The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-30

and as though unwittingly sho brushed
against him, then stopped, drew hack
and started and sank down again into
her chair, leaning her arm on the ve-
randa and her facs on her hand and sit
ting quite still, like the statue of en-
barrassed and emotional loneliness.
Sir Jatfray leaned against the rail of
the veranda and made no effort to speak
for awhile, content to feast his eyes
upon her lustrous beauty and to yield
himself up to the full enjoyment Of the
emotions she had reused.
He was mad for the love of her, and
she knew it well enough and meant to
be his wife.
But she knew also that there were
difficulties to be surmounted first and
that she must act warily and cautiously
| if she was to succeed.
| 1t was more than Is months since
| that scene on the DEVILS rock, and she
had already made excellent use of her
time in England. She had found Mrs.
Villyers, the widow to whom her father
had sent her, ready ut first to give her
only q very cold and formal welcome,
willing to do for a relative what the
demands of duty, alphabetically inter-
preted, might require, bat unwilling,
on account Of the i'll odor of Lola's ia
Their with his family, to take her into
the house Oh the footing of an intimate
and loving friend.
But Lola had amply justified her
shrewd old fathers Judgment, and the
winning tact, the clever usefulness, the
supple adaptability and the patient
temper which the girl never failed to
show won the old lady s heart. until she
was almost loath to let her out of her
sight.
AS the old man had predicted, more
over, Mrs. Villyers' introduction open
ed the doors of every desirable house in
the county, and Lola's beauty and
shrewdness did the rest. She was the
beautiful Miss Crawshay, and nobody
ever tried to remember that her father
had enjoyed and deserved reputation
for such i'll conduct as had made his
friends pension him off on condition
that he never set foot in his native
country.
Lola was not long idle, moreover, in
making her plans. She meant to marry.
She had heard nothing of the man who
mad forced her to marry him, and she
believed him dead. If he was still liv-
ing, it was almost impossible for him
to find her, she thought. Anyway she
would take the risk.
The homage which the men all round
the neighborhood were eager to pay her
wherever she went soon convinced her
that she could marry almost whom she
pleased, and, as she had long convinced
herself that she had no love to give and
no reason to fear any yielding to a
weakness of the kind, she carried very
cool head indeed behind her very glow
ing and fire raising beauty.
Her final decision as to the man she
would marry came as much by accident
as design on her part
Among her distant connections was
bright, shrewd, gossiping little woman,
Mrs De Witt, whose married life was
in Lola's views curiosity The hus-
band and wife had no tastes in common,
except that they were both intensely
fond of the comforts which money can
give. They went nowhere together. If
they met in public, it was generally ac-
cidental and if they staid at the same
place 1t was owing to quite independ-
ent causes. Each had separate circle
of friends, male and female, for uncon-
ventional purposes, though both moved
IN the same social set for conventional
purposes.
The little woman" as most of her
friends called her, heard of Lolas bean
ty and went down to Mosscombe, the
village near Walcote where Mrs. Will
yers lived. to see for herself what the |
girl was like and to judge whether she
could do herself any credit and serve
her own purpose by taking her up and
bringing her ont in London. She was
more than satisfied by her scrutiny,
and as Lola was careful to show some |
what different side of her character to |
her from that known to Mrs Villyers |
though not at all more natural-Mrs. |
De Witt carried her off there and then |
to London, protesting that such O girl |
must not be shut up in a country box,
Wv AhuoV SUN bSA lOItuuo duu ueT nus
band in London.
AT that juncture, however, Lola
proved her clever shrewdness. After
staying with Mrs. De Witt for q few
days she relinquished what was in fact
inexpressibly delightful to her, the pleas.
ures OF the London season, in order to
return to Mosscombe and Mrs. Villyers.
" mt nv,x. Oh
affections of the widow, who would
after that go anywhere to please her.
while she did not leave London until
Mrs. De Witt had seen how much use
the girl could be in making the house
attractive to men.
She paid several visits to the liyeiv
little woman's house, and it was in one
OF these that she met Sir Jaffray Wal
cote for the first time. He had been
abroad on tOur half ropnd The ,,,<.il |