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

ciously.
the next morning with sense of easy
victory and calm satisfaction that had,
however, none of the transports of af-
lection. Her taste was satisfied by the
love of handsome young fellow, a
typical Englishman, who, if not exact
ly original or ideal, was, she felt, of I.
universally accepted, "hallmarked''
standard, the legitimate outcome of a
highly ordered carefully guarded civil
lization, whose repose was the absence
Of struggle OF ambition, and even whose
regular features We're not yet differen-
tiated from the rest of his class by any
of those disturbing lines which people
call character. Everything was made
ready for her, without care or prepare
ton. She had not even an ideal to real
ize or to modify. She could slip with
out any jar or dislocation into this life,
which was just saved from self indul-
gence and sybaritic luxury by certain
conventional rules of activity and the
occupation of amusement which, as
obligations of her position, even APP
peared to suggest the novel aspect Of a
duty. She could accept all this without
the sense of being an intruder in an un-
broken lineage-thanks to the consul's
account of the Beverdales' inheritance.
She already pictured herself as the
mistress of this fair domain, the Gus
todian of it's treasures and traditions
and the dispenser of it's Inequalities,
but, as she conscientiously believed,
without pride or vanity in her posi-
c,,1r S,,4o. LID
appreciation of it. Nor did she dream
of ever displaying it ostentatiously be-
fore her less fortunate fellow country
women. On the contrary, she looked
forward to their possible criticism of
her casting off all transatlantic ties
with an uneasy consciousness that was
perhaps her nearest approach to patriot
ism. Yet again she reasoned that, as
her father was an Englishman, she was
only returning to her old home. AS to
her mother she had already comforted
herself by noticing certain discrepancies
in that lady's temperament which led
her to believe that she herself alone in
herited her fathers nature, for her
mother was, of course, distinctly Amer
lean. So little conscious was she of any
charming snobbishness in this belief
that in her superb naivete she would
have argued the point with the consul
and employed wit and dialect that
were purely American.
She had slipped out of the Priory
early that morning that she might en-
| JOY alone, unattended and unciceroned,
the aspect of that vast estate which
might be hers for the mere accepting.
Perhaps there was some instinct Of del
icacy in her avoiding Lord Algernon
that morning, not wishing, as she her
self might have frankly put it, s'to take
| stock" OF his Inheritance in his pres
ence. AS she passed into the garden
through the low postern door she turned
to look along the stretching facade of
the main buildinp. with the high stain
| ed windows Of 4Js banqueting hall and
| the state chamber where king had
slept. Even in that crisp October air,
and with the green of its ivied battle
| ments against the gold OF the distant
wood, it seemed to lie in the languid re-
| pose of an eternal summer. She hurried
| on down the other terrace into the Ital-
ian garden, quaint survival of past
| grandeur, passed the great orangery
and numerous Conservatives making
| a crystal hamlet in themselves and see.
ing everywhere the same luxury. But
it was a luxury that she fancied was
redeemed from the vulgarity of ostenta-
ton by the long custom of years and
| generations, Sc unlike the millionaire
palaces OF her own land, and in her en-
thusiasm she even fancied it was fur
ther sanctified by the grim monastic
founders who had once been content
with bread and pulse in the crumbling
and dismantled refectory. In the plen-
itude of her feelings she felt slight
recognition of some benefcent being
who had rolled this golden apple at her
feet and felt as if she really should like
to do good'' in her sphere.
1t SO Glanced that, passing through
q small gate in the park, she saw walk
ing little ahead of her young girl
whom she at once recognized as a Miss