The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-01-25
CHAPTER LII.
OIiAF ILR LII.
WHICH BRINGS US TO THE j
NFN'S mi

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE JOUR-
NEI'S END.
| may confess to you, my dears. that
Mr.. Gilbert Stairs parting TRADE did
not move me greatly, since l would set
down everything he had said to the one
a~cCount-the miser's.
Yet when l came to second thoughts
upon it, this account balanced but in
Inherently. Why should he be so
eager to make ME think small Of Mar
gery's love for Richard Jennifer? And
why, Mi&iiEing me, as l made sure he
did. should he be SO hot to make the
shadow marriage a thing Of substance?
From the m~iser-father's point of view,
Richard, with his goodly ileritagc OF
Jennifer House, was a match to be
angied for; yet here was the mar in
whose eye house and lands doomed
largest flying into rage because I
sought to put his daughter in the way
OF marrying them.
| was bordering thoughtfully on this,
giving the p%inching old man credit for
n II every motive save that which
he had so cursingly avoWcd, to wit,
the furthering of his daughters hap
piness, 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
scenes.
The sight of her standing a-tiptoe to
touch off the candles on the chimney
breast set the old 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, h cared less for Richard and
more for me?
Do not, l pray YOU, dears, think too
hardly of the ma who thus lays Dare
the secret thoughts of Iris heart for
you. Twas but a passing gust of the
tempest of ~disloyalty, and | 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
nalcyon-time of conyalescence, I was
myself again and could look upon her
sweet face with eyes thai saw beyond
her to the camp or battlefield where my
dear lad was spending himself.
For a time We sat in silence. and
twas she who spoke first.
My father has been with you" she
said. Il hope you did not quarrel with
him"
No" l denied, salving my conscience
with the remembering that it takes two
none of the cursing. H came to give
me this / 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, had you been writing
1t 0 would not have written it so,
would you, Monsieur john"
TITS but a FORM 1 would say. "All
wives are loving. in lawyers speech"
She smiled up at me SO like an inno-
cent and fearless child that for the
I could figure her no other
wise. Yet her rejoincter al a woman's.
Il say you Would not have written it
so: is not that the TRUTH
| would not let her pin me down.
If | should write it now. it should
be written in great letters, dear lady,
Though it is but a form. though thai
Which followed was but another form,
you have not failed in any wifely duty,
Mistress Margery."
mot once?"
mo, not once. Three times you have
done what the l%ovingest wife could dc
to save a husbands life; and l dc
greatly suspect there was a fourth and
earlier time. Tel. me, little one; was
it not o who sent the Indian to Cap
tain Forney to tell him a patriot spy
was to be executed at day dawn in the
oak glade?"
She would not answer me direct.
Twas l who brought you to that
pass she said. speaking soft and 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 your shoulder
And but for that sword wound. moth.
ing that followed would have followed
Saying this she fell silent for a space
n when h spoke again she was be.
come by some subtle ~trans1nutation my
trusting little maid Of the by-gone
h~aicyon-time.