Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-12-19
CHAPTER XVII. (continued.)


leisure to suggest the plebeian past
which had eliminated in convict Jail
His features were handsome and
aristOcratic; his hair, which had been
cause of anxiety to him in England
owing to it's shOrtness, had now grown
long enough to look quite ordinary III
country where the close-cropped
head is not disdained even by the gold
en- youth. When it grew longer he
knew that it would be brown and
wavy. The mustache, which had been
sacrificed to prison rules, was coming
on again nicely. The hands were long
and thin, and were regaining their
whiteness, and the ring, with one ex-
quisite brilliant in it, which Mark had
purchased in the Rue de la PaiX, look
ed quite in place on the finger it
adorned
II am Sir Mark Buckingham and l
look it," the young man said, as he
looked himself critically up and down
in the mirror. John Wilson, late of
Dartmoor, has entirely disappeared;
he has been swallowed up in the cir
cumstances of a few weeks, blotted
out so completely that he might never
have existed. I look all right, speak
properly, and | fiatter myself my man
ners are all that could be desired
John Wilson had from his early
youth associated with young men of a
superior class for his own advantage,
and his manners and style had served
him we'll in the days when he was liv-
ing by his wits.
The new baronet nodded to himself
approvingly in the mirror, and then,
lighting a cigarette, sat down in a
gilt French easy chair of the gay and
garish Paris French salon" order and
INDUCED in a little quiet meditation
as to the course he should pursue with
regard to the immediate future.
He knew that his presence would
not be desired at the funeral by Lady
rockingham and Harold, and he had
no wish to make himself Objectionable
to them at the outset.
Mr.. Bertram Hank had from the
first counselled him to be diplomatic
with the other members of the family,
whatever happened, and he himself
had fully recognized the wisdom of
such course.
Moreover, he was not anxious to
make melodramatically sudden ap-
pearance to the household and the
tenantry. He knew that there was
not the slightest likelihood of any le-
gal trouble or any family dispute as to
his rights.
The solicitors, writing on behalf of
his father, had explained to him after
the interview that he was absolutely
accepted as the heir, and would be so
Mark, had appointed.
The new baronet had made up his
mind by the time he had finished his
cigarette.
He was not wanted in England. For
a few months, at least, everything
would be arranged without him. In
those few months the change in his
appearance would be emphasized, and
the lapse of time would make it still
more impossible that any schemes Of
tracking down John Wilson would re-
main in active operation.
He would remain another month in
Paris, where there are ample oppor-
tunities for young man of fortune to
enjoy himself, and then he would qui-
city return to England and formally
take possession of his property.
His property!
The words seemed so strange to him
that he spoke them aloud.
He hardly realized as yet what his
inheritance might mean to him.
He had become a great land owner,
a master of men, an English aristo-
crat, to be looked up to and bowed
down to.
He represented a long line of ia
NOUS ancestors. He had an aristocrat-
ic title and a vast estate, and these
would be his all his life and pass to
his heir.
His heir!
Again the shadow of the wife he
had deserted rose up between himself
and the golden future.
He uttered an exclamation of i'm
patience.
He had no conscience to make a
coward of him, and yet all his bravo
do deserted him when he realized that
while May lived no other woman
could be legally his wife, or bear him
a son who would have the right to sue
coed him.
Well! He had been a convict, and
now he was baronet. His proper
place was a Jail, and he was living in
a luxurious Paris hotel Was he to
let the fact that he had a wife dis.
courage him in the plans he was build.
ing for the future?
He shrugged his shoulders and dis
missed the thought
He had triumphed over every diff
Guilty so far; he would triumph over
that also.
He wrote to the solicitors express
ing his regret at the news their tele
gram conveyed, and stating that he
left everything in their hands for the
present.
He concluded his late father had
put them in possession of sufficient
information to enable them to appre
ciate his unwillingness to do anything
to hasten Lady Brettingham's depart
ure from the Hall. He would there
fore remain abroad for a time, anG
then return to England and take pos
session.
Should there be any documents re
curing his signature, the solicitors
I 4 s. L Il