Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1897-11-25
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p IX.-(Continued.)

C1Af En-
Seven years had gone by since Clarice
handbook had played tennis on the lawn
snder Lady Lashmar's windows, and
.othing had come Of her ladyship's hopes
/, that direction. Clarice and Lord Lash
a.r had seen a good deal Of each other in
The London season which followed those
suiet autumn days at the castle. They
iad waltzed many a waltz, had met in
nany a crush upon the staircases of Bel
erayia and Mayfair. But Lord Lashmar
deemed that it was too soon for him to
| ayow himself. He was not quite sure.
He wanted time. And Clarice was as
| ,uredly too young to know her own mind.
He left Clarice lamenting, like Ariadne
At Naxos; and, like Ariadne, she found a
consider.
She had been very fond of Lord Lash
mar in her mild, almost infantine way,
and she had set her heart upon being a
seeress. And now she felt heartbroken,
disappointed, crushed. Her mother also
vas disappointed and did not conceal her
. feelings. She told Clarice that Lord
Iashmar had behaved shamefully, and
hat he was unworthy of a moments
thought. Notwithstanding which Clarice
thought OF him during almost every mo-
ment Of the day and many a wakeful
hour of the night: until the appearance of
new admirer of still higher rank afford
I'd q spurious kind Of consolation.
The new admirer was Lord Carminow.
a marquis, and n of the most dissi-
rated young men in London or Paris; a
young man who, q year before he met
Clarice, had the reputation Of being in
A~ustriously engaged in drinking himself to
Death, but who was said to have pulled
10. as it were, on the brink Of the preci-
nice and to be in a fair way to reform.
His hand was still very shaky, and he
was still obliged to put cayenne pepper
n his brandy; but he drank less brandy
and his hand was less tremulous than it
had been last year.
After three weeks acquaintanceship he
proposed to Clarice Danebrook and was
accepted with q kind Of naughty care
~lessness on the part of the young lady, IS
Il she took this coronet as her due and de-
spised the giver; with rapture on the part
Of the mother, but by the father with
considerable and even outspoken reluc-
lance.
Clarice took her chance and enrolled
herself forever among the warehouses;
Of England. She endured three and a
half years of 4 most intolerable existence
before Lord Carminow finished that bust
ness OF drinking himself to death. He
was gone and Job Danebrook was gone
and Clarice, Marchioness of Carminow,
was established at Danebrook Hall, inor-
Ainately rich and as lovely as in her earli-
est girlhood. And now in these days Of
her widowhood Clarice was again almost
Is a daughter to Lady Lashmar, who had
much need Of solace and society in her
present depressed state Of health; need
also OF much attendance, wanting to be
waited upon with exemplary patience, al
together a hard and difficult mistress.
She had three slaves, who were always
in attendance upon her-Barber, the pa
tent and homely maid of thirty years
service; Celestine, the expert Abigail,
with deft fingers and faultless taste in the
confection Of a cap or the arrangement
Of a drapcry, were it only the sweeping
folds of an Indian shawl worn over an
invalid's shoulders, and Stella Boldwood,
now nineteen years of age, and promoted
within the last two years to the post or
her ladyship's reader and amanuensis.
Not Of her own accord, but very re-
reluctantly, had Lady Lashmar accepted
her step-son's protege in this intimate
familiarity. The girl had been forced
upon her by circumstances and officious-
ness Of her other dependents. The time
had come when she, who had been a
great reader, had begun to feel the fatigue
Of reading too much for her broken nerves
the time had come when a chronic Ian
guor made it an effort to her to hold a
book or follow the lines of a page. she
was only fit to recline In her easy chair
and listen while some subdued voice read
aloud to her, and the accents of thai volce
must be those Of refinement.
So Stella was told one morning that her
mission would be to act as Lady Lash
mars reader and amanuensis until fur
Their notice, and from that hour she was q
slave.
Her life had been easy enough of late
years, easy ever to pleasantness. The rule
of the ur4compromising Middleham had
been made very light for her, when that
autocratic parsonage found that she was
willing, industrious and conscientious
and that whatever she did was well done
She had been able, by early rising, to gel
her work done before the one o'clock din
ner: and her she had been allowed to dc
what she liked with her afternoons, al
ways provided she reappeared at the iv(
o'clock tea, which Of late che had taker
with Mrs. Barber IN the little room up
stairs, a priceless privilege, since it spar
ed her the gossip and uncongenial jovial
tty Of the still-room. Little by little thu
girl had drifted, ~ It were, into . life o.
her own, apart from those servants whose
existence the dowager wished her t.
share. She had been among them for I
little while, but she had never been on'
Of them. A. she grew into girlhood tn
difference between her and them becam'
more sharply defined. They felt that Oh
could never be like thesnslvos, and ~
presence became IN embarrassment
They were very glad that she preferres
solitude to their friendly company. n
quiet cup Of ten In BARRIERS room to thei
W noisy meal. She had always sucl
old.fashioned ways, they said. Strang
that q child should be such a blue-stock
Ing. But, Of course. that was all the Iat
Lord Lashmar's doing. He q brouHh