The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-09-09

Qu1IS SAe 49,
not in 4 position to marry, you know,
are your" said the colonel.
But if I were to be so some day!
he hazarded eagerly.
1--WE will consider that when II
day comes" said Mrs. Staniland
sharply. AT present you're not
and we must decline to hear of 1t.
| Sufficient for the day'-and I do
! tnink there has been more THAI sui
! fcient! We are going, Sybil."
And they took her away from him.
and he was alone again, reduced to
find such solace as he could in the
memory of those last words and
looks of hers.
And now Campion was confronted
with a fresh dilemma, this parting
legacy of his ruthless tormentor.
What was he to do about the cast
that Perceval had lent him with so
many cautions? That precious head
of Cybele, which al now submerged,
in the idols stead, at the bottom of
the Paddington Canal!
There was no use in putting it OF.
He mus, go to his friend at once n
at the risk of ~displeasing him serious
w tell him-well, as much of the
| truth as he was likely to believe. So
he left the house with this laudable
intention, which, however, an accl-
dent prevented him from putting into
practice.
On the way he passed a police sta
tion-not the one which had extended
it's hospitality to him on the night
before - and outside was a placard
describing the discovery in the canal
of a bag which struck him as being
not unlike his own.
And as he learned after inquiring
inside, it was his own; it seemed
that the solitary errand boy whose
back was turned when Campion
threw the bag over the bridge had
been attracted by the splash, and, be-
ing a sharp youth, had instantly
informed a policeman, with the result
that the bag was recovered before its
contents were in any way injured.
Campion had to go through SONS
UNPLEASANT interviews before he could
persuade the officials to give him the
bag; but he succeeded at length, and
P~erceval, when his Cybele was re-
stored to him, never had the faintest
suspicion that it had played Gilda 20
| Campion's Rigoletto.
Whether the idols share in a SER
les of disasters was or was not mag
mary, it is certain and somewha.
singular that it's disappearance was
coincident with the dawn of a happier
state of things. The very next morn
ing brought a telegram from Messrs.
Moore, Bradshaw & Moore, who, it
may be remembered, were the firm
employed in ~propounding the will
under which, had it only been unop-
posed, Campion would be entitled to
a comfortable legacy.
This telegram announced that
(probably from some unexpected
weakness iii the d%isputant's case) the
opposition had suddenly collapsed,
and submitted an agreement under
which all imputations were to be
withdrawn on certain terms, and the
will admitted to probate; and thus
Campion found that the legacy which
he had long since given III as hope
less was actually to be his without
further dispute or possibility of fail
ure.
1t need not be said he lost no time
in writing to the colonel, and when
Babcock heard OF this, and perceived
decided symptoms of wavering on the
fathers part, he was reused to make
one last effort for what even he was
beginning to see was a decidedly for
lorn hope. His plan Vas simple, and
a development in fact Of the expert
ment in his own studio. The colonel
was to be worked up to pay a visit
tc the Grosvenor and see for himself
how shamefully his daughter had
been held up to public ridicule. If
that did not put a spoke in his rivals
wheels, Babcock thought, il must rCll
J on triumphant.
Mrs. Standard, still an uncompro-
missing ally of his, had no difficulty IN
bringing her brother to further the
scheme, anG accordingly on the Mon
day after the scene in Campion's
studio the colonel casually announced
at lunch that he thought f going to
the Grosveror that afternoon-wou4d
Sybil come with him? Mrs. Standard
interposed-Syb1 was not strong
enough to bear such a trial again.
Dear Horace must not think of TAX
ing her; she herself would accompany
him instead.
For the moment Sybil was willing
enough to be excused. But the
thought that she might show her
trust in her lover by going nerved
her to face that portrait once more.
1t was not his work, and she would
tell them so as they stood before it.
She would not fail in her loyalty to
Ronald, the more so as she suspected
the source from which the PROPOSE
ton originally anne
So OIL that Monday afternoon, for
the first time since that eventful Sat
urday, she entered the Gallery-this
time with a mind prepared for what
she vas TO see there. You know,
papa, dear" she said, as they went
upstairs, painters see people SO diff
~ferentiv, and-and oh! if you find
something you don't like in it, re-
" ~.
idol, too"