Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1908-08-22

CHAPTER XIX.
Hugo spent the rest of the month at
Saffron Charteris Cynthia poured
ed the hocus pocus trick of making
the present so charming that the past
Is forgotten. They went about togeth-
er, as they had done in the good old
days, and around Cynthia's head the
halo increased in size and radiance.
Edward received him with the not al
together tactful remark: you're the
damnedest, luckiest man l know" a
reference to the escape from Circe,
but later, about week afterwards,
when the brothers were going over
the home farm, the elder said alb
ruptly.
You ought to settle down If I were
you I'd buy nice place with a good
ish bit of land know of half dozen
that would suit you down to the
ground. And then Cynthia must find
you a wife, a good sort with no non
sense about her. Take my tip and
leave it to Cynthia, tell you, Ian
gushing eyes and golden hair don't
impose on her."
"You give sound advice, Edward"
'sI told you six months ago you'd
had a peppering. Ask some sensible
young woman to pick the shot out"
would she get much fun out Of
that7"
Lord bless you yes! They like it,
the best of 'em, mean. Not that rot
ten crowd you've been mixed up
with"
81 might advertise: "A reformed
o1,o no Sr,to 10
of a common or garden spade. Object
matrimony and the cultivation OF the
English SOIL
Bar chaff, that's it. And you are
fond of kids. You'd enjoy teaching a
likely boy to ride and shoot"
Hugo looked hard into Edwards
square, brown, woodeny countenance,
Sincerity Illuminated it with pleas
ant light. If Hugo remained unmarried
his fortune would come back to an
ancient house sadly in need of re-
plenishing. Nobody knew better than
Hugo how dear Saffron Charteris was
to Edward. He loved his wife and his
sons in that stodgy, undemonstrative
fashion peculiar to many Englishmen,
but his home, the cradle of his race
came first In his affections. Had he
lost Cynthia, it is certain that he
would have married again within. a
decent two years mot less) and, step
ping in his fathers tracks, would have
chosen a wife with none enough at
any rate to put the land into first
class order, to rebuild number of
cottages, to pay off mortgages, and
treble his county subscriptions. For
Edward Charteris differed from Sir
Giles Mottisfont in this: he recogniz-
ed his responsibilities as landlord,
although he may not have seen clear
ly the unformulated obligations due
to wife and children. Sir Giles sent
his boys to Eton, which, Indirectly,
filed many small graves in the church
yard Of Hernshaw Magma; Edwards
sons, as has been said, were despatch
ed to Cheltenham.
''You're. a good fellow, Edward"
said Hugo with feeling. "And | wish
you were no. such a stubborn, obstin-
ate mule
tEh 2"
Tive had a peppering, as you say,
and to you I'll admit that I'm sore, so
sore that the gentlest hands in the
world, Cynthia's, can't pick the shot
out. They're in to stay. Enough of
that. II you want to make things cas-
ier, let me write cheque, enough to
clear off the mortgage
No" said Edward between his
teeth. At the evil word he WINGED The
mortgage on fine property was his
hair shirt, to be worn next his skin
until he died. Hugo did not press the
point, divining that his brothers pride
was adamantine, solid as the founda-
ton of his house. And he knew that
Cynthia would applaud this refusal to
touch money that in a sense might be
deemed not altogether without taint
The neighbors, if the mortgage were
lifted with Hugo's money, would shake
their heads knowingly and whisper to
each other that this had been the
price of recognition and whitewashing.
These same neighbors greeted the
prodigal without the enthusiasm mani
tested at his club. Hugo could not es-
cape from the conviction that he had
ceased to be of them. Possibly tho SUE
folk Squires and their danes expected
an exhibition of sackcloth and ashes.
Hugo's smiles were characterized by
the wears wife as brazen
All would have been forgotten ana
forgiven had he behaved with reason
KHua TEnnrnMo Z E~,,HN