Show AATAYEODI r I I Continued From Page 13 I I Because you thought him guilty of theft because you believed he took I the 5000 out of the sum entrusted to him by ilr Orr for your father Agatha it was not James who did this I It was I and James knew it and bore the blame of my misdoings because he was always a loyal soul and took I account of my weakness and knew alas too well that open shame would kill me It was a weak plea and merited no reply but the silence was so dreadful and lasted so long that I felt first crushed and then terrified Raising my head for I had not dared to look any of them in the face I cast one glance at the group before me and dropped mY head again startled Only one of the three was looking at me and that was Agatha The others had their heads turned aside and I thought or rather the passing fancy took me that they shrank from meeting her gaze with something of the same shame and dread I was myself suffering from But she Can I ever hope to make you realize her look or comprehend the pang of utter selfabasement with which I succumbed before it It was so terrible that I seemed to hear her utter words though I am sure she did not speak and with some wild idea of stemming the torrent of her reproaches I made an effort at explanation and impetuously im-petuously cried It was not for my own good Agatha not altogether for self I did this I loved you also madly despairingly and good brother as I seemed I was jealous oi James and hoped to take his place in your regard if I could show a greater prosperity and obtain for you those things his limited prospects denied him You enjoy en-joy money beauty ease I could see that by your letters and if James could not give them to you and I could O do not look at me like that I see now that millions could not have bought you Despicable was all that came from I her lips at which I shuddered and groped about for the handle of the door But she would not let me go Subduing with grand selfrestraint the emotions which had hitherto swelled too high in her breast for either speech or action she thrust out one arm to stay me and said in short commanding tones How was this thing done You say you took the money yet it was James who was sent to collect it or so my father says Here she tore her looks from me and cast one glance at her father What she saw I cannot say but her manner changed and henceforth she glanced and with his way as much as mine nearly as much emotion I am waiting wait-ing to hear what you have to say he exclaimed laying her hand on the door so as to leave me no opportunity for escape I bowed and attempted an explanation ex-planation Agatha said I the commission com-mission was given to James and he rode to Sutherland town to perform i but it was on the day when he was accustomed to write to you and he was not easy in his mind for he feared he would miss sending you his usual letter And then I told the story you know so well how I took the money and how after Mr Gllchrist had accused you of afer the theft you found out my guilty secret se-cret and told me that you had taken my crime on yourself and hoW afterwards after-wards my virtue was not equal to assuming as-suming the responsibility for my crime John she saidshe was under violent vio-lent restraint why do you come now I cast my eyes at Philemon He was standing just as before with his eyes turped away There was discouragement discourage-ment in his attitude mingled with a certain grand patience Seeing that he was better able to bear her loss than either James or myself I said to her very low I thought you ought to know the truth before you gave your final word I am late but I would have been too late a week from now Her hand fell from the door but her eyes remained fixed on my face It is too late now she murmured The clergyman has just gone who united me to Philemon The next minute she had faced her father and her newmade husband Father you knew this thing Keen sharp incisive the words rang out I saw it in your face when he began to speak spak Gilchrist drooped slightly he was a very sick man and the scene had been a trying one If I did was his low response it was but lately You were engaged then to Philemon Why break up this second sec-ond match She eyed him as if she found it dif cult to credit her ears Such indiffer incredible ence to the claims of innocence was credible to her I saw her grand profile quiver then the slow ebbing from her cheek of every drop of blood indignation indigna-tion had summoned there And you Philemon she suggested with a somewhat softening aspect you committed this wrong ignorantly l never I nev-er having heard of this crime you could not know on what false grounds I had been separated from James I had started to escape but stopped Just beyond the threshold of the door as she uttered these words Philemon was not as ignorant as she supposed This was evident from his attitude and expression Agatha he began but at this first word and before he could clasp the hands held helplessly out before her she gave a great cry and staggering back eyed both her father and himself in a frenzy of indignation that was all the more uncontrollable from the superhuman su-perhuman effort which she hitherto made to suppress i You too she f shrieked You too and I have just sworn to love honor and obey our ou-r Love you Honor you the unconscionable I unconscion-able wretch who t But here Ir Gilchrist rose weak I r tottering quivering with something L more than anger he approached his t daughter and laid his linger on her lips t Be quiet he said Philemon is not to blame A month ago he came to see me and prayed that as a relief to his mind I would tell him why you had I separated yourself from James He had always thought the match had fallen fal-len through on account of some foolish quarrel or incompatibility but lately he had feared there was something more than he suspected in this break something some-thing that he should know So I told him why you had dismissed James and whether he knew James better than I we did or whether he had seen something some-thing in his long acquaintance with