The Wahpeton times., 1891-06-04
A THOUSAND THANKS.
I must see you to-day. Come ats.
shall be home to no one else. Yours

I. L.
Dick Tanqueray read the above and
threw the delicately perfumed coronet-
ed note on the table, and, leaning
against the mantel-piece, moodily
reviewed the situation. Not alto
gether a pleasant one. A younger
son, with barely anything but his
salary as clerk in the foreign office,
the lookout was about as deplorable
as could be. Debts rapidly increasing,
and duns daily more insistent, with a
wretched book on the derby, while to
top oil, here was the infatuation for
Lady Lanthwaite, and how that was
to terminate heaven only knew! In
timacy had grown into a warmer
and stronger feeling, and day by day
the pair had drifted on till it was
abundantly clear that, unless some
extraordinary bit of luck occurred,
the final smash could not be far off.
Dick could not exactly make out on
what footing he and Lady Lanth-
waite really stood. She was not,
perhaps, exactly his ideal of what q
woman should be; but, however he
might grid at his bondage when away
from her, heknew but too we'll that in
her presence he was her very slave.
He might havehad small conjunction
in following out his worst instincts,
but he was curiously held back by his
strange likingfor Lanthwaite, really
excellent fellow, who would have been
the last to believe his old Eton chum
could play him false. And, as mat
ter of fact, Lanthwaite entirely trust
ed Tanqueray, and, in his blundering,
good-natured way, was always throw
ing the two together, when they would
have been better miles apart.
And now another difficulty had
arisen. Had Dick been clear Of this
wretched ENHANCEMENT, in which the
woman took everything and gave no.
thing, prospect, faint as yet certain
~, but still with promise in it, had
broken on the horizon. For one of
the new debutantes of the sea.
son, lovely and mistress of her own
fortune, had looked with anything
but unkindly eyes athandsome Dick
who had, indeed, every thing in his
favor but his Indebtedness. Then
again, Dicks uncle, from whom he had
large expectations, had as much as
promised him that, if he would range
himself on q satisfactory footing, his
liabilities should be cleared off, and
that he should meet his bride far
from empty handed. It was just in
this state OF mental worry and un-
certainty that Dick stood at present.
He was SO bound to Lady Lanth-
waite that he could not see how he
could in any way break off his intim-
acy with her, and until she herself
gave him his congo he must perforce
continue in his present atmosphere of
indebtedness and general bewilder-
ment-with the prospect, too, oflosing
the one chance Of happiness which lay
before him, and of securing himself the
good will of his venerable uncle, who
would assuredly leave him without O
penny if he in any way did anything
to cast @ shadow on the family name.
However, there was the lady's letter,
and to her he must 60 at once if he
was to be in Grosvenor Square at the
appointed time.
Lady Lanthwaite had directed that
she was to be at home to no one but
Mr.. Tanqueray, and with a disturbed
look on her usually composed and
haughtily beautiful face, she sat wait
ing the arrival of the man on whom
she felt she could rely in the difficulty
that had now to be met. Young and
nobly born, with every advantage
that wealth, beauty and position
could give her, Lady Lanthwaite was
very far from being satisfied or a
happy woman. Under her calm ex-
terror there blazed passions that her
husband-good, easy fellow that he
was-knew little of; and seemingly
cold and reticent, she lived for excite
ment in one form and another, and
was as reckless in her expenditure as
the veriest plunger on the turf; specu-
lations of all sorts were her craze, and
there was no big event of any kind on
which she had not heavy book.
And yet, with this strange woman,
her extravagances were to some ex-
tent dominated by the passion she
had for Dick Tanqueray, her feeling
for him being, in truth, far stronger
than she herself cared to recognize.
And she had written to him
with q set purpose, for she was in such
a position that it was beyond her wit
to conceive how she was to get out of
the impasse she was now in.
Her reflections were broken by the
opening of the door and the entry of
her expected visitor. At once the
charm of her lovliness and the soft,
low tones of her voice dispersed Dicks
good resolutions, and taking his place
on low stool beside the fair siren,
who held him in her thrall, he eagerly
demanded the cause of her wanting
him so hastily.
But q sudden change came over
Lady Lanthwaite. She now hesita-
ted to speak of her trouble, and be-
gan to doubt within her mind whether
it was, after all, quite fair to place her
burden on the man who had sven so
much of his life to her. 1t was early
summer and the light was playing on
the trees in the square and flecking the
green leaves as they moved gently IN
the passing wind. Looking toward
the open window, through which the
hum and roar of the great city passed
with never dying murmur. she seemed
almost to forget the man sitting be-
side her, and closing her hands across
her knees gazed wistfully beyond the