Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-02

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 Ida made no replu
 Ida made no reply, and in another momen the squire came in to take couple of glasse of aherry and q biscuit. But MT. Quest, fur tivsly watching her face, said to himself tha she had taken the bait, and that she woul, do 1t. Shortly after this diversion occurred for the clergyman, MT. Jeffries, a pleasan little man, with round and shining face an, most unclerical eyeglass, came up to con suit the squire upon some matter of parisl business, and was shown into the dinini room. Ida took advantage of his appearanc to effect retreat to her own room, and ther for the present we may leave her to be- | meditations
 | No more business was discussed by tn, squire that afternoon. Indeed, 1t interested | MT. Quest, who was above all things stu | dent Of character, to observe how wonder fully the old gentleman threw off his trouble To listen to him energetically arguing ava, with the Rev. MT. Jeffries as to whether ol no It would be proper, as had hitherto beer the custom, to devote the proceeds of tn. harvest festival collection tel lss, 3d. and { brass button) to the county hospital, o, whether it should be applied to the repair o1
 
 circumstances, most instructive. The Rev Mir. Jefries, who suffered severely from the condition of the vestry, at last gained his point by triumphantly showing that no pa tient from Honham had been admitted te Ihe hospital! for fifteen months, and thai therefore the hospital had no particular claim on this particular year, whereas the draught in the yestry was enough to cut any clergyman in two.
 Well, we'll, said the old gentleman, s'I will consent for this year, and this year only. ! have been church warden of this parish for between forty and fifty years, and we have always given the harvest festi- val collection to the hospital, and although under these exceptional circumstances it may possibly be desirable to diverge from that custom. l cannot and will not consent to such thing in a permanent way. So shall write to the secretary and explain the matter, and tell him that next year and in the future generally the collection will be devoted to its original purposen
 "Great heavens" calculated MT. Quest to himself. "And all the time the man must know that in all human probability the place will be sold over his head before he is a year older. I wonder if he puts it on or if he deceives himself. I suppose he has lived here so long that he cannot realize a con- dition of things when he will cease to live here and the place will belong to somebody else. Or perhaps he is only brazening it out. D And then he strolled away to the back of the house and had look at the condition of the outhouses, rejecting that some of them would be sadly expensive to repair for who. ever came into possession here After that ne crossed the moat and walked through the eWhat extensive plantations at the back hOnSa | possible to get enough timber out of them. if one went to work judiciously, to pay for putting the place ill order. Presently he came to hedgerow where there had been line ot very fine timber oaks of which the squire had been notoriously fond. and of which he had himself taken particular and admiring notica in the course of the previous winter. The trees were gone In the hedge where they had stood were a series of pans like those in an old woman's jaw, and about upon the ground vera filtered remains of bark and branches and of fagots that had been made up of the brushwood,
 "Cut down this spring fell!' was Mir. Quests ejaculation. "Poor old gentleman. be must have been pinched before he con- sented to part with those oaks"
 Then he turned and went back to the house, just in time to see Ida's guests arriy ing for the lawn tennis party. Ida herself was standing on the lawn behind the house which. bordered as it was by the moat and at the further end by TOW of ruined arches was ono of the most picturesque in the country, and very effective setting to any young lady. As the people came they were shown through the house on to the lawn, and here she was receiving them She was dressed in plain, tight-ftting gown of blue flannel, which showed off her perfect figure to great advantage, and broad brimmed hat, that shaded her fine but somewhat die. nifed face Mir, Quest sat down on a bench beneath the shade of an arbutus, watching her closely, and, indeed, if the study of a perfect English lady of the noblest sort has any charms, he was not without his reward. There are some women-most of us know one or two-who are born to hold a great position, and to sail across the world like a swan through meaner fowl. It would be very hard to say to what their peculiar charm and dignity is owing. It Is not to beauty only, for though they have presence, many of these women are not beautiful, while some are even plain. Nor does 1t spring from native grace, and tact alone, though these things must be present, Rather, perhaps, is 1t the reflection of a cultivated mind actng upon a naturally pure and elevated temperament, which makes these ladies conspicuous, and fashions them Tn such kind that all men, put ting aside the mere charm of beauty and the natural softening of judgment in the atmos, phere of sex, must recognize in them an equal mind, aud presence moro noble than their own. Such woman was Ida de la Molle, and if any ono doubted 1t it was sufficient to com pare her in her simplicity to the various human items by whom she was surrounded They were typical county society gather ing. such as needs no description, and would not greatly interest if described-neither very geod nor very bad, very handsome nor very plain, but moving religiously within the lines of custom, and on the ground of  1t'was no wonder, then, that g woman like Ida de Ia Molle was facila princeps among 1
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