Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-08-25

which Seton found them here, [ have
never set eyes on, or touched your ours
ed money. When we Eyres play prac-
tical jokes we are not in the habit OF
doing so with our guests gold
You came into my room at day
break" said Musgrave, quite unmoved;
Il saw you take the notes from the
pocket-book. which you replaced in the
drawer, and [ got up and followed you
to your own room, where you put the
notes away, [ watching you from the
door. | drew back as you shut and
locked it: across that threshold, take
my oath, [ have never stepped. | was
already in the dining-rOOm when you
came down to breakfast; my reason for
asking you to fetch them was that you
might have the opportunity of replac-
ing them"
@You liei" said Brandon again; but
this time his voice was strange even in
his own ears. He looked at the faces
Of those who stood around and at what
he saw there his own grew pale as that
Of the dead.
"Gentlemen," he said. pointing to
Musgraye. do you believe him or ma?'
But they answered him not word
only Seton came to his friend, and
stood beside him.
Then" said Brandon. and swift as
thought. before any could hinder him,
snatched from the wall one of the load
ed pistols that always hung there.
''since you believe it to be so, here
perisheS the firSt-the last thief of the
house of Eyre!"
A report rang out he made a step
forward, shiyered all over from head to
heel, then fell at their feet-dead!
In the PUBLIC inquiry that was held
on his death the whole story became
known, and the black flag of disgrace
was unfurled above the house Of Eyre
forever; but Lady Sara raved and Wept,
and sWOre that it could all be explain
ed; only the explanation never came,
and to this day Brandon Eyre remains
in the eyes Of the world the first, last
thief of the house of Eyre.
After this there came harder devilry
into their deeds; as their pride increas-
ed, their self-reSpect diminished, and
the women of the family being permit
ted little or no influence over their fiery
husbands and sons, the latter went on
their way unchecKed-at war with God,
their own hearts, and the world.
Alike lovely and unhappy for no Eyre
thought a woman worth the winning
who was not indispensable of her kind,
and whether she loved him or no. it
was all One-his passions once lit car
RED all before him, and marry him she
should, il only to repent at her leisure),
these women lived simple, anxious lives,
only too thankful if open scandal were
avoided, and their dead brought home
to them to receive decent burial at their
hands.
And the old squire had been wild and
laWlesS even beyond the common wont
of the Eyres, and had trained up his
sons to walk in his steps, so that rs
mere lads they had bid fair to oUtdo
their father in his deviltry and misdeeds.
AT sixteen q youth cannot help HIM
self, nor at twenty, nor perhaps at
thirty" says Tame; and at thirty-hya
years Of age Darlington Eyre assur9diy
could not help himself, nor to all ap-
pearance could his brother, since some
Of their worst fOllies were parpatrated
after that age.
But between the two men lay differ
ence as of allen blood; While Barring
ton was born TO become the slave Of
habit, his brother was made to be its
master, by a single effort OF will Shaz-
ing himself as free Of the chains tuaJ
bound him as il they had been reels
that in sport he had permitted to be
tWined about him. Abruptly as with
the stroke of q sword his marriage had
cut his life sharply in tWain--the one
half he threw behind him, wasting
neither thought nor regret on what was
irrevOcable; the other, honorable and of
good repute, be lived in the eyes OF all
men, devOting himself in his early mid
die age to those quiet persistent joys
and duties that his youth had been
spent in defiance of. The mad reckless
era OF the Eyres had gone by, and a new
al /,
bOrS, as years passed. and no breath OF
scandal attached itself to Mr.. Eyre,
who eXerted an ascGndenGy over all with
whom he came in contact, which proved
him to possess that cOnjuring or mas
terful quality of the human mind that
Goethe in one brief word sums up as
''ddS DdnlOn5Sche," and that never per-
mltS It's pOSSeSSOr to remain in the back
ground of events, but sets him in the
van of every battle, born leader whom
man will follow blindly into the very
jaws OF death itself. And this force
within him working since his marriage
IN the direction OF good, not evil, Mr.
Eyre came to be possessed of perhaps
the trueSt riches that earth can afford
the unenfOrced respect in those among
whom he dweit, and upon his look and
word men Walted,-O what he did moth
| ference often accorded to better deeds
than his, and in very truth was to those
around him
The tongue of the trump to them a..
For the fame that in quite early youth
he had won in the world OF letters he
felt and expressed most profound con-
tempt. Now and again. at long inter
walls, he would put forth from his re-
treat some rare bit of work that drew
all cultured eyes upon him, but to all
entreaties that he would boldly enter
that arena in which his splendid abili-
| ties might pit him successfully against
| the foremost men OF his time he turned
deaf ear. Accused Of idleness. he
once remarked thai his intellect was
| for his own enjoyment and those m
| meGlateiy about him. 'InlnGS Deauti-
! full, terrible, pathetic, or witty, write
themselves on my mind, " he said; u do
| not sit down to write them for others,
| My senses are perfect; | feel what an
| other man only describes, and if moth
| ing visible is wrought by my hand, be
| sure my Impressions endure longer
! than those written down ones that are
| imagined, not known"
And Madcap, the cause of all-Mad-
| cap, who had been to the powers of
good lying dormant within him as the
air and light that had freed them from
their prison, and who knew it not, vet
working faiths sweet miracle, had
made and kept him what she believed
him to be-Madcap was to the world
one of those women who are principal
ly known by the attitude of their hus-
bands toward them, and through Mr..
Eyre was invested with preciousness
that made good wives discover hun
6rai defactS in fhair lords and bad nnnS