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OCR
oS Rai ME We Ne eR, aa te a Pah Pie BIA ER eWeek ee ea
A DREADFUL TEMPTATION. OG
“Tt is found, it is found! Oh, thank God!” she murmur-
ed, happily. “Bring him to me, for the love of Heaven!
Lay him here upon my breast, my precious little son!”
‘*Oh, sir, then it is true she had achild; ; andit is living. I
| thought per haps it was dead,” said the poor widow.
‘*She has a child, indeed, and she lostit in her delirious
flight; but her sister found it soon afterward, It is at this
moment not. more than four miles from here,” answered
the young man, without reflecting that many things might
have happened ‘duri ing his long, imprisonment of four days
in the lonely little fishing village.
‘*Then, if you will take my advice, sir, as she is a friend
of yours, you will try to get that child here as soon as pos-
sible. Iwill do the best I can for her, and the doctor has
promised to do all in his power; butI believe that the child
is the only thing that will save her life,” said Dame Videlet,
gravely shaking her head in its homely white cap.
‘It shall be brought,” said Howard, earnestly, and
weno a doubt but that he could keep the promise thus
made. \
Dame Videlet thanked God aloud, then added that the
sooner it were brought the .better it would be for the
mother.
All the while poor Lora lay tossing in restless pain, and
pegging piteously for her little child to be laid upon her
reast
Howard. bent over her as tenderly and gently as a
brother.
‘‘Lora, my poor child, try to be patient,” he said. “I
_ will bring the child to you; only be patient a little while.”
But it was allin vain to preach patience to that racked
heart and weary, fevered brain.
He stole away, followed by despairing cries 3 for the little
child—cries that echoed in his heart and brain many days
_ afterward, when his warm heart was half-broken because he
could not keep the promise he had madein such perfect con-
fidence and hope.
‘*How shall I get back to-the village four miles away
from here?” he asked of the man who had accompanied him
and was still waiting for him.
‘*T can take you in my fishing-boat and row you there,
and welcome, sir,” was the hearty response. ‘It’s a wee
bit leaky, but as good as any other craft about, and there’s
no conveyance to be had by land.”
‘‘ Whet a great simpleton I have been, by Geor ge, never
to have thought. of a boat before,” said Howard, looking
‘vexed at himself. ‘‘ Here I have been four days, and want-
ing to i back to the village badly, and never thought of
all the little boats and the great, wide ocean.”
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Fa teres eee!