The Red Cloud chief., 1889-09-20

the story Of the hereditary curse, coioring
her narration vividiy as she went on il de-
tail TO prove its correctness. And this is
the maledictIre tradition: The eldest child
Of each generation, il a daughter, and the
youngest, if q son, would live to incur the
lasting hatred OF their paternal parent.
tn curse entailed on the hapless 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 wretched life he had led. This ante
cessor, SO ran the legend, was "a youngest
child and had welded the ''eldest Gaugh-
ter" Of . house which had become alien
ated from him because Of his dissipated
life. The wife had gone back to her fam
lily hearth and forsaken him entirely, and
he had hated her with bitter hatred for her
desertIon.
Perhaps Clarkson would have never
dared to tell the fair young wife Of this
terrible tradition, but it happened to the
wife OF Sir Rupert as it had to the other
unfortunate and sorrowing mothers. It
was a part Of their destiny to unravel the
legend in spite Of imposed secrecy.
Lady PercivaI, on her first visit to
the Heatherleigh gallery, had been strange
ly impressed with the TITO Of portraits
whose bright faces, reversed, rave to them
an AIR Of mystery
She mad asked her husband why they
were hung so strangely, md ne had grown
pale and agitated, and had answered era
sively, at the same time leading her away
with some remark entirely foreign to the
question.
Being curious concerning the portraits,
and mystited by ner husbands unsatis-
a-l - ----I - -, ~-,%l
Clarkson, telling her Of Sir Rupert's I'M
explainaoie demeanor during her visit TO the
| gallery. Thus il happened hat she heard
the legend Of her husbands ancestors re
lated.
And the housekeeper had. with all the
supersti:iors influence Of her Irish nature,
impressed on the susceptible mind of her
mistress the weight OF the whitening sor-
| row of this woeful legend.
Yet it had never come to her, after all, as
forcibly as when the innocent, upturned
face or her agonized bosom proclaimed her
the mother Of 1.-The eldest child-a daugh-
ter"
Then Lady Percival had ~shuddered and
wept over the sleeping infant, gathering
her closer to her aching heart and wailing:
'Oh! my darling. my precious child; my
Inflated one! May the kind Father, in His
mercy. spare thee from this awful thing-a
fathers hatred"
With her tear-wet cheek pressed to that
Of her child Lady Percival could hear the
plying tones OF the h~ousekeeper once more
as she ended the recital. "Ahi me Teddy.
an Oi'm sorry for yes that's niver hear'n
tell o. the loikes OF this theriole thing. tina
coous to al ov ZEN that's born under the
curse. Thin faces what's turned away
from We. ula'am. is oy thin e. has bin ban
ished from the house. Tney hev TO bear II.
me Leddy, for there's not ouy thing 10
Stland forninst, an many's the prayer for
marcy an forgiveness ez has COON from
broken hearts within these walls, an niver
been listened 20, u~aythUr."
Vow, with the birth Of her daughter il al
came back so painfully and vividly, that to
her representative soul il seemed that the
trio of reversed faces on the wall of the
gallery gazed down in plying sorrow OF
the h.tle form SO Gear to her mothers
heart.
And Sir Rupert walked the corridors 81
lent and GUM, little thinking that the del
ica.e flower OF a wife knew Of the trouble
entaiied oy the birth Of the daughter. His
only comfort lay in the thought that she
was bIissfuliy ignorant Of II al as he paced
I'd and down in an ainless march. But the
bitterness of the NORWOOD he had hoped
to keep from her cup had been put to her
lips through his reticence in the rudest and
most thougntiess manner
The season Of gloom ushered IN by MIri-
ANS advent gradually became dispelled,
and the sunlight Of happy content shone
from Lady Percival's sweet eyes and illu-
mined the visage Of Sir Rupert as the child
grew, beautiful, bright, and above all else.
a6ectionate.