Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-22
THE
 DEPUTY CLAIMANT By ISABEL E. MACkAY.
NHHY did he not come to Eng
 WV land himse1f?" asked.the girl

The deputy claimant beganto chew a blade of grass. Well, to tell the truth, think herwas a little-bit-ah -nervous.''
 .sYou mean that he was afraid. am not surprised. All thieves are cow ards"
 ssThieves!" exclaimed the deputy claimant, responsibility.
 .'Yes, thieves said she. "What do you call a 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 relationships 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 Maria! I hate Aunt Maria!" she finished, vim dictively.
 The deputy claimant repressed a smile.
 Don't you call a man like that a thief?" repeated the girl, angrily.
 'sI-er-that is,-the 1aw-''
 "Oh, 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 she was, and how the back ground of green trees and ve1vets1awn suited her. He had been thinking these same things ever since he first visited there, four weeks before.
 "It is deuc-very hard on you. You seem to be in place here. You were made for parks, you know, and big rooms and servants and pretty dresses, and-er-that sort of thing"
 The girl threw out her hands with a little pathtic gesture. 'It is my home!" Tn her eyes there was 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:
 ''It is not so much giving up the serv- ants,< or the pretty dresses, or ceasing to be called the lady of the manor, or any of the hundred-and-one things that go with it; it is the thought of having no right here-here, where I have lived all my life and thought I should live always. To go away and be stranger, and all this belonging to some one else-some one whom I have never seen-an outsider-an alien"
 "It is hard luck" said the young man, asympa thetically. Then, remem- bering 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 older than yours, and he could not help the law"
 The girl gave a weary little sigh. ''No," she said, ''I suppose not. Buthe need not have insulted me-" = "What?'' said the deputy claimant, sitting up straight and nearly choking himself with the grass blade he had been chewing.
 ''He could have he1pedthat,' said the young lady, with emphasis.
 "I do not understand,' he protested. t'Did you say that he has insulted you?"-
 "Oh," she said, "I thought you did not know. will tell you~if you prom ise never,Fnever to breathe a word. He wrote to Aunt Maria" .'..
 "Yes," he said, stbut-" 4
 ssHe wrote to Aunt Maria," she con- tinued, triumphantly, ssandthe told her that I might have the property back if would take him with it"
 "Oh," said the young man, reproach- fully, "he did not put it likesthat!'
 ssHow do you know?" she asked, !, ,5. it in just that way. He said that he was very sorry to dispossess the pres ent claimant, that he understood that the person in question wasvery young. He said he did not know much about girls, but that didn't she think it would settle things naturally if-if-''
 "I see,'' he said. 'tHe made a ter rible bungle of it, poorfellow!'
 ssWas it an insult or was it-not ?'' asked the girl, inexorab1y.
 The deputy claimant looked very miserable. He was certainly in atight 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, it was certainly an insult. I understand l that now. But when heLahem-read Id me the letter
 ''Oh, he did read you the letter."
 -ssI did not look at it in just that way and neither did he. You see, we l had both lived all our lives out on . prairie farm. We did not know much about girls, as he says. He did not understand well, he did not under stand anything" he finished, desper- ately.
 And you think?"
 ssI think he did not mean it as an in l suit. I know he did not.''
 He glanced at her imploringly, but she looked away. There was slight pause.
 'You are the jury,' he reminded her.
 .sIn that case the verdict of the jury l is, in this case, deferred until-until the jury gets ready to give it!" she an swered, laughing gayly at his rueful face.
 Now she continued, sI want to know about, him. You are witness 1 you understand. Is he we'll educated?'
 "He is fairly educated"