For whose sake? / A sequel to "Why did he wed her?"

by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

Upon his second recovery, as soon as he was discharged from the hospital he went in search of the monthly nurse who had taken charge of poor Moira’s babes.

He found the woman in a very small house in a very narrow back street.

She looked scared when she was confronted with the father of the children whom she had sent away.

But she soon recovered her self-control. She told him how she had disposed of the children, and excused herself by calling his attention to the poverty of herself, her house and her surroundings, and to the necessity of her going out to work.

The O’Melaghlin accepted all her apologies. He did not blame her in the least. He thought it best for the children to be under the care of the Sisterhood of the Holy Maternity; and he told her so.

He left the nurse, and went out to find some cheap lodgings where he could hide himself and his misery for a few days until he should be able to come to some understanding with himself and strike out some plan for the future.

He wished to go and see his children at the asylum, and yet he dreaded the trial; he could not get up resolution to do so. They had been the cause—though the innocent one—of their mother’s death, and so he shrank from looking upon their infant faces.

Besides, the pride of The O’Melaghlin winced at the thought of going and facing the Sisters of that house and owning himself the father of those destitute infants, without either taking them away at once or making some provision for their support in the institution; and he could neither take charge of them himself nor provide for them anywhere. He was at this time too bitterly poor.

No, he said to himself, he could do no better for the children than to leave them there in that safe, happy and Christian home. He would keep track of them, he told himself, and if ever he should be able he would take them away.

And without ever having looked upon the faces of his children he left California for Australia, shipping himself as a man before the mast on a large merchantman bound from San Francisco to Sydney.