Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-07-25
Observation-Disclosures
Only One !
erAsbEg ~ Love s
GARVICE
CHAPTER "

Gideon and Una, and the young moon
fell peacefully on the irregular pile Of
the ancient mansion known Familiarity
for twenty miles OF its neighborhOoi
as The Hurst.
The present owner was one Ralph
Davenant. or Squire Dayenant, as Jack
Newcombe had called him, and as he
was called by the county generally.
He was an old man OF eighty, who
had lived One-half his life in the
widest and most dissipated fashion,
and the other half in that most IN
profitable occupation known as re-
penUing thereof.
1 say known as" for if old Squire
pavsnant had really repented, this
story would never have been written.
III half the stories which we're told
OF him were true. Ralph Davenant.
he present owner Of hurst, deserves
a niche in the temple Of fame-or in
famy-which holds the figures OF the
worst men of his day. He had been
gambler, a spendthrift, a rogue OF the
worst kind for one half his life; a
miser. a cynic. a misanthrope for the
other.
And he now lay dying in his huge,
draughty bed-Chamber, hung with the
portraits OF his ancestOrs-all bad and
filled with the ghosts Of his youth and
wasted old age.
As il was. he lay quite still-sO still
that the physician. brought down from
London az a cost of-say, ten guineas
an hour. was often uncertain whether
he was alive or dead.
There was a third person in the
roma tall. thin young man, who
stood mOtiOnless beside the bed.
watching the old man, with half-clOsed
eyes and tightly compressed lips.
This was stephen Davenant the old
mans nephew, and, as il was generally
understood. his heir. Stephen
Davenant was called a handsome man,
and az first sight he seemed to merit
that description. II was not until you
had looked az him closely that you be-
gan % grow critical and TO find fault
he was dark; his hair. which was
quite black. was smooth. and chung 10
his head with a sleek, Shiny clOseness
that only served to intensity the pale
ness. not 10 say pallor, of the face.
PalI0r was. indeed, the prevailing
Characteristic. his lips even being Of
a subdusd and half-tinted red; they
were not pleasant lips, although for
every forty minutes out OF the sixty
they wore a smile which just showed
a set OF large and even teeth, which
were If anything. too fauitless and 600
white. Jack said that when stephen
smiled il was like a private view Of
cemetery.
In short. 20 quote the Savage again,
Stephen Davenant was an admirable
example. as artists would say, Of "a
study i'm black and white"
AS he stood by the bed, motiOnless,
silent. with the fixed regard Of his
light gray eyes on the sick man, he
looked not unlike one Of those sleek
and emaciated birds which one sees
standing on the bank of the Gauges,
waiting for the floating by of stray
dead bodies.
And yet he was not unhandsome.
At times he looked remarkably well;
when. for instance, he was delivering
a lecture or an address at some in
stitute or May meeting. His voice was
low and soft. and not seldom insinuat-
ing. and some OF his friends had called
him. half in jest half in earnest,
Fascination Davenant"
II viii be gathered from this descrip-
ton that 10 call all the race Of Dave
nants bad was unfair; every rule has
its exception, and Stephen Davenant
was the exception to this. He was
"a good young men"
Fathers held him up as a pattern TO
their maynard sons, mothers patron
lied and Landed him, and their daugh-
tiers regarded him as almost too good
TO live
The minutes. so slow for the watch
ers so rapid 20 the man for whom
they were numbered, passed, and the
old cracked clock in the half-ruined
stables wheezed out the hour, when. as
III the sound had reused him, old Ralph
moved slightly, and opening MS eyes
looked slowly from one upright figure
t1 the other.
Dark eyes that had not even yet lost
an their fire. and still shone out like a
birds from their winkled, cavernous
h1.IOws.
stephen unlocked his wrist. bent
down. and murmured. in his soft,
silky voice.
Uncle. DO YOU know me?"
4 smile. an unpleasant smile to see
on such a face, glimmered on the old
mans lips
Here still. Stephen?" he said. slow
Iy and h0lI0wIy You'd make a good
mute"
A faint pink tinge crept over
Stephens pale face. but he smiled and
shook his head meekly.
Who's that2" asked Ralph. half
turning his eyes % the physician.