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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1900-09-14, Page 7„4„, W L6 LA\ OUAYU 6► (o,:, oma•-^-e+ttw---coo 'I r s [s omc+-•-ot�rm----ed� 4:1^N :%E4f'pUNN �'. ll, U E Upu U4 'Ula ©R U L ap' • d•:9¢ i• . Copyright, 1t399, by Jeannette 11.. Walworth. '11 A., •.,•,.A; •.A; •.A.• e.• •.m. A A •••• .A, A .- •.o •.• •' A ,She raised one long arm to point sol- , A stranger Was In the sulky. A elan 'emuly upward -"he knows." isshe hal never seen MS driving the Her father's awful silence appalled mare tti inule, She wendered who she *Olivia, IXo was staring stonily at tout belonged to. now-'l'otn, of course, accuser. The rnust•les of his Peel; and Sick at heart, sore frightened, hating jaws twitched convulsively. but nu ` herself for even remembering that • rt1s came from his lambed. lips. j "crazy old.. woman's” terrible words, n the of ` shecher the 5 illman gate a d lvia last all control at sight. I tea I i i : p "Ile is dying, dytug, and you have passed timidly through It and up the tilled himi father, dou't die before , broken brick walk, between Miss Mal - ,you have answered Her: • Don't go with vina's two rows or gayly blossoming her awful words ringing in my ears! I annuals, into the cottage, without know they are false, all talee, father, 1 knocking, for the door stood wide but I want to hear yon say so! �+lleue'e i open, If she knocked, "Mother" Spill - ;her yourself, tether! Steak to rue only ' man might answer, 'Once! Speak, papa!" I "There was no ono in the little sitting "He cannot," said the old wonting room. The great ciliate. covered easy chair which she had never before seen mercilessly. "The Lord has stricken vacant had been pushed back against his false and deceitful tongue. It '!s the wall, Miss Malvina's sewing ma- .p:aralyzed•" chine was closed, and its oilcloth cover CHAPTBIt ZIv, ; was spread over It. The books on the table in the center of the room were stsricxox xs eATcrilsG. rigidly 'correct in their stiff arrange - The next day's sue had run its meet. A lamp burned dimly ie the .course, its last friendly service being midst of thom. There was a certain the totheentire to. grid with transient glary p i air of decorous'tenose about most branches of the ancient cedars `room which smote upon Olivia's nerves that flanked the front gate of the Mat- ' ominously, The door to the adjoining thews cottage en either stele. '1'Uey , room was ajar. A dim light shone were wrapt in twilight gloom when through it: Perhaps she would tied +Olivia opened the gate between them them• In there. Of course she would. and 'stood staring down the road with Dr. Govan bad said "Mother" Spill - unseeing eyes. Dr. Govan had just roan was sick. Site had forgotten it. - passed out of sight. Ile had spent With considerate caution she made :nearly the whole clay with her father. her way toward the light. She did not .She had been rigidly excluded from the sickroom. They had broken her want to disturb "the poor old lunatic," heart by telling her that it was her fa- ther's a but she must have speech with Miss Malvina. She could not rest that night • :ther's wish• without !t. Yes, she found them in "Her distress was agitating to the i there, mother and daughter, the one ;patient," the old doctor had said, with , ;paternal kindness, adding, "Sinc'e you quiet, motionless, at rest, with her •tan do no good in there, my dear," {long, gaunt hands lying stretched ;with a grave nod toward the sickroom, : Peacefully. upon the white coverlet, the '"you had better brace yourself by a other sitting by the bedside weeping in noiseless resignation to the expected, don^ walk." " i her dead. Olivia swept Miss Malvtua turned her tear clixzl- ined eyes away from the dead old face to the pallid young one with startling sut111enuess. "Paperst What papers?'" Olivia stooped and kissed the plain face Impulsively.. "Oh, it seems such a monstrous thing to come here and accuse her of cruelty when she cannot say u, word In self de - tense! 