Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-05-29
CHAPTER XVI.

Wycherly, the haughtiest woman in the
county, stately, imposing, handsome Mrs.
Wycherly she who never stirred abroad
without her equipage, her carriage, her
splendid horses, her richly Inverted SER
vants-MTrs.s Wycherly, sitting alone by
the wayside at nine, O'Clock in the even
ing, bonnetless, her dark hair sweeping to
her waist, a bleeding wound in her fore
head, her light dress torn, her face ghast-
ly.
While Leila gazed, awcstruck and won
dcrinc, at the woman, she rose suddenly
without a word, caught her white, long
skirt in one hand, and passed, like a ghost
IN the moOnbcams, across the dusty road,
stepped lightly over the low stile, and
then Leila saw her figure receding swiftly
in the moonbeams. Miss Leigh stood
spellbound, watching her.
Can it be & dream-an hallucination?"
she asked, passing her hand over her eyes.
IF | should mention what l have seen,
| should be laughed at as a visionary.
But what a look that woman gave me-
cold, defiant, wicked! She is a terrible
woman, l am certain of it. Poor crea-
ture her head was hurt it was bleeding.
Ought | to follow her and offer her as
s~istance? No; she defed me. Her looks
said to me plainly: Speak to me-recog-
nizc me at your peril" She must have
marvellous strength. a woman not young
Mrs. Wychcrly must be ffty-fve-to
rise up. stately ard defiant, cold and i'm
placable, while bleeding from a wound in
me head, and eros the road and take her
way across those damp, dewy fields! I
should be afraid to follow her"
And it was true, there had been a con-
- -l. IT, e.
Mrs. Wycherly, which had terrified the
susceptible, sensitive Leila. The look
said: Speak to me, or question me, at
your peril" as plainly as ever a look
expressed a sentiment.
Leila turned her face resolutcly toward
Woodmancote, and she walked along the
road, without meeting with anything or
anybody to cause her fear.
When she rang the bell at the great
gate, the entrance to st. Martha's, her
heart beat thankfully that shelter and
safety were hers once more. She found
her way to her own chamber, where she
was joined by her friend, Miss Gregson,
to whom she gave a graphic account of
, her adventure.
My dear child, you must be mistaken
Il am not, Miss Gregson. If ever l
saw Mrs. Colonel Wycherly in church,
~rustling in brocade and splendid in costly
lace, cold. statuelike, naughty, as she al
ways appears in public, l saw her this
night bonnetless, her hair streaming to
her waist, and bleeding from a cut in her
temple" u
1T was some woman from a caravan of
waxworks, or giants and dwarfs, or lern-
ed mice-some caravan on it's way to
Crawley Fair. That screaming you
heard was when her husband quarreled
with her, and struck her. chen he ran
away, and she went and sat down by the
roadside. That's the whole story
My dear FRIEND, you are not in gem
eral so practical; you ordinarily see a
romance in every adventure. Why will
you not believe me when I declare upon
my honor that I saw Mrs. Wycherly sit
ting by the roadside tonight"
ITO tell you the truth. Leila said
the English governess, seating herself and
putting her small, white hands together
firmly, Il never can see anything roman
tic or interesting about those Wycherlys.
| think them the most uninteresting, stu
pid people in the county. Whatever pos
sessed a young man of your brothers tai
cat to bury himself alive at Wycherly
Hall as tutor to that s~illy-lcoking, white
faced hoy, whom they say is to inherit all
the fortune, can't for one moment i'm
agine! Sometimes l think he is idiot
enough to believe himself in love with
that imp of a girl, Ella Wycherly, al
though she has the amer of a squirrel
rather than of a lady, climbing trees at
the risk of her neck-a saucy, forward,
pert little creature !"
Miss Gregson's mild, blue eyes flashed
Leila looked at her in amazement.
THE colonell," went on Miss Gregson,
is the veriest stick-a wooden man,
naughty, and silent as a dumb effigy of
an officer! His head would make an ex-
cellent signboard for an inn, if some
village craftsman who paints stays and
bulls heads would take his likeness! As
for the woman-bah! what Is she fit for,
except to wear lace, and velvet, and Jew
els, and look round on all the word as
if they were made of something inferior?
I tell you / hate the Wycherlys. Nothing
so interesting or romantic would ever
happen to her as that she should have
her temple cut open, and her hair-her
own, too-should fall in a cloud to her
waist, and she should sit at the roadside
at night, weeping. No; her hair is al
ways bound up tightly, depend upon it;
and l don't believe she ever sat out in
the moonbeams on a summer night in her
life. She would think she compromised
her dignity
Miss Gregson's voice trembled with
passion. Leila looked at her in amaze
ment still more profound. What was the
reason for all this temper? Eliza Greg
son was in general mild and quiet, her
fervors Were of the romantic kind. She
might sometimes wax enthusiastic about
fictitious characters, but never about real
unless-unless, and Leila began to |
recall two or three occasions On which
the quiet English teacher had waxed
warm and fervid and excitable; but al
ways one person was concerned, remotely
or nearly, with Miss Gregson's display of |
feeling-one person, Lella's brother
Lionel Yes, Leila saw it all. During the 4
months when Lionel had taught languages
at st. Martha's, the little English teacher
had fallen head-over-ears in love with
him.. Hence her warm and really sincere
friendship for Leila hence her conviction
that Lionel was the heir to a sounding
title and large estates.
Miss Gregson declared that she had
found a clue, though she would not reveal |
it to Leila and she said that, when she
had we'll followed up this clue, she would
Lionel to be an earl in his own
right. Leila looked at her pityingly.
My dear Eliza, I believe that Lionel