Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-04-01


her with perfect immunity by dying n
such an abruptly uEbecoming way.
What in the world am l to dc with
it," he asked, disconsolately when
Lena carried the little pink morsel of
humanity to him for inspection.
Work for limits boy! 1 tell
you, though you have not asked-and
try and teach him to be good and
plucky, truthful and unselfish,' she re-
piled
In common kindness Maggie ought
to take it and bring it up. l shall have
enough and more than enough to do
to keep my own individual wolf from
the door, he said, presently, and then
a womanly impulse moved Mrs. Cum
berland to say:
Give him to me tc take care OF till
you feel that you want him, and can
do better for him than I can, Sholtor'
He agreed to her proposition withut
an instant's hesitation, adding:
you always were the most generous
darling in the world, Lena; pom my
word it makes man think better of him
self to find he has won such unselfish,
self-sacrifcing love IS yours
I'VE will keep to the subject of your
little son, if you please" she said. dry
ly; "he must stay here for a time with
his nurse till have arranged his quar-
tiers in my own house; so meantime
you had better go elsewhere. You
understand"
Am I to have no share in your SOL
icitude?'' he asked. The lodging struck
him as being airy, clean and comfor-
table, and it seemed to him remarkably
hard that he should have to turn out
of them because Lena had some prud-
ish notions about coming to see her
infant charge while he, its father, was
there.
Earn it at once by going out and
seeking for some employment. When
l hear that you are maintaining your
self and not reviling your rich relatives
for doing nothing for you, will begin
to feel solicitous about you again
I'm the meantime my warmest graft
tude is due to you for your kindness to
this poor little motherless kid" he said.
pathetically. He was beginning to
dread that he might hurt her by an ex-
hibiti0n Of his more natural and self
centered feelings, and he felt that he
really could not afford to have her re-
tract her efforts and throw his small
son back upon his hands just yet. In
time, when his sister Maggie and Sir
Andrew came home and We're touched
into state Of proper recognition Of
what was due to him from them, he
would let Mrs. Cum berIand know that
he thought of her assumption of author
ity over him in the mere serious mat
tiers OF Life. 1T was ell very we'll for
a pretty woman to dictate to g fellow
about the way in which he should lead
her along the path Of pleasure and
where the halting- places should be for
refreshment, but when it came to her
seriously advising him to go out and
seek hire in the great worlds market.
place, like common laborer.-it all, it
was quite time to teach her the nause-
Gus but wholesome lesson that she was
W
ed him not wisely but too WE'LL
He determined to defer giving his
lesson, however, for the sake of the
child" he told himself So Lena Cum
berland went away, believing him 20
be the clear, faulty -the-surface.
misunderstanding, grateful fellow he
posed as being at parting.
AS for Sholto Graham he cut quite
a creditable figure in his own eyes that
night. He dinad very quietly at his
old club-the club to which he had be-
longed in his war-office working days,
and on the two or three men to whom
he spoke soberly, if not sorrowfully,
Of his wife's dramatic and tragic loss
of fortune and life, he made rather a
better impression than usual.
His sisters absence just now was
above all things a misfortune, he said,
bravely enough. But one of her friends
had come forward and adopted the
baby, in whose service Che patheticalIy
remarked) the rest OF his life would be
spent. He felt it awful hard lines to
be obliged to dine at club on the even
ing of the day on which such terrible
blow had fallen on him! But it was no
to his poor wife's memory
that he should do justice to the needs
of nature and dine as we'll as he could
under the circumstances. All his
strength would be required in the
hand-to-hand fight with fate which was
III In hn1 Of yoC
nopportune-.-but he bowed to the in
and felt himself to be capt.
tai sort of fellow for doing SO.
1t was not long before Mrs. Cumber-
land put a fresh strain upon his
patience in the matter of the perfor
nance of his paternal duties. She in
vited him so pressipgly tc come and see
MS infant son that he went to her
house in spirit of elation, feeling sure
hat it could be nothing less than a
longing to see himself which had made
her so urgent.
But she speedily undeceived. He had
been waiting for her il. a spirit Of eX-
ultatfon for full ten minutes when she
came into the drawing-room, looking
graver than he ever remembered see
ing her look before. During those ten
for full ten minutes when she
Of the many evidences of the owner
Of that room having a pocketful of
money which abounded." Why
shouldn't II" he thought. ''She has
been very faithful to mo and I am not
likely to find weather. woman who
would be so attractive. It's nuisance
that she should have charged herself