these brothers which influenced his judgment he said at once This cannot can-not be true of James I is not in his nature to defraud any man but John I might believe i of John Isnt there 1 complication here I had some complicaton never thought of John and did not see how John could be mixed up with an affair I had supposed to be a secret between James and myself but when Philemon laid the matter before James he did not deny that John was guilty but asked that you be not told before your marriage He knew that you were engaged en-gaged to a good man a man that your father approved a man that could and would make you happy He did not want to be the means of a second break and besides and this I think was at the bottom of the stand he took for James Zabel was always the proudest proud-est man I ever knew he never could bear ho said to give to one like Agatha a name not entirely free from reproach I would stand In the way of his happiness and ultimately of L hers his brothers dishonor was his So while he loved you still his only prayer was that after you were safely married and Philemon was sure of your affection he should tell you that the man you once regarded so favorably I t favor-ably was not unworthy of that regard t To obey him Philemon has kept silent while Agatha what are you doing Are you mad child She looked so for the moment Tearing Tear-ing on the ring she had worn but an L hour she Hung it on the floor Then she threw her arms high up over her head and burst out in an awful voice Curses on the father curses on the husband who have combined to make me rue th day 1 was born The fath 1 I i er J cannot disown but the bus band bandHush Hush I was Mr GHchrfst who dared her i fiery finger Philemon said nothing Hush He may be the father of your children Dont curse i But she only towered the higher and her beauty from being simply majestic became appalling Children she cried If ever I bear children to this man may the blight of heaven strike them as it has struck me this day May they die as my hopes have died or i they live may they bruise his heart as mine is bruised and curse their father asHere I fled the house I was shaking as if this awful denunciation had fallen on my own head But before the door closed behind me a different cry called me back Mr Gilchrist was lying lifeless less on the floor and Philemon the patient tender Philemon had taken Agatha to his breast < and was soothing her there as if the words she had showered upon hi mhad been blessings instead of the most fearful curses which had ever left the lips of mortal woman The next letter was in Agathas handwriting hand-writing I was dated some months later and was stained and crumplsc more than any others in the whole packet Could Philemon once have told why Were these blotted lines the result of his tears falling fast upon them tears of forty years ago when he and she were young and love had been doubtful Was the sheet so yellowed yel-lowed and so seamed because it had been worn on his breast and folded and thou art unfolded so often Philemon In thy grave sleeping sweetly at last by the side of the one idolized but these marks of feeling still remain indissolubly in-dissolubly connected with the words that gave them birth Dear PhilemonYou are gone for a day and a night only but it seems a lengthened absence to me meriting a little letter You have been so good tome to-me Philemon ever since that dreadful hour following our marriage I feel that r am beginning to love you and that God did not deal with me so harshly when he cast me into your arms Yesterday Yes-terday I tried to tell you this uhen you almost kissed me at parting but I was afraid i was a momentary sentimentality sentimental-ity and so kept still But today such a warm wellspring of joy rises in my heart when I think that tomorrow the house will be bright again and that in place of the empty wall opposite me at table I shall see your kindly and forbearing for-bearing face I know that the heart I had thought impregnable has begun to yield and that daily gentleness and a boundless consideration from one who had excuse for bitter thoughts and recrimination re-crimination is doing what all of us thought impossible a few short months agoOh I am so happy Philemon so happy hap-py to love where i is now my duty to love and if It were not for that dreadful dread-ful memory of a father dying with harsh words in his ears and the knowledge knowl-edge that you my husband yet not my husband are bearing ever about with you echoes of words that in another nature would have turned tenderness into gall I could be merry also and sing as I go about the house making i pleasant and comfortable against your speedy return As it is I can but lam > la-m hand softly on my heart as its beatings beat-ings grow too impetuous and say God bless my absent Philemon and help him to forgive me I forgive him and love I him as I never thought I could That you moy see that these are not the weak outpourings of a lonely woman wo-man I will here write that I heard today to-day that John and James Zabel have gone Into partnership in the shipbuilding shipbuild-ing business Johns uncle having left him a legacy of several thpusand dollars dol-lars I hope they will do well James they say Is to all appearance perfectly perfect-ly cheerful and full of business and this relieves me from toomuch worry in his regard God certainly knew what kind of a husband I needed May you find yourself equally blessed In your wife Another letter to Philemon a year later Dear Philemon Hasten home Phile mon I do not like these absences I am now too weak and fearful Since we know the great hope before us I have looked often in your face for a sign that you remembered what this hope cannot but recall to my shuddering shudder-Ing memory Philemon Philemon was I mad When I think what I said in may rage and then feel the little life stirring about my heart I wonder that God did not strike me dead rather than bestow upon me the greatest blessing that can come to woman Philemon I Philemon if anything should happen the child I think of it by day I think of it