The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-27

least objectionable of his sons. Meantime she was having an interval of freedom before she took the veil and living a free, wild life at Osbaldistone Hall.
 That evening. in the great stone hall where Sir Hildebrand and his sons ca reused, Frank met another of his cous- ins. Here's thy cousin Percie; thy cous- in Thornie; thy cousin John; thy cousin Dick; thy cousin Wilfred-and here is 1 your cousin Rashleigh,' said Sir Hide brand.
 Frank gazed with curious interest at Rashleigh, so different was he from Per- cie, Thornie and company. They were sons of Anak, but Rashlegh was below the medium height, with a slight halt in his gait His manners were iusidious and at times winning, in strange con trast to the boorish rudeness of his father i and brothers. Intellect but insincerity showed in his face and brow. And al- though he endeavored to make himself agreeable to the visitor, Frank felt an instinctive aversion to him. He had been bred for a priest but either because it had been found that he had no ''voca- tion" or for some other reason, had never been admitted into orders.
 It was Rashleigh. Crank soon learned, whom his father had selected to take the desk in the great house of osbaldistone & Tresham which the merchants son had scorned.
 Frank withdrew early from the feast in the stun hail." and Diana gave him tea in the old library, which spacious and neglected apartment she had appropriated to her own use. Frank had seen the pretty huntress in all the abandon of the chase, had seen her take tive-barred gate on the way home and had heard her discourse of dogs and farriery, of falconry and hunting. Now he found that she was well versed also in the classics and other branches of learning which were unusual even to men of education in those days, and generally sealed books to all women of the time.
 Of the great world and of courts Di Vernon knew nothing, and for conven- tionalities she cared nothing. She had strong, imperous will that dominated the household and made even the subtle Rashleigh stand in awe of her. This beauty had a wit that stung like the lash of whip and a sarcasm which went as straight to it's mark as did the bullets which she could shoot so accurately. or the arrows from her bow with unerring flight.
 But through all her wit and joyousness, her abounding wealth of youth and health and beauty, there came every now and then the minor chord of the doom which awaited her. Marry with one of Sir Hill debrand's sons she would not; yet, as she told Frank, she felt that in a convent she would beat out her heart as a bird sometimes beats Itself to death against the wires of It's cage.
 All this she told young Osbaldistone with an engaging frankness. She put him on his guard against Rashleigh. Whether you do him an injury or favor, believe me, he will resent it and seek revenge" she said. Rashleigh had been her in- structor in learning, but seeking to prac- tice on her youth and inexperience, she had dismissed him and he was never al- lowed to enter the library without her permission.
 Frank was bewildered by the frankness and the beauty Di Vernon. He could not analyze his own feelings, but in a few days he found to his surprise that he was beginning to feel furiously jealous of any one on whom she seemed to look with even passing favor.
 What Diana had not told him about tho family the young man learned from An drew Fairservice. the gardener. a Scotch el1xrta bn da- scribed his service at Osbaldistone Hall as twenty years fighting with beasts at Ephesus."
 He was a meddlesome fellow, exceed ingly "canny," believed in "spooks" and so avaricious that while he would run his legs off to oblige friend he would not give him a shilling to keep him from starving.
 One day, to his indignation and surprise, Frank was informed by Andrew that he was accused of having played highway man and robbed a fellow traveller named Morris with whom ne had journeyed from London, of a portmanteau containing some money and papers of political importance.
 He remembered tne fellow well, a chicken hearted knave who had insisted on attaching himself to Franks company and who displayed such anxiety with re- gard to his portmantsau that everywhere along the road he advertised the fact that it contained something worth sealing.
 "Justice Inglewood was cen about tae issue a warrant for his honor." said An drew complacently. Frank Insisted on riding at once to the house of the jus tice and Di Vernon insisted on going along to show him the way. Frank ob- jected in the name of the proprieties, but Di laughed his sermon to scorn
 As they entered the house of the jus tice, Rashleigh Osbaldistone was leaving 1t, and Diana, taking him aside, held a long and animated conversation with him in which she seemed to insist on some thing, and Rashleigh at first to denur and then consent sullenly.
 In the dining room they found the port ly Justice drinking his wine and caroling a blithe stavs while his clerk. Mir. Job son, urged him to expedite the business of the robber Osbaldistone
 Morris, the plundered one, having signed his complaint, sat there fidgeting under the jolly magistrates hospitality and anx- ious to be away again. Frank and Di were received as guests to a feast rather than as corners to a court of justice. But as Morris swore that the young man before him was the man who had robbed him. it began to look as if Frank would really have to go to prison In spite Of his indignant protestations-in fact, even the