Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-10-21
tn. storm IL would bring down upon her

the storm IL would bring down upon nsf
head.
aGood Heaven, Florence, do you mean
TO tell me that you have voluntarily re-
! leased Lord Harcourt, that you have act
| ed 70 blindly, so wickedly, So" Words
failed her ladyship. .tiirl you must be
mad"
But Florence was at least outwardiy APP
athletic.
"Possibly, aunt; nevertheless 1t is too
evident to me that, had ] withheld his
lordship's release, he would have soop
sent me mine. / preferred the more dig
niied course Of the two, and acted upo
It,"
"But we had a hold upon his lordsiip,
Florence. We could have forced him TO
fulfil his voluntary engagement"
Here Miss Worthington laughed for the
first time--and il was not a pleasant laugh
10 hear.
"And you can imagine me a willing
bride to a bridegroom forced to marry me!
Good heaven, surely / have not sunk so
low rs that y she said bitterly.
81 repeat you are mad, Florence! You,
without a penny In the world or n home to
turn to-how dare you take the law into
your own hands aud dismiss Lord Har-
courty" Lady Raven demanded furiously.
ave, had, 1 tell you, a hold upon bim-at
least, he might have given you compensa-
ton in some way. You don't know
arrangements might have been possible
He might have offered some sort OF com
promise. You have acted like a wilful
foolish child, and thrown away your last
chance"
Miss worthington's cheeks were ablaze.
"And lat least yet-cannot realise
! your right to insult me SO grossly, aunt
Raven. l would beg my bread from door
to door before | would touch a penny Of
Lord H~arcourt's money! she said ex-
citedly.
az am not accustomed to deal with girls
Of your headstrong temperament, Florence,
and own they do not please me. Girls IN
freedom may well assert their indepen-
dence, If they choose; but those bound
hand and foot by poverty and disgrace-ay,
disgrace" her ladyship repeated coarsely-
"would do well to learn submission to their
fate-io abide by the al, ice given them by
their friends"
..Sueh a little time, and how | have fa.-
len :" poor Florence thought, with bitter
| pain; but she sat motionless, not show
ing that she felt in the least her sunt's
abuse.
Her silence only increased her aunt's fu-
ry.
.Pray what am | TO do with you. Flor
ence? Perhaps you can solve that difficult
ty for me-"
I'll did not know that there was a ques-
| ton of your doing anything with me. 1
suppose my misfortunes will scarcely have
| deprived me OF the right of free action!"
Florence answered calmly; but she felt
little calmness.
What was she to dor What should she
do? She asked herself these questions con-
| t%inually and they were yet unsettled
| Her accomplishments, she felt, possessed
| only the most ordinary merit. Dependence
| Of any kind, she said truly enough, was Ut
terly intolerable TO her. The home she
was in now she occupied simply on suffer-
ance, and must leave in a few weeks at
most. Her first thought had been that her
aunt would offer her a home with her for .
time; and, with her fathers only sister,
who had spent half her life in their house,
she had felt that the obligation would not
be too oyerwhelming-it would soften her
dependence. Had she been a little more
submissive and tractable, a shade more
humble, she might have discovered Il little
s~oftness in her ladyship's granite heart;
but il required more patient seeking for
than Florenee's proud nature was likely to
stoop to, SO she suffered.
Lady Raven had not thought Of leaving
her niece unprotected in the world; but
she had a strong idea Of making her feel
her dependence until she had become quite
submissive. The time however happened
to be most inconvenient for her ladyship.
She was engaged TO pay a months visit TO
an old friend at the seaside; and this
change, she felt, was absolutely necessary
to her after the fatigues of a London sea-
son, and still more after all the trials she
had just passed through. Her niece, Of
course, had not been included in this in
yitation. LADY Raven. never too plentiful
ITO be Continued