The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-03-03


a whisper - something was going
wrong. Aroused by this conject-
IRE, the poet once more ayailed
himself of the freedom his intimacy
with the manager gave him, and
sauntered behind the scenes. The
ford Lorrimer was swearing like a
bedlamite. The Ducal usurper. the
banished Duke, Jaques, Celia, Phoebe
and Orlando stood about him, all in at
titudes of more or less amazement.
What's the matter, Lorrimer?"
asked the poet.
'.Mattern' cried Lorrimer. 1.-THE
jade's off at the last minute, and this is
all she leaves behind her,
The poet took from the managers
outstretched hand note, and read
this:
SfR-Circumstances have arisen which
make it impossible that should continue my
career upon the stage. | shall be happy to re-
pay you for aii expenses you may have in-
Cured in my behalf. Pray communicate, in
respect to that matter, with my lawyers
Hessrs. Lowe i Carter, of Clements Inn.
"Yours very truly,
CLARA CHURCHILL,
''She can't mean it!'' cried Lorrimer,
actually gasping. 1--WE spent three
hundred pounds in money, and three
thousand pounds in wit in advertising
her. She wants more salary. That's
what it is-she wants more salary. Bnt,
bedad, since she's tried it on in this
way Che mastered his rage so far rs
TO be able to embroider it, as it were,
with a touch of mock-heroics), ''if that
her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
I'd whistle her off and let her down the
wind to prey at fortune"
Mr. Ronald Marsh sighed audibly
Shakespeare crowds us all from the
field of popular quotation" he said,
inwardly. Had Lorrimer known il he
might have found passage far more
appropriate in my Epithalamium.'
CHAPTER iii.
When Tregarthen found that his zeal
for the restoration of The mess-room
manners had wrecked his military fort
unes, he went home, and there buried
himself among his books. Many, many
years ago the Tregarthens, his forbears,
had built for themselves fortress for a
dwelling-p place, and the house had
wasted away, bit by bit, like the other
belongings of its owners, but had been
modernized and added to every here
and there, until it had grown and fallen
into one of the oldest and most hetero-
gencous piles in England. A man must
be curiously modelled indeed if his char
acter is in no way affected by the char
ter of the house in which he is bred and
good deal of the sentiment of the
trowning. rambling, stately, vet half
ruined old house had found its way in to
Tregarthen.
His ancestors, for reasons of their own,
had built their house upon an island,
and this island faced the Cornish MAIN
land on the one hand and the melan-
choly Atlantic on the other. The house
stood high and bare for winter storms to
gave at and in the rougher months of
the year it had constantly to be pro-
ylsioned for siege of stormy weather,
since for weeks at a time it was danger
Gus, if not impossible, to approach the
island. The one harbor faced the main
land with two prodigious walls of rock,
and narrow belt of smooth sand De-
tween, which ran upward toward hardy
grasses, and was directly overlooked
by the mansion. Those vast walls of
rock and the narrow space between
them were known to the local folk as
the Gate of the Sea. So old a house as
that of the Tregarthens could scarcely
fail to have been shot at by the local
bards and soothsayers: shoot bolts
enough and some of them are sure to
stlck-and one of many prophecies and
notices chung. 1t set forth that what
soever good or evil the Tregarthens en-
d,sred should come to them by the Gate
OF the Sea-a conclusion somewhat
obvious, since. unless by balloon or
earthquake. there was no other way of
approaching their dwelling-place. If
the Cornish couplet be faithfully trans
lated, ii prophesies as much for char
acter rs for fortune
What evil or good We have or be
small come to you all by the Gate of the
Now in the days when full cellar. q
roughly generous larder and chance
OF hard knocks and loot could tempt
adventurous souls to follow freeboot-
ing gentleman, Tregarthen's house
might have been a pleasurable place to
live in for those whose fancy lay that
way. But for an almost communicates
youngster, who had just learned one of
the worlds bitterest lessons, it was as
unwhol"some a residence as might any
where have been found. Tregarthen
needed home influences and cheerful
companionship; but he had long been
All orphan, aud he had neither brother
nor sister. He was not absolutely
wealthy, but he had more money than
he wanted, and there were few things
which could have been of more use to
him than the spur of poverty.
1t is easy i'll the hot days of youth for
the mind to persuade itself to anything.
lregarthcn elsuaded himself that he
had done with the world for good and
Al, that il should occupy him no more
and that ne would live for his studies
AMI no other earthly thing. His studies
began 10 lead him in direction which
1t was somewhat odd that young gen-
fieman OF the nineteenth century should
take Some ancestors of his had COL
lec.ed all the works of that crowd of
impoStors, quacks, self-deceivers, en-
lhu'iaSts and martyrs to science who
have written on the transmutation of
metals, the divining rod. the elixir vitae,
the powers aud properties of the stars, |
AMI o forth-all the works, that is to
say. that he could in one short lifetime
lay hands on. Tregarthen began to
grope among the dark sayings of these
gentry, at iirst with an amused interest
and then with a singular growth of
doubt. There miuht ba ,o,oatb;,, :,