Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1909-04-15
CHAPTER "

Twenty years have passed and gone
| since Herbert Phillimore, Viscount LAX
| ington. landed that famous pool at Brack-
| nell. lie was quite willing to go through
the accumulations of his respected father
in-law and while he lasted, Mr.. Lyme
Wregis proved himself very pattern
relative in that respect. He made money
lightly by daring speculations, and he
spent his sswinnngs freely. He behaved
with loyal liberality to his son-in-aw
Not only did he make the newly married
pair very handsome allowance. but he
responded in manner beyond all praise
to extraneous tugs at his purse strings.
Great was the sensation through Lon
don when the evening papers announced
the suicide of Mr.. Lyme Wregis. That
when the state of his affairs came to be
investigated he should be found hopeless
ly and wel-nigh fraudulenty bankrupt
was only what the catastrophe had pre-
pared the world for Out of the wreck of
the colossal fortune. which there could be
no doubt the great fnancier once possess
ed. there remained but fifteen hundred
year, which had been settled on Mrs.
Lyme Wregis about the time that her
daughter was born. Lord Lakington found
himself in similar plight to Fred Chiches-
ter. with a wife and child, and left
beggar.
Wealth is, after all, matter of COM
parson. 1t is simply income in consid
cradle excess of what we have been ac-
customed to. Fifteen hundred a year
would of course represent affiuence to the
many. To energetic. clever-nanaging
Mrs. Lyme Wregis it represented COM
fort. To Lord Lakington it meant gen.
teeI poverty His wife died, and he sud
denly awoke to the fact that the annual
dividend paid to him on the hundred
pounds he had placed in the Great Ton
tine" was rapidly becoming very i'm
portant item when regarded as pocket
money A hundred year or SO may not
be much looked upon as income, but it be-
comes very respectable sum when view
ed in the light of loose silver.
The death. of his wife made no differ
ence to Lord Lakngton's domestic ar
rangements. He and his daughter still
continued to reside with Mrs. Lyme Wre-
gis. Not only had he and the old lady
always been upon excellent terms, but she
was gradually assuming an Importance in
his eyes. which was destined a little later
to become overwhelming. Hers was the
life that he had nominated when invest
ing the hundred pounds won IL Ascot in
the Great Tontine" and such was the
vivacity and vitality exhibited by his
mother-in-aw that he began seriously to
think that it was very possible she might
survive all the other competitors. he
had thought but little of the great lottery
when he first took share in it, and, in
deed. never would have done so had it not
been rendered obligatory on him by the
terms of the pool that he won but his
attention was now called to it every half
wear in very pleasing fashion; and as the
years rolled by, that lives originally NOM
mated at sixty should begin to fall fast
was only in accordance with the laws of
nature. As the lives fell so did the
shareholders diminish, and so, consequent
ly. did the dividends increase for those
whose nominees were fortunately still liv-
ing. The new opera house had been built
long ago. and was now supposed to be
remarkably thriving establishment. 1t at
all events enabled its lessee, Mr.. Sails
bury, to pay the eight thousand a year
rent, which was divided punctuany
amongst the shareholders. AS the nomi-
nees got we'll past the three-score and ten
years ordinarily allotted to humanity, the
lives began to fall every spring like
leaves in autumn. Finally Viscount LAX
ington found that his half yearly divi-
dend amount to one thousand pounds
that, in fact, Mrs. Lyme Wregis was one
of the last four surviving lives in this
gigantic pool, and that the possibility of
his coming into a fortune of eight thou
sand year was hanging upon the life
of that venerable lady.
On a bright June morning. Lord LAX
ington enters the dining room of COM
fortably sized house in the Victoria road,
Kcnsington, crosses to the breakfast table,
and proceeds TO glance over his corre-
spondence. Life is made pleasantly
SMOOTH for him at present. In the en-
joyment Of comfortable home. presided
over by two women both implicitly devot-
ed to him, he can thoroughly rely upon
all those comforts which become rather
dear TO US as we verge towards fifty; end