The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-05-16
CHAPTER III.
Bring a gray cloud from the east
Where the lark is singing
Something of the song at least
IInlOSt i'm tho brinpinn

something OF the song at least
Unlost in the bringing.
One may do worse things than sit in
a new-mown haycock, eating syllabub.
But the flavor OF the one Madcap was
eating had been taken away by the
presence in the bayfield, of a young
man who stood at a little distance, talk
ing to her husband.
Mr.. Eyre had for long time endured
in silence the daily, hourly expression
of her contempt for Frank, had even
thrown new lights on the young mans
wickedness by fancy sketches, half
grotesque, half pathetic, of the differ
ent states of mind through which he
must have run. But at length the sub
ject had become too much for even his
iron nerves, and he had begged of her,
since they could not mend the matter,
to discuss fC with him no more. On one
point he had been firm, that when they
met Lord Lowell, either abroad or in the
village. she should accord to him the
recognition that was suitable, consider
ing the friendly relations that had ex-
listed between the two families, all the
more so that the county had received
him with a GOODNESS, and subjected him
to sights that, while borne by Frank
with simple heroism, reused every in
made him curse the day when through
Hester he had lost his independence.
And Madcap had so far obeyed him
as to sweep Frank magnificent court
esy when she met him at neighbours
house, then turned on her heel the next
moment, and this she called a recogni-
ton more than equal to his merits, as
she told Mr.. Eyre later. And he had
laughed grimly-somehow he was al
ways grim now, though more her lover
than ever; sometimes she thought his
fathers death must have shocked him,
he had become SO gray, and the lines in
his face so deep. Perhaps, too, he felt
for her bitter disappointment in Frank,
as he had loved the lad, even while he
robbed him.
But she had never dreamed Lord
Lowell would dare approach her in her
own home till to-day, when, on looking
up, she had seen Mr.. Eyre with Frank
be side him; and though the latter had
the grace to pause at a distance to re-
ceive her slight acknowledgment of his
presence, she none the less felt that
here was the beginning of an intimacy
that could never prove anything but in
tolerable to her.
And what lack of delicacy," she
thought, lifting her eyes to u face that
gave no sign for he was by now recon-
ciled to standing in her opinion for
what he was not, and, indeed, showed
so much health, sweetness, and good
humOr as provoked her with him more
than ever, and showed him ugly as sin
beside Mr.. Eyre's virtue. To the child
rem no such deformity was apparent as
they left Madcap, and ran to him with
familiarity that even their fathers
presence could not check; and at this
fresh proof of how all things loved him,
she thought of Hester, and turned her
eyes away from beholding the blot that
he had made on her landscape. And in
Hester, too, she was bitterly disap-
pointed-that one interview between
them had not prepared her for woman
willing to sink into mere hanger-on
at the gates of the man who had wrong
ed her, even il that man were so hard
ened in sin as to permit it-and gradual
ly the passionate bond of sympathy
with Hester had slackened, and the
longing to speak with her, to try and
help her, died out in Madcap's heart,
and nearly equal In guilt stood both
man and woman in her eyes.
Perhaps the touch of ingratitude to
herself shown in Testers persistent
avoidance other, Observation-Disclosures
senses of disappointment-we find it so
much more easy to forgive the sins Of
others when our forgiveness is specially
entreated-but this pair of sinners asked
no mans absolution, and were even
careful to parade their wrong-doing on
the house-t0ps, so that Madcap's attitude
only family Swallowed forth that stern
or one of the whole county toward
them.
"Wait till the Duke comes" Mr..
Eyre had said one day when his atten-
ton had been drawn to some fresh
slight to Frank; and within an hour
had written letter that he rode some
fox, v,.tIoc - xock L.,x .-.l.~L ~llI-.