The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-02-28

lneTS III HlS SuSduj hoT iOF " hOuuenb
had he any consideration for the
hapless Lady Gertrude or Of her
position when she returned to her
fathers house, perchance a husband
less mother, the father of her child
meanwhile condemned to penal
servitude for the deception he had
practiced on her.
None of this did Pierce Vaughan
consider as he pretended to himself
that he felt intense horror at the
crime over which he gloated.
He was an infinitely worse man
than Clement D%unraven, whose chief
sin lay in his weakness, but he
would not have committed a foolish
act which would have brought him
within the jurisdiction of the law.
He knew its quirks and its endless
bubbles as well as any man, and
dark though some of his deeds were,
it was his constant aim to have the
law on his side.
How long he would have sat rumi-
mating over the strange revelation
of which Mr.. Singleton had been the
mouthpiece who shall say, but
Griffin came in for the letters won77
derine why his master, who was
unusually veIy precise, had forgot
that it vas nearly past time. The
missive addressed to Sir Clement
Dunraven and which had attracted
Mr.. Singleton's notice, still lay at
the top of the heap. Yes, it should
go as had been previously arranged,
it YVES only about some leasehold
property Pierce Vaughan had always
managed for his uncle. All should
go on as heretofore until the crisis
came, as come he expected it would
before the following week had
closed. He gave Griffin the letters,
and, then rousing himself up, took
two or three turns up and down the
room.
He decided he would go to the
club and seek, by means of a little
society, to throw off this feeling of
oppression but before he did SO he
proceeded to glance over his uncle's
Wlll-Uf course he had a copy in his
drawer.
Yes, it was quite true, no mistake
could possibly be made about it, the
whole property, save a few thousand
pounds that went to Clement, must
come to him in tie event of this
first marriage with Lisbeth Glendin-
ming being proved.
Having first ascertained for a dead
certainly, Pierce Vaughan set his hat
well on his head and sauntered along
the Strand towards Piccadilly.
1t was not often that this Sybarite
allowed himself to be elbowed by the
throng that is p~erpetually to be
found in a crowded thorougfare like
the Strand. He usually hailed a
hanson Az he left the sacred pre-
cincts of the Temple, but to-day he
felt that he must have exercise, and
not only exercise but the sound and
sight of his fellow-men in order to
chase away the gloomy feelings with
which, in spite of himself, the infor-
nation received that day had en-
shrouded him.
To slip into Aboyne Court as mas
ter under the circumstances lust
revealed was scarcely a pleasant
prospect even to Pierce Vaughan,
although it never occurred to him
that the easiest way out of the
unpleasantness was to ignore the
whole thing.
By the time, however, he had
walked from the Temple to st.
james street and spoken a few genial
words to more than one acquaint-
ance on the way, he had freed his
mind of what he considered "mor-
bidnessn in the matter, and was
as revengeful against Clement Dun
raven for ousting him and as de-
termined to have his rights as
though there were no question of
the family name being trampled in
the mire, and of Aboyne Court,
whether owned by Clement Dun
raven oil Pierce Vaughan, being
placed under the ban of publio
opinion.
He walked into the Club as jauntily
as if Mr.. Singleton had never existed;
no one certainly would have guessed
from Pierce Vaughan's demeanour
of the revelation he had so recently
listened to, yet even the complexion
of the hard hearted, astute lawyer
paled when the very first person lie
saw in the lobby of the Club was
Clement Dunraven.
The baronet was talking and
laughing with two or three men, and,
for the moment, seemed to have
cast away his trouble and the secret
which had of late been weighing him
down to the very earth. He did not
at first see his cousin; when he did
so a fierce light for a moment flashed
in his eyes, the hatred he had for
him would not lie so absolutely in
allegiance as to be wholly unobserved.
1t was intensified, too, by the
knowledge obtained from Lisbeth