Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-10-21

/ Brenda, still crying silently, suffers her
self to be led to the carriage, and together
they enter it again and drive away.
At luncheon, next day, Brenda is sim
! gularly silent Lady Molyneux has for.
/ tunately asked few questions about last
1 nights proceedings, and Lord Disney
- who is with them - disdains to seek
information about anything in which
! Wilding has had a part Theodore,
! Brenda's brother, is also present.
Grandmamma's indifference is still all
! that can be desired; Disney's sullen sill
ence equally happy; and, in fact, all is
! going merry rs marriage bell, until
Theodore unconsciously but fatally, lets
! fall bombsheA that blows the blessed
calm to atoms.
81 say, Brenda, it was well you forgot
| your latch key last night" say this mis-
! guided youth with the utmost bon h0mte
" found it on the sideboard after you
had left; aud but for it could not have let
myself in, as have lost my own"
His sister turns very white.
Brenda's - my latch-key, you mean"
says grandmamma quickly. But you
/ Dire IN, Theodore; Brenda had it with her
at the opera; she herself could not have
/ got IN without it,"
Brenda casts an anguished glance at
! Theodore, who is - and, what is worse,
| looks - distinctly puzzled.
! Explain, Brenda. You surely had it."
! says grandmamma, in voice that admits
OF no evasion. Disney, laying down his
! knife and fork, gazes with half-closed
| eyes at the embarrassed girl.
Had what, grandmamma? asks she,
| family, to gain time.
"What? The latch key. Are you
! deaf?" says guantanamo.
Brenda is silent. Lies are at any time
! abhorrent to her, and now to tell one
would be useless, as her hesitation has
been marked
Brenda, speak, =" says grandmamma,
! in an awful tone I" You had it with
you?"
"Of course she had What fuss about
nothing. 1t must have been my own
found" breaks in Theodore, lying val
/ iantly, but vainly.
/ II had not, grandmamma, says Brenda
bravely, but in accents hardly intelligi-
/ BILE
"Then, pray, how did you come in last
night?"
Il did not come in at all" replies
Brenda in an agony. Grandmamma,
| listen let me explain 1890"
But grandm NINA is quite past explana-
ton She has risen, and is standing with
both her old withered hands pressed upon
! the table as though to support her under
/ this browning horror and is glazing at
/ the terrified child with fierce dark eyes.
cam to understand" she says, that
you spent last night out of my house?"
at YOU would let me speak, says
/ Brenda, sohbing.
Answer me, wretched girl Were you
with your sister,"
"No. She"
"Not here, nor with your sister, but
with George Wilding, presume Hah!
Not another word | always knew what
would come of your intimacy with that
degraded young man."
This is all shocking shocking" says
/ Lord Disney in his slow, aggravating
manner. And, er" NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ing! OF course. Miss Molyneux, this,
this young man-yOur cOusin-havlng
| found more favor in your sight than 1
have been fortunate enough to find, beg
to resign my present position and with
draw from an engagement that no doubt
I is irksome to you. You will pardon me,
Lady MolyneuX. if | say this is all very
sad very sad, y" with an elaborate bow.
"Sad-it is disgraceful Go, girl, to
your room, and stay there until | decide
ON what shall be done with you. My roof
shall no longer cover one so lost to all
sense Of"
Theodore, rising abruptly goes to his
sisters side and passes his arm round
her
Look here, grandmamma, stop all
. that" he says with a frOwn; it might
( do at the Dukes but it is out OF place
1 here and | won't have Brenda abused"
( Here some one with grateful smile
removes his arm from Brenda's waist,
4 and places his own there instead. II is
4 George Widing, who has entered unan.
nounCtd Just a minute or two before a
small plain woman, who appears and
stands unnoticed in the doorway, with
/ pretty swausdown cloak anu hood upon
1 her arm, that contrasts oddly with her
\ own meaner garments.
VINO is abusing Brenda?" demands
/ George Wilding, looking quietly upon
/ the assembled group, yet with a curious
! light in his eyes that marks him danger
I Gus in his present mood. I" Who is cast
4 ing even the faintest slur rpon her? He
I shall answer to me for it."
He stares coldly and somewhat insO-
/ lently at Lord Disney as he speaks, and
! that discreet noDleman, dropping his
eve.glass, discovers difficulty in finding
! ii again.
"rve made some be4stly mistake, you
/ know. 1t is all my fault says Theo-
dore, with extreme COntritlOn.
Here the plain little woman in the door