Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1896-03-05
CHAPTER X.
COLONEL KELxscorr's REPENTANCE

|t-E Ell u AL0SCOII6 KEPENTANCE
a.ina Siinolo WASN'T the only person
viz posocu = tc!IlOie his,hC, ana suffered .
t ~ ! aMah on the morning after
ule VIAe HaIuen parry. colonel keim-
Sco.'i soS, h1o =, Oad naiI-hour or SO be-
ioio - nnaAAy 1eii asleep; ana ne woke up
next day to q sense OF shame and eInor
tar more definite, and therefore more poign-
ant and more real, than Elma's.
Hour after hour. indeed, he lay there on
his bed, afraid to toss or turn lest he should
wake Lady, Emily. but with his limbs all
ing over the strange chance that had thus
brought him face TO face, on the threshold
of his honOred age, with the two lads he
had wronged SO long and SO cruelty.
The shock of meeting them had been q
sudden and a painful one. To be sure. the
Colonel had always felt the time might
ccine when his two oldest sons would cross
his path in the intricate maze of london
society. He had steeled hiMselfhe thought,
to meet them there with dignity and with
~stoical reserve. He had made up his mind
that II ever the names he had imposed up
OILS startled ears. no human being hat
hood by and looked on should note for
second a single tremor of his lips, q faint
shudder o fsurprise, an almost in,percepti-
sble flush or pallor on his impressive u
tenance. And whent the shock came, in-
SAVC0D tAS it0A ~ a. AK iNtS0sAel w oSUA
it, with military calmness. Not even Mrs.
Clifford, he thought, could have discovered
from any undertone OF his voice or man
ner that the two lads he received with such
wctl-bred unconcern was his own twin sons,
the heirs and inheritors Of he Ti'gate Park
And vet, the actual crisis had taken him
quite by surprise. and shaken him far more
than he could ever have conceived posi-
bic. Fol one thing, though he quite sus-
pected that some day he would run mp un-
awares against Guy and Cyril, he did not
and still less within q few miles drive Of
Tilgate. In London. of course, all
things are possible. ooner or later, there,
everybody hustles and clashes against
everybody. For that reason he had tried
to suggest, by indirect means, when he
launched them on the world. that the
twins should tempt their fortune in India
or the colonies. He would have liked to
think they were well out Of his way. and
out OF tiranvilies. too. But against his
advice, they stayed on in England. So he
Academy private view narh.ns or in Mrs
Rouver;. Rsrton,s I;,erarv saloon INT
certainly not on the close sward Of the
Holkers' lawn. within a few short miles of
his own home n Tiloate.
And now he had met them, his con-
sciSnce. rhat had lain asleen ar inny WOKE
m Of 4 sudden with : terrible start md
hefcan 10 nrick him fiercelv
If only they had been ugly. misshapen.
yutQsr: ii only they had spoken
with coarse. rough voices Or irr,tated him
Nv their ;n9er;or social tone or
shown themseive. Unworthy 70 lie the
heirs Of Tileate-whv the Colonel might
have forriyen himssif hut to see his own
two sons' .he sons he had never set evcs on
Tor twentv-tiye wears or more. grown IN
into such handsome, w~ell-set, no~ble-look-
ing feliows go clever. "a bright. q, able. 40
chsrn,inw-tn feel tiev We're in every wav
n much centlemen & Granville himself,
and to know he had done iii three an IL.
reparable 4 oh. IN wa too much
az hint Fnr ia had kent two az hi. sons
out Of their y Iii thee wears. 1ly IN
| order 10 maket the ~nosition ofth .1,ird. It
last. certainlv donbtnll. 4, nerhans
wretched.
There was much Ia excuse him "a
himself no doubt he FRIED to hin own
soul piteousiy in the ni9ht watches. Proud
man as he vas. lie could not 60 wholly
abaseh himself even Ia his inmost self A ia