Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-06-03

Half a Truth.
BY THE

wltnout even showing 1t to her aunt; Dut
this, on second thought, seemed uncourte'
Gus, even undutiful. She would wait at
least until the latest hour she could send
that night. She would not keep Lawford
az suspense until tomorrow.
Evening passed into night, and Mrs.
Langley did not return home. At last,
IA little after ten o'clock, Valerie rang the
bell and sent a foOtman with the letter &c
Mr.. Lawford's house IN Carlton House
Terrace.
The messenger could not have been thirty
PAGES from the house, when Valerie, who
was In the drawing-room, heard the car.
riage stop, and the next moment her aunt's
step came up the stairs with unusual rapid.
ity. Valerie, who had been musing. with
no small apprehension, over the contest
she expected, but in which she was fully
prepared TO conquer, sprang 10 her feet
with a new fear. Had anything happened
that Mrs. Langley was so hurriedY The
door was almost burst open before the girl
was more thar half way to It, and Mrs.
Langley, her face flushed and agitated, her
whole mien denOting great mental dis.
turbance, entered, and dropped into a chair.
Aunt Constance!' exclaimed Valerie,
springing to her side. "What is the mat
teri"
"My dear" said Mrs. Langley, recover.
ing herself a little, Il have been greatly
startled INC shocked. They kept me at
the Seltons' to dinner, and then | went on
and called at the Lawfords'. / wanted to
see Aston, and they told me that Lettie
had called in Whitehall Gardens this after.
noon and was told that Elinor and Max
had been summoned 10 Abbot's Leigh at
two o'clock this morning. Gerald was
dangerously ILL.," Valerie clasped her
hands with a cry Of dismay. And a later
telegram" continued Mrs. Langley, said
that IL was violent inflammation of the
lungs, from a chill, and thero was great
danger"
"Oh, II II Constance" exclaimed the
girl, her eyes blind with tears, chow terri.
ble-how terrible for them alll'
"IIe may recover" said Mrs. Langley,
more composedly. ale Is not yet forty,
and has a strong constitution. Aston Law.
ford told me-" she added, looking at her
niece, who stood silent, too shocked for
speech, that he had written TO you to-day"
Valerie started, flushing crimson.
EYES," she said, confusedly, 'he-I-oh.
please never mind hat now!'
But | must mind 1t, child! You have
not answered him YETI"
Eyes, | have. He asked me not to delay,
and kept the letter "a long as | could for
you to see. | only sent it just before you
came in"
airing, that ~resounded through the house
mingled with her last words.
Valerie made a quick step toward the
door.
Come here, child,'' said her aunt, a lit
tie stcrnly. "Nhat did you say?"
81 said-I-n
A hurried knock at the door, and its IN
slant opening interrupted her.
A footman came in, and handed a tele-
gram to Mrs, Langley.
She glanced at it and grew suddenly livid.
Great Heaven she said. Gerald Beau
regard is dcad!"
Valerie almost snatched the paper from
her aunt's nerveless hand, and read, with
dazed eyes:
From Colonel B%eauregard, Abbot's
Leigh, 20 Mrs. Langley, 1, Upper Brook
Street, London, w.
my brother died at eight this evening,
Of acute inflammation. / will write later.
Nellie greatly Frustrated, but In no dam
ger"
Gerald B~eaureRard ueau!
ut can't be truer' Valerie whispered,
hoarSely, with wide-open eyes of horror.
at can't be true!'
But Mrs. Langley said, slowly: at is
only too trucl' Then, after a pause, under
her breath, TO herself rather than TO Va
leric: And Max Beauregard is lord of Abb
bots Leigh?'
CHAPTER XXX.-"LoRD OF ABDoT's LEIGH.
"And Max Beauregard is lord of Abbot's
Leigh"
Valerie heard the words, but not their
sense. She was quite stunned, ard stood
staring blankly before her, with not yet
even q definite thought of how Max would
feel the loss of his brother. The blow was
SO sudden, SO utterly unexpected, so EN-
tirely without warning. A man il the
vigor of his manhood, scarcely even ailing
at the time, struck down within a few
hours; in the morning dangerously ill-no
more; in the eveuing-dead!
And Valerie was young; to the young
sudden death is always appalling. Only
experience can familiarize with these ca
tastrophes which seem to shake and rift
the fabric of human existence. The girl
ItlNl Uthlt vi tt'tNh -lNdl vi II, oliN NOVA
never met it face to face. On the battle
field sudden death is but in the order OF
things. Here It was the crashing over
throw of all the order Of nature; and, agi-
tated rs she already was, this terrible news
came upon the girl with the force of a
calamity.
But Mrs. Langley was fifty years old,
and Of n wholly different temperament.
To say that she did not feel the blow in
any degree would be TO do her injustice;
and she might have felt it more keenly but
for the serious worldly issues following
upon the death of General Beauregard: but
Constance Langley was, before all things,
worldly, and-in her way-ambitious.
Even in the first shock of the intelligence,
the facts that Max Beauregard was now
owner of the broad lands of Abbot's Leigh,
and that Valerie had received m offer
from Aston Lawford, were present TO her
mind. Indeed, when hat day she had
heard that Gerald wa dangerously i'll, the
thought at once came: "If he should die,
then Max will be a leading man in the
world" And all the way home her busy
brain was revolving possibilities for Va
lerie's future. Reaurcgard, Lord of Alb
bots Leigh, would be a match with which
Aston Lawford, ironmaster, could not
compare. The Beauregards had great
estates in their " county and elsewhere,
and all the prestige Of ancient and Illus.
trious family; and Colonel Beauregard had
personal charms of a high order, and per-
sonal fame. What q future lay before Va
lerie if only
And 10! possibility had become more than
probability:
Mrs. Langley rose to her feet, and looked
at her niece.
ut is very sh~ocking-very Dreadful she
said, slowly. Poor Elinor! and she has
no SOM She removed her bonnet and
mantle. and began to take off her gloves.
"And Max she added-''he will feel it,