National Baptist world., 1894-09-14

grizzle-headed little attorney was talk
| ing to his friend, the legal luminary
of the village, after very much the
same strain.
The longer | live" said he, ''she
more | become convinced of the oddity
of human kind. Now. there's Morti-
NOR Clagett-you know about the law
suit of Clagett versus Clagett, don't
you?"
II have heard of it, yes.''
"Well, he's just gained it,
'No-has he?''
"And the strangest thing of all is,
now that he's got it he won't take it.
For twelve years he has been contest
ing the thing-and the Gleason Clag-
etts have been fighting him tooth and
nail; and now that the courts have de-
cided in his favor, he throws the
whole affair up and clears out
I'm the name of Justice and common
sense, why?" asked Lemuel Starbuck
That's what I'd like to know my
self" said the New York attorney,
scratching his shock of gray hair 81
can't account for it any way in the
world unless"
"Well?"
'Gleason Clagett's niece is the only
surviving representative on that side
since the old man died-his wife's
niece, rather. And Mortimer Clagett
used to be fond of Edith before this
tormenting business of the lawsuit
commenced They haven't spoken to
each other for years, now, / believe.
He won't take the property, and she
has hidden herself away somewhere.
It's come-down, tell you, from six
thousand year to nothing at all. No
woman would be apt to like it."
1t was on the edge of twilight; the
tide was coming in again. Miss Dady
sat rocking idly to and fro in Martha
Barstow's boat, with the white kitten
coiled at her feet, and a book in her
lap. Every now and then the breeze
lifted one of the light-brown locks of
hair from her forehead and dallied
with it, as if in sport; faint flush of
color had risen to her cheek as she
turned the pages of her book.
AL of sudden she felt a peculiar
sensation, as if she were moving; she
looked up. The boat had slipped its
| moorings, and she was already some
distance out to sea. The kitten was
peering over the edge of the boat and
mewing uncomfortably The red stain
Of the sunset seemed turning all the
waves to blood, while off in the dis
| tance the lighthouse rose up like a
shaft of ebony against the ruddy sky.
She uttered little shriek-but there
were only the sea-gulls and, the plain
| ing kitten to hear her. She looked in
stinctively for oars, but there were no
oars in the row-locks.
Il am drifting out to sea-" she told
herself; ana then, with a sudden idea,
| she tied the scarlet-silh handkerchief,
| which encircled her neck, to the
handle of her parasOl, and waved it
wildly toward the lighthouse.
There are rocks and reefs there"
she thought. II have often heard
Martha Barstow say how difficult it
was to land at the lighthouse. If one
of those sharp, jagged ledges should
saw its way through the bottom of my
! boat. then good-by to the red sunset
and the sweet salt air, and the evening
| star that shines over yonder like the
point of a silver spear But 1 can do
nothing-I can only wait"
Even while these disjointed refec-
tions passed through her mind,
little boat had put off from the circu
lar stone foundations stairs of the
lighthouse, and was pulling steadily
toward her. In its bow sat tall,
allow-complexioned man, with face
like the pictured prince of Don
Quixote.''
''It isn't little girl" he said aloud.
as he neared the drifting boat sit is
wOman-it is Edith Dady!"
And she, looking intently at the
man, who was coming with long, even
oar-strol1es to rescue her, smiled to her
self and murmured:
st is Mortimer Clagett,"
SO they met, these parted lovers, the
last representa- tives of the rival sides
of the famous lawsuit Of "Clagett VS..
Clagett.'
There is no use trying to run away
from me-" Edith, he said. Even the
elements conspire against you"
so you are the Don Quixote of this
lonely tower" said Edith, with a smile