Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-12-04
Continued.


for Just at that moment Pauline
knocked a. the door.
'eThe Duke of Laleham is waiting to
see you. my lord. said the maid.
His Grace was far too important a
parsonage to be kept waiting, and
Lord Baynenam went into the library.
wishing his visitor in any other place.
For one hour and a half he patiently
endured the martyrdom. His Grace
was vitality interested in some country
business, and wanted his young neigh
boris support.
Lord Bayneham tried honestly to
give his attention to every word, but
he failed in the attempt LANDED in
terest," county votes" personal in
fuenee," occasionally sounded famil-
iRrly in his ear. But it was Hilda's
voice he herd, not his Grace of lie
ham's-Hilda.' voice, asking if she
must go. What did the child mean:
Go where?-- and for what? There
must be some stupid misunderstood
ing. 1t would have been clear If thar
man had but deferred his visit.
The poor duke tried hard to make
his young neighbor understand an he
meant. He thought Lord Bayneham
singularly absent, and wondered that
he did not show more interest in what
seemed to him momentous question
At length his Grace rose.
Il wish, he said to Lord Bayneham,
shat, if you are not engaged. you
would ride over with me to OuIston
I think the matter in question should
be attended to without delay"
Lord Bayneham consented simply
because he could invent no excuse.
In after years he rallied bitterly at his
folly; for if. instead of going with the
Duke of Iale lam to o. ston, he had
sought his wife, and the unhappy mis-
tax had been explained, years Of sor-
row and unavailing misery would have
been spared to them.
From the window of her own room
the unhappy young wife watched her
husband ride away-watched him with
a heart that yearned for one more
look at his face, one more word from
his lips.-watched him with a passion
Of grief so wild and bitter, that she
would gladly have died for she did not
dare to think in this world ever to see
him again
During that one hour and MALT
which had seemed years to Lady
Hilda, she resolved upon a step which
she afterward bitterly repented. Be
iieving her husband meant that he
knew all her secret, and that he meant
those words, so carelessly uttered, she
resolved not to wait until he should
send her from him, but to so at once.
As ST. stood by thu window watch
ing the sunlight upon the trees, the
sweet, smiling heavens, the glory of
flower and tree. she pictured to her
self many 8 enes. H1w would the
proud and stately countess, who
valued nothing on earth so highly as
noble blood, tolerate the Knowledge
that her sons wife was a convicts
daughter? HiIda pictured the naughty
face. She knew the few searnful
words in WEIGH Lady Bayneham would
depiore her SON mistake. each word
soaring her heart as with a hot iron
the bland, eontemptuous manner, the
haIf-patronizing pity. All, no, better
go at once. since she must go, than
suffer thisl
She pictured Barbara's wonder
Barbara, on whom there rested no stain
Of another's sin. Better for her hus-
band had he trampled his love under
foot, and married Barbara Earle
There was something harder than all
that,-her husbands last words to her
The cold, cruel words, in which he
said he would send her from him.
the cold cruel pride with which he
would remedy his mistake"-how
could she bear it, and live? How
could she look upon him, and know
that they must be as strangers,-he
whom she loved more dearly than life?
She thought of Brynmar words,-ot
the handsome, kindly face that had
smiled into her own. She could not
Ho1b AOI Inc sun vi uGI iOft u SET
Better one sudden wrench, than to die
by inches. She looked on the stately
home where her husbands love had
placed her: should she wait for the
time when she should be sent from
those walls, as one unworthy of their
shelter?
No she would leave It all. The
proud castle she called her home title
rank, position.-what right had she to
them? Who was Shea convicts
daughter, a brokenJhearted woman.
the sun of whose life had set in utter
darkness. She said to herself that she
would not blame the dead but that
she had been better left to share her
mothers fate. What right had she to
Lady Hutton's home or wealth?
Never more would she touch the gold
that had purchased her; never more
would she enter that r domain of
Brynmar. Her moth RS love had
been bartered for it. She would ieaye
all; false pretenses. a false position.
should embitter her life no more,-she
would go from them where none who
he'd ever known her should see her
again.
Poor child. she was half mad with
wounded love and pride-with the
shock Of that interview still upon her,
her nerves over wrought, her heart
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