CHAPTER XXVII.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 159, 3 July 1886, Page 8

CHAPTER XXVII.

REPARATION. If hoirfc3 are weak, souls should at least be strong* I will ba brief, for 1117 short dato of brejr h JsnotsoloDgasisa icdioaa tale.— Romeo and Juliet. Let me hasten to the end. When I told Mrs Pollard that I would j suppress, that portion of the truth which connected her name with this fatal affair, I did not of course mean that I would resort to any falsehood or even prevarication. I merely relied upon the improbability of uiy being questioned close enough to necessitate my being obliged to reveal the astounding facts which made the matter a destructive one for the Pollard*. And I was right ! in my calculations. Neither socially, nor at the formal inquiry before the Coroner, was any question raised of relationship between the dead girl and the family in S ; and thi3 fact, taken with the discreet explanations accorded by Dwight of his father's, and afterwards of his own, interest in her, as shown in the letter which he had sent to her address, is "the reason why this affair passed withoul scandal to the parties concerned. But not without re3ult ; for deep down In the heart of one person an influence was ■at work, destined ere loner 'o eventuate in the tragedy to which these lines are the clue. Kemorse deep a3 my nature and immovable as my sin has gotten hold upon I me, and nothing short of death, and death in the very shape from which I fled in such & cowardly manner will ever satisfy my soul or allay that burnirg sense of shame and regret which makes me fear the eye of man and quake at the thought of eternal 4u3tice, For in a final interview with Dwight Pollard I have become convinced that, however unprincipled hia brother might be, it was with no intention of carrying out his threats that he plunged me into the vat on t&at fatal night ; that, recognising the weakness in me, he had resorted to intimidation to ensure his ends ; and that all the consequences which followed might have been averted, if I had but remained true to my trust. Being a Christian minister, and bound by my creed and faith to resist the devil and face the wrath of men, my dereliction in this regard acquires an importance not to bo measured by the ordinary standard of law or social usage. For, when I failed to support my principles under trial, Christian faith was betrayed and the avowed power of God put to mockery and shame. I go, therefore, to the death I then shunned, deliberately, conscientiously, determinedly. 3?or the sake of God, for tlae sake of honour, for the sake of those higher principles which it should be the glory of men to sustain at all risk and in every furnace of affliction, I lay down youth, love, and life, confident that if in so doing I rob one -sweet soul of its happiness, I sow anew in other hearts the seed of that stern belief in Ood and th9 requirements of our faith which my cowardly act must have gone so tar to destroy. May God accept the sacrifice in the Bpirit in which I perform it, and in Hie gracious mercy make light, not the horrors of the pit into which I am about to descend, but the heart of him who must endure them. Whether long or short, they Will be such as He sends me, and the end must be peace.