Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-10-01

fast, and then they were going to tell
Lord Straubenzee, and afterward-so
simple was the whole thing-go home
TO Cassilis castle and there remain.
eve only just come home, darling, "
Will had said. For year, you know,
I have been banished man, and the
estate wants me, and we can be as hap
py there as birds and hide when people
come to look us up. But if you really
want to 40 abroad we will Co. -
And Mamie, with n strong misgiving
and an intense desire to escape alto
pether out of Trelawny's orbit, h.
Welded to Willis wishes, the more espe-
cially az Will had announced his deter
mination not to receive Blake at any
price in his house.
"Let the county say what it likes"
he had said resolntely, "but my door
he does not darken, and if he wants
reasons he shall have them. "
Whereupon Mamie had drawn deep
breath and rejoiced-all too soon.
She did not feel that she was doing
"a disobedient, unilial act in marrying
Will unknown to her father thus. She
had felt very keenly and bitterly that
her father had done cruel and unjust
thing in separating her from the man
she loved, and it was not his fault that
her life had not been entirely ruined by
the influence Blake Trelawny had
known how to establish over her.
That influence might at any moment
prove beyond her strength to resist, and
Mamie in her mortal fear would have
run greater risks than this to place her
self out of his reach forever. Even now
she trenlbled to think that she would
SEQ him tonight, that she would have
to dance with him, hear whatever he
chose to say, but it would be for the last
time, and as she ran up stairs to fetch
her gloves and bouquet she told herself
she was the happiest girl in the whole
world.
At 8 o'clock Lady Lirriper swept in
to the library, where she found her
brother with shaded lamp at his ell
bow, absorbed in Lubbock's Pleasures
of Life. ~
At all times the sight Of Straubensee
sitting calm and happy amor J his books
was as a red rag to bull, for solitude
and her own or any written thoughts
she detested, but tonight she was espe-
cially irritated and repeated the title
of his book with profound contempt.
THE Pleasures Of Life =" she said.
pray what do you know of 'em?
You'll turn into paper moth when
you die and go buzzing about libraries
and the British museum. Meanwhile
the idiots who always arrive everywhere
too early are here, and you've got to
come and help me receive them y
Lord Straubenzee laid his book down
with sigh A son would certainly
have been less trouble than a daughter
and moro satisfactory. He wished that
the ball, the dinner parties, the we'd
ding were over; quite unconsciously in
deed ne was wishing that the young
people would save All immense amount
of fuss and expense by doing what
they had in their own youthful cock
sureness decided on doing the very next
day, but this be did not know. rs for
the next hour and half he stood re-
ceiving an unbroken succession Of ma
irons and maids, men and youngsters,
all Of whom appeared in those exuber
ant spirits peculiar to a ball i'll the
country.
The music was good, the floor perfec-
ton. From the wall Of the sealing wax
\ 4 la 1nS full Of
the wine and tho lust Of life, seemed to
view approvingly the countless small
tables, each flanked with its Pommery
Greno, that awaited the jewellers at mid
night.
1t was as Lady Lirriper expected,
Hagar electrified the whole county with
her rare, exquisite beauty, but it was
Mamie with whom all the men fell
in love and Cassilis who was the best
envied and most hated man present that
night.
1--WE got you now" said Blake Ire
lawny as he crushed her soft young
body to him in the waltz, my white,
sweet, prickly brier rose, and l have a
great mind never to let You 90 out Of
my arms again, but whisk you through
one of those doors, clap you into my
carriage Owe got one waitins) and
knock up parson to marry us with
curtain ring this very night. -
Mamie laughed up i'll his face. She
was not in the least afraid Of him now.
A very few hours and
but won t, he concluded. Forced
caresses are not to my liking. You
shall come to me of your own free will
long before the day fixed for your mar
Rage with that callow STRIPPING ar
rives. He stopped abruptly in one of
the untenanted corners Of the great
room, and pulling up the lace of her
short sleeve pressed fierce kiss on the
velvet softneSs Of her shoulder.
There" he said. You II have to
remember me. I've marked you-you re
mine!' And he strobe away, laughing,
and mingled with the throng as Will
Cassilis, who had not ceased to watch
over her, hurried up.
What has that scoundrcl been do
ing?" he cried angrily as Mamie hid
her face in her orchids that he might
not see it's crimson.
Nothing" Yet as they went off
together it seemed to the girl a horri
BILE thing that she should go as bride
to her husband with the outrage of an
other mans kiss stamped deep on her
flesh and spreading like an ugly stain
over her soul
CHAPTER XVI.
Straubenzee woke late the morning
after the ball, and Miss Gregorias found
no one visible when she came down to
breakfast which on that OCCASION was