“It is true. They were married when he was a young man—just at the close of the War. I believe he met her in Kentucky, for she was a native of Lexington, and called a beauty, and I imagine somewhat of a flirt.
“Some years later a child was born to them, a boy. Samson began to suspect his wife of being in love with a dashing Southerner. He was a plain man himself, you know, and Adela—that is her name—admits that he gave her no cause for such treachery. She lays it all to the fact of her own mother dying when she was a child, and of her father’s lax ways of living, and that she had never known a woman friend whose advice could have saved her.
“Samson was just, but he was also merciless. The awakening came like a thunder clap. He cast her off and applied for a divorce, which was given him; also the custody of the boy, then four years old.
“Fearing she might attempt to steal the child, he sent him away, and for years did not look on his face, because it reminded him of a faithless wife.”
“Ah,” breaks in the actor, “then the mother and boy were very much alike. Your speaking of Phœnix causes me to remember. She reminded me of someone. I see it now. The resemblance is marked.”
Aleck smiles.
He can afford to do so now, since he has learned of the relationship between Dorothy and the young miner. That both of them spring from the same father. Her “sacred mission,” is plain to him at last, for it must have a connection with some reconciliation between father and son.
That is why Craig smiles. The teeth of his terror have been drawn, and he no longer need worry about the possible rival who comes out of the wild, untamed West.
“Later on Samson went abroad. We know what happened to him there. He made a strange venture into the sea of matrimony, and, as before, drew a blank. Coming to Chicago he entered upon the speculative business, in which he has since become famous; but at that time he was only a small dog, a drop in the bucket, and unnoticed.
“I do not know what trouble came up. We have believed the beautiful Georgian left him and fled to her native land again. Perhaps later on we may learn more about this.