Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-12-12
CHAPTER XVII.
A Picture in "The Ladies' Field"

A Picture in "The Ladies' Field"
The day after the operation on Sir
Mark rockingham the doctors were
hopeful. On the third day they were
anxious; there was a decided change
for the worse. A week later the mas
ter the master of Draycott Hall passed
away in the presence of his wife and
son. His last words, as he lifted his
th-glazed eyes to the young mans
fearful face, were, "Forgive me, Har-
old-forgive me-
Mother and son stood in the death
chamber side by side, and in the hour
of their grief thought only of the dear
one who had been taken from them.
AS the master of Draycott Hall
yielded his last breath, the dawn had
broken over the Kentish hills. Harold
rockingham, wearied with the long
nights vigil, went out into the
grounds.
1t was only as he looked out over
the glorious old park, and far beyond
to the green pastures that stretched
away into the distance, that he realiz-
ed all that his fathers death meant to
him.
The home that had been his from
childhood would be his no more.
With the last breath of his kind and
loving father who had passed from
the worlds sorrows and would know
grief and pain no more, the heritage
of the Brettinghams had passed to a
stranger-to a stranger who was of
their blood, but whose very name was
a reproach to them.
He would obey his fathers wishes
in everything, but it was bitter blow
to him to know that when he and his
mother quilted the old place they
would in all human probability never
place foot within it's walls again.
He wondered what would happen
What sort of company would the new
barOnet gather around him in the old
place? What would the tenants think
of the new master?
How charitable his thoughts might
have been under other circumstances,
it was impossible for him now to feel
anything but resentment against a
man who, being a rockingham, had
sunk to the level of felOn-a man.
who had come from a convict jail to
claim an inheritance that had passed
80, e.
les.
He hoped, he prayed, that the bitter
shame of the truth might be spared
them, that this chapter in the history
of their house might remain forever
hidden from the knowledge of the
world
He had discussed the future with
his mother while his fathers life hung
in the balance, and they feared the
worst.
His mother had not seen Mark Bret
tingham, and prayed that she might
be spared the pain of meeting him.
He would have a right to claim the
Hall and enter into possession of it
at once and so they had determined
to leave it Immediately after the
funeral
Under ordinary conditions it would
have seemed to them irreverent to dis
cuss such a matter while there was
still chance of Sir Marks recovery.
But the circumstances we're exception
al, and so, before the end came, Lady
rockingham and her son had arranged
to do their utmost to avoid meeting
the new master of DraycOtt under the
roof from which his coming had ban
ished them forever
Harold rockingham had nerved
himself to bear the sympathy that
was certain to be aroused when his
| position was revealed But Lady
Buckingham was terribly distressed
| by the thought of the revelation that
would have to be made
| She was a proud woman, and it
! humbled her pride that her son was
disinherited, and that his disinherit
ance would give rise to a thousand
rumors and surmises as to why her
husband had concealed the fact that
he had son living by his former mar
riage.
To escape the sympathy which, I'M
der the circumstances, would be gall
and NORWOOD; to escape a knowl
edge Of the gossip which the arrival or
the scene of the new Sir Mark Bret
tingham must inevitably give rise to
Lady rockingham and her son had de
termined that if their worst fears were
realized they would give up possession
of the Hall at once and leave England
Their one fear was that John VIII