The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 48: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

240 THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. ‘Your daughter reminded me of it,’’ Wilton said thoughtfully. ‘‘ But if she has never been away from here se Oh, I have,’? Mary said. ‘‘I can just remember, long ago, before we came here.’’ " What do you remember ?’’ Giles asked curtly. Mary looked away through the window without apparently heeding the tone of her father’s voice. ‘It is clearer today than I ever remember it,’’ she said softly, as though she were speaking more to herself than to her companions. ‘‘ That time, so long ago, before we came here. ‘There were a lot of houses, big ones and little ones, and a lot of water,’’ “You don’t say you remember all that?’’ Giles asked, and Wilton glanced at him as he heard his voice. His face depicted the surprise that the tone expressed. “Wait a moment; there’s some more,’’ Mary continued. ‘‘I seem to be just—I don’t quite know how to put it,’”’ she said as she pressed her hand to her forehead and her eyes grew moist. ‘“It was when she was a child; when her mother died,’’ Giles said to Wilton. ‘‘I did not know she remembered it. I hoped she had forgotten it. Do you remember how you fretted, Mary ?”? ‘“‘I remember crying for a long time,’’ she answered softly. ‘Well, if you remember so much, I will help you, for I dare say you are old enough now to look at it sensibly,’? Giles remarked. ‘‘ You see Wilton, it was a hard blow to me. I was ruined, and my wile died at the same time, and then I found myself with Mary here, who was a little girl of a year or so, just toddling, and all my work to be done over again. It was a case of seeking fresh land out further back, and I had to travel and carry the little one with me till we found this patch, and I obtained the grant. She cried her eyes nearly out for her mother, and then used to cry, whenever she wasn’t asleep, to go back. It was a hard time for me, and J don’t like talk- ing about it,’’ he added with a heavy sigh. Mary was sitting silent and abstracted. ‘The brief story that her father told threw a flood of light upon her memory, for she could understand the reason now of his moody temper. She had unconsciously made his lot the harder at the most painful period of his existence, and it was not to be won- dered at that he, at a later period,should have been estranged from her. Here was the secret that she had often tried to fathom for herself, the secret why her father had ceased to be the happy, contented man she just managed to recall, and why ho had become so morose and dissatisfied. She was not schooled in matters of the affections; she had grown to womanhood with no other guide or comprnion than old Narli; but the heart of a sympathetic woman had developed upon its own lines, and now wakened to the first touch that it had ever felt. She rose from her seat and, going over to her father, she threw her arms round his neck and she said brokenly : ‘“Oh, why did von not tell me before? I never knew, and I have won- dered so much.’’ Wilton, watching the two, saw Giles’ eyes light up, and into his heart ecomicbooks 3 pa