The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-12

noble alliance, which was doubly dear to Barnes now that lie had married in- to tho nobility himself
 But the Bundlecund Banking Com pany was, indeed. a great affair. so great that even the great banking incur It's enmity. Therefore Sir Barnes saw his profit, as usual, in playing double.
 Playing double is something that po- lite society recognizes as almost vital at times to preserve it's sacred institu- tions. Unfortunately Colonel Newcome did not belong to polite society. There- fore, when he discovered presently that Lady Kew had whiskey Ethel away to Scotland whence her engagement to Lord Farintosh was announced soon af- terward, he lost no time in striding into the Newcome Bank and there, in the presence of trembling clerks, called Sir Barnes liar, traitor and knave.
 All London heard of it in day. Poor Barnes, in a weak attempt to retrieve his reputation, announced his regret that he couldn't challenge a man who was his uncle. Thereupon Give wrote to him. repeating the charges and of- fering to meet him; and delighted club acquaintances assured Sir Barnes that the code permitted meeting between cousins. General Sir George Tufto HiNhCuly bdTlieS OH HIS opportunity, leaving the unhappy gem tleman no recourse but to show the white feather, which he did. raging. to the intense glee of all the gay world.
 To console his body the Colonel now decided on a long tour of the Conti- nent. and Give, bearing his defeat with courage and resolution that made the old soldier doubly proud of him, as- scented eagerly. They travelled Rhine- land and Switzerland, they crossed into Italy they went over the Styrian Alps to Vienna. they beheld the Danube. They did not speak much to one an- other. Perhaps those who saw them shrugged their shoulders at this typf- cal pair of English travellers. They could not know the care in the younger travellers mind or the deep tenderness and solicitude of the elder.
 So at last toward autumn they found themselves in Brussels. and settled down to spend the winter with old James Binnie. who was living on the Continent with his widowed sister, Mrs. Mackenzie. and her lovely young daughter. Old Binnie had rebelIed feebly at first when the widow de- scended on him. with the plain pur- pose of exchanging her poverty for the comfortable establishment of her brother; but he had succumbed and now was willing and devoted slave 10 ms pretty niece.
 And about this time a good and true friend of Colonel Newcome wrote A letter to him, which followed him un- availingly through Europe and never found him until long afterward Had it reached him Tn time 1t might have prevented much that was to happen.
 During their wanderings the Colonel and his son had heard about the lat est scandal in the family of their kins- nav. Dc h |. ed his wife, Lady Clara, till he had been knocked down for 1t by Lord Highgate, who was no other than poor Charles Belsize, come most unexpect- edly into the family fortune and estate through the death of both his father and elder brother; and how in the end Highgate had fled with Lady Clara
 Following this came the announce ment that the engagement between Ethel and the noble Marquis of Farin- tosh had. of course. been broken off by the Farintoshes as a result of the scandal. The poor Colonel. who had done his best to stifie his love for Ethel. convinced as he had become against his will that she was utterly merce- nary, heard this part of the news with dilating nostrils and a grim face. shamed for the shame that had come to his niece.
 That letter which never reached him, would have told him something different It would have told him that Lord Farintosh had. implored Ethel humbly to marry him. and that she