Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-01-01

should be-all save that she presented her
husband with no heir to his titles and estates.
This was sad omission, but, for the sake of
her many other good qualities, Sir Maingay
overlooked it, and made her very good hus-
band, as husbands go. When Lady Clauson
died, some twelve years after the birth of the
laughter who lived, Sir Maingay wept copi-
Jusly. He even opened his Biblc-the 1irst
! time for many years-and by the aid OF
"Crudcn's Concordance" looked out n text
! appropriate to her many virtues. Moreover,
for her sake or his own he remained single
| for five long years. Then he went the way
of all middle-agcd, titled, wife-bereft flesh,
and married again.
Beatrice Clauson, just about to leave school,
n romantic young lady, whose head for the
present was, however, only occupied by pref
| tv filial dreams Of looking after her father,
| miniStcring to hi3 comforts, ruling his house,
and generally doing the best she could to fill
| the place of her dead mother, found herself,
without word of warning, presented to n
new mother; one, moreover but four years
| older than hcrse f. 1t wa n crushing blow !
1t was girls first lesson in the vanity and
instability of mundane expectations.
She ought, of course to have anticipated
| it; but she was young, and like most young
people, considered her middle-aged father
! aDnOT1nally Olu anu Sldlu. DeSlueS, SIG cOulu
remember her own mother well enough, and
remembered also Sir Maingay's sincere grief
when death claimed his wife. She remem-
bered the way in which the weeping man
threw his arms around herself, and told her
| that sha was now his ALL-his treasured
memento of his wife-his one tic to life. Re
calling all this, she was sanguine enough to
fancy that memory was even more vivid
that grief had craven its lines deeper with her
father than with herself 50 the bolt came
from the bluest of the lhue
At seventeen Beatrice Clauson was still n
spoiled child All distracted widowers, until
they marry again, spoil an only child; there
fore, if only on salutary grounds, second
alliance is to be recommended. We will,
then, take it for granted that at the time of
Sir Maingay's second marriage, Miss Clauson
was spoiled Moreover, we may at least sus-
pect that she was both impetuous and stub
born, headstrong and romantic; also, in her
own way, as proud as Lucifer.
Tho second Lady Clauson was n beauty and
nothing more. Her family was what is
called respectable--a term, the Specification
Of which no man or woman has as yet been
able exactly to define. Like the Bible we in
terpret it as we choose.
When the inforced meeting between Lady
Clauson and her stepdaughter took place. the
Young lady, by means of those signs and
tokens, the masonry of which women alone
fully comprehend, showed the state of her
mind so clearly that war to the knife was
then and there declared.
And civil war in Embellishments or
1therwise-is a deplorable thing; doubly de-
plorable for the neutral parties, who lack
The excitement of the internecine combat
For a while Sir Maingays life was anything
but happy one.
It matters little who was most to blame
the girl for her unreasonableness and stub
born spirit, and want of resignation to the
inevitable-Lady Clauson for retaliating
with all an injured woman's pettiness
md spite-Sir Maingay for the thoroughly
ran-like conduct in letting things drift.
They did drift with n vengeance! The
breach between the two ladies soon became
90 enormous to be bridged over by any
umly diplomatic engineering.
The skirmishes between the belligerents are
not worth noticing. The battle-royal was
ought when the time came for Miss Clauson
. be presented. Lady Clauson asserted that
/, the proper person to present her step
aughter. Beatrice coldly declined her aid.
Ter ladyship insisted her stcpdaughter was
.rm in her refusal. Sir Maingay declared
himself under his wife's banner, and for once
attempted to exercise parental authority.
Whereupon Miss Clauson cut the matter
short, and declined being presented at all. 1t
was Il ii,oS' oie'iului e'u'o Vi 'nalis lou
sih "o '''' ~ 80, 49,
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