Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-10-17
PROLOGUE.
ssWhat Have You Done With My
Promised Bride?"

OldfriarS was a somewhat ghOStly
looking habitation, its aspect solemn,
the venerable air which chung about
1t unmiStakable. Its monastic case
ments, it's massive doors, it's hoary
lichen-grown walls and ivy-clad roof
seemed to tell one, as plainly as words
could have done, that friars of an
''order gray" in years gone by, had
made that old place their sanity
abode and loved it's sanctity well.
Their clustered lives-unlike the lives
of so many of their brethren else
where-Were pure and blameless.
Cody men in their day, tradition
maintained were those dead and gone
monks of Oldfriars.
For centuries, now, Oldfriars has
belonged to the Pen1'iths. Sir Ruy,
the present owner, was a young man
of tWenty-four, with tastes averse to
those of the ordinary country gentle
man, and the idol of a proud mothers
heart Sir Ruy and Lady Penri6h
lived at OldfriarS together-had been
the closest and best Of friends indeed
since the death of the boys father.
But in the June of the year 1S- there
was a feud between mother and son,
and at the bottom of this feud was a
woman.
At an Open-paned mullioned win
dow, in a crimson covered arm chair
In the spacious old-fashiOned drawing
room of the ancient mansion, sat Lady
Penrith, gazing out with gloomy eyes
upon the wide, darkening landscape
before her. She was a handsome
woman still, with strongly marked
features and an abundance of fair
-young-lOoking even at two and
forty. Proud of the race to which she
had come to belong, and of the hon
orable name she bore, that pride was
traceable in every hne of her face.
Right away her broodiGg gaze had
traveled-right away to the winding,
turbulent river in the distance which
washed three sides of the hilly park
at Oldfriars. Down by the river path,
In the fast rising evening mistS, Lady
Penrith could just distinguish two
figures-a nan and a woman-walk-
ing side by side there. Involuntarily
she clinched her jewelled white hand,
her proud face flushed duskily, a pas
sionate sob half rose in her breast.
"Ilhis is his last evening, she mutt
tered-"his last evening at Oldfriars
for many days to come-and yet | am
put aside for Alicia Leigh. Ruy, Ruy,
you will break my heart"
Young Ruy Penrith was an ardent
lover of the beautiful-in fact, was a
true artist after his own deSultory
fashion. Had he been born to the
lot of poor man, instead of to that
of a rich one, he might have become
famous of necessity as it were. AS
it was, he took life easily enough,
loved the world because to him it
was a most fair and pleasant world,
and had ever been known to those
about him as a gOod-hearted, sunny
tempered fellow, because as yet no
thwarting had arisen to warp his
nature otherwise.
Sir Ruy Penl.ith hated accounts and
business matters and the practical
side of life. Herman MerryWeather,
the lawyer and estate agent in the
village of Garth, together with Lady
Penrith, managed affairs at Oldfriars
without the assistance of Sir Ruy.
This Herman Merryweather and Ruy's
father had been very intimate
throughout the latter's lifetime. The
two men, in fact, had been at school
and at college together, and the
friendship formed then had with
stood. for wonder, the test of after
years.
With the morrow'S sun young Ruy
would take leave of his home for a
few months sketching in Normandy
whittier he was going in company
with an artist friend OF his.
IT am almost glad now" said Lady
Penrith. aloud. still Watching from
her post at the mullioned window
those two unconscious figures in the
hazy distance, chat this tour has
been arranged. Tomorrow. when he
is gone. will dismiss tne girl. When
at return pray lttdN Gil llS VIII h<lN Z
forgotten Alicia Leigh"
Presently they turned from the
river path and began to wend their
steps in the direction Of the house.
On they came beneath the quiet trees
slowly, slowly in the sweet purple
dusk. the youth bending down to the
ear of the maiden, his arm encircling
her waist.
Then an intervening shrubbery hid
the pair from Lady Penrith. and by
and blythe interval seemed an age
to the watcher-the graceful figure Of
young Sir Ruy appeared in the gar
den alone.
'Rny," called his mother, in an un-
steady voice "are you coming now?''
He started, seeing her there at the
window.
Yes" he answered, blithely, Il am
coming in now
Warm as it was this late June even
ing, Lady Penrith rose. shivering.
and impatiertly closed the lattice:
then she resumed her seat to wait for
the entry of her son.
The fine old room was not yet dark
though the stars one by one We're
sprinkling the summer sky. When
Ruy came in he pushed his hand
somewhat nervously through the