The Springdale news., 1889-10-18

the story Of the hereditary curse, coloring her narration yividly as she went on in de tai te prove its correctness. And this is the maIeaicrIxe tradition: The eldest child of each generation, if a daughter, and the younFest,i ifa son, would live to incur the lasting hatred O. their =paternal parent l The curse cHtaIed on the haBiess offspring dated away back to some wicked old ances- tor who had, by some evil power, handed down his wrath to the innocent, because Of the Xreteaed life he had led. This ante cessor. so ran the legend was "a youngest e5ildAA and had weddett the eldest daugh- ter of a house which had become alien atcd from him because of his dissipated 1 life. The wife had gone back to her fam ! fly hearth and forsaken him entirely, and lie had hated her with bitter hatred for her assertion.
 Perhaps Glarksou would have never dared to tell the far young wife of thls terrible tradition, but it happened to the i wife of SIT Rupert as 1t had to the other unfortunate and sorrowing mothers. It was part of their destiny to unravel the | legend in spite of imposed secrecy. Lady Percival, on her first visit to 1 the Heatherleigh gallery, had been strange l ly impressed with the trio of portraits whose bright faces, reversed, gave to them all air of mystery
 She mad asked her husband why they were hung so strangely, and he had grown pale and agitated, and had answered eva sivcly, at the same time leading her away with some rema>l entirely foreign to the question.
 Being curious concerning tho portraits, and mystitied by her husbands unsatls- factory reply, she sought an interview with 1 CIarkson, telling her of Sir Ruperts un- eXplainable demeanor during her yisitto the ! gallery Thus it happened that she heard the legend of her husbands ancestors re lated
 And the housellceper had, with all the superstitious influence of her Irish nature impressed on the susceptible mind of her mistress the weight of the withering sor row of this woeful legend.
 Yet it had never come to her, after all as forcibIy as when the innocent, upturned face on her agonized bosom proclaimed hel the mother of "the eldest child-a daugh ter"
 Then Lady Pereival had shaddered and wept over the sleeping infant, gathering her closer to her aching heart and wailinet "Oh! my darling! my precious child my iIl-fatod one! May the kind Father, in His mercy, spare thee from this awful thing-e fathers hatred
 With her tear-wet cheek pressed to that of her child Lady Perciyal could hear the pitying tones of the housekeeper once more as sue ended the recital. An! me Leddy an Di'm sorry for yes that $ niver hear I 1 tell O the iOikcS ov this theribie thing, that cooms to all oy lem that's born under the curse. Thim faces what's turned aWaA from ye, ma'am, is ov thim e. has bin ban ished from the house. They hey to bear It me Leddy. for ther1's not ony thing |, sthand forninst, an mauy's the prayer fol marcy an forgiveness e. has coon iron broken hearts within these walls, an nivel been listened to, naythur.a
 Now, with the birth of her daughter it al came back so painfully and yVidly, that |, her representative soul it seemed that tht trio Of reversed faces on the wall of tht gallery gazed down in pitylHg sorrow or the l.tle form so dear to her mother, heart.
 And Sir Rupert walked the corridors si lent and glum, little thinking that the del ieate flower of a wife knew of the trouble entailed by the birth of the daughter Hi. only comfort lay in the thought that sht was bHssfully ignorant of It all as he paced up and down in an aimless march. But tn, bitterness of the wornwood he had hoped to keep from her cup had been put to hei lips through his reticence in the rudest anC most thoughtlcss manner
 The season of gloom ushered in by MIri
 ans advent gradually became dispelled l and the sunlight of happy content shon, | from Lady Perciva's sweet eyes and iln ] mined the yisage of Sir Rupert as the ehiIt e grew, beautiful, bright, and aooye all else
 atTecuouate.