13ut, tbon, uo more could fa- ther last night. She said that some- body had brought her some papers that she meant to keep until Torn carne back, but that she had lest them. She said that she could not look for them in the daytime because you watched ber ° elesely," Here tile poor child dropped on her knees and clasped !ter trembling hands epee 'Miss Malvtna'S lap: "Oli, what dre4dfut things she said to papa about those papers! Find thein for me, Malvina: Help ale to find thein before it Is too late." Miss Malvhta gathered her into a motherly embrace. "Too late for what,, my poor little 011ie?" "Before father -goes -and cannot tell me what to -do -with them," "My child, Olivia, there are no pa- pers. Believe me, it \v is'all the Pttncy of a disordered brain. Mother was queer for a long time back. 1 have known It for a year or two. How could there be any papers of impor-` tauce to any one in this little cabin and 1 not know about them? forget what you beard her say, my child. Let it go for uaught. As you say, she knows better now." Olivia got up on her feet, and, fold- ing her hands tightly upon her breast, she looked down on Miss Malvina with an inexorable purpose in her sad eyes. M "I wish 1 could let it go for naught, but I cannot. I know there were some' papers lost. because 1 distinctly re- member father asking you if you had seen any the night of Colonel Brox- ton's death. I know be could not wrong any one purposely, but losing those papers may have put him in a wrens! She had listened to him restlessly, ; weep n; for e •with a haggard look in ber childishswiftly forward and laid a hand on 'Miss Atalviva's arm "Is she sick? Is eyes, which had great black rings :around them. she asleep?" "She is dead," said Malvina quietly. • "Will filcher ever speak again, Dr. "She went very peacefully just five .•ova n?" she asked sharply. t ago." "Speak again? Oh, yes! He has minutesThe lonely) woman lifted her dull red �polcen• 1 promise you he shall seold `eyes to Olivia's. The girl felt a quick yin roundly for those white cheeks i and staring eyes before bedtime." ; rush of sympathy. She wound her arms about the mourner. • She waved one hand Impatiently. "Dead, and you here alone!" ."He must speak, doctor. There Is , Miss Malvina turned and smoothed :something he must tell me before -be - the thin gray hairs back from the mar- Pore"- She gasped and added in hie cold face on the pillows. choked voice, "Did Clarence tell you? , "I'd rather have had it so," she said, "About that old lunatic's visit last ; "I wanted nobody about. Poor dear! dight? Of course he did. 1 saw her She has not been herself for so long. today. She is properly punished, poor She talked queerly sometimes, and 1 'oid imbecile -not punished, for she did i wanted no gossips about." not know what she was about. She's Olivia bowed tier tread in sad com- ut done for herself, corning up here i those thin house shoes. Malvina is prehension, "Yon mean about my fa- t pretty well broken up about it all." ther." She stood resting one hand on • 011ie moved up very close to the old man and put her clasped hands on his ,heart as she saki pleadingly, "She is a lunatic, isn't she, Dr: Govan?" "Mad as a March hare." "And nobody ever thinks of believing what lunatics say, do they, Dr. Go- • ;van?" "Not.uuless they nre a little touched themselves." He had no difficulty in tracing her meaning. It was a piteous plea for with in her father- Westover had told him of the scene he had invaded with- out revealing his own part in the pro- teeding. But. knowing as well as he 'did the old weal:Has s m tnia, the doctor had no difficulty in supplying the de- ' Bak." With a touch of .e;lratrsted patience 51lee Atalsintti gated, "Aitd •the COOS* that?' "Where are tllose pert?'" ""Ilow should she UMW, child? What Mild she be dolna' with Rapers that belonged to your Rat br or to ',1'ttouias' froxton? She spent, her whole waiting Onto in that big chair. 1 never will be able to lo01� at It wi tout bringing hor back• lzow could s 1 . have found any paper's? And, if She .had, she would have turned them over to the person they belonged to. Mother was too hon- est to Welt her w r t openly. If 1 sound peevish and cress, child, bear In maid, that I, too, have gone through an ordeal." Olivia drew In her breath with a clutch gasp of excitement. She was too absorbed in the terrible mystery she was trying to unravel to take any note of the tired look on the plain face she was Searching. "Ah,' something else .comes back to me! I feel kite someone who has had a clew put into bis lands, but It is so frail and delicate ,h is afraid to strain it for fear of Cosi g it forever. It comes back to me* •ben you speak of that chair. I remember one day -it was long before y gar'd,en party -I came here to see you about something. You were not here, and I was afraid of her.. I have been afraid of her ever since I was a little child. I drew back when I saw you were not in the room and waited on the porch for you. 