Page:By Sanction of Law.pdf/205

 out the remainder of the trip till the train pulled up to the station at Columbia, where she had asked him to meet her, her thoughts were centered on this encounter. For the first time in her life she somewhat dreaded meeting her father. Her heart was set, however, and whenever a young girl envelopes herself in the strength of true love she steels herself for any ordeal.

The train pulled into Columbia from across the yellow Santee River, past the penitentiary and on into the center of the city in the midst of a summer downpour. It was not a showery affair but a set rain with lowering clouds floating overhead in a southwesterly direction, making gloom for the surrounding scenery and filling everyone with a feeling of depression.

She spied her father before he did her, pacing up and down the platform in his tall spare dignity, erect and eager. He was looking through the coaches as he walked, but missed his daughter till she landed with her luggage which the porter set at the corner of the station while she ran along the platform. As she neared him she called out:

"Daddy!"

The southerner turned in his tracks and swept his daughter into his arms where she nestled crying softly. "Daddy, Daddy, Dear Daddy, it's good to be with you again."

Colonel Lauriston, stern old disciplinarian that he was, struggled to master his emotions, but despite himself and biting his gray moustache the tears flowed from his eyes. Only one who has loved an offspring with all the devotion