A Child of the Age,

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 421, 12 May 1904, Page 2

A Child of the Age,

-By HULMiR H. BOYESEN. M . (Continued.) fj| And before Harold could raise his hand ! again the whip whizzed about: his eais, and he felt a stinging pain scrosß his cheek and forehead. Hilda, pale and cowering,' fell down upon the grass and hid her face in her hands. The Judge, anxious ip reach the house before his wrath should give way to shame, strode ruthlessly across the flower-beds and was sobn out of sight. Harold, too; stunned, by the moral rather than the effaot of the. blow, to think, stood gasihg fixedly in the air; but there was something like a veil before his eyes, and a rushing sound as of water in'his ear?. J

Half absently he touched his face, and felt a great welt extending frorn the left cheek across the nose to his forehead. He - bowed his head and groaned; the degradation o\ it was terrible. His wife, at the Bound of his groan, suddenly recovered herself, rose, and went straight toward him'} but at the sight of his face she again'burst into tears, put her arms caressingly about him, and kissed his swollen cheek.'

'Let us go over to the parsonage, Harold,'she whispered; 'stay there tonight. I will go asd get baby/ 'We are going farther than the parsonage, dear,* he answered brokenly. 'Go and get the child.' ' 8 .'<■--» . -,, s

Although but dimly 'comprehending him, Bhe obeyed; it was a relief to have some duty, to perform which jcquired motion. The twilight was spreading under the great trees; the sun had sunk behind the mountain-tops, bun a dim. yellow light lingered in the upper regions of the air and tinged the western cloudbanks. There was something feverish in thisiightwhich dasedthV sense like the atmosphere of a lurid romance, in whiqh" all things seem possible. It seemed easy, to Harold to take a great resolution now, a, resolution. which he bad meditated before, but which in the broad daylight of reason bad appeared wild and impossible. He would take hi 3 wife and jchild-to America, and there found a new home and a news existence. •He had friends in Bergen of whom he could.easily borrow enough money to pay their passage. A defiant exultation suddenly broke : through "Eis burning sense of wrong, as he imagined i his glorious independence of thought and deed on that remote shore, where no aid \no cramping traditions could reach him. He opened najff xtiadea f|^*ea^yto receive his wife Jbd child; minutes :elap3sd before "they came, Ipfc-he began to grow im-

patient., «v«ry traco of Hilda's recent emotion had vanished, as she came bearing the child in her arms and with a valise in' She was again the busy, bast'ing mother._ The mp.ther had conquered the wife i aJ&J&JJHL bab y.' he said, Btandingi in the bcatyJirM stretching out his bands to receive'the child. ', v * Tell me ftret where you are going,' ihe said, piueing at the tbp of tt'et stwra. STo America/ 3ig WWM •To America !' she cried, 'in an open. 'We can catch the Bergen steamsr which will pass her at ten. Come, there is no time to bs lost/

' But, Harold, you will not—you cannot ,rr°b, Harold, do come back to me/ ehe wailed.in iifteolute despair, 'fatherwill jwre'y forgive you/ M see.tl*r;^aie , of today re- < 'Nbf*ut Tvfootfgo; with you. Think -ofe|j|^w = in-.;tliafc' America. own feelin'gs€> #^| but not | self-tespecfc. . You cati persuade me no Hilda "Willyod follow me, crwill f&e '-',6sf9te out with' renewed vsj^gfen<^:;' If you could only speak,, restrain your father Ws!£^-s3!&^-t O UfI%O)&aQ not leave. not leave us!'" notoomg P'-~ about to' the pier:is* i..... Witß reTuoiaht steps sfiefdesoended the stairs; butliis. he eagerly; held out his ! arms to abruptly iwayyand looked thd Btately masonry which iraced its outline «**kly against the sWy, v" . % '■■_ 'Ob,my God!' she moaned, • I cannot, I canao*/?, ' •vf;*v-'.;:tK:-*! : .- - - - "" : -'-■■- >{To be coniinued) •*-