The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-25
unknown past confronts me, demand
matchmaking whatY

ing-demanding what?'
Demanding nothing, my lord
"Humph! You are the first then
They all want something. You think
I am an old dOtard who Is ready, be-
cause you say you want nothing, to ac-
cept your absurd proposal. But 1 am
not yet fifty, nor as near it as these
fell maladies would have me appear
and man should be in his prime al
fifty. Madam, it will require more
convincing testimony to make me listen
to you further"
1.-The testimony, irrefutable, stands
here before you. Raise your eyes from
the ground. my lord, and behold it. If,
scrutinizing me, you deny that l am
your daughter, l shall forthwith turn
from you and trouble you no more
STAFFORD slowly lifted his gloomy
face, prematurely scanned with care.
and his heavy eyes scanned closely the
sternness of his features gradually re-
Taxed, and an expression near akin tC
tenderness overspread his face.
"Any man might be proud to claim
you, my girl, no matter how many 9TH
er reasons for pride he possessed. But
you have not come here merely be-
cause some one f1attered the Earl of
STAFFORD by saying you resembled
him."
mo, my lord. l am come to return
to you this document, which once you
presented to my mother"
She handed him a paper, which he
read with intent care. 1t ran thus:
1 have, in little, much to say to you,
or else one Of us must be much to blame.
But in truth l have that confidence in
you and that assurance in myself as to
rest secure the fault will never be made
on either side. Well then, this short and
this long which I aim at is no more than
to give you this first written testimony
that 1 am your husband, and that hus-
band Of yours that will ever discharge
these duties of love and respect toward
you which good women may expect and
are Justly due from good men to dis
charge them, and this Is not only much
but all which belongs to me, and wherein
I shall tread out the remainder of life
which Is left to me
STAFFORD looked up from his perusal,
blank amazement upon his cOunte-
nance.
How came you by this paper?'
Il found it among the documents left
by my grandfather, who died year
ago. 1t was sent by you to my moth
err"
Impossible"
''Do you deny the scriptT
Il do not deny it, but twas written
by me eight years since and presented
to nv third wife, whom l married pri-
vately."
your third wife? Who was she?'
''She was Mistress Elizabeth Rhodes.
and is now Lady STAFFORD
"Then she is your fourth wife. You
will see by your own inditing that this
letter was written in March, 1924"
The date was Enthusiastically set down
by the same hand that had penned the
bold signature, Thomas Wentworth"
and the bewilderment of the earl in
creased as he recognized that here was
no forgery, but genuine letter ante
dating it's duplicate.
'Is it possible" he murmured to him
self, that a man has so little original
ity as to do practically the same thing
twice?" Then aloud to the girl he
said:
"WhO was your mother?
81 had hoped the reading Of this
document would have rendered your
question unnecessary. Has man such
gift of forgetting that the very name
Of the woman he sOlemnly married has
slipped his memory as easily as the
writing of the letter she cherished!
"She was Frances, daughter of Sir
John Warburton," murmured the earl.
His only daughter. as am hers, my
lord"
"But when Sir John wrote me coldly
of her death, he made no mention OF
any ISSUE"
"My grandfather always hated you,
my lord. 1t is very like that he told
you not the cause of my mothers death
was her children's BIRTH
"Children?"
Eyes, my lord. My twin brother and
myself"
eff, as you say, you have brother,
why is he not here in your place, you
in the background, where you properly
belong?"
"Sir. suppose that her good name is
thought more of by woman than by
a man. She wishes to be assured that
she came properly authenticated into
this world whereas a man troubles lit
tie of his origin, so be it he is here
with some one to fight or to love. Or
perhaps it is that the man is the deep
err and refuses to cOndOne where wo-
man yearns to forgive. My brother
shares our grandfather's dislike OF
you. He thinks you cared little for
our mother or you would not have been
absent during her last days when
Il knew nothing Of 1t. The times
then, as now, were uncertain, requiring
absorbed attention from those thrown
willingly or unwillingly into public af-
fairs. What can boy Of sixteen know
of the duties thrust upon man in my
Sixteen or not, he considers himself
even now a man of position, and he