Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-08-23

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things so quietly, He doesn't even
look cheerful He does not invite the
confidence OF his necessitous friends.
Such knight of the rueful counte-
maj CO would hardly stand a pony. And
he won t play whist, or touch billiard
cue-quito an unapproachable beast.
A man cannot be lucky in all things.
Sir Cyprian had set his life upon u
cast, and the fortune OF the came had
been against him. The inheritance Of
this unexpected wealth seemed to him
almost useless and trivial stroke of
fate. What could it avail him now?
1t could not give him Constance Clan
yarde or even restore the good old
house In which his father and mother
had lived and died. Time had set q
gulf between him and happiness, and
the fortune that came too late seemed
rather the stroke OF some hooking and
ironical Fac than the gift OF a benevo-
lent destiny. He came back from
Africa like u man who lives q charmed
life, escaping all manner Of Ierils, from
the gripe of marsh fever to the Jaws Of
crocOdiles while men who had valued
existence q great deal more than he
had done had succumbed and left their
bones to bleach upon the sands Of the
Gold Coast or to rot in a stagnant
swamp. Cyprian Dayenant had re-
turned to find the girl he loved the wife
Of the man he most disliked. He heard
of her marriage mere in sorrow than
in anger. He had not expected to find
her free. His knowledge OF Lord Clan
yarde's character had assured him
that his lordship's beautiful daughter
would be made to marry well. No fair
Circassian, reared by admiring and eX-
pectant relatives in the seClusion Of
her Caucasian home, fattened uron
milk and almonds to the standard Of
Oriental beauty, and in due course to
be carried to the slave-market, had
ever been brought up with more spe-
ciiic intention than that which had
ruled Lord Clanyarde in the education
Of his daughters They had all done
we'll He spent very little of his time
at Marchbrooke nevada 49, his wife
having died shortly after Constances
marriage, but dawdled away his life
agreeably at his daughters winter
houses out Of the season, and felt that
his mission had been accomplished.
No father had ever done more for his
children, and they had cost him very
little. What comfort to have been
bles ed with lovely marriageable
daughters in9tead OF lubberly sons,
squatting on fathers shoulders like
thn old Of tha fniV fh R,,grlt
Lord Clanyarde, when he had leisure
to,rehect upon his lot.
After that one visit in Park Lane,
Sir Cyprian Davenant had studious
avoided Mrs. Sinclair. He had very
little inclination for society, and al
though his friends were ready to make
a fashionable lion of him upon the
strength of his African explorations,
he had stl ength of mind enough to re-
fuse all manner of fattering invita-
tions, and innumerable introductions
to PEOPLE who were dying to know him,
He took q set of chambers in one Ct
the streets between the Strand and the
river, surrounded himself with the
books he loved and set abCuJ writing
the history of his travels. He had no
desire to achieve fame by book-mak-
ing, but man must do something vita
his life. Sir Cyprian felt himself too
old or too unambitiOus TO enter one Ct
the learned professions, and he felt
himself without motive for sustained
industry. He had an income that suf-
feed for all his desires. He would
write his book tell the world the Won
ders he had seen, and then go back to
Africa and see more wonders, and per-
haps leave his bones along the road,
as some Of his feilow-traveer had done.
He heard of Constance Sinclair -
heard Of her as one of the lights in
Fashions sidereal SYSTEM holding her
own against all competitors. He saw
her once or twice. between five and six
on a June afternoon, when the car
riages were creeping along the Lady
Mile, and the high-mettled horses
champing their bits and Juggling at
their bearing-rens in sheer despera-
tion at being compelled to this snail's
pace. He saw her looking her lowell
est, and concluded that she was happy.
She had all things that were reckoned
good in her world. Why should he
suppose there was anything wanting
to her content?
The lawyers letter, which had told
him of old Colonel Gryflin's death, and
the will which ,bequeathed to him the
bulk of the old mans fortune, found
Sir Cyprian in his quiet chambers near
the river, smoking the cigar of peace
over the last treatise on metaphysics
by German philosopher. Lady Dave
nant hau been a Miss Grytfin, and the
favorite niece of this ancient Anglo
Indian, Colonel Grytiin, who had lived
and died a bachelor Sir Cyprian had
a faint recol ection of seeing a testy old
gentleman with yellow complexion at
Davenant in his nursery days, and hay
ing been tod to call the old gent eman
uncle" wheleup he had revolted
openly, and had declined to confer that
honor up n such a wizened and tawny
compleXioned anatomy as the little old
gentleman in question.
my uncles are big, he said. You're
too lit for an uncle"
Soon afterward the queer old figure
had melted out of the home picture.
Colonel Grytfin had gone back to the
Lincolnshire fens and his ancient mis-
sails and incunabua, and had lived so
remote an existence that the chief feel
ing caused by his death was astonish h
ment at the discovery that he had been
50 long alive.
Messrs. Dott & Gowunn, q respecta-
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