The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1901-02-07

~2M%l He was a hand
some old man, not
so very old in years, but aged in wick
edness. A handsome man still. with
aquiline features, a flushed face, and a
goodly crop Of white curly hair. Your
first thought on looking at him was,
What a charming old gentleman"
your second, what a pair Of steely
eyes!' our third, What a Mephisto-
pheles!' Yes, without the shadow of
a doubt, Lord Aylmer was a wicked
man, with a bad heart filed to the
brim. and running over with all man.
ner Of evil.
They say, you know, that m
novelists always make their heroes all
good, till they are as insipid as the
dummies in a tailor's window; or else
that they go to the other extreme, and
make their Williams such unmitigated
Williams that 1t is impossible to find
one single ray of virtue wherewith to
redeem their character from it's inky
pail of utter blackness. But let me
tell you that IL all the women novel
lists who write stories in the English
language were to concentrate their eff
forts upon the task of trying to de-
pict the villainy of Lord Aylmer's ma
tural depravity, / am afraid that in
the end they would have to call in
the aid of their masculine confreres
to adequately complete the portrait.
For the noble lord was all bad, thor
oughly bad-what up in the north
country they call bad, core through"
Yet he had a delightful manner when
he chose, and in early middle age had
made a genuine love-match with a
beautiful young woman at least six
teen years younger than himself-a
penniless as well as a beautiful young
woman, upon whom he had lavished
so much love and attention that with
in three months of his marriage his
love had burned itself out, and was
as dead as any dead volcano. A few
weeks later Lord Aylmer practically
separated himself from his wife, al
though they continued to share the
same house, and he appeared before
the world as much as possible as il
no breach had ever been opened be-
tween them.
Not by Lord Aylmer's desire, this
oh! no, but because her ladyship had
never been so genuinely in love with
him as he had been with her, and was,
moreover, perfectly alive to the solid
worldly advantages of being Lord Ayl-
mer's wife, the mistress of Aylmer's
Field and of the handsome town house
in Belgrave Square.
"Of course | know that there are
Others" she said in reply to a dear
friend who thought it her duty to open
this young wife's eyes, 'and, of course,
/ know that Aylmer wants to get rid
OF me; but / don't mean to be got rid
of, and ! put up with the others be-
cause | think doing SO the lesser of
two evils. There is only one Lady
Aylmer, and she Is a strong and
healthy young woman, who means 20
be Lady Aylmer for at least fifty years
longer. Yes, l know, my dear, all
that o feel about it. / quite appre-
ciate your feelings toward me. Oh. yes,
it was your duty to tell me, but | am
not going TO cut myself out OF all that
makes life worth living just to oblige
a husband who has got tired of me
in three months"
To this decision Lady Aylmer had
from that time forward kept most
rigidly. AS far as her husband was
concerned, nothing seemed to annoy
her, and whenever she wished to do
so and condescended to try to get her
wi way by means of a little fattery.
she generally succeeded; and now that
Lord Aylmer had got into the Sixties"
she was simply a stately, even-temper-
ed, iron-willed and exceedingly healthy
woman, who looked as IL she meant
to live to be ninety.
1t was partly on the subject of his
wife's extreme healthiness that Lord
Aylmer was thinking that morning as
he smoked his cigarette and tried to
assure himself that the twinge in his
left foot were merely a sign Of a COM
Ing shower and nothing in the world
to do with govt at all. And just as a
worse twinge than usual made him
vince and shiver, the door opened gent
ly n a man-servant made his ap-
pearance.
(To be Continued.)