The Priest's Secret.

" HOAV did he come to tell you ? said tho doctor . " AVe Avere travelling abroad together . It AA * as the year before lie met thafc lady AVIIO is noiv his Avife . I was only 20 then ,

and , as I have told you , he treated me as a son . He Avas taken seriously ill in Rome , aud had a touch of the fever . One night he became a little light-headed and talked about his old life , and some AA-ords he made use of startled me .

" The next day he was calmer , and gradually got quite Avell again . When he Avas able to get about I told him Avhat strange things he had said in his delirium . He started , and seemed terribly upset , but made no reply .

" Late that evening he came to my room and said he had something to tell me . He said that all his life he had A \* anted somebody to confide his secret to—someone Avho Avould understand him and sympathise Avith him , and then he told me all . " "Ifc must have been a terrible shock to you . "

"Yes , but I hardly recognised all that it meant then . I suffered more afterAvards . I suffer move UOAV . I loved this

man , my benefactor , my almost father , then , and I love him more IIOAV j yet not once , but a hundred times , hTLve I felt that the burthen he had imposed upon me Avas greater than I could bear—that I must go out into the Avorld and cry it aloud . I have felt that I Avas sharing his guilt*—that I Avas aiding him to deceive and defraud tho Avorld in Avhich he Avas honoured and

respected . Dr . Hanson , ansAver mo this question as man to man—you have , during the short time he has been iu the place , seen him honoured and respected , looked up to , almost reA'ered 1

Do you belieA r e if ifc had been knoAvn that he had taken the life of his Avife and child that the one living soul Avxuild have taken his hand in friendship ? " The doctor hesitated .

" Let us look at tho matter calmly , he said , " You knoAV it , I knoAV it , and the Avife AVIIO sits upstairs by the bedside IOIOAA'S it IIOAV , and Ave are still his friends ; Ave pity him , and you , too ,

lovo him still . " " Yes , that is true , but ifc is not a fair ansAver to my fpiestion , " said the curate , sadly . " The knoAvledge has come to ns as a sacred trust . "

" His AA'ife does not slirink from him . " "No ! But from this hour I believe she will be a brokenhearted Avoman . Lifo can never be the same to her acraiu . Do

you believe that she , a good , pure , true , and loving Avoman , Avould have married him had he come to her and said , " I am a murderer . I killed my first Avife . I killed my child , but I love you , will you be my Avife ? "

" Well , honestly I don't suppose she Avould ; although the circumstances " " Tho circumstances cannot alter the facts . For all the lifelong sorrow thafc this poor lady musfc suffer IIOAV , I blame myself .

1 should have spoken oufc , I should have insisted on his telling hor the truth before hc married her . I hesitated through my great love for him , aud ever since I liaA'e felfc that I shared his guilt . "

"Come , come , iny dear fellow ! " exclaimed the doctor kindly " You are a little too hard on yourself . The Avhole business is very terrible , I grant you . I myself Avas inexpressively' shocked Avhen I discovered tho truth , but as a man of thoAvorlell believe you haA'o done nothing of which you need be ashamed . "

"Ay , as a man of the Avorld , but I am a priest of God . " "It is the duty of eveiy priest of God to help the suffering , mourn Avith thom that mourn , to console the wretched , to show the sinner his way to salvation , bufc surely it is not tho duty of a priest of God to betray his friend ancl benefactor , to give up

to shame and degradation a man lie honestly believes to have been the victim of a moment of madness . Come , I have only heard the rough outline of this terrible stoiy . Tell me theAvliole truth—tell me the circumstances as they Avere told to you , and let us see if you are really justified in torturing yourself in this manner . "

" Yes , " replied the curate , " I will , and if you can say , when I luiA'c finished , that no blame attaches to me it AVI'II be at least some comfort . AVould to God I could persuade myself that I am innocent . "

" One moment ! " said the doctor , " let mo just go upstairs and see hoAV Arkwright is . He Avas asleep AVIICU I left him . I Avill just tell his Avife that AVC are sitting up , and at a word from her ono of us will relieve her . "

The doctor was absent for about ten minutes . " Ho is still sleeping , " he saiel . "To-morrow AVO shall probabl y know the best—or the woi'st—I think evci * ytliing AVJ'II depend upon how he Avakes after his long * sleep . Now , tell mc the Avhole story . "

" I will tell it to yon , " said the curate , -with a deep sigh , " its nearly as I can iu John Arkwright ' s OAVU Avords . I remember them . They are seared on my memory , and I shall carry them to tho grave .

