The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-01-03
HIS WIFE'S !
REVENGE
CHAPTER Xxx.
The Old Life and the New.

CHAPTER Xxx.
TIE Old Life and the New.
Sir Mark Brettingham had establish
ed himself in chambers in the Albany.
He had taken an elegantly furnished
set that had been recommended him
by West End house agent to whom
he applied, and had made himself TEN
porarily at home. He had not yet
made up his mind as to future ar
rangements.
The late baronet's town house had
passed to Lady Brettingham, and she
was residing there with her son.
Draycott Hall was fine old mansion,
but Sir Mark felt that he should be
deadly dull there and an object of
curiosity to his neighbors. He didn't
want to be an object of curiosi-
ty, and he didn't want to be dull.
He went to Draycott Hall, as mat
ter of form, after Lady Buckingham
had left it. He saw the steward and
the housekeeper, and one or two of
the principal people concerned in the
management of the estate, and made
favorable impression.
"a good looking, pleasant gentle
man." was the verdict, "and Bret
tingham in build and feature"
He stayed day and a night, and
then returned to town. There was
good deal of local gossip when it got
about that the new baronet had been
asked a great many questions.
The result was so far satisfactory
that the coujectures as to the true
story of Sir Marks mysterious heir,
who had bobbed up like a Jack-in-the-
box. became less romantic.
Whether, as had been rumored, the
late baronet had married beneath him
or not, the new Sir Mark was appar-
emily gentleman quite capable OF
wearing the family honors with ease
and dignity.
Sitting in his chambers the morning
after his return from Draycott Hall,
Sir Mark found himself thinking about
the beautiful old mansion that was,
according to "Dcbrett," his country
seat.
He was not liable to romantic i'm
pressions, but, looking back upon his
past life, he could not help contrasting
it with his present position as the
owner of the grand old home Of the
Brettinghams.
The gray age of the old place had al
most alarmed him as he saw it for the
first time in the daylight. He had
stood in the big dining hall alone, with
the portraits of his ancestors looking
down upon him. and he had lowered
his eyes before what appeared to him
to be their reproachful gaze.
With the influence of his surround
ings upon him, the young man. whose
life had been dissolute and criminal,
felt twinge of honest shame.
He was no longer Sir Mark Bretting-
ham. man of fashion; he was the
covering convict, with the broad ar
rows Of lis ignominy upon his raiment.
He was safe where he was, safe
from the slightest shadow of suspi-
cion. All Scotland Yard might have
passed through the room and he need
not have trembled Sir Mark Bretting-
ham of Draycott Hall stood among his
forEears in his ancestral home, and
no thought of John Wilson. the escap-
ed convict, could enter the mind of
any living soul who saw him.
And yet a greater fear had come
upca him than he had experienced
since the night that the train was
bearing young clergyman and his
square-shouldered, b-own-bearded fell
low traveller swiftly to London, the
city of refuge.
It was not the fear of the future, it
was the fear of the past.
Ee was humbled and abashed. for
in tho old home of his race, hallowed
by centuries of honorable tradition, he
felt his own vilencss as he had never
felt it before.
But the feeling of shame changed
suddenly to one of wrath. The fact
that he stood a convicted felon among
his honored ancestors was not an in
suit to them, but an injustice to him.
self. He no longer saw himself the
offender, but the offended. He had
been basely tricked out of his rightful
position among the Brettinghams for
years by a Buckingham:
If he had been scoundrel, swind-
Ter, a thief it was the fault of the
father who had made no effort to find
out what had become Of him, or If he
had made it had done so without af-
lection, without the earnestness which
might have crowned his search with
success.
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s.ie Had.
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