The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-01-26
CHAPTER LII.
WHICH BRINGS US TO THE JOUR

NEY'S END.
I may confess to you, my dears, that
Mr.. Gilbert Stairs parting TRADE did
not move me greatly, since 1 would set
down everything he had said to the one
a~ccount-the miser's.
Yet when I came to second thoughts
upon it. this account balanced but in
differently. Why should he be SO
eager to make me think small of Mar
gery's owe for Richard Jennifer? And
why, misliking me, as I made sure he
did, should he be so hot to make the
shadow marriage a thing of substance?
From the miser-father's point of view,
Richard, with his goodly heritage Of
Jennlfer House, was a match to be
angled for; yet here was the man in
whose eye house and lands doomed
largest flying into rage because 1
of marrying them.
I was pondering thoughtfully on this.
giving he pinching old man credit for
any n every motive save that which
he had so cursingly avowed, to wit,
the furthering of his daughters hap
ptness. when there came a tap at the
door and Mistress Margery entered.
Dear heart! Do they limit you to a
single candle when my back is turned?''
she said, in mock pity; and saying it.
went to light the candles in the mantel
one
The sight Of her standing a-hptoe to
touch off the candles on the chimney
breast set the Die love-spell at work
to make my heart beat faster. What If
there were a hint of truth in Gilbert
Stairs wrathful protest? What if,
after all. she cared less for Richard and
more for me?
Do not, l pray you, dears. think too
hardly Of the nan who thus lays bare
the secret thoughts of his heart for
you. Twas but a passing gust of the
tempest of %disloyalty, and 1 was not
swept wholly from my mornings. Nay,
when she came to sit on the hassock at
my feet, as She used to do in that other
halcyon-time of convalescence. l was
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
twas h h spoke first.
NJ father has been with you.' she
said. II hope you did not quarrel with
him."
No." l denied. salving my conscience
with the remembering that it takes two
to make a quarrel; and j had lone
non of the cursing. HE came to give
me this" 1 added. handing her the
will.
She opened the folded parchment.
reading a line of it here and there soft
ly to herself.
-'Being OF sound mind, doth be-
queath and devise to his loving wife,
Margery! All, nae you been writing
it you would not have written 1t so,
would you, Monsieur John?"
Tits but a form" would say. "An
wives are loving In lawyers speech"
h smiled up at me SO like an limo
cent and fearless child that for the
moment l could figure her no other
wise. Yet her Tejoinser was a woman's.
II say o would not have written it
so; is not that the truth:."
I would not let her pin me down.
be written in great letters, dear lady.
Though it is but a form. though that
which followed was but another form.
you have not failed in any wifely duty,
Mistress Margery.'
Not once?"
mo, not once. Three times you have
done what the lovingest wife could do
greatly suspect there was a fourth and
earlier time. Tell me, little one; was
it not you who sent the Indian to Cap
tain Forney to tell him a patriot spy
al to be executed at day dawn in the
oak .glade?"
h would not answer me direct.
Twas I who brought you to that
pass, she Salu. speaking SOU ana low.
But for my riding down upon you one
other morning in that same oak glade,
you would not have had Sir Francis
Falconnet's sword in you shoulder.
And but for THAI sword wound, moth
ing that followed would have followed
Saying this she fell silent for a space,
and when she spoke again she was be-
come by some subtle transmNtation my
trusting little maid Of the by-gone
halcyon-time.