Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-11-15
CHAPTER XIV.
GILBERT ASKS A QUESTION

talo1 lNhNlg Nillbblu DlutldlE WOulu
have gone straightway to upbraid him
with his treachery In bringing Sir
Cyprian to Davenant disguised and in
false name; bat Lord G anyarde
finding himself at 20 years of age en-
tirely unlettered by domestic incum.
brances, was INDUCING his natural
friy lity among more agreeable pc Jple
than his serious and business-like fell.
low-countrymen, Lord Clanyarde was
eating ices and playing domino5 under
the Colonnades of Venice, with thoughts
of NOV ny ~ Tyrolodn m luntains wnen
the weather grow too warm in the fair
sea.girt city
So Gilbert, not Icing able to get at
Lord Glanyarde, nursed his wrath to
keep it warm, and went straight home
to Davenant Park, where Constance
was leading her calm and happy life,
seeing hardly anything OF what the
world calls "ociety," but surrounded
by the people she had known since her
childhood tho coed old rector who
had chri5tened her. the devoted little
doctor who had watched her so
patiently when her dull eyes had
hardly recognized his familiar face;
the sohool-mislre s, the old pupils, the
gray old gardeners, and sunburned
game-keepers; the CATERS and go dies
who had been old when she was u
baby, and seemed hardly any older for
the twenty years that had passed over
their heads since then. Cheeks lit
tie more shriveled, perhaps, brows
more deeply wrinkled, shoulders a
tribe more bent, but exactly the anne
appreciation of tea and tobacco, half
crowns and new neckerchiefs the
Psalms and the roctor's sermon.
Never had spring seemed to her 50
beautiful as it seemed this year, when
she led her little girl through the
woods and showed her the newly awak-
ened flowers, and told her the names
oisthe birds that poured out such gush-
ing songs of gladness in the warm
bright neon, The child's lips began to
shape isolated wJrds-mam, man aud
birIe, towers for flowers divine Ian
guage to the mothers ear. Never was
u child happier or more fondly loved,
Martha Briggs nothing doubling,
Rugged this little wall to her honest
heart; and evel Melanie, who had a
curious inward revuls on from the
child, had to pretend most enthusi-
astic devotion and deepest gratitude to
Providence TO- the little one restora-
ton, Once, inspired by some Iamiliar
spirit of evil, she cou d not resist drop
ping a little poison into her mistress
cup of Joy.
DO you feel quite sure there has
been no mistake, ma'am she asked.
81 sometimes fancy our darling could
net have been sa ed. | saw her carried
away by the current, carried past me
like straw, and it has never been
quite eXpla ned how she was rescued. !"
Constance looked at her with eyes on
fire with indignation.
Am sure that this is my child"
she cried, claspng the babJ to her
breast, Am | sure or my own name,
OF my liie' If all the rest of Ii were
dream or shad W, | should know
that Christabel was real and true.
Who can deceive q mother"
"You were so i'll when the little girl
was brought home, suggested Me-
LAME, with an air of conscientious
doubt.
Not too ill to remember my Chris
label. We knew each other, did we
not, darling? Our lips chung together
as if we had never been parted. Not
know my own child, indeed! Never
dare to make such suggestion again,
Melanie.
After this Mile. Duport was discreet
ly silent on the subject of this present
Christabals identity with the Chris,
label OF the past but the time was to
come when Constance Sinclair's faith
was to receive ruder shock.
Gilbert went home that evening after
the Two Thousand savage, with h S
mind full of scorpions. COLLINS Sue
cess was nothing to him He hardly
remembered that one OF his horses had
won ace for the first time since he
had kept horses. He had counted on
James Wyatt's fidelity Just as he had
counted on his horse or dog acreatnrc
bou ght with his money, fed and housed
by him. Wyatt had prolited b him
Wyatt was b und to stand by him; AMI
as to those various 81 ght3 which he
had put upon his confidential adviser
at divers times, almost uncon 'ciously,
it had never occurred to him that there
could be any calling wound left by such
small stings, the venom whereof was to
react upon him elf.
If he had heaped favors upon the
man, ii he had been the most unselfish
and devoted of friends, he could not
have felt James Wyatt's treachery
more keenly. He was angry with him
self for ha, ing been so cay a dupe, for
having given any man power to get the
better OF him
"The whole thing is a planned re-
venge," he tho ght. wyatt knew
how itwould ga me to see Sir Cyprian
back at DAY, nant.
And Wyatt had flung lire-brand in
to that revelation about the pretended
German doct +. Could it be, Gilbert
asked himself. or was it ma icious in
vention of Wyatt's' Would Lord Clan
yarde have lent himself to such Ie-
ception? Even Lord Clanyarde might
have been hoodwinked by his ddugh-
ter yer.
81 won accuse her, not yet while, y
he said t. himself. 1T will be better
to keep quiet and watch. have been
too often away. have given her too
much license. That innocent face of
hers would deceive Satan himself.
And | have allowed myself to think
that there was no guile in her; that,
although she has never loved me, she
has never wronged me. Hard to find
after all, that | have judgel her toe
leniently,"
1t was after midnight when MIR. Sin
clair arrived at Ia enant and he had