by night I know you think of it too though you show me such a cheerful cheer-ful countenance and make such great plans for the future Will God remember remem-ber my words or will he forget I seems as if my reason hung upon this question A note this time in answer to one from John Zabel Dear JohnThank you for words which could have come from nobody else Mi child is dead Could I expect ex-pect anything different I I did God has rebuked me p Philemon thinks only of me We understand un-derstand each other perfectly now that our greatest suffering comes in seeing each others pain My load I can bear but his Come and see me John and tel James our house is open to him We have all done wrong and are caught in one web of misfortune Let It make us friends again Below this in Philemons hand My wife is superstitious strong and capable as she is she ha felt that this sudden taking off of our first born is a sign that certain words uttered by heron her-on her marriage day unhappily known to you and as I take it to James also have been remembered by the righteous God above us This is a weakness which I cannot qombat Can you who alone of all the world beside know both it and It cause help me by a renewed friendship whose cheerful and natural character may gradually make her fon get I so come like old neighbors and dine with us on our wedding day I God sees that we have burled the past and are ready to forgive each other the faults of our youth perhaps he wi further spare this good woman wo-man I think she will be able to bear It She has great strength except where a little child is concerned That alone can henceforth stir the deepest recesses of her heart After this a gap of years One two three four five children were laid away to rest In Portchester churchyard church-yard then Philemoa and she came to Sutherlandtown but not till after a certain event had occurred best made known by this last letter to Philemon Dear Husband Our bab is born our sixth and our dearest and the reproach re-proach of its first look had to be met ay me alone Oh why did I leave you and come to this great Boston where I lave no friends but Mrs Sutherland Did I think I could break the spell of fate or Providence by giving birth tony to-ny last darling alone among strangers I shall have to do something more than that if I would save this child to our old age I Is borne In upon me like fate that never will a child prosper atm at-m breast or survive the clasp of my arms I It is to live it must be reared b y others Some woman who has not brought down the curse of heaven upon her by her own blasphemies must flourish Ish the tender frame and receive the blessing of its growing love Neither I nor you can hope to se recognition ip our babes eye Before i can turn upon us with love it will close in Its last sleep and we will be left desolate What shall we do then with this little son To whose guardianship can we entrust it Do you know a man good enough or a woman sufficiently tender I do not but i God wills that our little Frederick should live he will raise Federck lve wi up some one by the pang of possible separ ition already tearing my heart I believe be-lieve that he will raise up some one Meanwhile I do not dare to kiss the child lest I should blight i He is so sturdy Philemon so different from ail he other five 1 open this to add that r Slither G 1 > < > land has just been in with her five weeks old Infant His father is away too and has not yet seen his boy And this is their first after ten years of I I marriage I The next letter opens with a cry Philemon Come to me Philemon I I have done what I threatened I have made the sacrifice Our child is an longer ours and now perhaps he may live But oh my breaking heart my empty arms Help me to bear my desolation des-olation for it is for life AVe will never have another child And where is i Ah that is the won er of it Near you Philemon yet not too near Mrs Sutherland Suth-erland has it and you may have seen its little face through the car window if you were in the station last night when the express passed through to Sutherlandtown Ah but she has her burden to bear too An awful secret burden like my own only she will have the child for Philemon she has taken it in lieu of her own which died last night in my sight And Mr Sutherland does hot know what she has done and never will if you keel the secret as 1 shall for the sale of the life our little innocent has thus won What do I mean and how was it all Philemon it was Gods work all but the deception and that is for the good of all and to save four broken hearts Listen Yesterday only yesterdayIt seems a month ago Irs Sutherland came again to see me with her baby In her arms The baby was looking well and she was the happiest of women for the one wish of her heart had been fulfilled and she was soon going to have the bliss of showing the child to his father My own babe was on the bed asleep and I who am feeling wonderfully won-derfully strong was sitting up in a little chair as far away from him as possible not out of hatred or indifference indiffer-ence Oh no but because he seemed to rest better when left entirely by himself and not under the hungry look of my eyes Mrs Sutherland went over to look at i Oh he Is fair like my baby she said and almost as sturdy though mine is a month older And she stooped down and kissed him Philemon he smiled for her though he never had for me I saw it with a greedy longing that almost al-most made me cry out Then I turned to her and we talked Of what 1 cannot remember now At home we had never been intimate friends She is from Sutherland town and I am from and the distance of nine miles is enough to estrange people ple But here each with a husband absent and a darling infant sleeping under her eyes interests we have never thought identical drew us to each other and we chatted with ever increasinc pleasure Suddenly Ir Sutherland jumped up in terrible fright The infant in-fant she had been rocking on her breast was blue the next minute It shuddered the next it lay in her arms dead I hear the shriek yet with which she fell with it still in