Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-04-09

child eyes q thought Of Iilys You
are rather like lily, you know
1T is odd You have hit upon both
the first letters Of my real names
Lance Seaford.'
i Lance Seaford!" / echoed quickly.
why, you are
| She nodded graveIy, as unconsciously
stareG at her with even greater in
terest than before, and-for some rea-
son could hardly understands queer
sinking of the heart. The hope that
was going to be of some use to her, that
there was, after all, place for me in
the world, since was needed to protect
this small fair thing, had made the
blood quicken and grow warm within
my veins. But Lance Seoford was a
very great heiress-so great an heiress
that all the world had talked of her a
little time ago.
AS this last thought came to me, I
was reminded that the interest she had
excited had come,to life with the news
of her death.
Five weeks ago, just before my trou-
BILE had eliminated, and Australian
liner had been lost in a great storm,
with more than half the passengers,
and Lance Seaford, the heiress, had
been one of those reported drowned.
l recalled the story wildly for it
happened that, while l read of Lance
Seaford in the papers, l had been in
! terrupted IN way which had impress
ed that paragraph of the printed page
with strange distinctness upon me.
l had heard the girl spoken of once
or twice before at the club, as one of
the youngest and richest heiresses in
the world, but it had taken the report
of her death, under the circumstances,
to fix it in my mind. :.
| She and her father had lived in Mel
bourne. l thought, as | now tried to
bring back every detail, she had been
born there. and her mother was said
to have died soon after her birth. In
the midst of ball, which was being
given in honor of Miss Seaford's nine
teenth birthday, her father had sudden
ly been smitten with a stroke of par
alysis, from which he had never re-
overed consciousness. A week later he
was dead, and the girl had inherited
his millions
The will (Which had been left away
! from her only g. few hundreds to faith
full servants, and ten or twelve thous-
and pounds to Mr.. Seaford's brother
in England, his only surviving relative
| except the young daughter) directed
| that, as soon as her affairs could be
arranged, the girl should leave for Lon
don, to live with her uncle, at least
until she should come of age, when she
would be free to choose between the
mother country and the land of her
birth.
| Four or five months later, she had
started, with her maid, an elderly wom-
an who had been with her for years;
and then there had come the storm
! which had swept an he.ress out of ne
! world Tor so the world supposed), leav-
/ ing all the money to the next-of-kin.
Il wasn't drowned
| Her young, sweet voice brought me
out of the reverie which had been busy
with her past, into the color and light
of her present, which, by strange de-
cree of Fate, l was sharing-in Scotch
hotel
There seems a long, long way be-
twee.. the sea and a sinking ship, and
that horrible trunk we left behind us in
Glasgow" she went hurriedly on, be-
fore | had been given time to answer.
will you listen while | bridge it over,
and tell you-all | know myself?"
will l listen?" | repeated. And
seeming satisfied with the question that
answered her she began, the little pink
chin still in the cup of her hands, her
eyes sometimes far away, and some
times earnestly fixed upon my face.
You'll think it queer that | know so
little" she said. Put the people who
are living things can often explain he
least about til en-. | don't remember
much about the night of the wreck, af-
ter we had all come up on deck, ana
stood huddled there. knowing we must
be saved in the boats, if we could be
saved at all. | didn't seem to care; |
lust felt dull and astonisned that such
thing could be happening to me, who
had always been so taken care of by
everybody. And | was sorry for
Annie-that was my maid. Only
wondered why she kept sobbing. 1t
seemed weak and useless-poor, poor
little Annie,
II remember someone s1atched me
I'D. and flung me into boat. reached
out for her, but she was not there-and
then there was nothing but the wild
wind and spray, that made my breath
go down my throat till it chOked me
and the night, and the sea, like great