THE CROMPTONS



I had no love for Eudora, none for the child; and
still a thought of it haunted me continually, and was
the cause of my giving the grounds and the school-
house to the town. I wanted to expiate my sin,
and at the same time increase my popularity, for at
that time I was trying to make up my mind to
acknowledge my marriage and bring Eudora home.
The poor girl never knew it, for on the day of the
lawn party she was buried. Tom Hardy wrote me
she was dead, and that he was about starting for Eu-
rope, and had given Jake, a faithful servant of the
family, my address. God knows my remorse when
I heard it, and still I put off going for the child until
Jake wrote me that the grandmother, too, had died,
and added that it was not fitting for the little girl to
be brought up with Crackers and negroes. He did
not know that I had heard of Eudora's death from
Tom, and was waiting for-I did not know what,
unless it was to hear from him personally. There
was more manliness in that negro's nature than in
mine, and I knew it, and was ashamed of myself, and
went for my daughter and stood by my wife's grave,
and heard from Jake the story of her life, and knew
she had kept her promise and never opened her lips,
except to say that ' it was all right.'
  " The people believed her for the most part, and
anathematized the unknown man who had deserted
her, but they could not heap upon me all the odium
I deserved. Why the story has never reached here
I hardly know, except that intercourse between the
North and the extreme South was not as easy as it
is now, and then the war swept off Tom Hardy and
most likely all who knew of the marriage.
  " When I brought Amy home I was too proud to



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