Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-07-07
er of that. detest. and almost fear

In that event, before our marriage,
! Will have him located elsewhere; it
would be but torture to have one around
toward whom you feel like that But I
little wonder ar it. 1 sometimes feel as
though was standing on mine, when
l think of his fathers record, and were
ne not my nephew / would not Tolerate
him-eventually shall endeavor to es-
tablish him in business elsewhere.
| why, he even had the impudence to
/ ask my daughters hand in marriage.
We'll. good night, dear one, and hap
| Ply Dreams" and Mr.. Lloyd stopped
slightly and kissed the white brow OF
the girl, who t. please her father, and
build up an impossible barrier between
herself and the man she loved but might
not marry, had promised to become his
wife
Good night, Mr.. Loyd.'
Clara was very pale, and tears were in
her eyes, as she started towards the
door,
Then it was that Herbert Lathrop
giided rapidly through the hall. No
smile parted his lips, but on his set
features was a look of malignant hate
MY uncle, then" he muttered
would wed Clara Ell, then setaside his
sisters son, because he pleases not his
wife.
clara ioatnes me, and my dear, dear
| uncle sometimes thinks he's standing
on a mine-look out, John Lloyd, for by
the gods that made me, that mine shall
soon explode, and at the altar you shall
never stand, with Clara Hill-Dotard,
Fool! ere that I'll have-have what?
Your life, ny uncle! Yes, your very
Iife!" and shaking his clenched fist at
the parlor door he rapidly assembled the
stairs, muttering still.
Herbert Lathrop had not been unob-
served.
At the time he entered the front door,
Aunt Mag, the mulatto housekeeper and
old family servant of the banker, was
going the rounds to see that the doors
were secure for the night. AS she was
advancing, when just in the shadow of
the winding stairs, she caught sight
of Herbert Lathrop in a listening atti-
tude at the parlor door, Instinctivelv
she halted, and had seen his pantomime
OF actions as he stood there, and as he,
advanced she had observed the passion
ate look on his face. as well as the
clenched hand shaken at the door. and
when he was ascending the stairway,
just opposite her, as she stood crouch
ing In the recess, she caught the Words:
Your life, my uncle! yes, your very
life!"
AS Herbert disappeared, the parlor
door opened, and Mr.. Lloyd accompanied
Clara to the foot of the stairs, which
she assembled, and he retired to his
room, which was on the first floor, and
adjoining the library, from. which a
door opened into it.
Aunt Mag securely bolted the front
door, put out the lights in the parlor
and hall, and she also assembled the
stairs.
Nolselessly she passed over the soft
carpet toN the back of the hall on the
second floor, and halted before door.
First her eye and then her ear was
applied to the lleyhole-her eve saw
Herbert Lathrop standing before look
ing-glass in his shirt sleeves; he was
gesticulating wildly. and she heard him
say:
so, uncle, 1 can neither wed nv
cousin Fannie, nor Clara Hill-the one
for Clarence, and you would be the
bridegroom to the other.
Watch well, my uncle! you may die
ere that, and suddenly-so suddenly
L have it, your death, and in such a man
ner that Angus Bruce shall appear the
murderer-the gallows then for him
two birds with one stone killed
Truly, my uncle, there are two who
stand upon mine"
Aunt Mag assembled the stairs, and
repaired to her room, and as she is quite
an important character in some of the
events that will follow, it may be we'll
20 give the reader some information re-
garding her.
She had been brought to Wilmington
some dozen years before by trader,
who stated that he purchased her at
an administration sale.
Her children had been sold and scat
tered, she knew not where, and her hus-
band had been purchased by Georgia
planter. Mag had been house servant
all her life, and was now fully fifty
years of age. Tall, scrawny, and what
NhS usually tSTIlleO INV DOneu-n6Ver-
theless, her long arms were very muscu-
lar, and her large black eyes and jet
black hair that hung, when loose. far
down her back, proclaimed her Tusco-
rora origin.
John Lloyd had purchased her, nor did
he ascertain till afterwards that her
mind was someW hat unhinged, the re-
suit, probably. of having lost all that
she had ever loved. She lad strange
habit of talking to herself, and had
some few articles Of clothing that her
children had once worn. At times she
would get them out and talk to them, as
though her family were around her;
sometimes weeping, at others chuck
ling or laughing mcrrily as si.e recalled
some incidents in her early life; but
she was q faithful, n clearly and obedi-
ent servant, and after the banker had
become accustomed to her ways he
would not part with her.
Indeed. he had sought the husband
and some trace of the children with a
view Of purchasing them, but could
learn nothing of them.
Such was Aunt Mag; faithful and
true, but with disordered brain;
though, disordered as IL was, she was
not wanting in the necessary steadfast-
ness of purpose and determination req
niSifa IN an n h1o ha, RI, x.-o FOL tho fr1fr,ro