'Mother' Spillman was down on her knees before that big chair acting so queerly. `'3 thoughtnt first she might be praying." "Which I don't doubt she was,"' said Miss Malvina coldly. "She was very devout. Mother peed a great deal. I expect you disturbed her at ber morn- ing devotions.' "I don't think I disturbed her," said 011ie humbly, "I stole right away very Wetly and left her patting the .ct.nir all over with her bands outstretched." Ira u h h r ti U4 e 0 b r a e m t e 1 1 e n tt e mY t e ) 0 i praised t e a "Tatting the chair? Mother some- times got very fervept in prayer." "Orr, now 1 can see you are getting angry with me! Think of it, Miss Mal- vina-my father may soon be as your mother is now. When They meet up yonder, she will know him as he Is. All mistakes, all doubts, will be set to rest forever for them. But for the -oh, help 'me to find those papers before he leaves we! I must have them!" Sobs shook the tired young fratne. and Miss Malvina's rising resentment was swept away on the tide of return- ing pity. She got up and put loving amps about the weeping girl. "Olivia. don't you think, for my sake 'and yours, too. all this wild talk about a few lost papers may be dropped for the time being,? It don't seem quite respectful to her, lying there so atilt and helpless, with us questioning her meanings and criticising her acts. l :un only asking you to wait a little while." "Forgive me." She slipped out of Miss Malvina's clasp and dropped on her knees by the bed. Malvina left her there. It would do her good to wrestle with herself alone. She passed into the desolate little sitting room and paused by the rarely used table with its burden of books. 011ie joined her there presently. "I have asked her to forgive me.. 1 have told her that I forgive her. Of course she did not i;now what she was saying." "Thank you. my dear, for trying to be just to her." Suddenly the girl's eyes widened. "And that is the very chair. Promise me. Miss Malvina, promise me." she went on, with growing excitement, "that when it is all over -1 !neon when there is nothing more to do for her - you will let.me come back here and"- "I'il be only too glad to have yore come whenever you can spare a mo- ment from your own dear invalid." . "You don't understand me." Her eyes were burning feverishly. "I mean may I come back and examine that chair?" It was on Miss Malvina's sorely tried heart to ask, "Are you, too. going daft over Thomas Bron.'ton's affairs?" but the girl's hot cheeks and shining eyes aroused her grave apprehensions: What if she should break down under the strain, with a greater ordeal ahead of her? So she said soothingly: "Yon can do just whatever you choose with any- thing that Is mine, 011ie. The old chair bas served Its purpose. I don't Mother, it all to pieces. A 0 Care if you pull• I ant sure, would bC the first one to say 'Hunto>y her.' Now go home, my dear. Your Hither may be'calling for you. I wish 1` hadn't sent Jimmie Martin for Mrs. Lyons. I've got no one to see you real dark night." i ate hom e and its b "1 am not afraid. I am coming back as soon -as soon"_ "Vas, as soon as we have put mother away by father's side in the little Churchyard. But now go home." f l fig- ure • 1 race u small, watched the , , g She t e until It became iuvisible by reason of the twisted road and then closed her front door softly. Could there be anything in all this talk about some lost papers? "Suspi- cion Is catching, I do believe." a�s tails. "Poor papa -to think of my not pro- tecting him better!" Dr. Govan pushed her gently toward the door. "There, there, child; go. You are working yourself up into a condi- tion of absolute uselessness." "Oh, that will uever do! I must not become useless while father needs me. I will go for a walk." "That's right. You are a good child. See that your walk means something. Y will be back about 10." Passing swiftly and resolutely from under the gloomy cedars through the