Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1908-07-25
Story Of rancis Cludde
A Romance Of Queen Mary's Reign.
RY STANLEY L WEYMAN
CHAPTER XVI-Continued.
BY STANLEY J. wEYMAN.


Can guess? All, what happiness 1t
was! Outside the sun fell hotly on the
steep rcd roofs, with their rows OF
easements, and on the sleepy square
in which knots of people still fingered,
talking of the mornings events 1
could see below me the guard which
Duke william, shrewdly mistrusting
the subdean, had posted in front OF the
house, nominally to do the duchess
honor. l could hear in the next room
the cheerful voices of my friends.
What happiness 1t was to live! what
happiness to be loved! How very
very good and beautiful and glorious a
world seemed the world to me on that
old May morning in that quaint Ger
man town which we had entered 80
oddly!
AS I turned from the windows full
Of thankfulness, my eyes met those or
Mistress Anne, who was sitting on the
far side of the sick mans couch, the
baby in cradle beside her. The risk
and exposure of the last week had
made a deeper mark upon her than up
on any of US. She was paler, graver,
older, more of a woman and less, much
less, of a girl. And she looked very
Ill. Her eyes, in particular, seemed TO
have grown larger, and as they dWelt
on me now there was a strange and
solemn light in them, under which /
grew uneasy.
You have been wonderfully pre-
served" she said presently, speaking
dreamily, and as much to herself as to
me.
Il have, indeed" l answered, think
Ing she referred only to my escape OF
the morning.
But she did not.
There was, firstly, the time on the
river when you were hurt with the
oar" she continued, gazing absently at
me, her hands in her lap, "and then
the night when you saw Clarence with
Dymphna."
"Or, rather saw him without her"
I interposed, smiling. 1t was strange
that she should mention it as a fact,
when at the time she had so scolded
me for making the statement
And then" she continued, disre-
garding my interruption, there was
the time when you were stabbed in
the passage, and, again, when you had
the skirmish by the river, and then
today you were within a minute Of
death. You have been wonderfully
preserved"
II have" I assented thoughfully.
THE more as l suspect that l have to
thank Master Clarence for all these lit
tie adventures"
"Strange-very strange!" she NUT
tered. removing her eyes from me that
she might fix them on the moor.
What Is stranger"
The abrupt questioner was the
duchess, who came bustling in at the
moment. What is stranger" she re-
peated. with a heightened color and
dancing eyes. Shall tell you?" She
paused and looked brightly at me,
holding something concealed behind
her. l guessed In a moment, from the
aspect of her face. what 1t was-the
" eIU m Mac OF tpT
Lindstrom in the morning. and which,
with a pardonable forgetfulness, had
failed to reclaim.
l turned very red. TT was not in
tended for you to now" l said shyly,
for in the letter l had told her my
story
Pooh, pooh!" she cried. 1T is just
as l thought. A pretty piece of folly!
No" she continued as l opened my
mouth, II am not going to keep your
secret, sir. You may go down on your
knees. 1t will be OF no use. Richard
you remember Sir Anthony Cludde Of
Cotton End in Warwickshire?"
"Oh. yes her husband said rising on
his elbow. while his face lit up and
stood bashfully shifting my feet
Il have danced with him a dozen
times, years ago!" she continued, her
eyes sparkling with mischief. We'll
sir, this gentleman, Master Francis
Carey, otherwise Won SantonkirCh is
Francis Cludde, his nephew"
Sir Anthony's nephew"
Yes, and the son of Ferdinand
Cludde, whom you also have heard Of
of whom the Less
She stopped and turned quickly in
terrupted by half stified scream. 1t
was a scream full Of sudden horror and
amaZement and fear, and 1t came from
Mistress Anne. The girl had risen and
was gazing at me with distended eyes
and blanched cheeks and hands
stretch out to keep me off-gazing, in
deed as II she saw in me some awful
portent or some dreadful threat. She
did not speak. but she began. without
taking her eyes from me, to retreat
toward the door.
"Hoity. toity!" cried my lady, stamp
ing her foot in anger. What has hap
pened to the girl? what
What, indeed? The duchess stopped,
still more astonished. for. without ut
tering word Of explanation or
apology. Mistress Anne had reached
the door. groped blirdly for the latch.
found 1t and gone out, her eyes, with
the same haunted look of horror in
them, fixed on me to the last.