Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1906-01-25
CHAPTER In.
WHICH BRINGS Us TO THE JoG


WHICH BRINGS Us TO THE JOUR-
MEMS END.
I may confess 10 You, nay dears. that
Mr. Gilbert Stairs parting TRADE did
not move me greatly. since would set
down everything he had said TO the one
accountable miser's.
Yet when l came to second thoughts
upon 1t. this account balanced but m
differently Why should he be so
eager to make me think small of Mar
gery's love for Richard Jennfer? And
why, misliking me, as ] made sure he
did should he he so hot to make the
shadow marriage thing of substance
From the miserf fathers point of view.
Richard, with his goodly heritage of
Jennfer House, WAS Il match To be
angled for; yet here was the man in
whose eye house and lands doomed
largest hNing into rage because i
sought TO pu, his daughter in the way
! Of marrying them.
i was pondering thoughtfully on this,
/ giving the pinchng old man credit for
amy and every motive save that which
he had SO cuisingly avowed. to Wit,
4 the furthering OF his daughters hap
pness, when there came Il tap at the
| door and Mistress Margery entered.
Dear heart DO they limit you to a
single candle when my back is turned p
4 she sad, in mock pity, and saying IL.
\
4 scenes.
The sight of her standing a-tiptoe 10
touch off the candles on the chimney
breast set the old love spell at work
To make my heart beat faster. What if
there We're hint of truth in Gilbert
Stairs wrathful protest? What IT,.
after an. She cared less for Richard and
more for me?
DO not ! pray you. dears. think too
hardly of the man who thus lays bare
1.-The secret thoughts of his heart for
you. Twas but q passing gust of the
tempest of disloyalty, and 4 was not
swept wholly from my noorings. Nay,
when she came to sit ON the hassock at
my feet, as she used to do in that other
nalcyon- time of convalescence. | wls
myself again and could look upon her
sweet face with eyes that saw beyond
her to the camp or battlefield where my
dear lad WAS spending himself
For "A time we sat in silence. and
! tH;as she who spoke first.
My father has been with YOU" she
said ~ hope you did not quarrel with
him
No. denied. salving my conscience
with the remembering that 1T takes two
to make :. quarrel: and / had done
none Of the cursing. He came to give
me this" | added. handing her the
will.
she opened the 10lueu IaTCnineHt
reading Il line of IL here and there soft
ly to herself.
-"'Being OF sound mind. doth be-
queath and devise to his loving Wife
Margery An. had you been writing
II You would not have written it SO
would YOU Monsieur john"
- Ills but a FORM" I would say. "Ail
wives are loving in lawyers speech.
She smiled UP at me so like an limo
cent and fearless child that for the
moment could figure her no other
wise. Yet her reioinder was a woman's
II say You would not have written II
50: is not that the truth
I would not let her pin Inc down.
If ] should write il now. IT should
be written in great letters. dear lady
Though it Is but q form. though tina,
which followed was but another form
you have not failed in any wifely duty
Mistress Margery."
Not once?"
NO, not once. Three times you have
don. what the lovingest wife could dc
to save a husbands life; and ! dc
earlier time. Tell me. little one; wa.
it not you who sent the Indian to Cap
tain Forncy to tell him a patriot spy
was to he executed at day dawn in tn.
oak glade?'
She would not answer me direct.
Twas / who brought you TO tina
pass, she said. speaking soft and low
But for nay riding down upon you one
other morning in that same oak glade
YOU would not have had Sir Franco!
I'alconnet's sword in your shoulder
And but for that sword wound. moth
ing that followed would have followed
Saying this she fell silent for space
and when she spoke again she was be
come by some subtle transmutation IN.
trusting little maid of the by-gon'
haIcyon- time.