smart, highly ornamented gate into the broade of with its „ road, « Prin• public 0 P grass and weeds, gray with dustshe turned her face westward. She was going to the Spillman cottage. Miss 'Malvina mast tell her what her moth { er meant about Burling and losing pa - Broxton. IIto to Tom • that belonged et s n br e would not let Miss Malvina know out the awful things that "poor old crazy woman" had said to her fnther, Those were words that must never find utterance a second time. They were too dreadful, too cruel, too false. absolutely false', And yet they haunt- ; ed her. Some sleek black and white co't's filed past her, wending their way homeward for the night Their gener- ous udders hung hoavy with the prom - of arich iseyield. Allo of the b lack and white kine used to belong to Colo• eeL� Broxton. No one else had their ilikt4 She donld distinctly .remember bearing the old colonel dfscotn•se upon the snneriority of his Imported IYMI- steins and being rallied by her father on his extravagance in keeping such a ) fancy breed. She wondered who the Meek and white cows belonged to noir f -Tom, of ceurse. The thud of rapid hoof beats on the road behind her made her draw still farther aside into the dusty grass anti weeds. She felt like hiding. "Why?" she asked herself petulantly. With long, clean strides, drawing it light sulky after her as east• ly tis if It were a baby's perambulator, the• colonel's black mare tined nest her, POULTRY NETTIN' -;!''T')"d LAWN rENCINGS position. Hell, me. to find them, Miss Malvina." Miss Malvina fell back upon her only line of defense. "Mother was queer, 011ie. That was the reason I have shut our door to all the neighbors of late. She did not know what she was •talking about. There are"- • Olivia interrupted her impatiently. "But did you never hear her speak of those lost papers -of her finding them, I mean?" "Never." "Nor any one else? Father? Don't you remember that morning after Colo- nel Broxton died?" A subtle change swept over :hiss Malvina's plain face. ' A. frightened look came into her eyes. "Think. Miss Malvina. Try to re- member. And -ah, do tell me the truth, the whole truth, no matter how sorry you may feel for me. 1 can stand more than you think I can. • But 1 shall never: know what peace is until my mind is relieved about those pa- pers." Thus adjured, Miss Malvina made a reluctant confession. "1 will relieve your mind as far as Iles in my power. 011ie, if you will only try to stop worrying over what can't be cured. I was standing at our front gate the night the colonel died. hoping somebody would happen by that I could question about him. When 1 heard a horseman com.iug, 1 rushed out Into the road with very inconsider- ate speed. 1 frightened your father's. horse, and he dropped his bag. 1 picked it up myself and handed it back to him." "He told me the next day -you re- member, it was when you brought him in yotir phaeton -that be missed some papers and thought they might have dropped out when he let his bng fall." "All of which." said Olivia stonily, "goes to prove that some papers were lost" "Yes, but of course he found them again. He said that Inorning that he presumed he must have left them in the, study at the hall, but It did not "hili child, Olivia, there arc no papers." Miss Malvina's shoulder, her eyes fixed upon the dead woman's face. She did not cutch her friend's look of startled astpnishinont. Iler voice was drearily calm. "Yes, I know. It Is very good of you. It is just like you not to want anybody to know how she talked about father. She said such dreadful things to him Mat night" "Mother up to your house last night! My dear,, you must have dreamed It. "Oh; no! 1 wish . I bad! 1 wish 1 had! But she was up there. I cannot tell you what she said to papa. I thought then 1 could hover forgive her, but she knovr•s better now, and 1 ex. - pilot If she could she would ask his pardon and mine too. She knows now that my dear father did not ruin • Thomas Broxton. She knows that he is a good and true man. 1 can forgive her now. I have forgiven her," Miss :lalvina forgot her own be- reavement in pity for the desolate young face bent over her mother's bed. She turned comforter. "Yes, she knows better now. You poor little girl -to think 1 should have fallen so dead asleep that she could leave the house without my knowing It! I begin to suspect that she has been deoelving me for a long time. You know the In -people in her fix are clrelciftilly sly. 1 did not know she had been out of the house for years. I can't beg your pardon often enough for lot- , ting her worry Mr. Matthews. I knew she had a sort of unreasoning grudge against him. Sometimes. you know, , dear, they-/tnlg'it as well out with it," she added in a uort of desperation, "insane folks often pick out their best friends to vilify." "I know, 1 know. More than once has she left you asleep and wandered out into the night. 