Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-09-05
Lefty Leigh.
"a Dead Woman's Jealousy Blightln9
Living Love"
CHAPTER III.

uulVprlng DaDuS VI gnu
lowly mounds; the birds were sihSih
in the shades of the parsonage ga
den. and nothing round about Spoh
of the newcomer tC that abode Oh III
dead
Pauline Grey, the beauty, mad dle'
ont of the brilliant London world
wear before, and been buried and for
gotten. Pauline Lennard, wife Of tn
country doctor, was laid in the ear:l
TODAY. but whether she was TO be for
gotten or not remained to be seen.
The young widower returned home
and for the first time learned that III.
late wife left "a will behind her. WheI
or where she had made it he did no
stop to ask, but this secret act Of herr
seemed to cry out even from tht
newly-made grave, that he had nevel
been trusted.
Miss Elizabeth Leigh" the lawyer
asked, looking round the room; lis she
PRESENT."
DR.. Leonard said she was not; anC
the lawyer coughed once or twice as
lie u1Ileu Ills lJdDcISs <lhI
curiosity was wildly depicted OIL
every face present with tie exception
Of his who might have been supposed
to be the most interested in the mat
ter That curiosity gradually deep
ened as the reading proceeded. and
when the lawyers voice ceased, there
was a general futter and sti1
throughout the room.
Miss Elizabeth Leigh was declared
whole and sole feiress of Mrs. Len,
nard's fortune.
The doctors face went q snade
paler, and a slight tremor ran down
his we'll shaped mouth-Signs of agi
tation that did not pass unnoticed
Perhaps the conclusions drawn from
them were no nearer the truth than
such conclusions usually are.
The old man, in the little cottage a
few perches from the sca7shore, wben
he heard of mis- daughters good for.
tune, was no longer old He was up.
right, elastic, jGvenescent. He
He walked and spoke as he had
walked and spoken five-and-twenty
years before, ere yet Miss Lefty, his
daughter, was dreamed of, when he
bad married an heireSS, and with the
stately strut and aristocratic draw
of that period came back his old pas
sion for the sins and follies of a town
life.
No man knew better than he that
they were sins and follies; few, per
hapS, knew as we'll now much tney
cost in the long run; for we have said
he had played the game of life in
cities, and lost it; but such knowledge
was as Withe Of flax to his overmas-
terlnS desire to taste of them once
AGAIN be 1t ever 50 SCant Il sip, before
be had lost all his relish for them.
50, when the little cottage had been
refurnlshed and beautitied to his sat
Isfaction, Mr.. Leigh went to London
on a vista necessary one he called
1t; and from thence he sent home a
lady housekeeper, to be at once a COM
panlon to his daughter and a mistress
over the ServantS-for the humble lit
tie nest now boaSted of three.
II this sudden step up in the world
gave the pleasure which such a Steu
might be expected to give to the for.
tuhabe helresS, she had, to say the
least of it, an odd way of showing IT.
MOI tnat she grew pale, and droOped
and faded like a fragile flower. She
was fragile enough, but she was no
flower. She was a sensitive. LOVING
woman, with a warm, throbbing heart
that had great power of feeling
pain, and, like all hearts worth own
ing, great power of bearing It.
She went about, and smiled. and
talked, and received calls. and re-
turned them, as heireSSeS of the pres
ent day are bound to do, in common
gratitude for being better off than
other people. Her new dresses. and
NANTES, and hats-for Lefty detestef
oohhets-Were of the very best Quai
lty, the very newest fashion. and the
most becoming style that she couI6
procure; and in them all she took
ana openly showed, a natural girlisl
interest; but, Withal, she was no
thoroughly happy in her new state
Inc money seemed to have brought ;
weight with it; and the girl in he
was fast dying out under the burden
Then, again, Lefty was foolish
enough to remember and still chm,
lovingly to the few friends she ba,
possessed when she was humhI
Lefty Leigh; and not all tha nov
ones which the shine of her guinea
brought her could compensate fo
them; and upon them. at her father,
express command, she was Obliged +
turn her back.
One out of them all, and only on,
was still declared fit to be her frien,
mat one was Dr. Leonard: but h
had turned his back upon her. Som
people limited that spite was the res
reason OF this sudden coldneSs on h;
part; others, and they were mostl
young ladies with a lurking tende
ness for the handsome Young wi,
over, pronounced it his extreme grit
for the loss of his wife that made hi
unable to bear as yet the society
her friend.
curious reasoning this: but son
people and particularly young ladie
nave the gift of seeing so deep in
things, that their commoner neighho
can not follow them.
But ere the spring had come rom
asaln, before the crocuses had cropp,
UP about his young wife's grave, +