Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-04-06
CHAPTER LII.

Every family has it's skeleton, its
strange incidents, its romantic story,
its secrets that the world family
guesses but never knows. The Lynnes
OF Lynnewolde had a romance. but il
had hot been hidden,-it had been
partly forgotten; that romance was
the marriage of Stephen Lord Lynne
to the beautiful Andalusian whose life
had ended so suddenly. No one knew
much about it; the English papers had
announced it; but no one ever saw
the fair and Inflated Lady Lynne.
The only thing known of her was that
she was the daughter of a widow lady
who was inconsolable at her death.
and who begged from Lord Lynne per-
mission to keep the little child. He
gladly consented; some said, because
he did not like to see the little Inez,
as she reminded him of his lost wife:
be that as it may, certain it was that
he made no effort to see her. An
English gOverness was provided for
her, so that she was brought up not
only with thorough knowledge of
the English language, but also of
English polite literature. A sum of
money was paid annually to the
Sonora Monteleone, and twice every
year the father received a letter Civ
ing him all details of the child's
health and progress. He was salts
fled to have things as they were; he
knew the child was well, and happier
than she would be in his house,
where another Lady Lynne lived and
ruled. He had formed fresh ties
and that one early romance of his
life was nearly forgotten But there
were times when the remembrance of
sunny Spain, her myrties. orange
groves, and olives, her dark-eyed
daughters and chivalrous sons, came
upon him,-that one year of welded
life when the warm love, the deep de-
votlon, the almost alteration of the
beautiful Spaniard had been his own.
His English wife's calm, quiet affec
ton paled before it; there was no
romance about that gentle lady,
whose vast wealth had been so great
an acquisition to the Lynnes OF
Lynnewolde.
Lord Lynne looked back upon that
past as upon a beautiful poem that
he had read in his early youth. He
shrank selfshly from infiicting pain
upon himself. He knew, for they
had told him, that his daughter re-
sembled her lost mother She had
the same dark, passionate, beautiful
face; the same wondrous southern
eyes and hair. He did not wish to be
obliged to suffer the old pain of that
loss over again. So he allowed his
eldest child to grow up in a foreign
land, under another's care In his
own heart he wished that she would
marry and settle there. He intended
to endow her most literally: but one
day three came a message from that
far-off home, saying that the Sonora
Monteleone was dying, and Inez must
be sent for. Then Lord Lynne sent |
a trustworthy agent to bring his I'M
known daughter home. Lady Lynne |
was dead, and his younger child, |
was only too pleased to have
her sister with her. They were pre-
pared to see a pretty GIRL but no
thing like this dark-eyed Andalusian |
had ever been seen at Lynnewolde. |
No mere words could do justice to that |
wondrous beauty-te the proud,
passionate face, so perfect in color
and feature-to the bright, dreamy
eyes, in whose liquid depths there lay
a world of beauty and of love-to the
rich, ripping hair, black as night, vet
soft and shining as the wing of a
bird-the graceful figure, so perfectly
the dainty white jewelled
hands, the rare mixture of languid
ease and dignity. Yet, what made her
the most wonderful was the passion
and genius that seemed to emanate
from her. Every one who saw her
,elt instinctively that she was capable
Of great thfngs-either great evil or
great good. There was no mediocrity
IN 1nez Lynne.
To be Continued.