Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-02-25
or a. CONAN DONR

corners which goes with keen appre-
citation of fun, suggesting even in re-
pose that latent smile is ever lurking
at the edges Of the lips. She was mod
ern to the soles of her dainty little
high-heeled shoes, frankly fond of dress
and of pleasure. devoted to tennis and
to comic opera, delighted with dance.
which came her way only too seldom,
longing ever for some new excitement,
and yet behind all this lighter side Of
her character thoroughly good,
healthy minded English girl, the life
and soulsof the house. and the idol OF
her sister and her father. A peep into
the remaining villa and our introduce
tons are complete.
Admiral Hay Denver did not belong
to the florid. white-haired, hearty
school of sea dogs which is more COM
mon in works of fiction than in the
representative of much more common
type which is the antithesis of the con-
ventional sailor. He was thin, hard
featured man. with an ascetic, acqut-
line cast of face. grizzled and hollow
checked. clean-shaver with the eXcep-
ton Of the tiniest curved promontory
Vi ASli-ColOIeu WllSheI 1A1A co7SA'> ~
accustomed to classify men, might have
put him down as a canon of the church
with taste for lay costume. and a
country life, or as the master of large
public school, who Joined his scholars
in their outdoor sports. His lips We're
firm, his chin prominent, he had hard,
dry eye and his manner was precise
and formal. Forty years Of stern discl-
pine had made him reserved and
silent. Yet, when at his ease with an
equal he could readily assume less
quarterback style, and he had fund
of little. dry stories of the world and
its ways which were Of interest, from
one who had seen so many phases Of
life. Dry and spare. as lean as jockey
and as tough as whipcord, he might be
seen any day swinging his silver-head-
ed Malacca cane and pacing along the
suburban roads with the same meas
ured gait with which he had been wont
to tread the poop of his flagship. He
wore good service stripe upon his
cheek. for on one side it was pitted and
Scared where squirt of gravel knocked
up by round shot and struck him thir-
ty years before, when he served in the
Lancaster gun battery. Yet he was hale
and sound. and though he was fifteen
years senior to his friend the doctor.
he might have passed as the younger
man.
Mrs. Hay Denvri life had been a
ver,- broken one "i-~' Hor record upon
land represented greater amount OF
endurance and self-sacrifice than his
upon the sea. They had been together
for four months after their marriage,
and then had come a hiatus of four
years, during which he was fitting
about between St. Helena and the Oil
Rivers in a gunboat Then came
blessed year of peace and domesticity,
to he followed by nine years, with only
a three months break, five upon the
Pacific station and four on the East In
dian. After that was respite in the
shape of five years in the Channel
squadron, with periodical runs home,
and then again he was off to the Med
iterranean for three years and to Hall
fax for four Now, at last, however,
this old married couple, who were still
almost strangers to one another had
come together in Norwood, where, if
their short day had been chequered and
broken, the evening at least promised
to be sweet and mellow. In person Mrs.
Hay Denver was tall and stout, with
bright. round, ruddy checked face,
still pretty, with gracious, matronly
comeliness. Her whole life was a round
of devotion and of love, which was di-
yided between her husband and her
only son, Harold.
This son it was who kept them in
the neighborhood of London, for the
admiral was as fond of ships and Of
salt water as ever, and was as happy
in the sheets of a two-ton yacht as on
the bridge of his sixteen knot monitor.
Had he been united the Devonshire or
Hampshire coast would certainly have
been his choice. There was Harold, how
ever and Harold's interests were their
chief care. Harold was four-and-twenty
now. Three years before he had been
taken in hand by an acquaintance of his
fathers, the head of a considerable firm
of stock brokers, and fairly launched
upon Change. His three hundred guinea
entrance fee paid, his three sureties Of
five hundred pounds each found, his
name approved by the committee, and
all other formalities compiled with, he
found himself whirling round. an in
significant unit in the vortex Of the
money market Of the world. There, I'M
der the guidance Of his fathers friend.
he was instructed in the mysteries Of
bulling and Of bearing. in the strange
usages Of Change in the intricacies Of
carrying over and Of transferring. He
learned to know where to place his
clients money, which of the jobbers
would make price in New Zealands.
and which would touch nothing but
American rails, which might be trusted
and which stunned. All this and much
more, he mastered, and to such purpose
that he soon began to prosper, to retain
the clients who had heen recommended
to him, and to attract fresh ones But
the work was never congenial. He had
inherited from his father his love Of the
air Of heaven, his affection for manly
and natural existence. To act as middle
man between the pursuer OF wealth
and the wealth which he pursued, or to
stand as a human barometer. register
ing the rise and fall of the great NAM
mon pressure in the markets. was not
the work for which Providence had
placed those broad shoulders and strong
limbs upon his we'll knit frame His
dark. open face, too, with his straight
Grecian nose, we'll opened brown eyes,
and round, black curled head, were all
those of a man who Was fashioned for