Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-18
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Parting of the Ways.

The door Of the Flower Cot being thus
shut against him. and indeed against all
the world, 1t was with infinite earnestness
that John went back to his duties in the
parish Of Cover. Death had touched him,
too, on the shoulder that night in the
Green Dock and, though the bony fingers
had slipped aside, John Glondonwyn stood
ever after in a new relation to the Things
Observation-Disclosures.
1.-TWO women shall be grinding at the
milL-the one shall be taken and the other
left"-so the stern message rang all day
In his heart. The countryside talk which
dealt SO freely with the last days Of
Rupert, his brother, his strange death and
the return of Kate and Fairlie Glendenning
to their home failed to reach him The
little light In the little manse window was
now seldom exttugulshed. He grew so dill
gent In visitation that there was in the
parish no plowman's sick BARN that he had
not visited twice In the week.
And poor. struggling farm folk and
yearly tenants who had long feared the
hand Of Gregory Glendonwyn and antici-
pated with doubi fear the incoming Of
spendthrift Rupert had hope opened to
them with the thought that this slender,
blue-eyed young minister of theirs was to
be the greatest landlord in the countryside.
But this appeared to add nothing to John
Glendonwyn's consequence or in any way
TO alter the rigid simplicity Of his life.
After the funeral OF his brother (which
Gregory Glendonwyn carried out upon h
scale Of expense which was entirely with
out parallel in the district) It had been
generally understood that the minister
would return to Castle Cover. II was even
rumored that he would resign the pastoral
charge Of his parish.
John Glendonwyn ala neither. He went
quietly back to the manse and from that
as a headquarters continued his ministra-
lions as before. Indeed, It was only thus
that he could live with comfort. His father
and he were Of entirely opposite sentiments
upon all the great problems Of church and
state. More and more since his son Rupert
died aud his mind had been eased Of the
fear OF the Glendenning complication John
now being heir to the estate and the mat
ter OF the trust money having been ar
ranged by Johns readiness to yield his
fortune to his father without a question
being asked or answered., Gregory Glen
donwyn had thrown himself with vigor and
bitterness into the political aspects of the
great controversy.
He was, OF course, by virtue Of his posi-
tion, the leading elder in the parish Of
Cover, though during the incumbeney OF
Rev. Gilbert Alblins be had mostly at
tended the church of Kilgour, where DIT.
Caesars preaching and opinions were more
20 his taste.
1t was In this way. indeed. that father
and son first came across each other in
public life. Since Rupert's death Gregory
had treated John In every respect as the
heir OF Castle Cover, and on several &C.
raalopa he Aad ap,u -aa.- -
his advice with regard TO the cutting of
trees or the putting in OF new planta-
tions.
you are TO be the laird some day" he
would say. "and snte you have put a large
stake into the estate-and indeed were the
sole means Of r~eseuing IL from the results
OF my poor boys folly-it is right that
you should be consulted upon all matters
which will affect It's value in the future"
And John Glendonwyn gave to his father
the same grave, calm attention he never
denied TO any OF his parishioners. He con-
sidored the problems OF wood forestry and
the rebuilding Of farmsteadings with the
same equal mind which be devoted to the
question whether Betty salvlson's kailyard
should. as a paying speculation, contain
most cabbages or potatoes.
But between father and son there was
no real confidence, no intimacy, no fellow
ship.
However. John still dined at the castle
regularly once a week and listened to his
fathers talk concerning the manifold dis
eases Of the body polite. abstaining care
fully all the while from any expression OF
his own opinion. II was one Of the most
cherished OF Mr. Glendonwyn's beliefs that
whatever he undertook he could carry
Through. And in general his success was
not ineommensurate with this useful article
Of faith.
Mr.. 0lendonwyn had. never liked his
younger son, nor indeed had he ever con.
sidered him at all. save as an unmitigatet
nuisance and as dividing the inheritanc,
with Rupert. More than ever OF late htl
easy readiness TO part with his maternal
fortune had gained him his fathers con
tempt. And Il never struck Mr.. Glen'
donWyn that In any matter, ecclesiastical Of
civil. John would disobey him or OneR ans
opposition to him In the parish which h
looked upon a. his wi
II hh son John had money which eoulc
rasoua thu estate from ruin II Waa Q fathers