Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-06-19
CHAPTER XIX.

perceive, on account of the crowd, thaI
Ella had not joined that lady n II
was thus that the young woman contrlv'
ed to leave the station, and so found her
self in a suburb of the town of Evers'
holt before she was missed.
She feared that she must be discov
cred unless she could c~ontrive TO put ply
steal distance between herself and he1
mother. The easiest and safest way t
effect this was certainly the railway
but, as it was, with her mother at thu
Eversholt station, it seemed to her as i
all the lines in England were blocked
for her, for surely Mrs. Wycherly would
soon set all the telegraph wires in thu
kingdom vibrating with the story of hel
fight. Ella knew enough of the world
and of the law to be aware that * sh'
applied to the authorities, her mother
would ave no right to imprison her fol
life, but until she was of age, her mother
would have the right to place her wher
ever she pleased, and three years of irk
some imprisonment seemed inevitable.
Ella said to herself, feryently, that sh'
would rather work as q housemaid, OF
girl of all work, in some shabby-gentee
family, such as she had read Of in novels
but had never met in the somber splendol
of her life, than be found by her mother
and conveyed to the Italian prison house
She was in n narrow lane, with pretty
old-fashioned houses of various sizes lying
back in gardens luxuriant with the fruit
flowers and foliage of golden July. On
either side were verdant hedges Of haw'
thorn, close-clipped, thick, impenetrable
Trees waved their branches on the gar,
den sides of these hedges.
Where Ella stood in the lane, she could
see that the blinds were down in all the
front windows. AS yet only a stray
housemaid or so was astir. No mistresses
or masters seemed to be awake in any of
the peaceful looking dwelling.
The instincts of youth naturally prompt
the lad or the lass, cast for the first time
alone on the world, to suppose that world
a kindly patron, a beneficent friend, q
bountiful mother.
Hitherto, strangers and outsiders had
only shown smiling faces to Ella Wycher-
ly she had no idea that sneers or frowns
are what the world emphatically deals to
the poor and the friendless.
Upon her the white-blinded windows
seemed to look like plying eyes. She
would AVE entered one of the pretty gar
dem and nave knocked at on of the neat
hall doors if people had been astir, but
as they were not, she just passed up the
road swiftly, and soon found herself in
the high street of the town.
IL was a pretty old high street, with a
market cross, ar ancient town hall, which
datod from the reign of Elizabeth, INT
numbers of gablepointed roofs and pro-
tectlng fronts, picturesque as en- engrav-
ing of some Norman street corner. No
shops were yet open, but the milk carts
we've about, and a few dogs ran hither
and thither, and in the center OF the road
stratted a golden-breasted cock, and four
bro wn, demure hens.
1T was strange that a feeling of secur-
ity hld come to Ella since she left the
Lana with the gardens and the pretty
horses. She was not afraid that her
mo her would find her now, and yet what
could nave been easier han for ihe coach
MAJ and three or four railway porters ia
set off in quest of her, and find her?
1t so happened, however, that although
by this time Mrs. Wycherly and Miss
Worthington had missed Ella, they had
not mentioned thu fact to anybody except
their confidential servant, the coachman.
He and Miss Worthington had gone diff
ferent ways in search of Miss Wycherly,
but it happened that neither of them
had oiiowed her up the pretty lane, or
into the quaint, old high street of Evers-
holt.
Ella paused before a gate, on which
was a brass plate, whereon the words
were engraved, Establishment for Young
Ladies'"
Beyond the gate was q large, trim lawn,
fowerless but verdant. A number of
large evergreen shrubs grew IN a great,
circular bed in the center of this lawn.
A tall, square, red-brick house was at the
end-a house with many windows, green
Venetian blinds, white, clean steps lead
ing up to the door.
"a school," said Ella to herself, where
young ladies', so-called, are educated-the
daughters Of the country attorneys and
chief tr~adespeople, I suppose"
Ella turned up her pretty lip a little.
She, with her mothers pride and her
fathers hauteur, Inherited a something
warmer, and sweeter, and nobler, of which
she was as yet ashamed. 1t was a fine
thing to be able to trace the ancestors
back on both sides as far the Norman
Conquest, and to know that all her faith
ers had been lords Of the soil for cen
turtles. It was a very fine thing, though
what good it was likely to do her on this
fns morning, when she stood before the
gafe Of Uckfeld House, it would be diff
u to say.
or instance, she could not ask to see
the lady principal, and then thus address
tina individual:
II ar of good birth. l have Norman
blood in my veins. My father is a great
landowner; but I have run away from
home, because my mother wishes to shut
me up for life-or, at least, until / am of
age-in a sort of prison, n I prefer to
work for my bread. Let me teach Ger
man and music in your school,
If Ella said that, the lady principal
would want to know who the great land
owner was, or would not believe Elias
story: and if she knew, Others would
know, and her mother would find her
again.
No; Ella must keep the secret of the
Norman ancestors and the blue blood to
persons whose parents were in trade.
If she wanted to teach music and Ger
man she must hold her peace about her
antecedentS-thAt was certain.
Whenever a sszag lady is required
suddenly TO supply herself with bread and
butter, she naturally think Of becoming
q governess, unless she is gifted as an
artist, who hopes to sell her pictures:
an authoress, who hopes to sell her
stories or an actress, who desires to go
on the stage.
IT scanned "a FIJI, fa.c;kJo that Sho