Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1907-09-20


idle son comparing notes In the lane,
and pretty scene ensued. Mr.. HARD
Ing shook his stick at the lad, VINO
snatched 1t from him and snapped It
across his knee. Claire was imprisoned
under lock and key for four and TWEEN
ty hours, and young Tom Erickson
Skinned up the waterspout and sat on
her window sill while the rest were ar
dinner. But this and succeeding incl
dents never came to the ears OF Nlcho-
las Harding. And partly In revenge
for the indignity to which she had
been subjected and partly by reason OF
those adventitious traits already touch
ed upon, the motherless and then oil
but friendless Claire dis0beyed and IN
trigued thenceforward without qualm.
The single page known to Nicholas
Harding was thing Of thespast In his
mind. He never thought of 1t now and
for the best Of reasons. He firmly be-
lieyed that Claire intended to marry
an entirely different person, of whom
he himself most cordially approved,
and 1t made him for the first time as
cordially approve of Claire.
And Claire on sudden OWNED It
all and saw (also for the first time) the
false position In which she had placed
herself and yet never regretted 1t, but
rather gloried in having the least little
thing to suffer for Toms sake.
Now, the other man In her mind and
In Nicholas Harding's. too. was the
stranger within their gates.
james Edward William, Sir Emilius
Daintree's son and heir to the baronet-
cy and entailed estates, was melan-
choly, brooding bachelor little worse
than thirty years Of age. Unlike Mr..
Harding, however, he looked much
older, with his swarthy, saturnine
countenance and the white threads In
the coal black whiskers that curled
beneath his deep set chin. His lines
had fallen In very different places from
those of Mr.. Harding. He had spent
most OF his restless life abroad. His
soul had been burdened with very
different temperament; he had that Of
a poet, and his manhood had been pol
soned at the fount by one Of those
wretched family quarrels which re-
dound- to nObody's credit and Of which
| the outside world never get the rights.
1t was only known that Sir Emilius
| mud his son had not been on speaking
terms for<years.
| Such sympathy as Is felt In these
matters was entirely on the side Of
the son. The present baronet was not
q. popular man. His character was &C.
centric and his morals so notorious
that In many quarters the quarrel was
from the first considered creditable to
young Daintree. When, however, after
an absence Of eight years the latter
came home ON leave from New South
Wales. where he was magistrate and
man Of some Importance and more
promise in the young colony. and when
| the old savage, his father. not only
| still refused reconciliation. but pub
licly cut his son on every possible oc'
| casfon. then-well the Indignation
might have been greater had James
DaIntree been himself more popular
man. But the truth was he. had come
| home q morbid, sensitive misanthro
DIST, and this treatment made him ter
! times worse. He was seldom seen by
his old friends anywhere, but he hap
pened to make stanch new one In the
person Of Nicholas Harding, whose
house. indeed. became the wanderers
! home.
Claire's attitude will be readily ap
/ pretended Daintree opened his bruised
heart to her. and she considered his
father the most abominable old maj
alive. 1t was at Avenue Lodge that
parcel of faded flowers arrived fo'
/ Datntree and drove him almost crazy
with rage, and grief. He had placed
them a day or two before upon hi
mothers grave. He burst into storm
of oaths and tears before the girl, wh'
thous,it the-worse Of him for neither
Lady Daintree had died the year be
fore. In fact, 1t was her death tina
had brought the outcast home for tn
reconciliation for which he pleaded II
vain.
He had the sympathy Of all VIII
knew him. That Of Claire was spon
taneous and heartfelteand frank. Blu
Z It never blinded her to Dalntree'
faults, which were those OF warped
egotistical. but yet an ardent nature
She cured him of one or two. But Ii
was a man with weight upon hi
soul. and she could not cure him
that. She was not told enough. Ate
all. too, her head and her heart wer
full of another. And thus she wa
slower to detect the new lover In tn
few friend than would or could hav
been the case In normal circum
stances.
Indeed, 1t might never have dawne
upon her until he spoke but for til
calling In of Lady Starkie to lend he
distinguished .countenance to the iirs
dinner party given by Nicholas Hare
ing after his late ordeal. Lady. Stark
was a lieutenant generals widow an
q shrewd woman Of the world.
= CHAPTER III.
| ..~.1o.. xrvao Tho rdtDQr