The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-03-29

jasmine, uebfy WILL sCeut, MAlIo MAeH
shade, loving the moonlight and the
passionate songs Of the mocking birds.
The other was like the blue-bells of the
Northern mountains; elegant, mobile,
responsive to every breath of the fresh
winds; swinging gently to the song Of
the lark and linnet in the morning
light.
"Jesuita is q beauty" said her
father, proudly. "Her mother was a
beauty-she is still one to me. took
wife from a strange race. My
mother was an alien also."
Eyes, but our father loved her. He
called to her on his death-bed."
81 am glad to hear that. Dick, why
did you come here? To see me only?
Was it brotherly love that brought
you?"
"No."
The little word came painfully, and
Thomas Mowbray looked troubled for
moment. But it was only mo-
ment's shadow.
"Never mind, my boy" he said.
IT have way of expecting too much.
After we have eaten supper we will
empty our hearts to each other. Are
you in trouble, Dick?" he asked, sud-
denly. "Have you done something?
Do you want to keep out of the way?"
mo, no, Thomas. 1t is only
matter of money--and dear girl
whom I love-"
"Then it is all right" yet Thomas
Mowbray fell frequently into silences
which he suddenly broke with
forced laugh or joke; and as soon as
supper was over and the ladies and
children had gone to their apartments,
he took his brother to an upper gal
lery apart from the other galleries,
and only approached through a room
which he locked behind them.
There was q glorious full moon, and
the lovely land lay bathed in its light.
Far off the mocking birds we're sing
ing in the woody belt that followed
the river and from the cabins there
came the echoes of banjo or a man
dolin.
"sit down, Dick" he said, pointing
to rude but comfortable chair; and
then he brought another from shady
corner and placed himself close to his
brother. ''Smoke, Dick?" he asked,
and Dick nodded and took out his
cigar case. Thomas lit a pipe and
put his feet into comfortable posi-
ton. "Now, my boy, We can talk.
What brought you to see me? Show
me Truth, and I don't mind how ugly
she is. I will give her fair hearing"
81 have told you that our father is
dead. T am supposed now to be the
Squire Mowbray. I am not. You
are the squire"
Thomas pulled his pipe a little
quicker, and said:
"Well? Go on. Who told you so?"
"Lawyer Hewett."
eff any stranger knows anything
about it, he does"
eyes, but I did not know until last
month, Thomas. Indeed, I did not
know of your existence until then. So
I am not to blame if I usurped your
right"
II sold my right. Father bought
my birthright. I was a son Of Ish-
mael; he could not make an English
gentleman of me-"
"But the sale was not legal. Hew-
EFT told me it was made while you
were a minor. It amounts to moth
ing"
"God in heaven! 1t amounts to all
I signed it for"
''Do not be angry, Thomas. The
question is to come before man who
knows nothing of you, and who hates
me-"
Then Mowbray told his brother
about Katherine Janfarie, and her
guardian, and Thomas grasped the
situation at once.
II understand" he answered.
s'Dick, I was at Mowbray last May.
You were in Scotland at the time.
Some one-I suppose it was Hewett--
sent me the newspaper which con-
tanned notice OF my fathers death,
and I just took run over to see the
old place. When I got there did
not feel as if I belonged to it at all.
The only spot of land that claimed
me was my fathers grave. I stayed
at the Inn in Mowbray village for
three days and no one knew me-
not even old Hewett."
''Yet the place is legally yours,
Thomas"
81 have sworn tits not. Imay have
a right to place in the Mowbray
vault. I have no other right. The
place is yours, Dick; and I will 60
with you to San Antonio and make it
yours so sure and fast that even that
old Laird OF Levens-hope shall not be
able to pick a flaw in your right or in
your children's succession"
care there lawyers in San Antonio
clever enough for this business?"
"Where land is concerned, San
Antonio lawyer will fix matters so GER
tainly that it will take an English
Parliament to unfix them. Does this
promise make you easy, Dick?"
"Quite, Thomas; and now that I
have seen you face to face could
trust your word as well as an act OF
parliame ent; but you have children,
and I may have, and what man can
tell the things that may be done when
he is in his grave?"
"Dick, I have known for many
years just how the succession stood.
If poverty had followed me I would