Home Lights and ShadowsArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
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Home Lights and Shadows
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
American fiction -- 19th century; Domestic fiction; Short stories
For nearly a quarter of an hour the wheels of the cab rattled in the
ears of Mr. Leland. It then stopped, and the anxious father sprang
out upon the pavement. The carriage had drawn up a little in
advance, and a lady was descending from it, assisted by a man. Mr.
Leland knew the form of his daughter. Ere the young lady and her
attendant could cross the pavement, he had confronted them. Angry
beyond the power of control, he seized the arm of Jane with one
hand, and, as he drew away from her companion, knocked him down with
a tremendous blow from the cane which he held in the other. Then
dragging, or rather carrying, his frightened daughter to the cab,
thrust her in, and, as he followed after, gave the driver the
direction of his house, and ordered him to go there at the quickest
speed. Jane either was, or affected to be, unconscious, when she
arrived at home.
Two days after, this paragraph appeared in one of the daily papers.
"SAVED FROM THE BRINK OF RUIN.--A young man of notoriously bad
character, yet connected with one of our first families, recently
attempted to draw aside from virtue an innocent but thoughtless and
unsuspecting girl, the daughter of a respectable citizen. He
appointed a meeting with her in the street at night, and she was mad
enough to join him at the hour mentioned. Fortunately it happened
that the father, by some means, received intelligence of what was
going on, and hurried to the place. He arrived in time to see them
enter a carriage and drive off. He followed in another carriage, and
when they stopped before a house, well known to be one of evil
repute, he confronted them on the pavement, knocked the young
villain down, and carried his daughter off home. We forbear to
mention names, as it would do harm, rather than good, the young lady
being innocent of any evil intent, and unsuspicious of wrong in her
companion. We hope it will prove a lesson that she will never
forget. She made a most fortunate escape."
When Jane Leland was shown this paragraph, she shuddered and turned
pale; and the shudder went deeper, and her cheek became still paler,
a few weeks later when the sad intelligence came that Mary Halloran
had fallen into the same snare that had been laid for her feet; a
willing victim too many believed, for she was not ignorant of
Clement's real character.
By sad experience Mrs. Leland was taught the folly of any weak
departure from what is clearly seen to be a right course of action;
and she understood, better than she had ever done before, the
oft-repeated remark of her husband that "only those whose principles
and conduct we approve are to be considered, in any true sense,
neighbors."
NOT AT HOME.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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