Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-15
MOAT-GRANGE.
CHAPTER IX.-CONTINUED.
By Mrs. HENRY WooD.

'aha away youIScil, Olu HILL w llO
said we was a going to hurt her?''
roughly retorted Dyke. ''Tain't like
ly, and you've said the reason why.
Ma am. do you see them ruins? Does
they make you blush?''
Il am very sorry to see them, Dyke. -
answered Mrs. Dalrymple. ..It is no
fault of mine"
''ls it hard upon us or not, that we
should be turned out of the poor roofs
that sheltered us? We paid our bit OF
How would you like to be turned out
of your home, and told the poor-house
was afOre you and a order for it, if you
liked TO 90 therc?"
Il can only say how very sorry |
am returned Mrs. Dalrymple, much
distressed; as well as terrified. Il wish
/ could help you. [ wish | could put
you into better cottages tomorrow,
but L am as pOweriess as you are. -
''Will YOU tell him to do it? We are
q coming up to ask him. VIII YOU tell
him to come out and face us and lool,
at them ruins, and then go and see
our wives and babies budding in
-
Ma am, please"
Dyke moved away, and Mrs Dali
rynf3e lost no time in speeding away
to the Grange. Reuben, when he had
seen her safe in, returned home.
MIR. Dalrymple was in the oak par
lor, comfortless and cold-looking at
that season without fire, when his wife
entered. She threw herself into a chair
and burst into tears.
Il have been so terrified. As | came
by the commons with Reuben. the men
were there, and"
what men?" interrupted Mr.. Dali
rymple.
Those you elected from the cottages.
They were not insolent to me, but they
stopped me, and began to speak about
their wrongs"
'Their- Urongs-didy you say?'
eyes, and 1 must say it." she firmly
answered. goaded by fright and excite
ment to demonstrate against the injus-
tice she had hitherto not dared to in
terfere with. Cruel wrongs. Oscar,
if you go on like this, expressing all
on the estate, you will be murdered as
sure as you live. They will not bear it. y
''Who will not bear it9"
Amy of them. hear that there is
meeting at Lees tonight.
Their chance of meeting on my es.
tate will soon be ended,' calmly re.
sponded Oscar Dalrymple. ''They are
set of wretches, all; all in league
against me, and that determined me to
get rid of them"
at is your own fault that they are
against you. They never were against
papa
He did not think it worth while to
reply.
lit is cruel to the farmers to turn
them away, but it is doubly cruel to
these men to have forced them from
their cottages" continued Selma.
''They paid their rents. Their wives
and children, poor creatures, are to
refuge in barns. The men said they
would tell you to 60 out and look a,
them, huddling there. / would not
have acted so. if l had not shilling in
the world, for should expect judg-
ment to overtake me for my cruelty
Mr. Dalrymple wheeled round his
chair, and fixed his ewes on his wife.
Whose cruel conduct has been the
cause of it?'' he asked, in his cold
voice, ten times worse than another 5
anger "Who got into secret debt,
to the tune of some six or seven thou
sand pounds, and let the bills come in
to me-
She dropped her eyes then, for his
reproach was true.
s.And forced me to retrench almost
to starvation, and grind down the ten
ants, to keep me from prison9 Was
it YOU or 1, Mrs. Dalrymple?"
s'But things need not have proceeded
to these extremes" she replied, her
courage returning. Il am sure the
debts must be nearly liquidated by
now, and we ought not to have lived
in this niggardly way, and made the
Grange by-word in the county. The
management of the estate might have
gone on as it did in papa's lifetime,
and no oppression or cruelty been ex-
ercised. 1t would only have taken a
little longer period to clear us. No.
Oscar, though / have never liked to
say so much, it is is your mean, grasp
fng spirit which has prompted to this,
not the debts. I foresee that when you
are clear and in the enjoyment of your
full income, you viii still be cruel
landlord. 1t is your nature"
eff by exacting the last farthing
from all who rent under me, means
cruelty, yes" he replied, ''and l shall
never live otherwise than we are living
now, so don't let your hopes involve
you in disappointment. The world s
against me, and I'll be against the
world. I'll snap my fingers at it, and
r 1 -