Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-07-14
MRS. FORESTER.

so suspicious! Mr.. Hastings Is going to
England on business, and Col. d'Aguilar
is going with him."
"D'Aguilarw cried Francis Clayton,
starting, has he been hereT'
"Yes."
"And you have met himT
eyes"
"And spoken to himY"
eyes"
"And danced with him?"
81 plead guilty to that also," answered
Fee, trying to speak gayly. She was &C
customed to violent outbursts from her
husband, but the passionate violence he
gave way to on this occasion surpassed
anything she had ever witnessed.
He said such terrible things to her,
that, trembling, frightened, as she was,
her indignation was greater. She walked
straight up to him.
"How dare you use such words to me!'
she cried. "How dare you utter your
base-minded suspicious before me! l
would not lower myself so much in my
own eyes as to attempt to justify my
conduct. You are a poor, miserable
tyrant, with whom it is impossible for
a woman to live and retain her self-re-
spect. 1 will not stop under the same
roof with you another hour. From this
moment 1 leave yeu," and she swept to-
ward the door. But he was there before
her, and stood with his back against it,
to prevent her egress.
81 forbid you to leave this house!'
"Henceforward you have no authority
over my actions" his wife replied, coldly.
81 leave Paris tonight"
''Then you go without servants or
clothes"
''Be it so! 1 care not how, but go l
will"
He saw that she was resolved, and he
was afraid of her. He tried to justify
himself-to make up the quarrel; she
would not hear word. Then he apollo
gized, humbly,> abjectly; and at last she
consented to receive his amende. Their
misery was sealed from that hour. How
could a man with a mind like Clayton's
ever pardon a woman who had so hu-
inflated him?
The Champions were perhaps not the
most united family in the world. Mr..
Champion was proverbially Indifferent to
his wife; Sir Howard and his grand
children had perpetual alterations; and.
latterly, Mrs. Champion and her daugh-
ter seemed far less attached to each 9TH
er than formerly. Flora Champion was
unhappy and discontented. Her aim in
life was to make brilliant marriage, and
she failed. go.
Scenes between her and Sir Howard
were of frequent occurrence. She qua.
relied constantly with her brother, and the
last and crowning part of her mortifca-
ton was that he had fallen desperately
in love with Winifred Eyre. When Mr..
Eyre died, Sir Howard had gone to the
Farm and offered to take Winifred to the
Manor. But she refused-not bitterly,
not angrily, but firmly. THANK you,"
she said, 81 am sure you mean kindly.
You despised and slighted my dear, dear
father when he was alive, and l will not
accept anything at your hands now" And
Sir Howard, instead of being displeased
and offended, was rather gratiied by an
independence Of spirit which he consider
ed due to the blue blood she inherited
from the Champions.
Meantime Winifred very gratefully ac-
cepted another offer that was made to
her. The moment kind Lady Grace heard
of her young friends trouble she came to
her and wanted to take her away to En-
don Vale at once. But no persuasion
could INDUCE Winifred to leave the Farm
until after the funeral, and even then she
clung to ker old friend, Madame de Mon
tolieu, and could not bear the thought
of leaving her. But Lady Grace was
bent on having the girl, whom she had
come to care for very dearly. So she
finally persuaded Madame de Montolieu
to give up her cottage and go with Wini-
fred to Endon Vale.
To return to Flora Champion. The
retribution which her conduct toward Mr..
Vane deserved had overtaken her. He
was Lord Lancing now; his father had
been dead six months, and he was as
Indifferent to her as she had formerly
been to him. And, worse than all, their
positions were reversed, and she was in
love with him, to her own bitterness and
notification She tried first to win him
back, and when that failed, she strove,
with all her strength of will, to master
her unrequitted attachment. Lord Lam
cling never sighted her-he was far too
generous minded for that; he paid her the
same attention in public that he had al
ways done. But he never, as long as he
lived, uttered another word of love to her.
He was kind and tender to her, for the
sake of olden times, but a brave, gener-
GUS heart like his could never again love
a woman who had been capable of cold
ness and cruelty.
81 will marryw Flora vowed to her
self, "and marry well. I shall never love
any one but Evelyn, and he does not care
for me now. If a man as old as my grand
father asks me to be his wife, and he has
rank and wealth, will take him. Surely
1 have still beauty enough to buy love"
and Flora Champion looked proudly into
the long mirror before which she was
CHAPTER MI.
Winifred was no longer unhappy. She
al a. loJ