Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-01-15

the married son
brought theil
y wives, and the mar
ried daughters we're
@ accompanied by
~ their husbands and
children, every room was filled.
At such times, Mr.. Marriott appeared
to glance round him with mild aston
ishment that so many children and
grandchildren really belonged to him.
For six generations there mad been
Marriots at the Grange, eldest son
regularly succeeding eldest son. It
was the proudest boast of each III his
turn that the land had never decreased
by one acre; that no mortgage had
been raised upon it: and that none of
the Marriots-man and wOman--had
ever even remotely brought dishonor
on the name.
One August the annual gathering
was not to be so numerous as usual.
The children of one of the married
daughters were ill with scarlet fever;
one of the unmarried sons had gone to
sea.
So when Ursula Marriott, who had
been at school in France by way of
finishing her education, wrote for per-
mission to bring friend home with
her, it was decided that there would
be room to put at the disposal of
this young lady.
A kindly letter of invitation was &C
cordingly written by Mrs. Marriott to
Miss Winifrel Warre. and enclosed in
that which told Ursula that her school
comrade would be made very welcome
at the Grange.
81 am sure You will all be charmed
with Winnie" the girl had written.
She was right; the Marriots were all
delighted with their guest as soon as
she stepped inside the grand old en-
trance hall.
She was a tall, lovely creature, older
certainly by year or two than Ursula
who was Just seventeen. She was
dressed in sober brown, with n pink
knot of ribbon at the throat; and the
rose tint was in her cheek, and the
brown eyes matched by the coils of her
abundant hair.
Miss Warre was quite at her ease
among all these strangers; she laughed
and talked over the rough passage,
and over the little incidents of the
railway journey from Dover.
1t was impossible to be formal, with
such Il girl as this. She was "Winnie"
even that first evening with the Mar
riots. "NIiss Winnie" with the all
mlring servants, who waited on her
assiduously.
After quarter of an hour passed
over merry afternoon tea, the guest
was taken to the pretty room prepared
for her, and the general verdict given
in her absence was not only favorable,
but fiattering.
Dinner time at the Grange was al
ways six o'clock, summer and winter;
an unfashionably early hour, but Mr..
Marriott liked it. He said it left Il
pleasantly long evening, during which
his sons and daughters read, saug,
played duets, or whatever else they
saw fit to do, in the large drawing
room. Their parents usually retired
to 'the little drawing room" which
was separated from the other only by
velvet curtains of moss green.
From the first evening Winnie
Ware became as queen among the
younger party. And sometimes, when
by knowing her better they grew more
fond OF her, Mr.. and Mrs Marriott
would ask her to sit with them for
half hour in ''the sanctum,' as their
children called it,
The girls parents were dead, and
she was quite without near relatives,
or indeed any relatives at all. She
possessed a guardian whom she had
only seen twice in her life, and who
did not interest himself in her nor
care to introduce her to his family.
He advised, even after she came of
age, that she should make her home
as o "lady boarder" in the foreign
school where she had been educated
from quite little child.
Louis Marriott, the only grown-up
unmarried son, fell deeply in love with
this lively, charming friend of his sister
Ursula.
But neither his father nor his
mother liked the idea of such a mar
riage. They wanted for Louis the
daughter of thoroughly English
home; some one whose family was
we'll known to him.
"You have not engaged yourself?"
said Mrs. Marriott anxiously, when
her son made his little confession of
love for pretty Winnie Ware.
81 have not said word; nor limited
to her what l feel for her." exclaimed
Louis. II would not, until had
spoken to You and to my father. But
if may not marry Winnie-and l
shall never marry without your con-
sent-I shall go through life as a
single man."
And then he asked them not to op-
pose his going away for awhile; at
least until tho girl had finished her
stay at the Grange.
"Do not notice his departure, or
question him." said Mrs. Marriott to
the rest of her family. Louis is be-
having maufully and honorably, just
as I should expect him to do"
1t was Christmas before be came