Moving Picture News (Jan-Jun 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS THE WOMAN WHO KNEW By VIRGINIA WEST (Adapted from Reliance Release.) 17 RS. BEECHER had been sitting at the breakfast table alone for half an hour. Now and then she glanced at the clock on the mantle as she slowly sipped her MRS alone for half an hour. Now and then she glanced coffee. "Did you call Mister Harry again, Jane?" she asked the maid who came in to see if she needed anything. "Yes, m'am, I knocked on his door twice but he didn't answer me at all. He usually makes some sort of noise." "Never mind, Jane," she sighed, "if he doesn't come soon I'll go myself." It was not the first time Mrs. Beecher had waited breakfast for her son, but this morning he was unusually late, and so she had more time to think. And to think was the last thing she wanted to do. Leaving the most of her breakfast untouched she went slowly up stairs to the door of her son's room. There she knocked and waited, and knocked again. No answer came. She opened the door and entered the room. The bed was untouched and everything in the room just as it had been when she looked in before going to her own room the night before. "Oh, my son, my son," she whispered brokenly. "You promised me you would never stay away another night." Going to the desk the mother took two photographs and stood comparing them. "How like they are," she said, "how very like. You have the same beautiful eyes and the same weak mouth and chin your father had. My poor boy!" A sound behind her caused Mrs. Beecher to turn. A young man stood looking at her. He was pale and his eyes were bloodshot. His full lips were very red and dry. "Well, mother, what have you to say to me?" he asked hesitatingly. "Nothing. There is nothing to say that I have not said." "I broke my promise to you." "Yes. That, too. has happened before." The son took off his hat and coat and then turned to the mother. "I had great provocation this time, mother." "Yes?" wearily. "Will you let me tell you what it was?" "Oh, yes, tell me." "I have been intending to tell you of my engagement to Eva Martin," he began. "We have been engaged for a month. Last night she gave me back my ring." The young man turned away to hide the tears he could not control. The mother gave him time to get himself in hand and then she said in a voice that was gentle, but which made her son shrink, "Why did she break the engagement?" He did not answer nor look at her. "Did she see you intoxicated?" He bowed his head. "Did you go to her home in that condition Harry?" "How did you know?'" he asked quickly. "How did I know! How did I know!" cried the mother. She held out the pictures still in her hand. "How should T know ?" "Look at these pictures, Harry," she continued, handing them to him. "See how much like your father you look. You know what he was — you were old enough to remember — and you are following in his footsteps. Qh, my boy, my boy. Can't you stop now before it is too late ? Show this girl you love that you are a man and can control yourself like a man, and if she loves you she will take you back." The young man dropped on his knees at his mother's feet and buried his face in the folds of her gown. "Oh, mother, help me to, win her back," he cried. "I must have her. I love her so." "Your father said that he loved me. Do you think he showed his love?" "Mother," said Harry solemnly, "I will stop drinking. I swear to you and to God that I will." With tears in her eyes the mother placed her hand on the bowed head. "If you only could, my boy, if you only could!" "If I do will you promise to intercede for me with Eva?" "Yes, dear, I will do anything in the world for you if you do that. Oh, be strong, my child, be strong. You can. I know you can if you only believe you can, and want to, strongly enough." The mother stooped and raised her son to his feet. "You promise on your sacred honor?" she asked looking into his beautiful boyish eyes. He raised her hand to his lips. "I promise, mother," he answered. "But without you I would have no strength at all." The mother's heart was heavy, and yet hope beat dully there, when she went that afternoon to see Eva Martin. "I am Harry Beecher's mother," she began simply, when the girl came into the parlor. "He tells me that you have broken your engagement." ;;Yes." "He told me why." "Oh, I'm glad he did that," cried the girl, her eyes filling with tears. "Come, sit down here beside me and let us talk as mother and daughter." She drew the girl to a sofa and there sat holding her hands. "My boy has promised me that he will reform. He has sworn it. Will you reconsider your decision?" The girl dropped her eyes from the kind weary eyes before her to the wrinkled hands holding her own. "Oh, I wish I could for your sake, Mrs. Beecher," she an swered in a low voice. "You love him still?" asked the mother gently. "Yes, oh, yes, so much !" "Harry loves you. You must know how much. And love is as necessary to him as the air he breathes. He has promised to reform. Will you not take him to your heart again?" "I am afraid Mrs. Beecher, I am afraid!" cried the girl. "Oh, this is not a whim. I have thought of it before. I knew that Harry drank, but I had never seen him before as he was last night. I have thought afkl thought about it. I know I could not cease to love him, but there is one thought that haunts me— tell me, Mrs. Beecher, wouldn't it be a terrible thing for a woman to lose respect for a man and yet to go on loving him? That is what haunts me." ,^Th<r, older woman turned away her eyes for a moment. ' x es," she said slowly, "it would be a terrible thing." The young girl was fighting desperately with herself. It was a choice of unhappiness now or probably greater unhappiness in the future. She closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her head against the back of the sofa. When at last she looked at Mrs. Beecher she was pale and calm. "No," she said. "I cannot do it. I do not dare. I am afraid. I — I — love him too much." "I am sorry," was all Mrs. Beecher said. Slowly and sorrowfully the mother returned to her home and her waiting boy. How could she tell him? What would he do? Would he blame her? Oh, if the girl had only changed her mind ! "Mother! She will not take me back!" Harry cried when Mrs. Beecher entered the library. "I know by your face! Oh. mother, tell me I am mistaken." "No, my son, you are not mistaken. Would to God I could say you are. I would bear this sorrow and more for you, Harry, for I love you. Oh, my boy, my boy, how my mother's heart aches for you." "There is no hope at all?" he asked helplessly. ' She says she can not." Harry moved restlessly around the room for a time. Then he said in a voice that was almost hard, "I'm going to mv room. It will be a fight." "Remember your promise," pleaded the mother. "Oh I remember the promise but I don't know how much good that will do." Back and forth over her head the mother heard him walking. She dare not go to him, for experience had taught her he was best alone. After an hour had passed the walking stopped and she heard nothing for several minutes. Then the front door slammed. She ran to the window just in time to see Harry rapidly turn the corner. "Oh, my poor boy," she moaned, "my poor weak boy."