Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1898-12-29


no one else ever can, and | say to you
most decidedly, II ever you wish to
win her love or her heart. do not shock
her first by telling her that you are
her father; remember that she has
been taught to hate the English, and
to believe that her father Is dead
Let her learn TO know You and to love
YOU first: then tell her when you will
| viii forward by her all papers that
are necessary to prove her birth. Send
for Veronica at once. know that
/ have not many hours to live"
| He was sitting in the drawing-room
at Queens Chace when that letter was
/ brought to him. His daughter Kathe-
( rine was at the piano, singing some OF
the old English Salads that he loved
4 Lady Brandon lay on the couch, en-
crossed in a novel. A clear, bright
/ fire was burning in the CRATE; the
warm air was perfumed with the
/ odor Of flowers
/ He raised his haggard face as he
read Great Heaven what was he to
do? He had almost forgotten the
I WI tAlGAcuNt vi the tAliis one ldu
! faded from his memory. His pas
sionate love for her beautiful mother
was as keen as ever, as full Of life as It
/ had been on the first day he had met
/ her; but the child he had disliked;
/ the child had cost her mother her life.
Why had Assunta given her that
sweet. sad name of Veronica" What
was he to do with her when she came?
| He looked at his handsome wife, with
/ her high-bred face and dignified man
ner; he looked at his lovely young
daughter, and then bowed his head in
/ despair.
| A thought had pierced his soul Dur
ing all these years he had forgotten
the child; she had passed, as it were,
out of his life; Assunta had taken
her, and would keep her. She had re-
fused his help, she would have nothing
from him She would take no money,
nor anything else from him. She had
told him that he must wash his hands
Of the child, and he had done so IF
ever he thought about her. he con-
cluded that she would be brought up
in entire ignorance of England and Of
him. that she would marry some Ven
ethan. But of late he had thought but
little Of her: and during the past three
or four years she had faded from his
mind
So the letter was a terrible blow to
him. He asked himself what he
should do. for 1t had suddenly oc-
cured to him that Veronica was his
eldest daughter, and that she-not
the golden-haired girl singing with
the clear voice Of bird-was heiress
OF Queens Chace; and the thought
pierced his soul like a sharp sword
What should he do?
His first impulse was to tell his
story; then second thoughts came, he
could not OF all people living, his
wife was perhaps the most unsympa-
thetic; he could not take the treasured
/ loye-story from his heart and hold 1t
up to public gaze; he could not have
uttered the name of Gnla, nor have
told how she died when the sun was
setting, with her head on his breast
Ir would have been easier for him to
tear the living, beating heart from his
breast than to do this.
so he sat there musng, with AS
sunta's letter in his hand, He found
afterwards that ne had missed one
paragraph, in which she told him that
she had prepared Veronica to live for
the future with her English guardian,
Sir Jasper Brandon suffered keenly.
He was an English gentleman. with
. English notions of right and wrong
He hated all injustice, all conceal
menL all deceit, all fraud all wrong
doing, all dishonesty: yet he did not
on receipt of Assunta's letter, tell his
wife and daughter the truth. He said
to himself that he would come to no
decision, that he would wait and see
what Veronica was like.
"You look perpeXed and thought
full papa?' said Katherine Brandon
Let me help you Womens wits, they
say are keener and quicker than
mems
at IS a libel he replied, trying
to speak lightly. II may well look per
picked, Katherine, l am dismayed"
Lady Brandon closed her book and
looked at him.
"You dismayed," she cried. what
has happened? Has Brooks voted with
the Opposition, or what?'
ut is nothing of that kind" said the
politician This is a domestic diff
iculty about which shall have to ask
your help"
At the word domestic" lady Bran
don opened her Book again; matters Of
that description never interested her
THE fact is continued Sir Jasper
that a friend of mine has died lately
ian Italy and has left me a ward.
"A ward," cried Lady Brandon
% How intolerable' What a liberty TO.
,akel"
"A ward," cried Katherine. How
strange, papa!"
Sir Jasper turned quickly to his
wife. He never spoke unklndly or
angrl)y to her even when she annoyed