Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-15

fash he had come and gone in a moment.
Lord save u.s. gasped the butler, a
! lifelong servitor of the family. Here s
Master Olave come back after all these
| years.
Olave it was. He had evidently received
some intimation of his fathers condition,
| for he walked to the bed room where the
earl lay dying. To the three persons at
| the bedside-physician, nurse and rector
| he was stranger, but his likeness to the
patient was sufficiently striking to apprlse
| them at once of the relationship
The viscount. keeping in the background.
addressed himself to the physician.
/ How Is hep
Sinking fast
| rs his mind clear?''
Now 1t is He wandered earlier in the
| evening
Then leave us. please
There was something so authoritative In
| the viscount's manner that the three
| watchers were constrained to obey.
What took place in their absence was
never known. The interview was of short
duration, and ended in a cry from the earl,
| which brought physician and nurse hurry
ing into the apartment
| He is Dead" said Olave.
There was no trace of sorrow in his voice.
| nor, in justice be it added, of satisfaction;
| quiet, impassive utterance.
| He stood with folded arms until his words
| had been Endorsed by the physician, and
| then, without so little as glance at the
dead earl, the living earl strobe from the
| apartment.
The nurse closed the eyes of her charge,
| shuddering she did SO, for the counte-
nance Of the dead man was marked by a
| ferocIty of expression which showed that
| his last feelings were those of hatred.
| A rumor soon arose that the old earl had
| died in the very act of cursng his son.
| The rumor may have been false, but certain
| 1t Is that the new earl took no pains to
contradict 1t.
Urien, tenth earl of Ormsby. was Inferred
| according to the rite instituted by the first
1 x;,-
| the family solicitor sufficient proof of his
| identity, assumed his station as master of
| Ravenhall.
| Where he had spent the previous ten
| years was a mystery to everybody except,
perhaps, his lawyer. The earl maintained
| absolute reticence as to this part of his
career, and the sternness of his manner
| when the question was once put to him by
| an indiscreet lady checked all further at
| tempts the part of the inquiSitive.
| He somewhat scandalized the good folk
| of Ormsby by marrying within two months
| OF his fathers death the daughter of
neighboring baronet His welded life did
not last long. Within year his wife died.
leaving an infant son named WAR
| Henceforth the earl remained single.
| He had sadly changed from the lively
| youth whose pranks had been constant
source Of merriment to the people of
Ormsby.
! His long absence had developed a cold
| and unsympathetic temperament which led
him to avoid society; and though he did
not refrain from giving an occasional din
ner or ball, he was evidently bored by these
social offices. He found his greatest pleas
ure in the seclus.on Of the magnificent
| library at Ravenhall. He withdrew himself
| more and more from the world of men to
the world of books.
More than two decades went by, and the
| mystery which Overhung the earl became
| thing of the past, was forgotten by the
people Of Ormsby, or at least was rarely
recalled. Gossip occupied itself chiefly with
4 the d0inQS of the eariS only IVar
| to give him his courtesy title, Viscount
| Walden. who was now in his twentieth
| year.
To this SON the eaH appeared much at
| tached; he designed him. so it was rumored.
! for the diplomatic service; and to this end
| War, accompanied by tutor. was sup
| fecting himself in foreign languages and
! studying on the spot the workings Of the
various European constitutions
| All the collateral branches of the Raven
| gars had died out with the excep ton of one
| family, and even this was limited to a sin
gle person-Beatrice, daughter of Victor
| Ravengar. This Victor, the earrs cousin
| in the sixth degree, had taken as his wife
| a widow with son, Godfrey by name.
| Beatrice was the sole issue of this
riage.
The earl was naturally much in
terested in this little maiden as be-
| ing next in succession after his son; and
accordingly when Beatrice became an or
phan at the age of sixteen cher parents
! having died within a month of each other),
| the earl invited her and her half-brother,
| Godfrey Rothwell-her senior by seven
years-to take up their residence at Raven
hall, offering to settle handsome annuity
upon each
But to the earrs surprise the favor was
declined both by brother and sister. 1t had
happened that Mrs. Victor Ravengar had
never been very welcome visitor at -Ra-
venhall, the marriage having been regarded
by the earl as mesalliance. and though
Beatrice was Of forgiving nature she
could not entirely forget sundry Sights put
upon her mother.
Godfrey was determined not to eat the
bread of dependency. and Beatrice, who
was devoted to her half-brother, SYM
| pathized with him in this feeling. and refus-
ed to live apart from him. He had APP
piled himself to the study of medicine. and
had lately set up in practice at Ormsby.
In Beatrice, Godfrey found a ready as
sistant. She helped him In his surgery,
often accompanied him when visiting his
patients, and never hesitated to take upon
herself the duty of nurse If occasion re-
Quired. Hence she was all but worshiped
by the people of Ormsby; the earl might
take their rents, but Beatrice possessed
their hearts. and often was regret express
ed that 1t should be Viscount Walden, and
not Beatrice Ravengar, who must succeed
to the fair demesne of RavenhaIl.
Absolutely no more patients to visit
remarked Godfrey Rothweli, returning
home one afternoon to his neat little villa,
called Wave Crest.
"Charming! said Beatrice. clapping her
hands. "It is so long since we had an
evening together"
"Humph.' muttered Godfrey. lugubrious-
ly. But we are doomed not to spend 1t to-
gether. We have received an invitation to
dine this evening at Ravenhall, where a
small and select company is assembled to
welcome Master War home. He returns to-
night from the continent. The earls car.
riage will call for at @, SO We can't very
well decline
Beatrice pouted her pretty lips. Simple In
her tastes, unconventional in her habits she
disliked the stately banquets the funereal
grandeur OF Ravenhall. She would not,
however, oppose her brother, and that same
night found them both within the drawing
room of Ravenhall. eonversng with their
distant kinsman, the Earl of Ormsby.
He a man verging upon sixty; his
hair and mustache were of an iron gray: his
eyes somewhat dimmed by long study; his
features fine and striking. but marked by
air of profound melancholy
He received Godfrey kindly, and made in
quiries as to his medical practice, but it
was clear to all that his interest centered
chiefly in Beatrice, whom he kissed with
an old fashioned courtesy.
Beatrice's figure was small and graceful.
and her features. II not precisely regular,
were nevertheless very pretty, and render
ed more attractive by the sparkling color
and the viva ciotIS EXPRESSION that plaVed