1 board h'er tell Omit it last night. Ob, if she had only lived long enough to tell pro some- thing more about those pttiiers! W1ty. cannot I get her dreadful words out of .uy boor matter much. They could not have been very important." "But Mrs. Spillman -where does she come into your story?" "I told her when 1 went back into the house all allout it. Poor mother! 1 got into the way of repeating every- thing to her, It interested her, you kuow, and. being queer already, she got a twist in her head about those papers, I suppose, which there Is no use trying to account for." "But she was so terribly in earnest last night, Miss \1nlvina. There must have been something more than imagi- nation in it all. But th^erc. now. That sounds as if I vett, helping herast to cast discredit on father." Miss Malvina sighed wearily and turned her eyes toward the cold. still form on the bed. There was a note of pride In her voice when she said: "Motherwasalways ono of the terri- bly a 1R . 3 earnest sort. I used to tell her she must have some of the blood of the old Covenanters in her veins. Mother burnt out. She didn'trust out. Poor dear! holy glad she must be to have doue with it all --this timing and fret- ting, I mean, Mother's wasn't a happy nature, at least not hero below. I hope she is now. I've told you all I know, Olivia." Olivia was standing. with meekly folded hands, looking down upon the dead woman. How strange it all teas! Less than 12 hours ago that quiet form had quivered With :passion as It towered over her father's sickbed, and those Sealed lips had hurled °terrible accusations at him almost with their last activity. Now, if she should offer up her own vigorous young life in ex- change for a single word she could not ptirehase It. lie looks as Yes, ,r she said slowly, s 1f she had found rest. I would give my life, though, to bring her back to ttnswer 1110 ono question. Tlfere'rvotild be no guesswork about It now. She knows, and, 0 dear Lord, I avant to known Jest one question l Fant to 41: are not surpassed in tho WO1tLD. Their Woven Wire 1'e'i:ein€:s have stood stood over fifteen year; of very sneer+ssfe4 testing on FAR 1 uu 11L►'iv AY. fproia1 offers made this year on ROO These "roods are all manufactured by The. Ontario Wire. Fencing Co., i.wmited, of FM to%, Qnt, r al Dealers .For sale by the I3'artlsvax+d>lxert+Hants and Cexr r,,1 D a cr'i t hroughoutCar1Ada. Also by the Can. Hardware Jobbers.. Gen. Agents -The 13. Greening Wire Co., of Hamilton .and frloxxtreal. Agent for Railway Fencing ---dames Cooper, Montreal, Cotresrondence'with the manufacturers invited. .... ..... ... a .. .. .,.. ... _ .. -.K g sea". �I " � Wa tangos7< �...- te.N . 4 CANADA'S S Au authentin account of the Canadian Contingents in the South African War. By T. G. Margis, B. A, Introduction by Very Rev. Principal Grant, LL,D, Based on the official de- spatches of Lieut -Cbl. 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It was the first time In long years of service that they had been informed that they need not stay all night, it was unprece- dented. "You are quite sere. Malvin, you Week! rather` have us go than stay?" I "Quite sure, Mrs. Lyons," the mourner said, with tinct lips. "And you Won't be afraid to spend tido might here all alone?" "Afraid? haven't 1 spent every t,Y IPAN° Doctors G res err mF MIRES ti Tett for Eve cents,)tt Druggists t$rneers, Restaurants, Saloons, News -Stands, General Stores and Barbers Shops. They banish pain, indium sleep, and prolong lite. Ose gives relief No matter ehat'ethe matter, one will do you good. Ten samples Ariaone thumand testi- monials sent by mail to ,any address on reeeiptt.i prim by the Ripens Chemical Co., to sprace St., Newvntk City. coir- tM aitt: '