Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1895-04-25
A BROKEN LETTER.

''Is his lordship waiting breakfast,
Parkins, or has he already begun?" cried
Lady Evesham, rushing like a whirl-
wind in a riding habit into the great,
cool, pillared hall of Eveshaln house
one fair May morning.
ellis lordship is not yet down, my
lady, but Leon has been with him three
quarters of an hour" answered Parkins.
Then servo breakfast His lordship
won't be long" And Lady Evesham
betook herself to the sunlit, flower deck
cd snuggery where she and her husband
always had their first meeting of the
day. From there she turned to the
breakfast table and ran through her
mornings correspondence.
"What dull post wonder if John
has got anything better?"
Her white fingers wandered among
the pile Of letters by her husbands
plate.
From the steward; from jerks, the
trainer; from the lawyers. Three with
the city postmark, five from clubs. That
one is from Lady Janet Stepney, l know
begging, of course, for her orphans or
curates or INDECENT mothers; that's from
BERTHE Stanhope-what a niggle he
writes-and, oh, this must be what they
call typewritten thing"
Lady Evesham picked from the scat
tered pile common square envelope
bearing an east end postmark and ad-
dressed in type to ''The Viscount Eve
sham, Evesham House, Park Lane.
'How queer it seems that machine
should write all that so straight and
neat! had no idea it looked SO tidy
and businesslike. / think I'll make
John buy me one to write to my dress
maker with. Typewriting looks SO
awfully fierce" She scrutinized tho let
ters still closer. "This one isn't quite
faultless. though. There's something
wrong with the capital E. It's got
white spot All, John, at last!''
She dropped the letters among the
others and ran to greet her husband,
who stopped from his superior height
and kissed her lovingly.
A year ago society had called John,
Viscount Evesham, aged As, fool to
saddle his wealth and his freedom with
a mere girl as wife, but his bride had
been SO sweet, so gracious, SO innocent
ly pleased with her new surroundings
and SO unaffected that at the beginning
of this her second season the most Gym
ical had voted the marriage success
and the young viscountess an acquisi-
tion.
Lord Evesham adored his wife, yet
with that tentative worship that love
tinged with doubt, which must always
be where the adorer is speeding swiftly
down life's hill and the object of adora-
tion is every day growing more lovely
and more desirable.
His first few months of married life,
when, a bride, Lady Evesham had won
widespread and open admiration, had
been torture to him. Even now his self
doubts were only lulled to
slumber by the perfectly blameless con-
duct of his wife.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting,
my dear" he began, with old fashioned
courtesy, "but the morning was SO fine
I made sure you would prolong your
ride
$50 might have done, for Mr..
Leighton-he has constituted himself
my cavaliere servante in the Row-was
most amusing, but Kittie Hamer Joined
us, and it's horrid riding three abreast
one has to shout so. I left them at the
top of the Row and"-
leighton rides with you, does he?"
queried Lord Evesham, looking over the
top Of his letters.
"Yes, dear, almost always - And
then an utterly unaccountable blush
camo over her until her throat, ears and
cheeks were alike bathed in the crimson
tide.
"Hum!" said his lordship, while
Lady Evesham, furious with herself at
tho trick her unruly self consciousness
had played with her, took refuge in her
breakfast. Silence reigned, broken only
by the faint tinkle of the silver and
china and by the rustic of Lord Eve
sham's letters.
Suddenly he started, grew pale, then
red, looked from his wife to slip of
paper in his hand and back again.
What a strange coincidence!
watch your wifep' in typewritten
characters, stared from the paper before
him. Opposite was the downcast face
Of his wife--the face which had been
but moment back dyed with guilty
blush at the chance mention Of the
name of a mere acquaintance.
The next moment he gathered up his
letters and left the room. Lady Eve
sham, too, sprang from her chair.
"Why was ! such a fool?' she cried
to herself in a tall mirror What made
me do such hateful, stupid, underlined
thing as to blush like a gawky school
girl--and at Rupert Leighton's name.
tool-a man who -" She did not speak
the words that rose to her liDs Only
Our nerves are to our life, what the foun-
dation is to building-our life prop and
81 pport. When a afoundation becomes weak
no sane man would use frozen earth to
strengthen it, but it would be just as wise as