Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-02-06
CHAPTER Ill.

HOuse-as Mr. James Dalton calls his
newly-built country-seat, probably in
fond remembrance of Gresham street,
City-yawns a gulf seemingly impass-
able. Old and hoary, the Void stands,
with all the dignity of three centuries
upon it's stately shoulders. Pride
shines in the eyes of it's latticed win
dows and frowns on its massive stone
walls. The verest ignoramus in
such matters could not have looked
upon it without feeling that it was the
home Of one of the old nobility, and
that it could harbor nothing "low-born
or base, or the gentle contrary"
1t is true that the house possesses
only a bar0netcy, but what baronetcy
it is! My Lady LetchfOrd is too
proud. in the noblesse oblige style, to
talk of the family antiquity; but the
country still tells how she put down
the wife of a recently-made peer, who
ventured to fiaunt her newly-acquired
dignity before the stately old lady
so you are a peeress, my dear"
she said, with that quiet, well-bred
glitter of the cold, gray eyes, half
shhouded by the thick, blue-veined
lids, of which Cairn spoke. ''Well,
it is the least they could give your
husband; he has worked very hard,
has he not? Let me see, my son,
Heron, told me that he had walked
across the House-from the Conserva-
tive to the Liberal side. Oh, yes, it
was the least they could do for him!
1t is nice to be peeress-and
especially when one feels that it is
the proper reward of merit.
True we have had a peerage Of
fered us twice, but then, you see, it
was the old one which we held five
hundred years ago, and which they
took from us because we-well, we
wouldn't walk across the house. So,
you see, having done nothing to de-
esrve so great an honor, we can't con-
scientiously accept it, and have to re-
main poor, simple baronets-but you
-" and, with the sweetest, cruelest
smile, the old lady dropped the Grim
son, palpitating, brand-new countess
one Of her stately old courtesies and
glided remorselessly away.
proud as Lucifer Letchford!" is a
Berkshire saying as old as the house
itself and no one feels at all injured
by the family trait which makes itself
felt by high and low, and from the as
saults of which not even countess is
secure. In fact, if the Letchfords
are proud of themselves, that part OF
the country is proud Of the Letchfords,
and is only too ready to bend its head
in lowly submission to the tall, prim
old lady, who, clad in the stiff satin
and coffee-colored robes of bygone
age, rules the local society with hand
of iron, not always covered by the
glove of velvet,
The King rules all, and we rule the
King" is an old Spanish proverb, and
very applicable to the state of things
at the Wold. Lady Letchford rules
all-and her son, Sir Heron, rules
her. Not that he cares for ruling or
is anything of a despot No one Is
easier to please, no one is easier to
manage when you happen to have
learned that there are only two things
that will upset him-a fuss and
scene. These two things Sir Heron
detests and abhors with most religious
fervor, and at the first sign of either
makes himself conspicuous by his alb
senCe.
Sir Ralph, one of the worst-tempered
and kindest-hearted of men, having,
with great consideration, shuff1ed Off
his mortal coil when his only son had
just reached his fifteenth year, Heron
had early become lord of himself,
that heritage of VICE." and had en-
tered the world in possession of a
time-honored title and ten thousand
year at an age when most young men
are grinding Latin verses at Oxford, or
consuming cold tea and the midnight
oil in the pursuit of mathematics at
Cambridge. The Letchfords were
never the race to do things by halves,
and Sir Heron set to work at that
hardest of ils-pleasure-with an
intensity which at one time threaten
ed to knock the ten thousand a year
down to a feeble two; but just as the
wiseacres wer beginning to shake their
heads in grim prophecy, the young
baronet pulled up in mid-career, and
with that calm immovable serenity
which distinguished him, returned to
the house of his fathers and his anxf-
Gus mother. The suite of rooms in
Piccadilly were given up, the horses
were sold, a scant farewell was taken
of baccarat and escarte tables, and he
came back to the old place as calmly
as if he had only left it for month
or two instead of for a matter OF
seven years.
And, Notwithstanding something like
thirty thousand pounds had taken
unto themselves wings during these
years. My Lady Letchford was sat
listed.
might have done so much worse"
CAS- how, dear?" said Lady Won
bell, recalling distinctly some of the
terrible stories of those past years.