The Monticellonian., 1902-10-02
THE
 DEPUTY CLAIMANT  By ISABEL E. MACkAY.
"ATHY did he not come to Eng
 w land himself?" asked the girl,

w land Gia himsef@" as 4%s asaeS @deS the 1 eS ef refleetively.
 The deputy claimant began to chew a blade of grass. Well, to tell the truth think he was a little bit-ahem nervous"
 "Yon mean that he was afraid. am not surprised. All t..ieves are cow ards"
 "Thieyes!' exclaimed the deputy claimant, responsibility.
 "Yes. thieves" said she. What do you call man who, just because he happens to be my uncle's son. and my uncle happened to be two years older than my father and happened to have got married without telling any of his relations-just because of a little thing like that-here he comes and takes my home away from me and makes me go and live with Aunt Mariat l hate Aunt Maria!" she finished yin- dietively.
 The deputy claimant repressed a smile.
 Don't you call man like that a thief?" repeated the girl. angrily.
 "I-er-that is-the law"
 "0h, if you're going to talk law" said the girl. disdainfully
 The deputy claimant immediately re- pressed his legal knowledge. Instead he looked up at her and thought how very pretty sine was, and how the back ground of green trees and velvet lawn suited her He had been thinking these same things ever since he first visited there, four weeks before.
 Tt is dene-yery hard on you. You seem 10 be in place here. You were made for parks, you know, and big rooms and servants and pretty dresses. -er-that sort of thing"
 The girl threw out her hands with a little pathtic gesture. Tt is my homei" In her eyes there was q home sick look already. Her glance wan dered over the broad terrace, through the branching green of the trees to the flowers in the distance, and the quaint old house basking peacefully in the sun. She went on, dreamily:
 Ut Is not so much giving up the sery- ants, or the pretty dresses. or eeasing to be called the lady of the manor or any of the hundred-and-one things that go with it; itis the thought Of having nc right here-Aere. where l have lived all my life and thought I should live always. To ro away and be a stranger, and all this belonging to some one eIse@some one whom I have never seen-an outsider-an alien"
 ''It k hard luck" said the young man, sympathetically. Then, remem- hering his duty as proxy for the ab- sent one, he continued: "But, yousee, you ought to be just. You can't help seeing that he could not help his fa- ther being two years elder than yours, and he could not help the law"
 The girl gave a weary little sigh, "No," she said, T suppose not. But he need not have insulted me-
 "What?a said the deputy claimant. sitting up straight and nearly choking himself with the grass blade he had been chewing.
 He could have helped that, said the young lady. with emphasis.
 ''I do not understand" |" he protested Did you say that he has insulted you?"
 "oh," she said. q thought you did not know. ! will tell you if you prom ise never, never to breathe a word. He wrote to Aunt Maria"
 "Yes," he said, "but-"
 He wrot" to Aunt Maria" she con tinued, triumphantly. and he told her that I might have the property back If l would thke him with it.
 "0h." said the young man, reproach- fully, "he dsd not put it like that!''
 How de you know 9" she asked, quickly. Hut of course he did not put it in just that way He said that he Nas very sorry to dispossess the pres ent claimant, that he understood that the person :n question was very oung He said he did not know much about ! girls, but that didn't she think it would settle things naturally Tiff"
 'I see" he said. He made a ter rible bung'e of 1t. poor fellow!'
 Was it an insult or was it not?'' asked the girl, ineXorahly.
 The deputy claimant looked very Ail4fN | hlS+ iAS was Ntl Ad4A4I ' LII d ilS II | place.
 Looking at it from your point of view" he said. finally. considering your character. your training, your views of life and things like that, il was certainly an insult. understand that now. But when he-ahem-read me the letter
 "oh, he did read you the letter."
 -s'I did not look at it in just that way and neither did he. You see. We had both lived all our lives out on [ prairie farm. We did not know mucf about girls. ss he says. He did not understand-well. he did not under stand anything" he finished, desper stely.
 And you think?"
 T think he did not mean it as an in suit. I know he did not"
 He glanced at her imploringly. bu she looked away. There was a sligh pause.
 You are the jury" he re9indet