The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-07-12


the Librarian OF Congress at Washington City.l
CHAPTER MIL
My kinsman looked at me wonder
ingly. The old impetuOsity of my
childhood was again upon me, and
was ready, on the impulse Of the mo-
ment, to say and do almost anything
that was desperate,
"You do not mean to say that Elder
Chalmers killed my fsvorite cousin ?''
he exclaimed, in a deprecating way.
'Yes, I do. He was hard, sinister,
sanctimonious. suspicious, and unscru-
pulous. She was gentle, loving, IN
selfish, ingenious, and wholly incapa-
bic Of coping with his stern, unyielding
disposition. Had she been less scrupu-
lous, she might have deceived, cajoled,
and tiattered him into yielding many q
point through the belief that he was
displeasing her by so doing; but she was
incapable Of deception, so she turned
her weary head aside and died, dis
gusted. I loved her, aud knew in
j.
but the old hypocrite who ruled over
her and the young tyrant who lorded
over me forbade our Intercourse, so she
died, leaving me in ignorance Of every
thing, save only that I could not help
knowing, for could see il with my eyes
shut, that she had loved Lord Both
wick, aud ought to have been his wife"
''Then you do believe there is some
good in marriage, despite your bitter
ness ?"
"Who said didn't believe in IL? and
who said I was bitter ?" asked, my
cheeks tingling.
My kinsman did not reply. Evidently
his thoughts were far away, for he
looked abstractedly through the half
open door, and seemed to forget my
presence.
"Poor Ethel poor Ethel :" he said, at
last. heaving a long, heavy sigh as be
spoke.
you'd have said poor Ethel with a
yet deeper meaning had you seen her
die, as 1 did" replied, thoughtfully.
could not love the old monster who
claimed and owned her, and the quicker
sne was dead the better. But did so
want to know all about her. Malcolm
Fraeme, was not you in love with herr"
Ny kinsman blushed, and did not
answer.
"You need not fear to confide In me-"
I said, ''for 1 shall find it all out"
''There is no secret, little cousin.
did love Ethel Graeme, and 1 should
have made her my wife but for our
cousiuship. And then there was Lord
Bo5hwick, and the love he bore her,
with which I could not interfere"
ct never heard Of such family to fall
ia love with cousinsi" I exclaimed.
zone would think there was no other
family in the whole earth TO whom one
OF you might pay court Cousin Nal
colin, do not believe in cousins mar
risges."
Nor do I, on general principles. But
love laughs at kinship. And people
love because they cannot help it."
"Cousins ought to be thrown so much
in each others society that they may be
always so well acquainted that there
shall be no danger of them looking upon
one another as divinities. Do you
know, Malcolm Graeme, that some
times believe there never could be any
such thing as coDjugal love If nobody
ever imagined any one to be what they
are not ?"
81 have never considered that prob
lem, little cousin"
"Well, it is useless for US to theorize
upon it. lam very certain Of one thing
though, and that is that the longer We
hedge about upon the edge of my fam.
ily's mystery, the longer we shall be il
reaching point where we may be abl'
to solve it. Malcolm Graeme, can yoI
tell me why aud how my mother, wh'
was Of gentle birth, was related in th,
ties Of consanguinity to my father, wit
! is a plebeian by birth and intuition
And were they both the cousins Of Lor'
Bothwiek ?"
"4our latter question I can answe
affirmatively, though only in part
Your mother was Lord Rothwicki
cousin, and a daughter Of Clarenc,
C-z-n1e, twin brother to Egbert Graeme
the ether of the other Ethel Graepos
who. though many years younger thai
youI lady mother, was born to a her
fte-e even sadder than hers"
irBut who was, or who is, my father
zone Of the offshoots Of the famil.
such as every lineage produces in son
OF its branches. His father, Malcolm
wss the oldest brother of the lot, al
was disinherited by the Earl, his fathe
for marrying a buxom lass, the daugl
ter Of laird, whose pretty features al
voluptuous body charmed him."
'sThat, then, accounts for his want
education and culture. Children tai
their mental status from their mother
Refinement is not innate in men,
"You say truly, little cousin. Yol
father grew up under the curse of PEI
ury, induced by his fathers disinherI
ance and consequent dissipation"