Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-07-31
MONA'S CLIO.
BY Mrs.


who hal so often turned him into ridicule.
Anything was good enough for a girl who
,yns penniless and almost unprotected II
would 20 hard with her, che thought, while
her cheeks glowed, and her heart beat fast
very hard, before she would consent to
marry him. And poor g%rannie! Mona's
heart r~eproached her for having utterly
forgotten grannie, who had been so stun
ned by the terrible loss which had befallen
her. How her proud, worldly, yet sound
nature would wither under the disgraces
OF poverty. Grannie who loved her 80
well. even while she tyrannized over her
she had often been rebellious, selfish, now
she would try aud comfort the poor old
woman. She had buiit such hopes, too, CT
Mona's success, now everything was crum-
bled int the dust.
The Hon. Mrs. Newburgh, sister of tho
late and aunt OF the present Viscount sun
derline, had had much disappointment in
her long life. Beginning with all the adj
vnntages Of rank aud beauty, she refused
numerous excellent offers to accept, ut
the mature age Of thirty-fve, the good
looking horsey son Of a Yorkshire squire.
He loved hef, but he also feared her-which
condition Of mind led TO much concealment
of difficulties, and their consequent com
plicatiOn. Mrs. NewburQh was a woman
of strong will, and some business capacity,
and she always held on firmly TO her own
srn;ll fortune. Her only son went into
the army, and was killed at Inkerman.
Her only daughter. who resemhled her
father in character. formed a strong at.
tachment 10 an obscure young Scotsman
whom she met accidentally I'm the High
lands, under somewhat romantic circum
| stancns. Mrs. NewburRh set her fact
against so disgraceful a union; she dragged
her pretty daughter from one continental
court to another, and finally tried 10 force
her 10 marry an E~nglishman Of high posi-
ton and large fortune. This was too much,
and the weak, simple, frightened girl fed
TO her Scotch lover. Her mother renowned
her, and never saw her face again.
From this time Mes. Newburgh devoted
herself to increasing her fortune, both by
saving and specializing. She returned 10
London, and once more took her place in
society.
The announcement Of her daughters
death made little or no change In her way
Of life: she made no attempt 10 communi-
cate with the bereaved husband. and
seemed TO forget she had ever had a daugh-
ter. About five years later she was star
tied by a letter from the minister OF a
church in the neighborhood of Glasgow,
describing the last moments of Kenneth
Craig. who had been a broken man ever
since the death Of his wife, and inclOsing q
brief letter to Mrs. Newburgh from the
deceased. In it he simply said that the
pay of O bank clerk had been TOO small TO
permit him to lay anything by for his little
girl, that his own people were poor, that
he trusted her mothers mother would so
far forgive as not to punish the innocent,
and begged her TO give the child sufficient
education to earn her bread hereafter. She
was named, he said, Mona Joscelyn, after
her mother aud her uncle.
Mrs. Nevhurch answered this appeal by
sending for the little bright-eyed six-year-
ling, n placing her at a school specially
arranged for children whose parents were
either dead or absent. IL was in the coun-
try, and kept by a quiet motherly old maid.
For some time her grandmother never saw
Mona, but one spring, when the child had
nearly attained her tenth year, scarlet
fever broke out in the school, aud little
Mona was sent of without a word OF warn
ing TO Mrs. Newburgh, who had been
spending q few months in town, and was
packed up and ready to start for the Con-
tinent.
Though ~drcadfully annoyed by the con-
tretemps, Mrs. Newburgh was struck and
pleased with the improvement and promise
OF her granddaughter. especially as she
was very like ner late uncle, her reddish
hair being a legacy from the plebelan
Craigs. Finally she took her abroad, and
placed her first at a convent school in
Paris, and after in an educational estab-
lishment OF a very superior description at
Dresden. Here Mrs. Newbui gh OCCASION
ally visited her, and she remained till she
was seventeen, when she went 10 reside
with her grandmother in London; she con-
tinued to study music under the best mas
ters. and was always present when Mrs.
Newburgh received. The spring before
the opening OF this story she had been pre-
sented, her grandmother was we'll satisfied
with her social success, and hoped for a
brilliant marriage, when the blow fell
which ruined them.
II was quite dark when Mona reached
st. Pancras; she was utterly weary, and
profoundly still.
As a porter threw open the carriagedoor
n respectable for~eign-looking man, some
what tan-colored in complexion, and pear
shaped in figure, going small to the feet
and spreading out roundly above, put him
aside. Raising his hat he said in German.
welcome, my frauleinl / hope you are
not fatigued."
Yes, n little, Wehnerl How Is my
grandmother"
BETTER, my frauleinl bnt weakl ali, very
weak. She is looking anXiously for you.
II you get into the cab, ] will find your
baggage"