Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-04-17

III wv UNIV Va hNi 'hlAg Aiiii'tlltphs illtlt
were no associations with it that She could
now call TO mind.
She read the letter. II addressed her faith
er Familiarity as MY dear ROderick," and il
proceeded In these words:
THE delay In the sailing Of your ship Of
fers me an opportunity of writing 10 you
again. My last letter told you of my fathers
death. ] was then quite unprepared for an
event which has happened since that afiiic-
ton befell me. Prepare yourself to be sur
prised. Our old moated house at Sandyseal,
In which we have spent so many happy holt
days when we were schoolfellows, is sold.
you Will be almost as sorry as | was to
hear this; and you will he quite as surprised
as / was when | tell you that Sandyseal
Place has become Il priory OF English nuns
OF the order of st. Benedict.
II think | see you look up from my letter
with your big, black eyes staring straight be-
fore you, and say and swear that this must
be one Of my mystiications. Unfortunately
(fOr | am fond Of the old house in which /
was born ii is only too true. The instruc-
tons in my fathers will, under which Sandy
seal has been sold, are peremptory. They
are the result Of a promise made many years
since Ia his wife.
You and | were both very young when
my poor mother died but | think you must
remember that she, like the rest OF her ismi-
ly, was a Roman catholic.
Having reminded you of this. | may next
tell you that Sandyseal Pace was my moth
er's property. Ii formed part of her mar
rage portion. and ii was settled on my faith
er if she died before him, and If she left no
female child TO survive her. | am her only
child. My father was therefore dealing with
his WI property when he ordered the house
to be sold. His will left the purchase money
to me. ] would rather have kept the house.
But why did my mother make him prom
ise TO sell the place at his death?
"A letter attached TO my fathers will an
swers this question and tells a very sad story.
In Difference 10 my mothers wishes it was
kept strictly a secret from me while my faith
er lived.
There was a younger sister OF IN moth
ers who was rIe beauty of the ~family-loved
and admired by everybody who was ac-
quainted with her. Ii is needless to make
this long letter longer by dwelling Oh the
girls miserable story. You have heard it OF
other girls, over and over again. She loved
and trusted; she was deceived and deserted.
Alone and friendless in a foreign country
her fair fame blemished, her hope in the fut-
IRE utterly destroyed-she attempted TO
drown herself. This happened in France.
The best of good women-a sister of charity
happened 10 be near enough TO the river TO
rescue her. She was sheltered; she was
pitied; she was encouraged TO return TO her
family. The poor, deserted creature abSo-
lutely refused; she could never forget that
she had disgraced them. The good sister OF
charity won her confidence. A retreat, which
would hide her from the world and devote
her TO religion for the rest of her days, was
the one end to her wasted life that she long
ed tor. That end wa attained in n priory
of Benedictine nuns established in France.
There she found protection and peace-there
she passed the remaining years of her life
among devoted sister friends, and there she
died a quiet and even a happy death.
You will now understand how my moth
er's grateful remembrance associated her
with the interests of more than one COM
munity OF nuns; and you will not need TO be
told what she had in mind when she obtain
ed my fathers promise at the time of her last
illness.
"He at once proposed TO bequeath the
house as a free gift TO the Benedictines My
mother thanked him and refused. She was
thinking of me. III our son fails to inherit
the house from his father she said, 1T is
only right that he should have the value OF
the house in money. Let il be Sold
80 here L am-rich already--with this adj
ditional sum Of money in my bankers care.
MY idea is to invest it in the funds, and
TO let it thrive at interest until l grow older
and retire, perhaps, from service in the navy.
The later years of my life may well be de-
voted to the founding OF a charitable institu-
ton, which i myself can establish and direct.
Ii | die first-oli, there is a chance of it! We
may have q naval war, perhaps, or may
turn out one of those ineorrigible madmen
who risk their lives In arctic exploration. In
case of the worst, therefore, / shall leave the
interests of my contemplated home in your
honest and capable hands. For the present
good-by and a prosperous voyage outward
bound"
SO the letter ended.
Sydney dwelt with reluctant attention on
the latter half of il. The story of the IN
happy favorite OF the family had its W.
melancholy and sinister interest for her. She
felt the foreboding that it might, in some of
its circumstances, be her story too-without
the peaceful END. into what community Of
merciful women could she be received In her
sorest need? What religious consultations
would encourage her penitence? What pray
ers, what hopes, would reconcile her, Oh her
deathbed, to the common doom?
She sighed as she folded up Capt. Benny
decks letter and put 1t in her bosom to be
read again. IF my LOT had fallen among
good people" she thought, perhaps might
have belonged to the church which took care
Of that poor girl"
Her mind was still pursuing its own sad
course Of inquiry. She was wondering in
what part of England Sandyseal might be.
She was asking herself ii the nun at the old
moated house ever opened their doors to wo-
men whose one claim on their common
| Christianity was the claim to be pitied, when
she heard Linley's footsteps approaching her
door.
His tone was kind, his manner was gentle.
| His tender interest In her seemed to have re-
vived. Her long absence had alarmed him.
He feared she might be III. Il was only
thinking" she said. He smiled and satdown
by her, and asked II she had been thinking
Of the place they should go to when they left
London.
CHATTER xxxuI.
The one hotel at Sandyseal was full from
the topmost story to the ground floor, and By
far the larger half OF the landlords guests
were invalids sent to him by the doctors.
To persons OF excitable temperament In
search OF amusement the place offered no at
fractions. Situated at the innermost end OF
dull little bay, ~Sandyseal- so far as any
view OF the shipping in the channel was con-
cerned-might have been built ON a remote
Island In the Pacific ocean. Vessels oil any
importance kept well out of the way OF
treacherous shoals and currents lurking at
the entrance Of the bay. The anchorage
ground was good. but the depth OF water
was suited to small vessels Only-to shabby
old fishing smacss which seldom paid their
expenses, aud 70 dirty little coasters carry
Ing coaIs and potatoes. At the back OF the
hotel two sloyenly rows Of cottages took
their crooked course inland. Sailing masters
OF yachts. OIL duty. sat and ypwned at ~