Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-07-25

Violet told her story, it was not for
! "baby's sake that she grew fond Of
! the girl she mad prosecuted and hated.
| IL was for her own. She made her
submission with queer'y grace. She
asked Violet to return to Ryversdale,
| and let the past be forgotten.
Before they had been three days to-
! gether, Violet took heart CT grace.
Lady RIVERS " she said 81 want to
ask a great favor c? you; s. greet a
favor is it that, if you grant it. not
only will the past be obliterated from
| my n nd, but shall b. 50 grateful for
it that the whole devotion Of my life
will never repay you
81 should hardly have thought that
/ it was in my power to grant you a
favor" replied the dowager. What
, is it, Violet?"
LET Monica marry Paul Caerlyon,"
| she asked boldly.
The dowager looked as though the
sky had fallen at her feet. Then
Violet told Monica's love story. She
shed many tears over it, and at last
slowly, reluctantly, but in the end
graciously, the dowa ger yielded; and
Monica's joy was as great as her
sorrow had been.
Paul was invited to REVERSIBLE; and
nothing would please Lord RIVERS
until the family from Ingleshaw had
been asked too; and then followed
such a triumphal home coming as has
seldom been witnessed. How the
people cheered when they saw the
little heir and his beautiful young
mother! How they talked afterward
of 'Ethe string of car1iages!" Lord
and Lady RIVERS were in the first,
with the dowager and Monica. Then
came the Earl and Countess Of
Lester; then Mr.. and Mrs Carstone.
Paul CaeIlyon and Oscar Carstone
rode. There was such cheering and
feasting, such merriment and revelry,
that the day is still spoken of as one
to be remembered.
So long as they lived, Lord RIVERS
did everything in his power to show
his gratitude to the millionaire and
his wife. He introduced them every
where, and he spoke so highly of
them that every one was anxious to
know them; and in that way he amply
repaid his obligations to them.
Oscar made a grand metch-he mar
ried the daughter of an impoverished
earl, of whom his parents stood
greatly in awe during the remainder
of their lives.
Violet, Lady RIVERS, took courage
and wrote to her Aunt Alice, telling
her of the birth of her little son: but
Miss Anterior was Spartan to the
last. She never answered the letter,
and remains to this day quite in
different to the fact that her niece is
one of the most beautiful, most popu-
lar and admired women in England,
admired all the more for the little
bursts Of radicalism in which she in
dulges. Since she is the mother of
tie future Lord of Ryversdale, she
cannot consistently dislike the
aristocracy.
Beautiful Violet had found amid her
orange blossoms many thorns. She
has none now; the crown of perfect
wifehood, perfect motherhood, sits on
her queenly head. All the romance
of her youth goes with her through
life. and she never tires of telling her
children how her husband wooed her
in disguise and married her for love-
There was just one shadow in the
sunny picture. Miss Mari went away, |
passed out of their 1ivas TT mac
better for ell three, she said, that they
should not meet. She made her home
in Italy; but her home was desolate, |
just as her heart was empty, because
she loved the wrong man.
Violet, Lady RIVERS, laughs now as
she says, Better a wreath Of orange
blossoms with hidden thorns than no
orange blossoms at all!''
The end.