The Priest's Secret.

" He told me that Avhen he Avas a very young man , barely 30 , he loft England . He had neither father nor mother , and his uncle , Avith Avhom he had lived , Avas a hard , miserly man , who treated him badly . Anxious to get rid of him at any price , he obtained- for the young man a situation in an office in New York

. "John ArkAvright remained in ' Sew York for tAvo years , doing A ery little to improve his position , and just earning enough to pay for his food and lodging .

" Then he made a move , and managed to get to San Francisco , AA'here after undergoing great vicissitudes , he obtained employment in a drinking and gambling saloon , kept by a notorious ex-prize fighter .

" While there he fell in love with a young girl Avhose father had been killed in a drunken I * OAV in this ' hell' one night . The fathers ' s friends and associates got up a subscription , and handed it to the girl , AVIIO Avas a hardAvorking , decent lass , and had done all she could to keep her father straight after her mother ' s

death . AVhile the funds Avere being raised John saAV a great deal of her . He pitied her , and sympathised Avith her—for her lot Avas a very cruel one—and by a natural process fell in love Avith her . They were both alone iu the Avorld , they Avere both unhappy , aud Avhat Avas more natural than that they should come together , and at last make a match of it .

" One thing they Avere both agreed upon , and that Avas to get aAvay from their miserable surroundings , to leave San Francisco , and start a neAV life together far aAvay . "So ifc came about that soon after they Avere married John and his Avife set out with a band of adventurers for a Avild spot

Avhere , it Avas stated , fortunes Avere to be made . Thousands of men and Avonien Avent on the same errand in those days and , though many failed utterly and died miserably , some became

the pioneers of a great movement . On the lonely spots Avhere they settled , made a clearing , and built their Avooden huts , mighty cities stand to-day , to bear Avitness to their courage and their enterprise .

"John ArkAvright and his Avife Avere among tlie unfortunate ones AVIIO failed . They found themselves after years of hardship aud miseiy one of a band of men aud Avomen settled in a lonely spot cut off from civilisation , and surrounded by a laAvless band of half-starved adventurers .

" John and his Avife starved Avith fche rest , and , to add to their misery , they had IIOAV a little child—a poor sickly little thing , Avhose sufferings only added to their OAVU misery .

" Hard as their lob Avas it gradually greAV harder still . The Avife fell ill of a kind of Avasting fever , aud the child moaned in ceaseless pain . Then John fell ill , and could do no Avork at all , and starvation stared them in the face .

" Some of the men and Avomen , rough creatures , hardened to fate by a ceaseless struggle for existence , helped them a little ; but times AVOVO bad all round , and it soon became a case

of each for himself and his own . To add to the general misery and terror , a gang of thieves and murderers had been at Avork in the neighbourhood . In a camp some miles aAvay , the Avomen had been murdered and a lot of cattle stolen and driven off .

These men Avere mad , drunken desperadoes , ruffians Avho Avould murder a Avhole family for" the sake of their little money or the ICAV valuables that might be about the place . " It Avas notorious that many of the settlers in these lonel y places , though to all appearances poor , had money hoarded aAvay

—money they scraped together in order to get back to civilisation , or in some instances to buy claims further afield . The gang , Avhich Avas at the time I speak of the terror of the small camps , had been encouraged by finding a quantity of gold in one or two shanties , and this had led thein to continue their depredations .

" One night John ArkAvri ght Avoke up Avith a strange pain in his head . He told me that it Avas as if ho had suddenly gone mad . He Avoke up Avith the idea that he Avas going to die—that the fever Avould kill him . He looked round him and saAV his Avife asleep by his side—her baby in her arms . Sho Avas terribly

ill and Aveak , and her faco Avas white and pinched . " Suddenly the terrible idea came to the frenzied man that he AVUS going to die , and leave these two helpless creatures at thc mercy of the world . He AVUS mad at the moment—I am sure of it—the delirium of the fever Avas upon him .

" ' It shall not be , ' ho said to himself , there is nothing but misery and starvation bcfoi * o them . I cannot die and leavo them to suffer alone—AVO Avill die togethei * . ' "Then in his madness he rose quietly and Avent to the table and took a knife that lay there—a long , sharp knife that he used at his Avork—and "

The clergyman paused for a moment . "Oh , it is too horrible , " he said , "you knoAV—you have heard from his own li ps . You have heard him rave in his delirium UOAV Avhat he did that awful night . He killed them—