Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-14
LADY BESTsS MISTAKE

-0 "sVss DNAhV VIZ NV AvsS~WUAOe
LADY BESTsS MISTAKE.
They lived in a creeper-covered cot
tage nesting among verdure in the
highly cultivated valley of one of the
Home Counties. There was . small
dairy farm attached to it, upon which
lady Best bestowed all her leisure hours,
and thereby managed to add no incon-
siderable sum to her income, which
rather limited.
With the money derived from this
sourc she had been able to send her
only son, Arthur, to Oxford-Arthur,
who was the apple of her eye, the one
only being for whom she really cared.
She had given him a first-class educa-
Gon, and it had not been received on
stony ground, for Arthur was clever,
and a book-worm, too much so for
worldly purposes, since he had in
Obliged in study and contemplation till
he had become a dreamer. By the time
he reached the age of twenty-five it had
been declared by all the neig hbors, and
Lady Best's circle generally, that Arthur
would never do any good for himself in
life; a hard verdict, considering that he
had not a single wee, and was hand
some and manly looking. Not that his
habits and pursuits were exactly manly;
fishing was the only sport in which he
had ever been known to indulge, and
he spent his time for the most part in
wandering listlessly about the valley,
wearing clothes of a somewhat aesthetic
cut, which was particularly distasteful
to his rural neighbors, a slouching felt
hat on his head, and a book-generally
poetry-in his hand.
Idolizing Arthur though she did, it
depressed Lady Best not a little to see
him take to an efeminate do%-nothing
style of life; and since he had now
wasted more than a year in this sort of
dream, she began to despair of seeing
him embark in any of the professions
for which she had hoped his education
would have fitted him. What she was
to do-how she was to change the cur
rent of events-she did not know.
"Was he in love? Had he had a dis
appointments" her acquaintances asked
her till she was tired of answering. The
question, however, at last suggested a
remedy. Why should not a touch of the
very disease from which people thought
that he was suffering bring about his
cure?
( Girls! she would surround him with
girls; Of course, while she had a due re-
gard for good looks, forgetting
that, in her estimation, nothing made
the eyes glisten with so much pleasure
as the sight of gold.
So Lady Best gave q tennis party, and
invited all the beauty of the county, in
Guiding two or three heiresses; but be-
fore the afternoon was half over, Arthur
had disappeared. He had wandered
down the valley, away from ..the
noise" al he called the musical laugh
ter of these maidens, promising himself
to return as o o rs they should all be
gone.
Lady Best was disappointed, but not
crushed; she would try again, this time
in a quieter, but, she hoped, in a more
.efectual way.
"Arthur was out so much, she was
at times very dull" she told him;
moreover, she wanted some assistance
in effecting' one OF two dairy reforms.
Her eldest brothers. daughter-Hannah
Milton-aged nineteen, was, she UNDER
stood, a decidedly practical, energetic
girl. She had not seer her since she
was a baby, but she would like to invite
her on a long visit, and make her ac-'
quaintance. Had Arthur any objec-
tion?"
mo; none whatever. OF course his
mother vas perfectly free to do as she
liked"
But would he be civil and kind to this
unknown cousin when she came?
IF she pleased him, certainly; but,
doubtless, she would in nc way interfere
with his pursuits"
Not very encouraging if Lady Best
had any serious intentions in reference
to Miss Hannah Milton, who-we will
observe in parenthesis-she believed
would sooner Or later come into the
possession of at least a hundred thou
sand pounds.
t Not a word of this did she, however,
utter to Arthur; but, without farther
discussion, wrote an affectionate letter
to her niece, asking her to come and
stay at the cottage as long as she could
endure the frugality and smallness of
their ~impecunious life.
Miss Hannah Milton answered by re-
turn of post that she would be delighted
to avail herself Of her aunt's invitation,
nor especially as her father was going
abroad on business, and she should be
her w mistress for the next two
months. She might be expected to ar
rive, bag and baggage. at the cottage
N the fifth of July. It was then the
end of June.
To this announcement followed a
postscript that she hoped her dear aunt
did not object to living animalA as of