The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1906-08-02

point of appearing very sympathetic and
charming to her husband; and when she
hal heard all he had to say on psrticu-
lar occasion, she quite delighted him by
the ready way in which she fell in with
what he had arranged.
"My dear Ned" she cried, "of course
your brothers child must come here. Why
has she never been before? An heiress,
you tell me? Well that's something very
desirable in this particular age; and no
doubt she is beautiful. too."
There was q degree of sarcasm in this
remark, which. happily, escaped Mr..
Marchmont he did not notice that his
wife's bright eyes had glanced up and
down at his tall, ungainly figure as she
said these words.
Mr.. Marchmont looked over his blue
spettacles at his wife.
Il don't think Antonia has any inten-
tion of marrying" he said seriously AS
l explained to you, my dear, have asked
the girl to come to us, because l have
learned that she has a very dull and
t;reary life up in the North. You must
not expect 70 find her frivolous"
Ludy Betty groaned in spirit. She felt
that she could quickly conjure up pic
ture of this unknown girl. Fortunately,
she was going to very bright luncheon
party, and the necessity of making herself
look as pretty as possible helped to dispel
the vision that her Imagination had con.
juftd UP of the girl, who, before another
week had gone, was going to be under her
care. Nevertheless, she could not live
without sympathy, and few holes
later she found herself demanding this
sympathy from the man who sat beside
her at lunch.
Lady Betty had more than a penchant
for Gerald Tenby. She always had two or
three handsome young men dangling after
her. and her vanity had been extremely
gra -ifed when Mr.. Tenby joined the ranks
of her sdmirers-for Gerald Tenby was
a man about whom society was beginning
to talk.
The money that would come to him was
counted by the world as something fabu
lous. Everybody knew that the Mill Cross
estate was no mere bagatelle; that apart
from the coal interest the head of the
family possessed wealth that rolled from
thousands into something like millions. 1t
was no wonder, therefore, that Gerald
Tenby found himself society favorite.
You must be very kind to me to-day"
she said to him, as she ate dainty lunch
and caught a refreshing glimpse of herself
from time to time in one of the many
ra'Iors. II have had great shock"
Il hope nothing has happened" he
said.
Nothing has happened except the unez-
pccted," Lady Betty replied. my dear
CHI husband has recalled himself to my
existence III the most annoying manner,
for he wants me, just when / had dstcf-
iasnea not to be bothered with any of my
owr tnesome relations, to play the chap
eron 10 scme lump of county c;ri.
whose existence 7 had comfortably forsot-
ten till it was recalled to me this nlo,p-
ing
All. this is, indeed, a heavy Blow
Its all very well for you to laugh,
Gerald" she said; "but you don't have to
bore yourself from morning to night with
a stupid pumpkin who does not know the
difference between the moon and green
cheese. What induced me to give in to
Edward this morning / really don't know.
He took me by surprise, and before / knew
v here / was he had disappeared to send
telegram, and tell this creature that she
could come as soon as she liked. So thera's
IN end of all my fun. know she's GO
ing to be simply awfulv Lady Betty
cried. "Her name is enough to give one
the shivers! Did you ever hear of a girl
being called Antonia before?"
Gerald Tenby had been smiling amused
y. scarcely hearing what his companion
said. his thoughts were not very da!i
n':r or very serious, but at the men ::or
,f the maine Antonio" he sudden:y he.
came rigid, and the smile froze on his lips.
Antonio? ?" he repeated to himself. "An-
.onia Marchmont? What strange fate Is
.hisT
It was strange, yet true, that Tenby
iad never dreamed of associating Antonio
With the pretty little society woman whom
he saw so frequently, although the SINH
arity of name might have led him to do
10. There was certainly a wide world of
Inference between that girl who lived in |
he bleak north country and Lady Betty
Marchmont.
Tenby could not at the first outset rec. |
,hSiiO HIS hhcAhOIy Vi AutOuld WITH the |
and the kind of life lived by |
III those many people among whom he |
low moved. He felt irritable and almost |
lneasy at the thought of her coming to
london. He had tried SO hard to forget |
Ter this last year or two, and he had al |
most succeeded in doing so.
Even when he had gone north on his |
requent visits of duty to his uncle, Sir |
Maurice Tenby, he had always managed
o avoid coming In contact with Antonia. |
Her home lay not many miles distant, |
md Gerald could well remember the day
vhen Antonia had been almost a daily |
'is;tor at Mill Cross Court.
There was nothing to take the girl there
owadays-at least. that was what he said |
o himself, savasely, for he did not sup
'ose that Antonia would care to waste
much time in paying visits to an old man,
nd since the marriage of Bertha Tenby,
er girl friend, and the sudden disap-