The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-05-23
CHAPTER xxv.-Is IT FREEDOM?

Not only on the Yorkshire moors
lad the weather been severe, but for
.ome weeks the whole of ENGLAND
lad been snow-bound, and even in
he more genial country, where
Aboyne Court was situated, the
Weather had been unprecedented in
severity.
All hunting engagements had been
cancelled for nearly three weeks,
Two balls had been put off, no out
sidels had been invited to dine at any
Of the country houses, and where
here was a large house party they
rlung pertinaciously together with a
desperate effort at festivity.
Lady Marcia Foljamte was one OF
the lucky ones. She had filled
Brentwells with guests, and being
FIVE Yps- from a station, no one
w~ishedyto encounter the snowdrifts
en- route, so they all stayed on, to
the intense satisfaction of hospitable,
genial Lady Marcia, who was now as
happy as when she WAS entertaining
her friends, the only drawbacks to
her present pleasure being that the
bulletins about Eivira Delane, who
still lay i'll at Bellagranda, were very
few and far between, and that being
cut off temporarily from all associa-
tons with her neighbors, she could
not discuss the late trial, and find out
what the general opinion was about
jim Glendinning's release,
The newspapers that did arrive
postmen are seldom batlled even by
storms-were unanimous in consider
ing the verdict to be perfectly just.
There is moi the slightest case
against the poor man." they said,
land save for his former conviction,
he would not have been taken up"
All this was very well, and Lady
Marcia had no doubt that they were
quite right; still she would have
liked further details, and felt pro-
yoked with this snow storm, which,
commencing as it did, the very day
after the trial, seemed as if it had
come pErposeiy to thwart her.
But if Lady Marcia was annoyed
by the cessation of neighborly inter
course, there were those who were
thankful for it, since it gave them a
reprieye during which they could, to
a degree, recover their wonted
equilibrium.
We'll was it for Clement Dunraven
that for a time he could remain
within his own domain without call
ing forth observation on his having
become an eccentric recluse, and
with no one to watch his strange
moods save Lady Gertrude, who
thoroughly believed in him, if she
did not altogether understand him.
How could she, since the thermome-
ter of his spirits would vary from
zero to fever heat and back again in
the course of an hour. He had
returned from Jim Glendinning's
trial jubilant. So excited, SO
delighted that he was like a mailman
in his wild joy. Not only had the
falsely accused man been set at lib
erty, bnt the general opinion was
that Pierce Vaughan must for some
purpose have been stretching after
something in the lake, and have beer
carried into it by the force of the
storm.
lie wa free-free! And so exult.
ant was Clement at the thought 'oI
his own freedom that for a time he
forgot to be remorseful. He.whistleC
and sang az he went. about the house
a. he had never done since his mar
riage. lie tossed the baby he'll
about until the nurse was afraid iol
ITS fragile limbs. He kissed Lad,
Gertrude every nov and again 81
rapturously that she could no
understand why all of a sudden
because Jim Glendinning had beer
found "Not Guilty." he should hav'
begun to love her SO desperately
OF course she was very glad of tn
issue of the trial, but it did not affec
her as it did Sir Clement, and for tn
first twenty four hours after it wa
over, she found herself much per
plexed as to tie reason why he wa
80 overwhelmingly happy.
Poor little woman; she was DIES
tined to be still further perplexed b
Sir Clements strange behavior, when
the first excitement about his sup
posed freedom set in.
The despair, the agony of min
from which he suffered was increase
ten-fold by his having passe
through such a paroxysm of wild Joy
When Jim Glendinning had bee
set at liberty, it thus became, accor
ding to Sir Clements illbalance
theories, unnecessary for him t
make his sin publicly known. H
had rashly jumped at the conclusio
that he had avoided punishmer
punishment and public denuncia
, ton being, he thought, what h
| dreaded.
3 In the exceeding relief which h
e at first felt when this trial ended
Glendinninp's acuuittal. he was III