The Democratic advocate., 1907-08-16
gelett Stnrp.
MY LADY LETHCE.
BY MALCOLM FURZE.

She was always called My Lady Lettice
from the moment of her birth the birth
which cost her gentle, fragile mother her
life; and as the years rolled on the title
was none the less hers. e
The Earl of Cranston, her father, took
very little notice of her-he never quite
forgave her for being the unconscious fac
tor in her mothers early death-and she
grew from childhood to girlhood a solitary,
yet by no means unhappy person, dimly
conscious that there was latent feeling of
animosity toward her small and wholly
sweet self on the part of the being who
ought to have loved her more than the
whole wide world put together, but utterly
unable to account for its presence.
She understood that Lord Cranston pre-
ferred to see her at distance-that he
just tolerated her at the head of his table,
when her long skirts and turned.up hair
precluded once and for all her retention in
the schoolroom
But the cause was not borne in upon
her until one certain hot summers day,
when in the light of others eyes, she saw
what had hitherto been a mystery to
her.
A pure accident put it into her pretty
auburn head, and when once she knew
there was no louger any peace for My Lady
Lettice.
She had been out in the cornfields that
surrounded her country home, gathering
in her brown arms, barred to the elbow,
great handfuls of regal crimson poppies.
A very glorious picture she made as she
stood "breast- high holding her spoils
against her nut-brown cheek.
Had My Lady Lettice's mother been
alive that same cheek had been carefully
shielded from the too eager kisses of the
summer sun; but having no one to take
care of her the girl had wandered at her
own sweet will in her own fashion once she
was emancipated from governesses and
such like impedimenta that surround the
ordinary budding young lady, and her face
was sure index of the use to which she
had put her time and her liberty
The Earl never inquired for her; if she
was late for meals he made no comment;
he utterly refused to secure chaperon for
his pretty young daughter, averring that
while he lived his daughter had no use for
one.
He did not intend to present her at
court or give her season in town such as
beftted one of her rank and beauty-and
in the country espionage was necessary for
My Lady Lettice. And his would-be
councillors withdrew, and the Earl went on
in his own obstinate way, until suddenly
pulled up short.
And his awakening happened in this
wise
The day that saw My Lady Lettice
E'breast high among the corn" brough
two ladies to the court on a visit to my
lord.
One was Madame Ronteuil, fascinat-
ing little Frechwoman, who loved "la belle
Angleterre, and had made it her home;
and the other was friend who had come
to stay with her.
Now, My Lady Lettice was on the We
randa arranging the poppies she had that
morning gathered, and the window being
open on to the balcony every word the two
good ladies uttered while waiting the ar
rival of their host carried to the girls ears
as she stood idly caressing her beautiful
flowers. /
She had no intention of eavesdropping,
but she also had no intention of making
her presence known in case her father
should object, and it was with sudden start
that she heard his name mentioned by Mad
anne.
The visitors were evidently discussing
the absent gentleman, and Madame was
enlightening her friend with vivid de-
scription.
"And," she wound up, "the sad part
is that he hates his only daughter-his
only child, in fact, because her mother
died at her birth Inhuman, call it
but the girl doesn't seem to mind-I don't
think she quite understands"
Visiting the sins of the father upon
the children, I call it, purred the other
lady, mildly. "How very shocking
quite case for the Society for the Pre-
ventiOn-''
Her sentence was cut short by the arri-
val of her host But My Lady Lettice
had heard, and her cheeks famed.
So that was the reason-her father
hated her! OH she was glad, ever so
glad, that at least she had found out.
What fool she had been not to guess it!
Many things became clear to her, viewed
in the nou linhf