Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-09-24
"She is covered with my shawl, mamma

Il will bring her in now"
The voice was very gentle and faint with
WEAKNESS, the quiet face very white and
patient, the dropping eyelids languid with
"the weight Of unshed tears"
Elizabeth Caerlyon, shrewish and unlov-
ing, had yet q heart which could be
touched, and Thomas Pascoe's late insin-
uatiOnS had ut last provoked her into tax
ing her s~tep-daughter's part.
"I've heard of n dog in a manger," she
muttered, partly audible for Mr.. Pascoe's
benefit-"there are people who'll neither
take a thing themselves, nor let "A thing be
for other people! You've got a pretty white
face" she added, sharply, but not unkind-
ly, 81 Winifred passed her in, whats the
matter?"
Nothing mammal am tired" said
Winnie. May ! go to bcd?"
"Pascoc's here" limited her stcp-mother,
shortly.
There was q kind of anguish in the
girls haggard look as she repeated plead
ingly-
II am so tired, I cannot speak to anyone,
May | go TO bedl"
Eyes, of course!,,' said Mrs. Caerlyon,
snappishly. "What did We go working
yourself like that for? Work'd keep, 1
think"
Nevertheless she unlocked q certain
neat, yellow-painted cupboard in the
kitchen, took out a bottle with a dark fra
grant spirit, carefully mixed a portion
with hot water and sugar in n tumbler,
and took it upstairs to the little room
where the pale evening light fell through
fhn hnrHanr yVfn1nyU nm fln YAaInh NtTnrl
c~overlet of the narrow bed and the white
face Of the dark haired girl lying on one
small hard pillow.
"You drink this now, Winnie" she said,
shortly. you're like one had got n chill.
It'll send We sound asleep"
ooh, thank you, thank you, mamma"
returned Winnie, struggling up in sur
prise. II am only tired, though"
The trembling voice broke down in q
sob, which evidently had not been the first
since she had lain down beneath the patch
work coverlet.
what ,on earth are We crying for?"
asked Mrs. Caerlyon, impatiently. BE
cause you're not off at Roscworthy, I sup
poseY"
"Oh, no., no, no!'' Winifred burst out in
stormy weeping. you know I'll never
go there ~again-never, unless she cane
and asked me kindly, and apologized to
you and father. Madam did not treat me
as she ought. ] was sorry a good deal af-
ter she went off so suddenly to Kent with
out telling me-only that one short note
with my salary due! 1t was so unkindl'
"You needn't waken up all the chill
dren," i%nterposed Mrs. Caerlyon, warn
ingly. "Then, if you're not crying about
her, what are We crying for?"
II didn't feel very WE'LL don't know"
Winnie faltercd, crying more quietly,
though her suppressed sobs shook the mar
row bed.
Because Pascoe's here2" persisted Mrs.
Caerlyon. YOU'RE a pretty maid to cry
because n man comes counting ye," she
went on, more jocularly. 81 am thinking
Susanna Edwards would give him a diff
ferent welcome"
''Then let her!" Winnie cried, wildly.
"Oh, mamma, don't you know that / can
not bear him like-like that? / had rather
die any day. I shall die il you don't send
him away, n let me alone! He does not
care one pin for me; he wants me or. to
make a servant of me-and I'd rathCS .ay
here and work for you and the children.
Oh, mother, do send him away" she
walled, clasping her hands tightly on her
step-mother's arm.
The overthrow of her pet project veXed
Mrs. Caerlyon very co~nsiderably-it had
veXed her many a time these four months
past, since Winifred had been summarily
dismissed from Madam's service, although,
to do her justice, Madam had written
rather alphabetically respecting lscr sud
den decision to visit her relations in Kent,
sending Captain Tredennick's fatal pres
ent to its owner along with that short,
satln-paper, crested, perfumed note; but it
mad been q dismissal, and q pointedly alb
rupt one, after all, and hapless Winnie
had met the brunt of a storm of anger,
surprise, cross-questioning, taunts, and
suspicion worse than aught else-sus-
picion, even from her father, although
John Caerlyon had been born and bred a
gentleman, and might have shrunk from
branding his daughters stainless brow
with the imputation of levity of conduct
(he would not admit that there was more
of irritable fatherly anxiety than anything
else in the harsh words that insulted the
poor girls maidenly pride) suspicion gath
cred from the gable of serpent-tongued
gossipers, and from the cowardly ~innuen-
does of the base-spirited fellow who sought
to humble and crush the spirit of the wo-
man whom he had chosen for his future
wife. But all their persecution, threats,