her arms to the floor Fortunately no other I ars were open to her cry I alone saw her misery I alone heard her tale The child had been poisoned Philemon poisoned by her She had mistaken a I cup of medicine for a cup of water and had given the child a few drops in a spoon just before setting out from her hotel She had not known at the time what she had done but now she remembered re-membered that the fatal cup was just like the other and that the two stood very near together O her innocent child and O her husband I seemed as if the latter thought would drive her wild He has so wished for a child she moaned We have been married moane ten years and this baby seemed to have been sent from heaven He wlll cure me he will hate me he will never be able after this to bear me in his sight This was not true of Mr Sutherland but it was useless to argue with her Instead of attempting it I took another nay to stop her ravings Lifting the child out of her hands I first listened at its heart and then finding it was really deadI have seen too many lifeless life-less children not to know I began slowly slow-ly to undress it What are you dong do-ng she cried Mrs Webb Mrs Webb What are you doing For reply re-ply Is pointed to the bed where two little arms could be seen feebly fluttering flutter-ing You shall have my child I whispered I have carried too many babies to the tomb to dare risk bring lag up another And catching her poor wandering spirit with my eye I held her while I told her my story Philemon I saved that woman Before Be-fore I had finished speaking I saw the reason return to her eye and the dawning dawn-ing of a pitiful hope In her passion drawn face She looked at the child in my arm and then she looked at the one in the bed and the longdrawn sigh with which she finally bent down I and wept over our darling toll me that my cause won The rest was easy I When the clothes of the two children had been exchanged she took our baby In her arms and prepared to leave Then I stopped her Swear I cried holding her by the arm and Hfitlng my other hand to heaven swear you wi be a mother to this child Swear you will love it as your own and rear It in the path of truth and righteousness I righteous-ness The convulsive clasp with I which she drew the baby to her breast old me more plainly than her shudderIng shudder-Ing I swear that her heart had already al-ready opened to It I dropped her arm and covered my face with my hands I could not see my darling got death 0 God It was worse than deth I save him I groaned God make him an honor But here she caught me by the arm her clutch was frenzied fren-zied her teeth were chattering Swear In your turn she gasped swear that if I do a mothers duty by tbs boy that you will keep my secret ant never never reveal to my husband to the boy or t6 the world that you have any claims upon him I was like tearing the heart from my breast with my own hand but I swore Philemon and she in her turn drew back But suddenly sud-denly she faced me again terror and doubt in nil her looks Your husband hus-band she whispered Can you keep such a secret from him You will breathe it in your dreams I shall tell him I answered Tell him The hair seemed to rise on her head and she shook so that I feared she would drop the babe Be careful I cried See you frighten the babe My husband hus-band has but one heart with me What I do he will subscribe to Do not fear hllemon So I promised in your name 3radually she grew calmer When I aw she was steady again I motioned her to go even my more than mortal strength was falling and the baby hilemon I have never kissed it and I did not kiss it then I heard her feet draw slowly towards the door I heard her hand fall on the knob heard it urn uttered one cry and then They found me an hour after lying along the tIe floor claspine the dead Infant in mjj > 1 J I arms I was In a swoon and they all I think I fell with the child as perhaps I did and that Its little life went out during my insensibility Of its little features like and yet unlike our bOYs no one seems to take heed The nurse I who cared for it is gone and who else would know that little face but me They are very good to me and are full of self reproaches for leaving me so long in my part of the building alone But though they watch me now I have contrived to write this letter which you will get with the one telling of the I babys death and my own dangerous afloath I I Under i these words Though hidden hid-den to destroy this I have never dared Ito I-to do so Some day it may be of inestimable ines-timable value to us or to our boy PHILEMON WEBB This was the last letter fownd in the packet As it was laid down sobs were heard all over the room and Frederick who for some time now had been sitting sit-ting with his head in his hands ventured ven-tured to look up and say Do you wonder that I endeavored to keep this secret bought at such a price and sealed by the death of her I thought my mother and of her who really was Gentlemen Mr Sutherland really loved his wife and honored her memory To tell him as I shall have to within the hour that the child she placed in his arms twentyfivet l years ago was an alien and that all his live his care his disappointment and his sufferings have been lavished on the son of > neighbor requires greater I courage than to face doubt in the faces of my fellowtownsmen or anything jn I short but absolute arraignment on the charge of murder Hence my silence hence my indecision till this woman herehe pointed a scornful finger at I Amabel now shrinking in her chair drQve me to it by secretly threatening ne vith a testimony which would have made me the murderer of my mother and the lasting disgrace of a good man who alone has been without blame from the beginning to the end of this desperate affair She was about to speak when I forestalled her That afternoon before the inquest broke up the jury brought in their verdict ver-dict I was I Death by means of a wound inflicted in-flicted upon herself in a moment of terror ter-ror and misapprehension 1 was all his fellowtownsmen could do for Frederick To be Continued |