The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1897-10-15
CHAPTER IX.-(Continued.)

undcr Lady Lashmar's windows, and
nothing had come of her ladyships hopes
n that direction. Clarice and Lord Lash
mar had seen a good deal of each other in
ahe London season which followed those
uuiet autumn days at the castle. They
had waltzed many a waltz, had met in
many a crush upon the staircases of Bel
Eravia and Mayfair. But Lord Lashmar
lcemed that it was too soon for him to
avow himself. He WAS not quite sure.
IIe wanted time. And Clarice was as
suredly too young to know her own mind.
He left Clarice lamcnting, like Ariadnc
lat Naxos; and, like Ariadnc, she found Il
EcOnsOler.
She had been very fond Of Lord Lash
Emar in her mild, almost infantine way,
and she had set her heart upon being a
peeress And now she felt heartbroken,
4 disappointed, crushed. Her mother also
was disappointed and did not conceal her
feelings. She told Clarice that Lord
1 Lashmar, had behaved shamefully, and
! that 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
n new atlmrcr of still higher rank afford
ed q spurious kind of consolation.
The new admirer was Lord Carminow,
marquis, and one of the most dissi
d pated Young men in London or Paris; q
young man who, Il year before he met
Clarice, had the reputation Of being in
dustriously engaged in drinking himself to
. death, iut who was said to have pulled
n m, rs il were on the brink of the preci-
picc and to be in q fair way to reform.
4 His hand was still very shaky, and he
was still obliged to put cayenne pepper
in his brandy; but he drank less brandy
and his hand was less tremulous than it
had been last year.
After three weeks acquaintanceship he
4 proposed to Clarice Danebrook and was
accepted with kind Of naughty care
] lcssncss on the part of the young lady, as
] if she took this coronet as her due and de-
spscd the giver; with rapture on the part
Of the mother. but by the father with
considerable and even outspoken reluc-
tancc.
Clarice took her chance and enrolled
II herself forever among the marchionesses
u of England. She endured three and a
b half years of Il most intolerable existence
before Lord Carminow finished that busi-
ness of drinking himself to death. He
was gone and Job Dancbrook was gone
and Claricc, Marchioness of Carminow,
was established at Danebrook Hall, iror-
dinatcly rich and as lovely as in her earli-
est girhooa. And now in these days of
her wi,lowhood Clarice was again almost
as daughter 10 Lady Lashnar, who had
much need of solace and society i'll her
present depressed state OF health; need
also of much attendance, wanting to he
waited upon with exemplary patience. al
together Il hard and difficult mistress.
She had three slaves. who We're always
in attendance upon her-Barber. the pa
ticnt and homely maid of thirty years
service; Celestine. the expert Abigail.
With deft fingers and faultless taste IN the
confection of cap or the arrangement
OF Il dr,pery, 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 OF
her ladyship's reader and amanuensls.
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
L.d come when she, who had been
great reader had begun to feel the fatigue
of reading too much for her broken nerves
the time had come when chronic IAN
guor made it an effort to her to hold q
book or follow the lines Of a. page. she
was only fit to recline in her easy choll
and listen while some subdued voice reao
aloud to her, and the accents OF that voice
must be those of refinement.
So Stella was told one morning that hel
mission would be to act as Lady Lash
mars reader and amanuensls until fur
1ller notice, and from that hour she was /:
slave.
Her life had been easy enough of late
years, easy even to pleasantness. The ruil
OF the uncompromising Middleham hat
been made very light for her, when thai
autocrutic parsonage found that she was
willing. industrious and conscientious
and that whatever she did was we'll done
She had been able, by early rising, to ge
her work done before the one O'Clock DIN
ner: and then she had been allowed to dt
what she liked with her afternoons, al
ways provided she reappeared at the hV'
o'clock tea, which of late she had taRel
with Mrs. Barber in the little room up
stairs IL priceless privilege. since it spar
ed her the gossip and Hncangen1al ]oVlal
ity of the still-room. Little by little th
girl uau urlIIGu, ub IL WCiS, AhIo "a 49, "
her own, apart from those servants who's
existence the dowager wished her u
share. She had been among them for
little while, but she had never been on
of them. AS she grew into girlhood III
difference between her and them becanl
more sharply defined. They felt that sh
could never be like tke!nslvcs, and ~
presence became an embarrassment
They were very glad that she prcferre
solitude to their friendly company. ana
quiet cup of tea in BARRIERS room to the'
own noisy meal. She had always sue
old-fashioned ways, they said. strang
that n child should be such blue-stoch
Ing. But, of course. that was nll the Ill
Lord Lashmar's doing. He had brousn
her up as no child ever was brought
before. She had been dry-nursea upo
books