Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-08-02

"HE household at Avenue Lodge
consisted at this period Of
Nicholas Harding, II. T., J. T.
(also Of Fish Street Hill. e. c..
and Winwood Hall. Suffolk: his five
daughters. his manservants and maid
servants and q certain stranger within
his gates
Nicholas Harding was fifty years of
age and widower for the second time.
He was big, blond. jovial. loud, over
bearing man, without a gray hair In
his massive reddish head or q sign Of
SORROW upon his healthy. pink. domi-
neering face. Yet private bereavement
was not the only misfortune that had
fallen to a lot otherwise enviable
enough. Since the last general election
little charge Of fragrant bribery had
found its way even to an assize court,
where 1t had indeed broken down. but
not in n fashion wholly satisfactory to
the accused.
An important witness had refused to
open his mouth. as some said because
he was well paid by Mr. Harding to
keep 1t shut and endure the penalty
In any event the charge was not per-
mitted to be withdrawn, but the &C.
tlOn merely dismissed to allow Of q
new trial, Of which nothing had been
heard up to the present time. But a
naked sword thus dangled over Nicho-
las uarding's ruddy, hard head, whose
true temper the situation served to
prove. So far from resigning his seat
he returned to the house with n shrug
and a half smile and in the whole mat
ter continued to bear himself with
such modest gallantry as to remove
the prejudlces OF many who had at
first sided with the enemy
Claire was not yet twenty-one The
only child Of his first wife, Claire had
never occupied the place of the young
or ones In her fathers affections, had
been consistently repressed In child
hood, but had since contrivcd to please
that critic by her clever management
Of m enlarged establishment. Indeed,
the girl had come home from school
very capable and shrewd and self pos
sessed, with an admirable drawing
room manner and even better qualities
Of which Mr.. Harding would have
thought less, 30 they were carefully
hidden from his view. for Claire had
also her faults and was both secretlve
and polite IN the home circle as Il re-
suit Of that early repression and injus-
tice. Given that cause and this effect
and some clandestine folly may be
counted upon in nine cases out Of ten,
and Claire's was not the tenth.
1t came about Mt WinwOOd Hall, the
Suffolk shooting box where the family
had spent the last three autumns.
Nicholas Harding had begun there in
characteristic fashion by quarreling
with the gentle, white haired parson
(whO would yet be neither domineered
nor overbOrne by an interloping Lon
doner) and by fOrbidding his daughters
the church. glebe, rectory or any COM
municatiOn with its inmates from that
day forth. A week or two later he
came full upon Claire and the rector's
Idle son comparing notes in the lane,
and pretty scene ensued. Mr.. Hard
Ing shook his stick ut the lad, who
snatched It from him and snapped 1t
| across his knee. Claire was imprisoned
under lock and key for four and twen-
ty hours. and young Tom Erickson
Skinned up the waterspout and sat on
her window Sill while the rest were at
dinner. But this and succeeding Incl
dents never came to the ears of Nicho-
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 all
but friendless Claire dIsobeyed and In.
trigued thencefOrward without q Qualm.
The single page known to Nicholas
Harding was thing Of the past In his
mind. He never thought Of 1t now and
for the best Of reasons. He firmly be-
lieved that Claire intended to marry
an entirely different person, Of whom
he himself most cordially approved,
and it made him for the first time rs
cordially approve of Claire.
And Claire on q sudden OWNED 1t
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