Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-12-29

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 dignifed 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. II
ever he thought about her, he con-
Guided that she would be brought up
in entire ignorance of England and of
him; that she would marry some Ven
etian. 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 terrible blow to
him. He asked himself what he
should do, for it 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 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
love-story from his heart and hold it
up to public gaze; he could not have
uttered the name OF Giula, nor have
told how she died, when the sun was
setting, with her head on his breast
1t would have been easier for him to
ISdI IuS 1INIuS, DedIli1S utdII IIoHi HIS
breast than to do this.
So he sat there musing, with AS
sunta's letter in his hand He found
afterwards that he 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
ment, 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 perplexed and thought
full, papa?''' said Katherine Brandon
''Let me help you. Wognen'S wits, they
say, are keener and quicker than
mems"
ct is libel" he replied, trying
to speak lightly. 81 may well look per-
picked, Katherine; I 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?"
at is nothing of that kind" said the
politician. tThis is a domestic diff
your help"
At the word domestic" Lady Bran
don opened her book again; matters of
that description never interested her.
1.-THE fact is continued Sir Jasper,
chat friend of mine has died lately
in Italy and has left me ward"
"a ward!" cried Lady Brandon.
"How intolerable! What liberty to
take!"
"a ward" cried Katherine. How
strange, papa!"
Sir Jasper. turned quickly to his
wife. He never spoke unkindly or
angrily to her, even when she annoyed
him
''Do not say 'intolerable,' Marie;
we must make the best of it."
'But who is it?" cried her lady
ship. N"Of course if it be any one of
position, that would make differ
ence"
'The young lady, my ward, Veronica
di Cynthia, is descended from one Of
the first families in Italy" he said.
''and she has, or will have, large
fortune"
"And that is, too, placed in your
hands?" asked his wife.
THAT also is in my hands," he an
swered, briefly.
"But, Jasper" cried her ladyship
''surely you are going to tell us more?
Who is, or rather who was your
friend? Tell me; I want to know the
whole history"
He walked to the end of the long
drawing-room and back before he re-
piled; then he said briefly: