Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-05-30


life. Amply provided for, occupied sui
.ientiy to make time pass pleasant,
/ loving and beloved, Valentine bids fair
live the life OF thoroughly happy man.
Rothwell made one more journey, wroi
one more book; then retired on hi
laurels. lie has done up, and In
fashion, refufnished Mirdeld, but, afte
all, he spends more time at Estmcr
/ Court than at home. Tile Is essential,
the friend of the family, always welcomed
when he arrives, regretted when n
departs.
There is no Lady Rothwell; and to th'
best of my belief, there will be none. Hi
title win die with him, and he will leave
I his broad lands TO Nalentine--but may
that day be far distant.
/ For myself and Claudine, need say
/ little. We love each other, and are
| blessed with children. | have my am
! bitions--I have had some success, and
| hope for more But all this has nothing
TO do with this tale.
1 viii not forget TO say that l kept ny
promise TO the dying woman, Mrs. BIer
| ton Although did not care to see then
again, and although kept the source Of
| their supplies a secret, the boy and CIR
were looked after until the latter mar
| rled, and the former was placed in fail
/ way of earning good living
| Lastly, my father and mother. | must
speak Of them together. IL is impossible
now to dissociate them. Claudine cites
his tenderness and devotion to my mother
I whenever she is pleased to accuse me OF
neglecting anything due to her as my
wife II the aftermath can atone for the
ruined harvest, my mother will call her
I life happy one. He seems unable to
bear her absence for an hour. 1t is only
when she is with him that his smile is q
perfectly happy one. Her every wish is
fcrestalled, her every thought anticipated.
Everything must be done for her comfort
and delight. He will not enter public
life because its duties would take him
/ from her side. la the struggle for such
fame am TO be his delegate.
But he is widely known for all that.
His pen can be piled without tearing him
self from his wife's side. His keen and
trenchant articles are given places of
honor in great reviews. His scientific re-
searches are embodied in journals which
stamp them as Of Importance. If he ever
returns to London life, he will lind him
self honored and courted.
Yet, passlonately devoted as he is to
his wife, know that no word. explaining,
excusing, or entreating forgiveness for
the past, has ever crossed his lips
Whether this Is caused by pride, shame,
or, as | sometimes fear, by some strange
mental DISCRIMINATION, making many
years OF his lie like hideous, blurred
dream, cannot say. To Valentine, to
Rothwell, not word has he said. Even
to me he has never spoken OF the years
ve have spent ogether-father and SON
alone. Yet, to all appearances, his intel
lect is as keen and memory as retentive,
as of old. Chesham's name he has never
breathed. He does not know that Roth
well and | witnessed that fearful act of
justice. verify believe that, during the
time he was taking his revenge, he knew
nothing, that he acted as somnambulist
might nave acted, that the tragedy faded
from his memory or that it had never
been fully impressed on it. Rothwel and
talked 1t over and came to the conclu-
sion that only two people in the world
knew the particulars of Chesham's fate.
Sir Laurence Estmere, though account
able for 1t, knew nothing Of what his hand
had done.
Seeing with what strange persistence
he avoided the past, on my own RESPONSE
billy dismantled and shut up Torwood
Mrs. Lee was pepsioned off | would
Willingly have found her post of trust
at Estmere Court, but feared erpresence
might DO nnwelcome to my father.
But tbs, OF course, lnlpussihio far
man to say that he will forget twenty
years OF his life. In my fathers posi-
ton there is much business to be at
tended to and talked about. Mr.. Grace
and Mr. Black, the agent, were bound to
speak of things which had occurred at
such and such date my father at times
was compelled to do the same. He
speaks of that interregnum as when he
was out Of his seuses-incapable Of man
aging his own affairs. These remarks
have been repeated and it is confidently
believed throughout the county that for
many years Sir Laurence Estmere was an
inmate of lunatic asylum.
What he believes himself [ dare not
think or sey On this point even to me.
who watch and study him, he is a riddle
can II be false pride which forblds him
10 speak or think of the past? Can It be
that he has reasoned with himself and
decided his wrong was as great as his
WltesF Or can 1t be that some strange
state OF the brain, which eliminated In
that attack OF delrium, has actually
brought about forgetfulness of things the
recollection of which would have been
torture and pain to such sensitive ma.
tureE II Is problem ! have not vet
solved. Wv
Problem or not, there Is one who seek .
no eXplanation-who is content that moth
ing more shall be said--who bears her
happiness as calmly and sweetly as She
bore her wrongs. II she is content the
state of my fathers mind concerns no
one else. Mad or sane, he is her hns,
Dand, dearer to her now than even in tbe
days Of their first love.
We live quiet life at Estmere Court
My father and mother feel that the friends
oil their youth have drlfted out of sight
and they have now arrived AZ that sg.,
when new friendships are rarely made
My fathers position In the county conn,
pels him to MIX to certain extent m so
ciety. The obligations of courtesy ara
amply fulfilled, and there the matter
ends ''0i
There are times when I watch hin,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT feel that II the nast 10
obllterated or forced aside. lie trscns az -
sun left, Even now he is scarcelv mast
lhe prime Of life, yet in many things he IL
an old man. | notice chance aver.
time return to Estmere Court after an
interval OF absence, and my heart feels
SAD, as something tells me that manS
years VIII not elapse before nv father ana
mother must bid each other adlen fnr'
eVer--when the treasure saved M Isst
from the wreck Of their former hanniness
must De assigned--when shall zee rho,
sweet, grave face smile no more--wi,on
those eyes which have always looked ON
me win love, shall be closed forever