Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-12-24


'Somccnc you louedf" aohispered Winnie
Cderlyon.
creature ! ever loved-ever could love-
ever will love-" the unhappy woman said.
raging In fierce rebellion over the bereave-
ment. "They took him from me; they
prosecuted us until they got us asunder-
until they drove him out of the country,
and hurried me away into seclusion-ws
who loved each other so-who would have
been SO faithful to each other, and so hap.
Ply If they IA let us-they--the worldly,
smiling, selfish schemers-my father and
mother and Madam Vivian! We loved
each other from the time that we were q
little boy and girl, Winnie Caerlyon," she
went on, passionate sobs shaking her ut
t%erance; meant to love each other al.
ways-to marry as soon rs j was OF age.
and BERTHE used to talk to me Of our home
In some far-of Indian bungalow, or some
fort in a distant land-we two together;
and we should have been so happy They
did their best TO make me forget him
Madam Vivian most Of all! She is n hard
worldly woman, Winnie Cacrlyon, and
you know il as well ms ], though you have
borne with her so we'll and patiently.
They did their best, but it was useless
useless; il they had been endeavoring ever
since, they could not have succeeded
never-never, but for Death helping them
j never could be false to him, he never
could have been false to me In life, but
Death stepped in to part BERTHE Gardiner
and me forever, much to my dear relatives
relief! Much to their relief" she repeated,
after a pause, with q slow concentrated
bitterness, though Madam Vivian an.
nounced the sad news as she called il,
in so smoothly condoling a voice and man.
ner--much rs she announced the death OF
my god-mother, who bequeathed me hel
fortune. She entreated Of me not to say
too much, | remember, and proposed next
day that we should drive to the Long
champs race-course for a change of scene
to cheer and muse me-"
"Oh, dear Lady Mildred, she did not
mean to slight your grief. Madam did not
understand feelings like yours. Madam
never loved and lost as you did," said
Winnie, quite forgetting, in the simplicity
OF her grief, that 1t was q peeress OF the
realm she was embracing and crying over
so heartily.
"You would excuse her without ceasing,
Winnie C%aerlyon. Why. | know not
unless IL is because OF your long-sufferine
~amiability," Lady Mildred remarked,
harshly scornful. irrespective OF other
wrongs, Madam Vivian has done me one
that l can neither forgive nor forget"
What was it," Winnie asked, timidly
The stormy shrieking of the wind had
paused for a time, spent and breathless
from its rage, but the laundering roar and
beat of the wild surges sounded fearfully
loud and near in the ominous lull; and in
the lull came a faint, distant booming
sound.
THE wrong of compelling me to sacri.
flee and trample upon my feelings In spite
of every instinct of my nature, which
shrank from the trial" said Lady Noun.
trevor, with gloomy hopclessness; 'the
wrong Of compelling me by fear of her
displeasure, the force Of her authority, the
dread Of her ridicule on a night-a sum
mer night-seven years ago, Winnie Caer-
lyon-to go to q ball with her with q pre-.
sentiment of coming sorrow like a leaden
weight on my girlish heart, with q fevered
brain, n weary, spiritless frame, my eyes
burning from weeping-the wrong of com
polling me to dress, and adorn, bedeck,
bejewel myself, Danish all traces of the
load Of apprehension and pain that was
resting on me, simulate gaiety and high
spirits, and go n mingle amongst heart
less people of whom / hated one-half and
despised nearly all the rest--to dance, and
emilia mud fIrf md aftrapf-yn avhihtt
myself, in q word, for the securing more
surely the rich prize my would be proprie-
tor offered in exchange for me, all to graf
ify her love of pomp and wealth and vani.
ty; one, the vain, selfish woman, who
never experienced one throb Of real love-
She made me go to the last ball of the
season; she chaperoned me, and paraded
me, and showed me off-as surely as ever
a slave merchant did his Circassians and
Georgians before the eyes of rich pashas.
/ danced with Lord Henry Mountrevor by
Madam Vivian's express desire; I premen.
AIDED the conservatory with him; I sat
with him behind bowers of orange-trees
in blossom; with smiles l listened to his
protestations of admiration; l gave him
every artful encouragement that a ball
room coquette uses TO capture a golden
prize In matrimony, and I gave him q
flower from my bouquet at parting, I re.
member-a rose--a white rose, and he
kissed it, and placed it In his coat, to OK
hibit it's withered remains to me for a
week after! Winnie, do you know what
day it was-the day that / danced out the
close of the last ball Of the season with
Lord Mountrevor? 1t was the twenty
ninth of July, eighteen hundred and"
1.-THE day-the day that" broke from
Winnie's lips involuntarily, In the shock
of the moment.
1.-The day-the morning-the hour when
Albert Gardiner lay dying amongst stran-
gers In a strange land" Lady Mildred
said, slowly; land when I discovered the
truth afterwards, bitterly as / hated my
self, there were two others whom l hated
still worse-Madam Vivian and Lord
Mountrevorl / hated every one In the
world but my cousin Stephen-my poor,
dear, old, kina-hearted S~tephen-who
came with the tears running down his
cheeks, calling m. his poor bereaved,
desolate little Miller His sympathy
saved me from going mad or acting fool
isbly."
'Oh, Lady Mildred, dearr" Winnie
sobbed, in her generous sympathy feeling
as II every grief Of her own innocent. low
ing life were as nothing compared to the
stormy vindictive misery of this proud,
noble, misguided nature. "But Heaven
helped you to forgive yourself and every
one else for that u~nintentional wrong-if
wrong II could be called. when no one
meant cruelty to you, although it was so
cruel; and towards Lord Mountrevor, of
course, as you married him afterwards,