The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-03-27

/ after all, was the good OF going back
to the same clubs, and the same men
and the same women, that had dis.
! pensed too much money for him during
the last seven years of his life? He
was not bit more weary of himself
in the country than he had used to be,
half his time, in London. He could
dine in his shooting Jacket, and be his
own master here, at least. And then,
! Yatton was his; and he was beginning
to get back something Of his old inter-
est in the exercise of small feudaI
! power; and it was inherently grateful
to Mr.. Clifford Mohun's nature to be
liked and looked up to-as the poor
people of his estate, true to their hered-
itary instincts, liked and looked up to
him now.
Persons Of the class that are always
ready with decided and correct esti-
mates of everybody e1se's moral condi-
ton pronounced Clifford reformed. He
was not in the least reformed, if by
that term change Of nature is intended
to be expressed Men of nearly thirty
years very seldom do change their ma
| lures. I fancy. He was simply begin
ming to find out that he had hitherto
missed the kind of life which suited
him best-the uninte1lectuaI, lazily ac-
| tive, healthy. material life Of the coun-
| try. Wherever he had lived, Clifford
Mohun must inevitably have sunk to a
tolerably low scale of existence; but
what had been disreputability in Lon
don was at Yatton idling about with
his gun or his rod, and habitually
drinking rather more than was good
for him-and gambling or'v when any
of his friends came do from Boz
hernia or Belgravia to stay with him.
Jane Grand was, of course, one of the
hottest supporters Of the reformation
theory: Mr.. Follett, not less naturally,
one of those who looked skeptically
upon Mohun's change Of life; and so it
fell out, after a few rather sharp dis
sensions on the subject, that the Wears
visits to James cottage began to grow
extremely rare and cold. He always
found Mohun there when he called;
and when Mohun was there it was
simply ridiculous to think that he could
be wanted. too. His fastidious gener-
osity made him speak well of his rival
Ito every one save Jane); be called at
Yatton at stated periods; he even dined
with Mohun. and asked him, in return,
to the vicarage. But to see him famil-
iarly seated in James little room-of
which every object was so sacred to
his own heart-to see James eyes APP
proving of all he said, to hear James
praises Of him when he was gone
were just pieces of slow torture that
the Vicar of Chesterford did not feel
himself called upon to endure; and. as
have said, his visits to James cottage
grew rarer than they had ever been
since the days in which he first began
to teach her English history when she
was nine years old.
And Miss Grand-who, simple as she
was, had all woman's acutest small
jealousies in matters of affection Miss
Grand was wounded to the quick by
this dereliction Of the man she did not
Lowell
She liked Clifford, of course. as she
could like no other being created, and
his society was all-sufficient to her.
and yet-and yet-reader, don't we all
know what it is to go back to the place
where we lived when we were school
children? How we dream Of 1t before
hand, and how our hearts throb when
we first begin to recognize the old ia
miliar milestones. and the bridge at the
turning Of the road; and then, when we
are there, how shrunk it all seems. and
how we wish we had let the good old
past rest, instead of digging it up and
staring at its poor, lifeless remains
so different now to what we last re-
membered them! Well, something of
this feeling would continually come.
over Jane, whether she willed it or not,
in her intercourse with Clifford. She did
not know whether the change was in
him or in herself; she only knew that
change was there. Once or twice he
came to her house after dinner, when
his utterance was not perfectly dis
tinct, nor his remarks very coherent:
and lying awake at night, after such
visits, Jane had to think very long
while over the old bright vision OF the
dohun of her youth before she could
dislodge from her brain the visitor
whose eyes were glazed with wine" Of
the present. Had Mr.. Follett CHANGED
to call on the following morning after
Jane had thought thus. she would, you
may rest assured, have been especially
acrimonious to him, and more than ever
disposed to uphold and make much of
Clifford in his presence. But Mr.. Fol
lett did not call. either on these or any
other mornings; and so, not having
to defend Clifford afresh, only to see
him continually. both in the before and
after-dinner aspect OF his everyday life,
Jane Grand was forced gradually to
feel that be was not-never could be
again--that which he was when she
first loved him in her youth.
She disali0wed all such creditable
feelings to herself as Indignantly as she
4 disallowed the fact that she missed
the society Of that true and refined and
honest gentleman who had been her
sole friend and counselor during these
| last outcast years of her life (women
hike Jane invariably consider any faint
dawnings Of reason in their love affairs
| Just III the same light that they would
| questionings Or doubts IN theological
matters, and strive to quench them
with as due horror of their own
heresy5.
SHE was fearfully hard and resolute