The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-03-23

OH I.

0@S 49,
stone walls Of Grey, Oaks. the country
residence Of Donald Markham, and the
show place Of the neighborhood.
Within the elegantly-appointed dining
room, around a table artistically gar
nished with fruit and flowers, fingered
three persons.
One was Grey Oaks owner and mas
ter-a tall. superb-looking man Of six
ty:ive winters, whose frosts had whit
ened his hair and beard, but failed to
bow his powerful frame.
Twenty years before, the society
world already looking upon Donald
Markham as a. confirmed old bachelor,
had been startled by being summoned
to welcome, on his return from an ex-
tended. foreign tour, q young and beau
tifnl woman Of italian birth, whom he
presented to them as his. wife.
Who she was, where he had met her,
and q h had conquered this shither-
to unconquerable, were matters: for Gu
rious speculation, of which there was
no lack. =,
Some said that she was the daughter
Of a Roman noble, and that she had
brought her husband a dover Of almost
incredible magnitude; others declared
that she was penniless, her only dover
her exquisite beauty and winning
grace.
Whoever, whatever, Donald Mark
hams wife. may have been before he
thus had honored her, as Mrs. Donald
Markham, She was too great a local
power not to reign as social sovereign
had she. so ordained. Society's pet
grievance was that she did not so or
dain.
She adored her husband, and he ap-
peared to lavish all the pent-up flood of
years upon her.
For a year their happiness was un-.
marred, and then, one perfect, May
morning, the heaviest sorrow Of Donald
Narkham's life fell upon him. They
put into his arms an infant daughter.
and whispered to him that his wife was
dead.
His grief was something terrible in its
silent, hopeless intensity. Iron bands
seemed at hat moment to lock them
about his heart-would AVE re-
manned SO locked forever but for the
tiny fingers Of his little girl, who. as
the years went by, n by one loosed
them.
On her he concentrated all q fathers
tenderness. Nc other woman's smile
ever allured him. Reticent and grave.
his child alone reveled In the inner
warmth and sunshine Of his nature, I'm"
til, advancing from babyhood to child
hood-from childhood to girlhood-sha,
now standing on the threshold Of wo-
manhood, appeared to him h tmper-
.Aonation and i~dealization Of the past:
II her dead mother had left her no
other inheritance than her exquisite
loveliness, that, at least, was full, COM
plete and perfect.
The light, streaming full upon her
face, revealed no flaw. The figure was
rounded into a beauty which defies all
criticism. Hers was q face no pen
could describe. Her eyes were gray
The straight regularity Of the little
nose. the rebellious. willful rings Of
rudy gold upon her white brow-this
until she smiled; and then you would
have sworn 1t was the smile to which
she owed her rarest charm.
Yet now, sitting opposite to her father
And toying with, rather than eating, the
bunch Of hot-house grapes upon her
plate, the lashes were sweeping her
cheeks. the dropping head half-shad-
owed its bloom. The smile was absent,
indeed. a tiny frown puckered her
brow; but the beauty still was there.
and on 1t gloated the eyes Of the third
member of the party. "
Randolph Chester was the nearest
relative Donald Markham could boast,
but 1t was difficult to believe even a re-
mote tie of blood connected two men
whose expression rendered them 80 dis
similar.
The face OF the younger man was at
once, singularly handsome and singu-
fairly r%epellant. One recognized in him
the fascination possessed by the SER
pent.
His eyes were dark and glittering;
his hair and mustache black; his skin
fair as q woman's. There was subtle
grace in every movement. His voice
was low and musical.
At the time Of his cousins marriage,
twenty years before, he had been a boy
Of. fourteen, and already looked upon
himself as Donald Markham's. pre-
sumptive heir.
Fol- years he had nourished q deadly
hatred against this innocent destroyer
of his fond vision; but, as the child de-
veloped into the most perfect woman-
hood, q new idea had burst upon him.
by which his early disappointment
might yet be wiped out. and his early
ambition: attained.
Over Donald Markham he already ex-
ercised a strong and peculiar influence
that influence he fostered by every
care, until he knew that to no maj
would his cousin more willingly intrust
his most precious treasure than him
self.
But an unexpected obstacle lay in his
path. It was one thing to WOO Beatrice
Markham-another to win her; and the
girl usually so sweet, so gracious to all,
took no pains to disguise toward him
aversion and-she was In love with
another.
Bertram Talbot, holding q salaried]
position in his cousins employ. aaspired
the hand Of his cousins heiress.
was he who had caused DonaldsMark-
ham to look atathis thing insstts. proper
,jieht-to feel his old liking for the
young man who had grown up from Z
boy IN his service, slowly directed into
the channels Of, suspicion and dislike,aas
was led to regard him as q fortune
SEs1xG.Ns7..a Aln1yxy 80 hnNhtA hfnn%tAo |