Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-08-18
CHAPTER XIX.


It was almost dark when they returned
to the Court.
''Your idea of the length of half an
hour must be singularly vague, Mr. Hast
ings," smiled Lady Grace. "Surely you
have been further than the Farm?"
''Not even as far, Lady Grace" he re-
piled, with a glad smile; and then Wini-
fred being gone, he told her his story.
81 am very glad" she said, kindly. 81
could wish you nothing better than ito
have such a wife as Winifred."
All obstacles surmounted, and the en-
gagement between them being ratified by
the consent of all parties, Mr. Hastings
would not hear Of any objection to the
marriage taking place Immediately.
;.Remember, darling, he said, when
Winifred would have urged him to wait,
II have loved you for more than two
years. Having made me so miserable,
surely you owe it to me to lose no time
in atoning for it. Pray get that horri-
BILE trousseau business over with all
speed, or I shall think you do not love
me cas- love you"
Sir Howard was delighted when he was
apprised of the intended marriage, and
insisted that Winifred should be married
from Hurst Manor. She had fancy for
being married in the little church where
she had so often sat when she was only
a farmers daughter. She was not the
simple little country girl now, but an ele-
CANT young lady, accustomed to luxury
and good society. Enrol would have liked
much better that she should come to him
portionless, but that was not to be as he
desired.
Sir Howard Champion gave her twenty
thousand pounds, and Sir Clayton ten
thousand, while Lady Grace provided her
with a magnificent trousseau. Mr.. Hast
ings had the family diamonds reset and
remounted for her, and would have had
her wear some of them at least at the
wedding.
"Please not, Errol," she pleaded 81 do
not like all this grandeur. l would rath-
er not forget that my early life was sim
ple."
Mrs. Clayton was of course to have
been at the wedding. She was looking
forward to it, glad at heart at the part
she had taken in bringing together two
people who cared for each other. Three
weeks before the day fixed She received
letter with a foreign postmark.
'.Who can it be from?'' she said, turn
ing it over in her hand, and speaking to
Winifred. 81 do not know the hand; it
seems grabbed and foreign, and has been
forwarded from London. 1t is addressed
to Milady Clayton, too" And Fee con-
tinued to look at it without, however,
breaking the seal. 'Wkc can it be
from?" she said again. *
"If you open it you will soon see, DEAR
Winifred replied, laughing.
81 don't quite like to do it," Mrs. Clay
ton remarked presently. Il suppose it is
because I am nervous and unwe!l; but 4
always feel as if every letter l receiYed
contained bad news. Will you open il
for me-?
And she tossed it across the table.
"Of course / will What scrawl.'1
And Miss Eyre proceeded to tear the en1
velope. 81 should imagine it contained
some mysterious secret, from the way il
is gummed together. | must take a knife
and slit it open from the side"
With some trouble she got at the con
tents-a dirty scrap of foreign paper.
with few grabbed hieroglyphics, and be-
gan to read aloud:
"Milady and honored excelency-I av
te profonde regrette to annonce to you
dat te Milor Clayton-monsieur yor hus-
band av bin took wild de horrible maladie
of cholera an want to see you. [ av sent
for the principal docteur an am at yor
ORDERS GODEFROI LUPIN."
A horror seized upon Mrs. Clayton. She
had never loved her husband; lately she
had hated him; but the idea of his being
i'll alone among strangers brought the
tears to her eyes.
80, Winifredw she exclaimed to her
friend, in whose face she read consterna-
ton, 'I must go to him at once
"You cannot, Fee; weak as you are it
would be madness. The address is some
obscure village in Switzerland. Let US
go and ask Sir Clayton what had best be
DONE"
"Who do you suppose this letter to be
written by?" Sir Clayton asked, when he
had read the curious missiye.
II cannot tell. Perhaps the hotel keep
orr