The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-03-13
when they were delivering them. Ho said,

softly: ~
1T ia a pity he could not know what n
gracious impression his behavior was going
TO leave with the dearest n awsotest
stranger in tho land Of
o. MN oyery day. He is always floating
Tracy felt that this was a little moro than
was necessary. He was conscious OF the
sting OF jealousy.. lie said:
~ il quite right to think OF him--at
IN perhaps an admiring way-but it seems
TO ms that
Howard Tracy, are yon jealous of that
dead mani"
lie was ashamed--and ut the same time
not ashamed. He was jealous-and at the
same time he was not jealous. In a sense
compliments and affection Inyished upon
thnt corpse went into his own till, and were
clear profit. Bu in another sense tho dead
man was not himself; aud In thnt case all
compliments and affection lavished there
were wasted. and a sufficient basis for jsal-
ot1sy. A tiff was the result Of the dispute
between the two. They made it M. and
were more loving than ever. Az an affec-
tionate clincher Of the generalization Sally
declared that she had now banished Lord
Berkeley ffom her mind. and added: "And,
IN order to make sure that he shall never
make trouble between US again, | will teach
myself to. detest that name and all that
have borne it, or over shall bear it,
This inflicted another pang, and Tracy
was minded to ask her to modify that q
llttle--just on general principles, and as
practice in not overriding q rood thing-but
thought perhaps he might better leave
on another tiff. He got away from that
particular. and sought less lender ground
for conversation.
II suppose you disapprove wholly OF aris-
tocracles and nobilities, now that you have
renowned your title and your fathers earl
DOM
Real onesY Oh, dear no, but I've thrown
aside our sham one for good"
This answer fell just at the right time
and just in the right place to save the poor
unstable young man from changing his
political complexion nee more. He had
been on the point Of beginning to totter
again, but this prop shored him up and
kept him from donndarinR back into dem
ocracy and r~s-renouncing aristocracy. So
he went home glad that he had asked the
fortunate question, The girl would accent
q little thing like q genuine earldom; she
was merely prejudiced against the brum-
magem article. Yes, he could have the girl
and his earldom, too; that question was a
fortunate stroke.
Sally went to bed happy, too; and re-
manned happy, deliriously happy, for nearly
two hours; but at last, just as she wac sink
ing into a contented and luxurious unoon-
seriousness, the shady devil who lives and
Turks and hides and watches inside Of hn-
man beings, and is always waiting for a
chance to do the proprietor a malicious
damage. whispered to her soul and said:
"That question had a harmless look, but
what was back Of it?-what was the secret
motive Of it?-what suggested it?"
The shady devil had knitted her, and
could retire now and take a rest; the
wound would attend to business for him.
And it did.
Why should Howard Tracy ask that ques-
tion? II he was not trying to marry her for
the sake of her rank, what should suggest
that question to hin? Didn't lie plainly
look grati6ed# Whentshe said her objections
to aristocraoy had their limitations? All,
he 10 after hat earldom, that gilded sham
~itfaaxa't poor me he wants.
So she argued, in anguish. and tears.
Then she argued the opposite theory, but
made a weak, poor business of it, and lost
the case. She kept the arguing up, one
side and then the other, the rest of the
night, and ut last fell asleep in the dawn;
fell in the fire at dawn, one might say; for
that kind of ,sleep resembles fire, and one
comes out Of it with his brain baked and
his physical forces fried out Of him.
(To BE Continued
CODyrieht,