The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-05
The young viscounts passion grew by


himself, came while yet young to the
knowledge Of the girl. He spent hours
in the way young lovers have recounting
to her the jealous intensity of It
Not yet of age, he feared the hour
when he might call her his would be de-
layed by the stern prejudlces of parents
These are both, it must be remembered
young people of the world. They had
been bred upon certain conventions, GER
tain DEGREES inexorable as fate These
prompted them to guard their courtship
yet little while
So we may imagine them in its first
days blissfully happy, as might be any
couple not hampered by ties and con-
ventions
But love, like murder, will out
1t is too much to ask a boy and girl
not yet of age that they should hide the
commissions Of their hearts and dim the
radiant light of their eyes,
All London presently talked of the love
affair OF young Belgrave and Sheila West.
1t became known to the young mans
mother, now the wife of Gorge Wynd-
ham, M. p. Like all mothers who have
sons, she looked upon hers as still boy.
Matrmony seemed to her out of the ques-
ton, a matter to be spoken of, thought of
perhaps. in five years or more.
She communicated the foolish bows"
whim to his grandfather the Duke of
Westminster.
A secene followed. The nature of 1t
crept out though 1t was held behind
closed doors. The old Duke. forgetful
doubtless of his own love affairs, would
nave none of his grandsOn's yet. He set
his foot down, the equity foot of seventy
four. He made all sorts of threats. And
finding these made all etaoinshrdlurdlu
nnding these might be disregarded, he
pleaded. The boy was of his own flesh
and blood. He could not be driven as
drove horses.
out together.
There could be no objection to Sheila
Vests family. 1t is an old and disting-
uished one, directly descended from King
Henry III. of England. Her grand moth
er, Lady Olivia Fitzpatrick, was the
daughter of great Irish nobleman, and
her father is Colonel CORVALLIS West,
an English landlord with large landed
estates, chiefly in North Wales, and a
descendant of the Plantagenets
This wonderful family of f1irts was
doubtless discussed from generation to
generation, their escapades enumerated
and exaggerated.
Whatever the grandfather might have
done. whatever indiscetions the mother
may have been guilty Of, though the Prin-
cess Of Pless may have allowed the
tongue of scandal to wrap her about as
in fame offre, Sheila West was adored
1t was, the young man maintained, a
question Of her and of no other. What
cared he for the vagaries and suscepti-
bilities Of her grandmother, or her moth
er, or her sister, Her gray eyes, her
rosy lips, her ducet tones, her Irish wit
should be those of his wife with parental
and grandparental permission, or without
it
So at last the powerful Duke of West
minister, he who could control tenantry
for miles, who could bestow upon his
daughter on her marriage with the liber-
tine son of the Duke of Teck, G., ,00O
he who has won the Derby four times
by the excellence of the mightiest stud
in all England, yielded conditionally.
The marriage should not be yet Sheila
West might have all the virtues that were
not given her grandfather, or her mother
or sister, and none or their failings: she !
might be such a creature as never before |
had been seen by the eyes of man, but |
the old Duke insisted they were both too
young. He not yet twenty-one, and she |
.ah. why be ungallant enough to ask |
the age of a woman when she is young
enough to be beautiful
Her enemies say that she is by three
or four years Belgrave's senior. Her
friends deny this. They say, too. that |
she is not flirting, but has fallen deeply |
in love.
Imagine, then, what her suffering must |
have been when finally the full terms of |
the conditions upon which she might hope |
to wed peacefully were made known to !
her.
Yuong BeIgrave, with all the tender |
care of a lover, spoke to her of separa-
ton for a few months, then of reunion. |
Gradually he told her he was going to
South Africa to fight for his country, to |
win honor for her sake.
OF course he assured her there was no |
danger; that he was merely going, as he |
did, to Cape Town as aide-de-camp to |
Sir Alfred Miner. But she knew we'll |
the sort of man he is; that if there was
fighting he would somehow get to the |
thick of it, and be no more content to !
stop in the background than any other |
She thembled, as would any
girl. though she would not have him 9TH
erwise.
1t is easy to fancy the yarting; how she |
tried to keep back from her sunny Irish |
eyes thetears that would gather there; !
how she tried to be brave and to hide !
the trembling of her rosy lips; how she !
forced her voice to be firm.
Well, somehow. they said good-by, as
other men and women less in the public !
eye have said it before them, and will !
say it after them as long as the world |
lasts.
The annals OF the Boer war have not /
been such as to bring comfort to the /
young girl waiting at home for her lover. |
The world sympathizes with SheilaWest |
and the young man VINO became last |
week ythe death of his stern old grand |
father the Duke of Westminster
VIII he hurry home now to claim his |
bride?
No one believes that he viii return /
until the war is won. and he may be
among the thousands who never Will re- 4
turn
II ne does the prospects OF the young /
couple viii become brilliant enough TO .
dazzle many heads wiser and set upon /