Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-08-14

| plant, no rGpTOdCu0S, size never u0h-
toned her pain or her sorrow; she
said nothing of her long watch or it's
unhappy ending; she did not even tell
him of the delayed letter and he Won
dered. He was more uncomfortable
! than if her letter had been one singing
reproach from beginning to end. He
answered it-he wrote to her often,
but there was a change in the tone o.
her letters, and he was half conscious
of it,
He meant to be true to her-that was
his only comfort in the after years;
he could not tel1-nor did he know
how it first entered his mind to be any
thing else. Perhaps my lady knew
for she had completely changed
her ecclesiastical of ignoring Leone
she talked of her continually-never
unkindly, but with a pitying contempt
that insensib1y influenced Lord Chan
dos. She spoke of his future with
deepest compassion, as though he
would be completely cut off from
everything that could make life worth
| living: she treated him as though ne
were an unwilling victim to an unfor-
tunate promise. 1t took some time to
impress the idea upon him-he had
never thought of himself in that light
at all. A victim who was giving up
the best mother, the kindest friend,
everything in life, to keep an unfortu-
nate promise My lady spoke of him
so continually in that light at last he
began to believe it.
He was like wax in her hands;
despite his warm and true love for his
wife that idea became firmly engraved
on his mind-he was a victim.
When once she had carefully i'm
pressed that upon him my lady went
further; she began to question whether
really, after all, his promise bound him
or not.
In her eyes it did not-certainly not.
The whole thing was a most unfoTtu-
nate mistake; but that he should con-
slider himself Bound by such a piece
of boyish folly was madness.
So that the second stage of his prog
ress toward falsehood was that, besides
looking on himself as kind of victim,
he began to think that he was not
bound by his promise If it had been
an error at first it was an error now;
and the countess repeated for him very
often the story of the Marquis of
Anterior, who married the daughter of
a lodge-keeper in his nineteenth year.
His parents interfered; the marriage
was set aside. What was the conse-
quence? Two years after the girl mar
ried the butler, and they bought
Anterior Arms The marquis, in his
twenty-fifth year. married peeress in
her own right, and was now one of the
first men in England. My lady often
repeated that anecdote; it had made
great impression on her, and it GER
tainly produced an effect on Lord
ChandOS.
My lady had certainly other in
f1uences to bring to bear. The uncle
of Lady Erskine, the Duke of Lester
was one of the most powerful mobiles
in England-the head of the Cabinet,
the most influential peer in the House
of Lords, the grandest orator and the
most respected of men. My lady en-
forward his name continually, and was
often heard to say that whoever had
the good fortune to marry Lady |
Erskine was almost sure to succeed
the duke in his numerous honors. Lord |
Chandos, hearing her one day said:
Il will win honors, mother-win |
them for myself-and that will be bet
+oy. HOY
She looked at him with half-sad, |
half-mocking smile.
''I have no ambition, no hope for
you, Lance. You have taken your wife
from dairy-the most / can hope is
that you may learn to be good judge
of milk.
He turned from her with a hot flush
of anger on his face. Yet the sharp,
satirical shaft found it's way to his
heart He thought of the words and
brooded over them-they made more
impression on him than any others
had DONE In his mothers mind he
had evidently lost his place in the
worlds race, never to regain it,
The duke-who knew nothing of the
conspiracy, and who knew nothing of
the young lords story, except that he
had involved himself in some tiresome
dilemma from which his parents had
rescued him-the Duke of Lester who
heard Lord Chandos spoken of as one !
likely to marry his niece, took a great
fancy to him; he had no children Of
his own he was warmly attached to
his heartif111 niece. and it seemed verV |
probable that if Lord Chandos mar
ried Lady Erskine, he would have be-
fore him one of the most brilliant fu-
lures that could fall to any mans lot. |
Many people limited at it, and con-
slant dropping wears away stone.
The last and perhaps the greatest
hold that the countess had over her
son was the evident liking of Lady
Marion for him. In this, as in every
IL. -I,o n iY01 to-