It was a part of her devotion to the child that she
should be ambitious for him: he must have every opportunity. And
so she came east. She drifted around, doing plain sewing and
keeping a home somewhere always for the boy. Finally, however,
she realized that her only training had been domestic, and
she put the boy in an Episcopalian home, and secured the position
of housekeeper to the Armstrongs. There she found Lucien's
father, this time under his own name. It was Arnold Armstrong.
I gathered that there was no particular enmity at that time in
Anne's mind. She told him of the boy, and threatened exposure if
he did not provide for him. Indeed, for a time, he did so. Then
he realized that Lucien was the ruling passion in this lonely
woman's life. He found out where the child was hidden, and
threatened to take him away. Anne was frantic. The positions
became reversed. Where Arnold had given money for Lucien's
support, as the years went on he forced money from Anne Watson
instead until she was always penniless. The lower Arnold sank in
the scale, the heavier his demands became. With the rupture
between him and his family, things were worse. Anne took the
child from the home and hid him in a farmhouse near Casanova, on
the Claysburg road. There she went sometimes to see the boy, and
there he had taken fever. The people were Germans, and he called
the farmer's wife Grossmutter. He had grown into a beautiful
boy, and he was all Anne had to live for.
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