Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-06-18

# consisted Mt this period of
2 Nicholas Harding, NJ. T., j. +.
(also of Fish Street ILL., Il. c.,
and W'inwood Hall, Suffolk: his five
daughters, his manservants and maid
servants and certain stranger within
his gates.
Nicholas Harding was fifty years of
age and Il widower for the second time.
lie was big, blond, jovial. loud. over
bearing man, without gray hair In
his massive reddish head or sign of
borrow upon his healthy, pink, domi
heeripg face: Yet private bereavement
was not the only misfortune that had
fallen to n lot otherwise enyiable
enough. Since the last general election
u little charge of fragrant bribery had
found its way even to an assize court,
where 1t had indeed broken down, but
not in 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mitted to be withdrawn, but the nc
ton merely dismissed to allow of a
new trial, of which nothing had been
heard up to the present time. But a
naked sword thus langled over Nicho.
las Hardfng's rnddy, hard head, whose
true temper the situation served to
prove. So far from resigning his seat
he returned to the house with shrn:
and BALI smile and in the whole mat.
ter continued to bear himself with
such modest gallantry as to remove
the prejudicesl of many who had at
first sided with the enemy.
Claire was not yet twcnty-one. The
only child of his first wife, Claire had
never occupied the place Of the young
err ones in her fathers affections, had
been consistently repressed In child
hood, but Ind since contrived to please
that critic by her clever management
of an 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 MIR. Harding wouia have
thought less, so they We're carefully
hidden from his view, for Claire had
also her faults and was both secretive
and polite in the home circle as 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 at WILDWOOD Hall, the
Suffolk shooting box where the family
had spent the last three autumns.
Nicholas Harding had begun there lii
characteristic fashion by quarreling
with the gentle, white haired parson
(who would yet be neither dolnineered
nor overborne by an intefloping Lon
doner) and by forbidding his daughters
the church, glebe, rectory or any COM
munication with It's inmates from that
day forth, A week or two later he
came full upon Claire and the rectors
idle son comparing notes In the lane,
and pretty scene ensued. Mr., Hard
ing shook his stick ut the lad, who
snatched 1t from him and snapped it
across his knee. Claire was imprisoned
under lock and key for four and tweIl-
ty hours, aud 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 Slclo-
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 mothcrlcs; and then all
but fricndless Claire disobeyed and in
trigued tLenceforwardw without Il qualm.
The single page known to Nicholas
Hnrding was IL thing of the past in his
mind. He never thought of 1t now and
for tho best of reasons. He firmly be-
lleyeu 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 1t
all and saw (ulso 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 NlchoRs Harding's, too, was the
stranger within their gates.
James Edward William, Sir Emilius
Daintree's son and heir to the baronct-
cy and entailed estates, was melan-
choly. brooding bachelor little worse
than thirty years of age. Unlike Mr..
Harding, however, lie looked much
older. with his swarthy, saturnine
countenance aud 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
NEST OF his restless life abroad. His
soul had been hurdened with very
different temperament; he had that of
q poet, and his manhood had been poi.
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
and 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
popular man. His character was ec-
centric and his morals so notorious
That In many quarters the quarrel was
from tho fret s.,Nn,pi4..,~1e