Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-10-03
CHAPTER II.
At Draycott Hall.

The ancient home of the Bretting-
hams is one of the fairest that lie
among the Kentish hills. 1t is local
tradition that there had been Bret
tingham at Draycott Hall since the
Crusades, and that it came into the
family when Sir Piers Buckingham, a
gallant soldier, returned from the
Holy War and brought the news of
her fathers death in Palestine to Mar
jorie Draycott. He told her the sad
news SO gently and with so much SYM
pathy that he won the lady's heart and
all the broad acres that went with her
hand
The chronicles preserved by the
family did not go back so far as the
Crusades. A fire, the unceremonious
treatment of the family treasures by
a party of Cromwellian soldiers in
search of q royalist fugitive, and vari-
Gus other causes had been at work
during the centuries to leave gaps in
the record of the ancient house. But
the monuments in the old village
church which record the deaths of fair
danes ard gallant knights who bore
the name of Buckingham date back
to Tudor days.
It was only natural in these circum-
stances that the Buckingham for the
time being lord of Drycott Hall should
be a person of considerable interest
to the good folks Of the countryside.
There was more than even the usual
interest aroused when the local Cos
sips met and discussed the latest news
of Sir Mark Buckingham, the then
representative of the ancient race.
For it was known that that barOnet
was past his sixtieth year and had for
some time been ailing, and that a
famous physician had been summoned
from London to consult with the local
symptoms which Sir Mark had lately
developed might mean.
For six-and-twenty years Mark Bret
tingham had borne the title and lived
at the Hall as it's master. He was in
India with his regiment when the
death of his uncle, bachelor, brought
him to his inheritance. He had not
in his youth been particularly friendly
with his uncle, and so his future ten
ants had seen very little of him. But
he soon made himself beloved, and
when, after he had been at Draycott
Hall for couple of years, he brought
young wife home there was great re-
joicing.
That Mark rockingham had previ-
ously married in India a young Eng
lishwoman who had gone out as gov
| erness with an English family, few
people on the estate, if any, were
aware.
The marriage was not happy one.
Mrs. Buckingham was undoubtedly a
| young woman Of great physical charm,
| but very early in her married life she
fell out of the good graces of the ladies
who constituted the female society"
| of the up-cOuntry station at which the
| regiment was quartered. Eighteen
months after the marriage Bretting-
| ham announced that his wife had gone
| to England and taken the baby, lit
| tie boy, with her Her health had been
| falling, he said, and it was thought
well that she should not remain in
India.
But the truth was that Mrs Bret
tingham, who had shown signs of
mental trouble, had deliberately left
/ her husband and taken her child with
| her after a scene of furious jealousy
on her part for which there was not
the slightest justification.
She left behind her a cruel letter
telling her husband that he need not
| trouble any further about her or her
child. She was going to England to
her own friends, and she desired that
their parting should close that chap
ter of her life which included her mar
riage with Mark Buckingham.
Before he left India Mark Bretting-
ham succeeded to the family baron
etcy, and to those friends who were
aware of his marriage he announced
the news of his wife's death, which
had reached him almost at the same
time as he received the telegram from
England which, had she lived, would
have compelled him to acknowledge
his wife as Lady rockingham.
TELL me the truth, DOCTOR"
The eminent specialist gave his pa
tfent kindly glance.
81 have every hope, Sir Mark" he
said. chat the operation-which is un