Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-02-14

Bed he shall have, and board, and horse TO
ride upon, if he behave himself; but the keys
Of you think well Of ID, my LADY, shall be left
In the hands Of one Mackellar. There will be
good care taken; trust him for that"
"Mr. Mackellar," she cried, II thank you
for that thought All shall be left In your
hands. II we must go into savage country,
| betN heath it to you to take our vengeance
Send Macconoche to st. Brides to arrange
privately for horses and to call the lawyer
Ny lord must leave procuration."
At that moment my lord came to the door,
and we opened our plan to him.
~ will never hear of it," he cried; che
would think l feared him. l will stay in my
own house, please God, until / die. There
lives not the man can beard me out of it,
Once and for all, here l am and here / stay,
In spite Of all the devils in hell" can give
no idea Of the vehemency Of his words and
utterance; but we both stood aghast, and
in particular, who had been witness Of his
former self restraint.
My lady looked at me with an appeal that
went to my heart and recalled me to my wits
I made her private sign TO go, and, when
my lord and l were alone, went up to him
where he was racing to and fro in one end of
the room like a half lunatic, and set my hand
firmly ON his shoulder.
MY lord" says 1, "I am going TO be the
plain dealer once morel II for the last time,
so much the better, for am grown weary Of
the part"
Nothing will change me-" he answered.
God forbid should refuse to hear you; but
nothing will change me-" This he said
firmly, with no signal of the former violence,
which already raised my hopes.
Every well" said I. 81 can afford to waste
my breath" pointed to q chair and he sat
down and looked at me. ~ can remember a
time whom my lady very much neglected
you" said l.
III never spoke Of it while it lasted" re-
turned my lord, with high flush of color {;
land it is all changed now"
"Do you know how muchm 1 said ''Do
you know how much it is all changedl The
tables are turned, my lordl 1t istrsy lady
that now courts you for a word, look, ay,
and courts you in vain. DO you know with
whom she passes her days while you are out
galivanting in the policiesl My lord, she is
glad 10 pass them with a certain dry old grieve
land steward of the name of Ephraim Mac
kellar, and l think you may be able to re-
member what that means, for | am the more
in q mistake or you were once driven to the
same company yourself"
"Mackellarl" cries my lord, getting to his
feet "Oh, my God, Mackellar!"
ut is neither the name of Mack ellar nor
the name of God that can change the truth, {"
said |; land l am telling you the fact. Now,
for you, that suffered so much, to deal out
the same suffering to another, is that the part
of any Christianl But you are so swal-
lowed up in your new friend that the old are
all forgotten They are all clean vanished
from your memory. And yet they stood by
you at the darkest; my lady not the least
And does my lady ever cross your mind
Does it ever cross your mind what she went
through that night2-or what manner of a
wife she has been to you thenceforwardi-or
in what kind of a position she finds herself
todayl Never. 1t is your pride to stay and
face him out, and she must stay along with
him. Oh, my lords pride-that's the great
Atari And yet she is the woman, and you
are great, hulking man! She is the woman
that you swore to protect; and, more be-
token, the own mother of that son of yours ~
you are speaking very bitterly, Mackel,
lar" said he, but, the Lord knows, l fear
you are speaking very true l have not
proved worthy of my happiness. Bring my
lady back"
the issue. When l brought her in, my lord
took a hand of each of US and laid them both
upon his bosom. II have had two friends in
my life,n said he. "All the comfort ever
had it came from the one or the other. When
you two are in mind, think l would be an
ungrateful dog He shut his mouth very
hard and looked on us with swimming eyes
do what We like with me-" says he, 'only
don't think He stopped again "Do what
ye please with me- God knows l love and
honor you" And dropping our two hand,
he turned his back and went and gazed out OF
the window. But my lady ran after, calling
his name, and threw herself upon his neck il
passion of weeping.
| went out and shut the door behind me
and stood and thanked God from the bottom
Of my heart.
AT the breakfast board, according to my
! lords design, we We're all met. The master
had by that time plucked Off his patched boot
and made toilet suitable to the hour; Sc
cundra Dass was no longer bundled up il
wrappers, but wore a decent plain black suit
which misbecsme him strangely; and the pail
were at the great window looking forth wher
the family entered. They turned, and tn,
black man las they had already named hin
in the house, bowed almost to his knees, bu,
the master was for running forward like one
of the family. My lady stopped him, oour
tesying low from the far end of the hall, anG
keeping her children at her back. My lore
was a little in front, SO there were the thre,
cousins of Durrisdeer face to face The hanc
| of time WAS very legibls on all
/ seemed to read in their changed faces
memento mort; and what affected me still
more, 1t was the wicked man that bore hi
years the handsomest. My lady was quit,
TRANSPORTED into the matron, a becoming
woman for the head of a great tableful o.
children and dependents. My lord was grown
slack in his limbs he stopped; he walked
| with running motion, as though he hac
learned again from Mr.. Alexander; his fac,
was drawn; 1t seemed a triae longer than o.
old, and it wore at times a smile very sin
gularly mingled, and which On my eyes ap
peared both bitter and pathetic. But tn,
master still bore himself erect, although per
haps with effort; his brow barred about thu
center with imperious lines, his mouth set a
for command. He had all the gravity anC
something Of the splendor of Satan in tn
Paradise Lost" | could not help but SCI
the man with admiration, and was only sur
| prised that saw him with so little fear.
But indeed las long as we were at the table
| E.aaI h no