The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-01-23

withered a. the leaves he was raking.
yet pausins, to make his reverence TO
this passing sunshine of youth and pros
pcrity in the presence of his coming
master, that tho consul as they swept
by locked after him with stirring of
pain.
Rather an old man to be still at
work, said the consul. Beverdale
laughed. You must not let him hear
you say so. He considers himself quite
as fiji as any younger man in the place,
and, by Jove, though he's nearly Sc,
I'm inclined to believe it. He's not one
of our people, however. He comes from
the village and is taken on at odd times
partly to please himself. His great aim
is to be independent of his children--he
has granddaughter who is one of the
maids ut the Priory and to keep him
self out of the workhouse. He does not
come from these parts; somewhere far
ther north, fancy. But he's tough
lot and has Il deal of work in him yet. .
''Seems to be going BIT stale late
ly," said Lord Algernon, land l think
is getting little queer in his head. He
has a trick of stopping and staring
straight ahead at times, when he seems
to go off for minute or two. There,
continued the young man, with light
laugh, Il say he's doing it now p
They both turned quickly and gazed at
the bent figure not so yards away,
standing in exactly the same attitude
as before But even as they gazed he
slowly lifted his rake and began his
monotonous work again.
At Scrooby Priory the consul found
that the fame of his fair country wom-
an had indeed preceded her, and that
the other guests were quite as anxious
to see Miss Desborough as he was One
of them had already met her in Lon
don, another knew her as one of the
house party at the Duke of Northfore-
lands where she had been central
figure. Some Of her naive sallies and
frank criticisms We're repeated with
great JUNCTION by the gentlemen and
with some slight trepidation and
fearful joy by the ladies. He was
more than ever convinced that mother
and daughter had forgotten their lineal
Desboroughs, and he resolved to leave
any allusion to it to the young lady
herself.
She, however, awaited herself of that
privilege the evening after her arrival.
Who'd have thought of meeting you
here?'' she said, sweeping her skirts
away to make room for him on sofa.
'sIt's coon's age since I saw you-not
since you gave us that letter to those
genealogical gentlemen in London
The consul hoped that it had proved
successful.
eyes, but nav guessed we didn't
care to go back to Hengist and Horsa,
and when they let loose lot of Deb
boroughs' and 'Daybrooks' upon u.s.
nav kickedl We've got drawing ten
yards long that looks like sour apple
tree, with lois of Desboroughs hanging
up on the branches like last years pip
pins, and I guess about as worm eaten
We took that we'll enough, but when it
came to giving us map of straight
lines and dashes with names written
under them like an old Morse telegraph
slip struck by lightning, then NAV and
l. u.
You know, she went on, opening
her clear gray eyes on the consul, with
characteristic flash Of shrewd good
sense through her quaint humor,, we
never reclzoned where this thing would
land u.s. and we found we We're paying
e1OO not only for the Desboroughs but
all the people they'd married and their
children and children's children, and
there were a lot of outsiders we d never
heard of nor wanted to hear Of Nav
once thought she'd got on the trail of a
Plantagenet, and followed it, keen, I'M
til she found she had been reading the
dreadful thing upside down. Then we
concluded we wouldn't take any more
stock in the family until it had risen.
During this speech the consul could
not help noticing that, although her at
titude was playfully confidential to
him, her voice really was pitched high
enough to reach the ears of smaller
groups around her, who were not only
following her with the intensest admit
ration, but had shamelessly abandoned
their own conversation and had even
faced toward her. Was she really posing
in her naivete? There was a certain
mischievous, even aggressive conscious
ness in her pretty eyelids. Then she
suddenly dropped both eyes and voice
and said to the consul in a genuine
aside, 81 like this sort Of thing much
better. :"
The consul looked puzzled "What
sort of thing2,'
"Why, all these swell people, don t
you see-their pictures on the walls,
this elegant room, everything that has
{ come down from the past all ready and
settled for you, you know-ages ago.
Something you haven't to pick up Cor
yourself and worry over. y
| But here the consul pointed out that
the place itself was not ancestral as
regarded the present earl and that
even the original title of his predeces-
sors had passed away from it. Gin fact,
it came into the family by one of those
outsiders you deprecate. But dare
say you'd find the place quite as COM
Portable with Lord Beverdale for host
Il