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86 A DREADFUL TEMPTATION. :
Lora te uxiss anc caress her, but she remained still and pale,
seemingly incapable of a return of her. sister's tenderness,
Her dark eyes stared straight before her, filled with adumb
terror, asif some dread anticipation was painted on the walls
of her mind.
Slowly, like one fascinated, Loracrept nearer, and twin-
ing her arms about her little child, kissed his sweet brow
and lips. Xenie turned mechanically and their eyes met.
‘They regarded each other silently a moment, but in
Lora’s eyes there was a yearning tenderness, a plaintive _
prayer that said plainer than words: a.
‘“Oh! my sister, give me my child. Let me lay him in
his father’s arms, and say: ‘My husband, this. is my: child
and yours.”
The ice around Xenie’s frozen heart melted at that word- —
less prayer. Slowly she laid the beautiful, dark-eyed boy
in the yearning arms of the young mother.
‘‘Take him, Lora,” she said, *‘I absolve you from your
vow of silence. I cannot withhold this crowning joy that
will complete your happiness, although it wrecks my own.
Uupon my head fall all the bitter consequences of my sin.”
ith the words she turned to leave the room, but that
bitter renunciation before her deadly foe had been too hard |
for her.
She staggered blindly a moment, then fell to the floor Lke
one bereft of life.
CHAPTER XXVI.
On the deck of a noble steamer outward bound, Lora
Mainwaring leaned upon her husband’s arm and waved a
fond farewell to her mother and sister who watched her
tearfully from the shore.
Captain Mainwaring was about to make his first voyage
as the commander of the vessel, and his wife chose to go -
with him, declaring that she feared the dangers of the sea
. far less than the anguish of a second. separation from her
husband.
Yet the tears stood thickly in her eyes as she clasped the.
dimpled hand of her little son and watched those two sad. .
figures on the shore—the beloved mother and sister. whom
she was leaving for long and weary months—and it might
be, for who could tell—perhaps forever!
Two months had passed since the eventfulday when Lora |
had returned to the dear ones who mournec her as dead—
two months of passionate happiness to her, yet crowded
with bitterness and humiliation to her beautiful and high-
spirited sister. |
For yet again had the fabulous fortune of the old mil.
SPT SRR Nec ao
ASAE