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bem ge
A DREADFUL TEMPTATION. ' St
. Mrs. St. John stared at him silently a moment, -then she
answered, coldly:
‘‘Lora’s baby? Are you mad, Jack Mainwaring? Who
told you that she had a baby?”
His answer was a startling one:
‘‘ Lora told me so herself, Mrs. St. John.”
Xenie St. John reeled backward a few steps, and stared
at the speaker with parted lips from which every vestige of
color had retreated, leaving them pallid and bloodless as a
ghost’s,
‘* What, under Heaven, do you mean?” she inquired, in
a hollow voice.
Captain Mainwaring held up the letter in his hand.
.‘*Do you see this letter?” he said. ‘‘Itis the last one
Lora wrote me. I received it at the last port we touched
before our ship was burned. She begged me to come back
to her at once if I could, and save her name from the
shadow of disgrace. She told me that a child was coming
to usin the spring. I—oh, God, I was frantic! I meant to
return on the first homeward bound vessel! Then came
the terrible fire and loss of the vessel. Days and days we
floated on a raft—myself and three others—then we were
rescued by a merchant vessel bound for China. We had
to go there before we could come home. For months and
months I endured inconceivable tortures thinking of my
poor young wife’s terrible strait. And after all—when I
thought I should so soon be at home and kiss her tears
away—lI find her dead!”
His voice broke, he buried his face in his hands, and,
strong man though he was, sobbed aloud like achild.
They watched him, those four—Templeton, himself un-
seen—the frightened mother and daughter, and the little
child with its sweet lips puckered grievingly at the man’s
loud sobs.
But in a minute the man mastered himself, and went on
sadly:
‘*T was half frantic when I heard that my wife was dead.
. But, after awhile, I remembered the little child. I gaid to
myself, I will go and seek it. Ifit be a little girl I will call
it Lora. It may comfort me a little for its mother’s loss.”
_. He paused a moment, and looked at the pale, statue-like
woman before him. ~
_ ‘* Where is the child?” he asked, almost plaintively.
Her eyes fell before his earnést gaze, her cheeks blanched
to the pallor of marble. .
_. She must have been mistaken,” she faltered. ‘‘ There
i
“was no child.”
_ The young sailor regarded her keenly.
‘Madam, I do not believe you,” he answered, bluntky.
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