The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-06-08

rS ss3 THE j
presently. Harriet Drought heavy
eyes to meet hars, and stood consider
Ing 4 minute, as if bringing her
thoughts back q long distance. ~
"I--going away3 Yes" she said,
slowly. YES, / may 4
Nina stood watching, which seemed
vaguely to trouble Harriet, who gave
her a restless glance now and then as
she went to and fro. Presently she
spoke to Nina again. q
Goodnight, Nina r SeEs ~
Goodnight |" snapped Nina, and
the door slammed. ~ @r
Harriet continued To move about for
perhaps half an hour before. Nina's
oddf manner required to her, on a wave
of memory, and she seemed to hear
again Nina's ungrac1ous tone.
81 "He told her p she said, suddenly.
"She saw Royal, and he told her Poor
child" & L. ="
And she went to Nina's room, with
a vague idea that she would sit beside
the weeping girl for awhile, one heavy
heart close to the other, even If no
words could pass between them.
But Nina lay sleeping peacefully,
and Harriet, after watching her for q
few minutes, went. back to her own
ROOM. She went to the open window,
and stood staring absently out at the
dark summer night, the great branches
Of the trees moving In the restless
wind, and the oblong of dull light that
still fell from the library window.
She could not see the horror as
Richard saw it she could not see her
self as only a mistaken. woman, q
woman with youth, beauty, and intel
ngence pleading for her, problem
nor in his life, 1t is true, but only
one among many, and not the greatest.
She did not see him as he saw himself,
his family as the somewhat trouble
some, and yet quite understandable,
group Of selfish human beings In whose
perplexties he had always played the
part of arbiter. l~A .
# To Harriet the thing doomed momen-
tous, unforgiving. incalculable. It as
sumed to her the proportions Of q muir
der. Richard, In her estimation, was
not what he thought himself, a some.
what ordinary man in the forties
whose life had already held poverty
and disfllusionment and wholesome
disappointment, whose nature had
been tempered to humor and generos-
ity and philosophy to Harriet, he was
the richest, the finest, the most deserv-
ing of men, and she the adventures
who had brought his name down to
shame and dishonor.
Until two O'Clock she was wretched-
~ busy in soul and body. When the
last Of her personal possessions was
packed, and when she vas aching from
heai to foot, she took a hot bath, and
+ crept into bed. .
But not to sleep. The feverish
agonies Of shame and reproach held
her. She was pleading with Richard.
she was talking to Nina-she was max
ing little Of it-making much Of it
she was saying a reluctant ''yes-yes-
yesl" to their questioning.
At four O'Clock she dressed herself
again, half-mad with headache and
fatigue, and went out into a world
that vas just beginning to brighten m
to faint shapes and colors. =
A steamer moved majesttcally UP
the river, the smoothly widening wake
spread from shore to shore ; pink light
showed at one cabin window; and into
Harriet's somber thoughts came unbad-
den the picture q yewntng cook,
stumbling about amid his soot-black-
ened pots and pans
With the morning, the peace of q
conquered spirit fell upon heE, she
had thought H all to an ending at
last. It seemed to Harriet that never
In her life had she thought 80 clearly,
% truly, so bravely. Her duty to
Richard, to his children, to Linda she
had faced them without fear and with
out deception, tasting the humiliating
truth to It's bitter dregs, planning the
few short interviews that must pre-
cede her leaving them all forever.
For Harriet emerged from the fur
mace the mistress Of her own soul.
She had been wrong; she had been
weak; she had been contemplate. hut
not so wrong or weak or contemplate
as they would think her. She would 60
on her way now, the Drawer for tho
lesson and the shame. And what they
thought Of her must never shake again
her own knowledge Of her own In
nocence. y - ~ 90 49,. 's@-''t
Go on her way to whatf She did mot
know. But she neither feared what the
future might hold nor doubted It. She
could make her own way from q new
beginning. "But before 7 60" said
Harriet, r~esolutsly, " must ten him
that I'm sorry. And I must ask Nina
to forgive me" r .-@ I
She turned. and buried her fAcs D
the thick. soft sleeve OF her coat. But
: M L~~,~
AN@|
N q. i. IVA s i