The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-21
rH drpn1E WASHINGTON AND LADY Ls5NoND

Beatrix. thus protected quite against her will. had followed the young Prince when he fled to France. Her name had never been mentioned again by the Virginia Esmonds. By what tawdry, intriguing, humbllng stages Beatrix Esmond had been passed from royal court to court. finally being married to a gentleman who was made bishop for his complaisance and ending, on his death. by marrying a still Hess partic- ular person, who was made German baron, only the Baroness herself could say--and her lips were clever ones, that told only what she wished.
 old and her Influence over kings gone. she returned to England to amuse herself by plaguing Lord Castlewood and his family. flashing them with her scorn and open disdain, which they bore heroically for the sake of inher- tting her wealth.
 She saw in HaFry's face the spirit of Colonel Esmond. That was the only man there ever was in this family. said she to the Castlewoods. There never was one of the male Esmonds that had more brainS than a goose, ex- cept him. He was not fit for this sell fish, wicked old world of ours, and he was right to go and live out of 1t. Where would you have been but for himT"
 The memory of Colonel Esmond was the one softened thing that stirred in the wicked old heroine's heart. Even when she had followed the Pretender. she had thought In her soul that her kInsman, challenging the royal race in his wrath, had looked more like a King than the humillated young Prince. And now she saw In Harry Warrington some of that same noble light of eyes and simple bravery of bearing.
 cam mH.. n@k1 wood, suggesting pointedly that 1t had been long since he could get gentle man to play with him, since he was suspected of being too successful most times and of never paying when. by an unusual chance, he lost. She was even more plain about Cousin Will, since there was nothing 90 bad about cry club in London, most of which he dared not enter.
 Harry was nobody's fool. He had not been absolute at home: but tn the manner of the times he had played his part at gaming, drinking and measur- ing his wits against his neighbor. If he was not very wise in books, or very deep in philosophy, he was a very keen, alert. skilful young fellow, as Cousin win soon learned when Harry caught him neatly in a cheat and pun ished him still more neatly in game of light.
 For a while, too, he escaped Castle wood: and indeed, that bankrupt, be- spattered, eonscfeneeless ornament of the nobility kept his hands off in the beginning. after a talk with the Bar oness. ..=..
 But Harry was not so fortunate with the female portion of the plotting Cas- tlewoods. Else why should Harry one day fall to kissing withered vegeta- ble wllich he carried in his breast, and which had been a rose when 1t was plucked for him by the fair hands oi the Lady Maria? And If his eyes look ing through love, could translate the amputated greens into the gloominE glory they had been, why could they not translate the Lady Maria's some- what yellow neck and her somewhaa too blooming complexion into whal they had been once, when the charm CT was twenty instead of the twenty eight that she owned to Harry (and the forty-two that she really was)?
 So Harry wrote to her as his angle, and Lady Maria, whose tattered and scared heart had enough passion to feel true love for the handsome, flush . ed, eager lad. forgave the bad spelling for the sentiment.
 of the Princess Pocahontas that she did not know how well her heir was progressing in the arts of society which she had laid 1t on him to learn. The Baroness Bernstein, vastly proud of him, introduced him to all the gay world that came thronging to her rooms none the less eagerly for losing no opportunity to retail her past ca- reer.
 Castlewood introduced him at court which was almost the only place in London where he could still appear without too much danger of being cut dead.
 In London Harry fell in with the Earl of March and Ruglen. who laid l Harry three beta the moment he met l him, all of which the Virginian won He was equally successful at cards
 My Lord of March was then the wildest bettor and gamester in England. will. ing to bet on anything from a fly to | the death of his friends.
 "The Fortunate Youth," they chris l toned him.
 "The Iroqnois won f3o0 very gen. teelly last night at Whites from my nephew" wrote Sir Horace Walpoi, about that time in a letter to a friend They say he has bled Lord March oi thousands-Lord March by whom s'