The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-15
Showing How Red Wrath May Heal
Wound.


It was full two days after the coming Of
the Baronet and the factor-lawyer Pen
garvin before / saw my lady's face near
hand again, and sometimes was glad Tor
Richard Jennifer's sake. but oftener would
curse and swear because I was bound hand
and foot and could not balk my enemy.
knew Sir Francis and the lawyer sui
fingered on at Appleby Hundred-indeed,
saw them daily from my window-and OAR
Jus would be telling me that they waited
upon the coming of some courier from the
south But this disbelieved Some SUCH
like lie the Baronet might have told. l
thought. but when I saw him walk ABROAD
with Margery on his arm. pacing back and
forth beneath the oaks and bending low to
catch her nghtest word with grave anu
courtly Difference that none knew better
how to feign. knew wherefore he stayed
knew and ragged afresh at my own iulpo.
tence and for the thought that Margery
was wholly at the mercy Of this devil
Yours il a colder century than was ours.
my dears. Your art has tempered love and
passion into sentiment. and hate you nave
learned to call aversion or dislike. But we
of that slmple-hearted elder time were more
downright; and I have writ the word l
mean in saying that my love was at the
mercy of this fiend.
Iknow not how It IS or why, but there are
men who have this gift-some winning way
to turn woman's head or toucn ner nsart.
and I knew well this gift was his. twas
not his face. for that was something less
than handsome to my fancy; nor yet his
figure though that was big and so!deriy
enough It was rather In some suotlety
OF manner some power of stimulation where-
bv in any womanly heart he seemed to
stand ct will for that which ha was not. Z
Az I have said, knew him well enougnf
knew him incapable Of love apart from pas
o. s. i'm, thorQ aaCTe0-
ness in maiden chastity or wifely vows.
go he but gained his END he cared no whit
what followed after! run. broken hearts.
lost souls. man slain now ana then 10 Keep
the scale from tipping-aI were as one 70
him, or to the Francis Faconnet knew
And touching marriage. with Margery OF
any other. I feared that love would have no
word to say Passion there might be. ana
that fierce desire to have and wear when
b,,rns like any n1ieers fever IN the plooo'
but never love as lovers measure II. why
then. had he proposed to Margery! me an
swer 6ad not tarry. Since ne was now
I'm. a gentleman volunteer 1t was plain
tbat he had souandered his estate. and SO
might brock the marriage chain II 1t wers
linked up with my fathers acres
II was a bait to lure such a gamester
strongly AS matters stood with US In that
wan summer Of exhaustion and defeat. the
Kings cause waxed and grew more nope
full day by day. And in event OF maj VIC
tory. a landless baronet, marrying MAJ
gery's dover Of Appleby Hundred. might
snap his fingers at the Jews who. hapiT'
had driven him forth from England
And as for MarRery7 Truly. she had told
me. or as good as told me. that her maiden
love had pledged itself a pawn for Jenni-
fer's redeeming. But there be other things
than love to sway womans VIII. rms
volunteer Captain with the winning way
was Of the haute noblesse, and he could
make her Lady Falconnet- Moreover. he
was with her day by day; and you may
mark this as you will-that a present suit
or hath ever the trump cards to play
against the absent lover.
So, brooding over this. wore out two
most dismal days-the first IN many had
had to pass alone. But on the morning Of
the third the sky was Hghtened though
then the light was but flash and darkness
followed quickly after. She came again and
brought me a visitor; 1t was this same
Father Matthew with whom she had JEST
ingly compared me. and lest I should take
my punishment too lightly, stayed but to
make the good priest known to me-. r
Now was born and bred an
hereto, by any papist's reckoning.
but I have ever held 1t witless in
that man who lets a creed obstruct A
friendship. Moreover. this sweet-faced cleric
was the friendliest Of men: friendly, and
yet the widest Jesuit Of them all. since he
read me at q glance and fell straightway
to praising Margery.
"A truly sweet young demoiselle." he said,
by way of foreword, no sooner was the
door closed behind her. and while he
preached a sermon on this text grew to
know and love him.
He was a little man. as bone and muscle
go, with deep-set eyes, and features kind
and mild and fine as any woman's; some
foo
could that have been less youthful. I
could not tell his order. though from his
well-worn cassock girded at the waist with
a frayed bit OF hempen cord he might have
been a Little Brother of the Poor. But this
I noted; that he was not tonsured. and his
white hair, soft and fine as Margery's. was
like an aureole to the finely chiseled fea-'
lures. As missionary men Of any creed
are apt he looked far older than he really
was; and when he came to tell me Of his
life among the Indians, 1t was patent how
the years had multiplied upon him.
listened, well enough content to learn
him better by his own report
But you must find It thankless work;
this gospeling in the wilderness" VEN.
|, tured. when all was said. "'T1s but a her.
limits life for any man Of parts; and after
all. when you have done your utmost your
converts are but savages. as they were. :
At this he smiled and shook his head.
mon, Monsieur, not so. You are q sole
der and cannot see beyond your point OF
sword. Mais mon ami. they have souls
to save, these poor children Of the forest
and they are far more sinned against than
SHINING. 1 find them kind and true and
faithful; and some Of them are noble. IN
their way"
I laughed. i've read about those nobls
ones" I said. Twas In a book called
.Hakluyt's Voyages Truly, I know them
not as you do, for in my youth / knew
them most in war. We called them brave
but cruel then: and when l was a boy +
could have shown you where, within O.
mile of this. they burned poor Davie Da-
wilson at the stake"
"Ah. yes: there has been much of that"
he sighed. But you must confess, Captain
1retOn, that you English carry fire and
sword among them, too"
From that he would have told me moro
about the savages, but 1 was interested
nearer home. AS I have said, I was like
any prisoner in dungeon for lack of news
and SO by degrees l fetched him round
10 teiilng me OF what was going on be-
You'd my window-sight of lawn and forest
Brave deeds were to the fore. it seemed.
AT Ramsours Mill, a few miles north and
west, some little handful of determined
patriots had bested thrice their number
OF the Kings partisans. and that without
leader bigger than county colonel
LORD Rawdon. in command of Lord
far as wa.b nan' cra had come as
unsupported. had withdrawn ou to H Rsnss
ing ROCK. Our Mr.. Rutherford was on
his way to the Forks of Yadkin to engage
the Tories gathering under Colonel Bryan
consequence to take the field against Corn
wallis though there were flying rumors of,
an army marching from Virginia with q,
new-appointed General at its head.