. You and | are as
far apart as noon and midnight. The
law has said the only thing that can
Z be said upon it,"
She sank down again upon the
wooden bench. ooh, 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,
| will tell you the whole truth now
aye, the whole absolute truth. | have
loved you since the first day l saw
you on the hills. Not a 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 a voice grown sOft-husky
still, but soft as the light in a sum-
mer heaven. you loved me-and
have always loved me since we first
metz"
Il have always loved you. Sheila,
and shall do so while l 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 a sunrise
that does not find you in the forefront
of all the lighted world never flower
have | seen that does not seem SWeeter
it brings thoughts of you; never
crime that does not deepen it's shame
because you are in the world In pris-
on, when | used to mop my floor and
clean down the walls; when l 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 Il minister of religion or
heard the Litany; when l counted up
the days. first that | had spent in Jail
and then the days | had still to spend
in jail; when | read the books from
the prison library of the land where
you had gone, and of the struggle
there; when | saw you, in my minds
eye, in the cotton fields or on the We
randa 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
| 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 l thought, an
guished in spirit, and yet with wild
| hope that out of it would come delv-
erance. l expected to lose my life,
and l lived each day as though it
would be my last. l was chief rogue
! in a shipful of rogues, chief sinner
in a hell of sinners, and yet l had no
remOrse and no regret. | 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 l never saw
sailor in the Shrouds, or heard the
night watch call AIS well = 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 mo-
ment with a dark look in his face.
This | 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 it. |
was still writing it when Michael
Clones came up the drive to tell me
you and your mother were here. Here
it is with all the truth and terror in
it-aye, there was terror, for 1t gave
the soul of my life to one l 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 it over.
But do not think that in telling 1t
now l repent of my secrecy. / 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 it is. 1t will tell the whole
story; for when you have read it and
do understand, then we part to meet no
more as friends. You will go back to