Evening star., 1898-08-06

There was something so marked in this
contrast, in this old man standing in the
shadow of the fading year, himself as dried
and withered the leaves he was raking,
yet pausing to make his reverence to this
passing sunshine of youth and prosperity
in the presence of his coming master, that
the consul. as they swept by, looked after
him with stirring of pain.
Rather an old man to be still at work"
said the consul. Beverdale laughed. You
must not let him hear you say so; he con-
siders himself quite fit any younger
man in the place. and by dove. though he's
nearly eighty, I'm inclined to believe it.
He's not one of our people. however; he
comes from the village and Is taken on at
odd times, partly to please himself HIS
great aim is to be Independent of his chill
dren-he has granddaughter who is one
of the maids at the priory-and to keep
himself out of the workhouse. He does not
come from these parts-somewhere further
north, 1 fancy. But he's tough lot, and
has a deal of work in him yet
Seems to be going bit stale lately, -
said Lord Algernon, ''and | think is getting
little queer in his head. He has a trick
of stopping and staring straight ahead, at
times, when he seems to go off for a min
ute or two. There continued the young
man with light laugh, Il say! he's going
1t nowi" They both turned quickly and
gazed at the bent figure-not fifty yards
away-standing in exactly the same atti-
| tude as before. But even as they gazed
monotonous work again.
At Scrooby Priory the consul found that
! the fame of his fair countrywoman had in
deed preceded her, and that the other
guests were quite as anxious to see Miss
Desborough as he was. One Of them had
already nat her in London, another knew
her as one of the house party at the Duke
of Northfore,and's, where she had been 4
central figure Some of her naive sallies
and frank criticisms were repeated with
great Unction by the gentlemen. and with
some sight trepidation and fearful joy
by the ladies. He was more than even con-
WINGED that mother and daughter had for
gotten their lneal Desboroughs, and he re-
solved to leave any allusion TO it to the
young lady herself.
She, however, availed herself of that
privilege the evening after her arrival.
Who'd have thought of meeting you
here?" she said, sweeping her skirts away
to make room for him on a sofa. tits a
coon's age since 1 saw you-not since you
gave Us that letter to those genealogical
gentlemen in London"
The consul hoped that 1t had proved sue
cessful.
Yes. but NAV guessed we didn't care to
go back to Hengist and Horsa and when
they let loose a lot of Desboroughs' and
'Daybrooks' upon Us, nav kicked, We've
got drawing ten yards long that looks
like sour apple tree, with lots of Des-
toroughS hanging up en- the branches like
last years pippins, and I guess about as
worm-eaten. We took that well enough. but
when 1t came to giving us a. map of
straight lines and dashes, with names
written under them like old Morse tele-
graph slip struck by lightning, then nav
and | guessed that it made us tired"
You know, she went ON, opening her
clear gray eyes on the consul. with a char
acteristic flash of shrewd good sense
through her quaint humor-"we never reck-
cned where this thing would land u.s. and
we found we were paying f10O, not only for
the Desboroughs. but all the people they'd
married, and their children, and children's s
children, and there were lot of out tsiders
we'd never heard Of nor wanted to hear
of. Nav once thought she'd, got on the
tran of Piantagenet, and followed it
Keen. until she found she nad been reading
the dreadful thing upside down. Then we
concluded we wouldn't take any more stock
in the family until it had risen.''
During this speech the consul could not
help noticing that although her attitude
| was piayfuiiy confidential to him, her voice
really was pitched high enough to reach
the ears of smaller groups around her
who were not only following l;er with the
intensest admiration, but had shamelessfy
abandoned their own conversation and had
even faced toward her Was she really
mischievous. even aggressive, consciousness
in her pretty eyelds. Then she suddenly
dropped both eyes and voice, and said to
the consul in a genuine aside: II like this
sort of thing much better"
The consul looked puzzled. What sort
of thirg?'
why, all these swell people, don't you
see; their pictures on the walls, this ele-
CANT room, everythii g that has come down
from the past all ready and settled for You,
you know-ages ago. Something you
haven't to pick up for yourself and worry
over"
/ But, here the consul pointed out that the
place Itself was Lot "ancestrar' an regard