The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-05-07

from your friend MIR. richard Dlount. You
are gold medallist, 1 believer"
Hereward bows again.
You think you can get my son through
the necessary subjects for this terrible ex-
animation!
IF he wishes to get thr Ugh them"
'Ihe countess takes good look at her SON
tutor from behind her tire-screen. This is
not the tone she is accustomed to hear from
her dependents. The Countess is thin and
sallow, with sharp features and heavy bands
OF black hair. Hereward has seen all this, and
his curiosity gratiied, stares moodily into the
fire, while the Countess takos her Opportunity
to crafty hers, if she can be said to feel any
curiosity with regard to this boorish young
man.
Il hope Lord Heriot may apply himself, I"
she remarks languidly II am particularly
anxious that he should get this commission.
| wish both my sons to be in the more i'm
mediate service of their sovereign. My young
est son will be one of the royal pages in an
other year or two. But I will not detain
you. Will you be good enough to ring!
Thanks. Purcell will take care of you, am
sure"
Hereward withdraws from her presence
under PurcelPs ample wing.
LIS quarters itSSlSleu 10 hin are pleasant
ones. They are probably the least desira-
BILE among the guest-chambers but to him.
contrasted with his attics in College, the
little turret room is jolly enough, particularly
as cracking wood fire snaps and sparkles in
the CRATE. The turret is hexagonal, and there
are three windows in the room, small as it is,
leaving very little space for anything else.
But the view co'npensates for evcrything-or,
at least, so Hereward thinks lie stands in
the most western of his windows for more
than On hour, looking at the dense wall of
woodlands oppoHite, wherein artfully -arran-
ged openings give picturesque glimpses of IL
distant reach of river and range of snowy
hills beyond, rising against O saffron suns,t
sky.
Here the darkness finds him, and also SER
want with lights. The sound of gong in
some far-oH region announces dinner half
an hour later, and Hereward, guided either
by instinct or his nose, manages to find the
dining-room out or himself.
He dimes this evening with Doctor Jones
and Fraulein Schautfenhoff in the room
known at kingscourt as the little dining
room. The diminutive can only be applied
comparatively, for the room is spacious, with
q low heavy ceiling divided into square pan
nels, and wells painted deep dull red which
throws out the richly-framed picture upon
it well.
Crusaders in bronze bear aloft the sideboard
lamps ; there are lamps on the table, and yet
the sombre apartment is only half lighted
The little Doctor is very friendly. He is
roundabout little man, with bald polished
head and spectacles and reminds Hereward
irresistably of the portrait of Mr.. Pickwick in
the well thumbed edition of that immortal
book which he and Blount so often laughed
over. The Doctor does the honour with a
grand air, though the footman does not hurry
himself overmuch to obey his orders. The
Fraulein is friendly too but she seems to
suffer very much from the cold, and is wrap
ped in thick chenille shawl of an apple
green colour. The dinner is good-what
there is of it; and Hereward does not trouble
himself to talk. He sits in his place with a
picture which hangs en- the wall opposite to
him, merely because it is opposite to him,
not because he admires it.
1t is Gainsborough-one of the Kings
court family, of course. All the pictures in the
room are family portraits, and they are all,
with one or two exceptions, the portraits of
very ugly people, unless the painters who
painted them were guilty of gross injustice.
But this Gainsborough head forms one
of the exceptions, though Hereward may
not admire it. 1t Is girls head with
very fair hair curling round and over the
forehead, small, rather aquiline nose, a
pair of cold, unutterably cold, blue eyes, and
a beautiful proud sweet mouth which almost
but only almost-counteracts the eyes.
She is dressed in a square-cut dress of large
patterned blue-and-white brocade, and wears
a string of pearls round her slender throat
Hereward thinks, as he meets the gaze of
those painted eyes, that he would not greatly
care to have been tho lover of that girl
'You admire that picture?" asks Doctor
Jones, when he has cleared his plate and en-
piled all the glasses
NO" Hereward answers starting. ''Why
do you think SOP"
Because you have never removed your eyes
from it for the last twenty minutes. Doyou
know who she WASP"
''No, do not A Palliser, of course?"
"Yes, by marriage-the grandmother of
the present Earl. She was very remarkable
person"
Hereward observes certain mystery in the
Doctors tone but he will not crafty him by
any show of interest
''She was o very wicked woman!" the
Fraulien CALCULATES, wrapping her arms in her
shawl
Hereward, being of opinion just now that oil
women are wicked, does not think the adj
jective distinctive enough to call forth any
remark.
'She was the proudest of all the proud |
Countesses who ever reigned at Kingscourt,"
Doctor Jones Observes looking over his |
shoulder at the picture land, by all 40
counts, that is saying great deal. They do |
and tho litflo nnnfNr loxuoyc hIO vOino |