Florence Athern's Trial [pp. 213-227]

Florentce Athern's Trial.
get along on the handsome allowance
his father made him, and Florence's
share of my mother's fortune. One
day the little cottage at Germantown
was overshadowed by a stately carriage, and out of the carriage came an
aristocratic-looking gentleman, who
inquired for Mrs. Paul Athern. When
Florence presented herself, her gentle
beauty had no effect in melting his
stony heart, for he did his work well.
It was Paul's father. He told her of
his plans for Paul, and how he had discovered their secret at last; and, with
a cruelty I cannot understand even
now, informed her quietly that that
marriage was null and void; they
both being minors, by the statutes of
New York could not contract legal
marriage without consent of parents
or guardians. Florence heard him
out, and then rose and said she would
wait till her husband came home
to know the truth.' Your husband,
madam, has taken my advice and
gone to New York for a few days, and
you will not have the opportunity of
telling him what he knows already,
and knew when, to satisfy you, he
went through the mockery of a marriage.'" The listener tightened her
hold on Margaret and hid her face;
her aunt put both arms around her, and
continued: "Here Florence lost all
consciousness, and when she came to
herself, she was alone. The afternoon
was nearly gone; but she called her
servant, made her help to pack her
trunk, then sent her for a carriage,
leaving a note for Paul with the girl
in charge of the house. She drove to
Philadelphia, waited quietly at a hotel
till the next morning, then started for
the west.
"My father's anger was fearful, all
the more so that he was powerless.
Florence was ill for several weeks after her return, and even after she recovered she never looked like her self. She came to us in June; in
July came a letter to my father in
Paul's handwriting, which he threw
into the fire unopened. In October
you were born, and in six weeks
more your poor mnother -died."
Here she paused again, and bent
her head close to the golden-tressed
one pressed to her breast. "My
father lived till the next fall, but
never the same man. Harry came
home from Fordham that summer,
and took entire charge of the farm,
my father caring for nothing but to
carry you about and watch you.
For two years we heard nothing of
your father; and then the eastern papers were full of a great forgery that
had been committed, and the forger
was a son of one of the first families
in the city. Florence, darling, need I
tell his name? The trial proved his
guilt, but he managed to escape,
and one day we were surprised by his
sudden appearance here. He came
without any announcement, and walked right into the parlor where I was
sitting sewing and Uncle Harry
reading, while you were asleep in
your cradle. Before we could recognize him almost, he asked in a hoarse
voice,'Where is Florence-where,
for God's sake, is my wife?' Then
a glance at my black dress and Harry's stern face as he rose to repel
his intrusion, seemed to reveal all,
and he sank on the floor in a deep
SWOOln.
"We kept his presence in the house
a secret from the men on the farm,
and only Tamar knew it; fortunately,
the house-girl had gone to Hamilton
for a few days. He was quite wild
for a day or so; and when he came
to himself, Harry demanded an explanation, and he gave it.
"He had not known of his father's
visit to Germantown till he returned
from New York, where he had gone
that day at his father's request, having written a letter to that effect to
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