Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-09-29


the privation, the injustice, and the pa
thos of it! Kathleen hearkened, and
the spell began to work. Before her
mother had done with her she gave her
consent, but in mood of conscience
stricken reluctance.
OF course two or three servants had
to be trusted, and one of these was
Lord Egbert's valet, gentleman Of
conservative tenets and willy diploma
cies. In the autumn dawn of the fol-
lowing morning Kathleen and her
mother descended from their apartments
to find Lord Egbert waiting them. Out
sidea vehicle also waited, and the three
were about to enter it when Lady Den
dudlon appeared, accompanied by her
husband, the marquis, who had ar
rived on the previous evening.
It is no exaggeration to state that the
enraged marshioness now covered her
offending guest with the most furious
invective. Mrs. Kennaird and Kathleen
were actually hustled from the hall
with as little ceremony as If they had
been two suspicious tramps, and the
wrathfu1 revolt of Lord Egbert was
treated very much as If it had been the
clamor of rebellious baby. The de-
signed elopement did not end merely in
detection, but in pitiless exposure as
well. The marchioness, having once
got rid of two women whom she re-
garded as *ipers warmed at her hearth
stone, proceeded 20 bruit what she de-
nounced as their willy treachery, from
one end Of the kingdom to the other.
She was an excellent hater, was this
noble lady, as already has been chron-
icled. She did not spare the Kennairds,
nor did her husband, whom she notori-
ously ruled. Their acrid statements
engendered a scandal from which sprang
the most hurtful odiuIn. Mrs. Ken
naird's matrimonial plot was soon on
numberless lips. The society journals
had their fling at her, and she was re-
ferred to as the ''inveigler'' and again
as the american pusher.' To rally
round her few genial adherents meant
one thing, to fight the powerful acri-
mony of the Dendudlons meant another.
She soon woke to the fact that her Lon
don position was ruined, and that her
attempt to connect her child with the
naughty house of Poindexter had
wrought for her dreadful contumely
and ridicule. There is no doubt that
she had been cruelty treated, consider
ing all the circumstances; but there is
no doubt, too, that in a measure she had
brought upon herself the punishment
which had overtal1en her with such rude
and public lash-strokes.
In 1nidwinter of the following year
she returned to this country, settling in
that ''detestable little Fifty-third street
fiat to which we have already heard
her auude. She mentioned to her New
York friends the affair at Dendudlon
hall with mingled sorrow and indigna-
ton. She had always been woman
who would embellish and manipulate
facts with prettiest adroitness, and her
version of the whole ill-starred event
was both self-exculpating and pie
turesque. It won her many sympa-
thizers, too, and these clad Kathleen
and herself with delicate mantles OF
martyrdom.
81 shall never return to that horrid
country again. she would say, with her
grandest yet most aggrieved manner.
MY poor, dear husband lost his life
there in the first place, and now, in the
| second place, it has made ne the object
of shocking SANDER"
To certain more intimate friends she
would occasionally rnurlnur: IT don't
want it to be repeated but that Louisa
Poindexter (the 1narchioness, you
! know is the very most jealous of won-
en-! Dendudlon (the marquis, you I'M
derstand, though for years I always
called him Charley had, of course,
been sent off to Scotland on my account
solely. His sudden arrival at the hall
was great schock to Louisa, and-wel,
to cut an unpleasant story short, she
lost her head. But mind, now don't
repeat this; tell it in the strictest con-
| fdence."
The confidence was frequently vio-
| lated, however, and with due effect OF
prestige for her who had imported it;
since some of the New Workers whose
ears these neat innuendoes ticl1led failed
| to resist u hind of reverence, not to say
awe, for any compatriot ever friendly
enough with an English marquis and
! his wife to call one Charlie and the
| other Louisa
Kathleen, for her part, would keep
silent regarding the whole subject. It
was silence that some persons failed
| leniently to construe. But the girl had
said to herself that she would not lie;
and SO silence, as she wisely held, was a
! diScreeter course.
| CHAPTER ~.
1t was during the winter following
her return to New York that Kathleen
became engaged to Alonzo Lispenard.
| The betrothal was still relative nov
! city. Mrs. Kennaird had been delighted
! by it. She affirmed it far better than
having a cripple for a husband, even
though he might have made his wife
Lady Egbert Poindexter. Now, at last,
to this fatigued struggler would come
the blessed release of repose. Not tn.
repose of rest, however. Margaretta
Kennaird was OF the kind whose most
| peaceful hours are spent in the hustle
| Of Io1I md f., ON fbara he,