Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-09-10
CHAPTER XII.

Harold Denison touched his hat haught-
lily, and rode home but the old usurer
artful speech still simmered in his brain.
Why should it not be? 1t would cut the
tangled knot of his difficulties. He had
made inquiries. Young Pearman had
been brought up a gentleman, and visited
in several good houses in the county. He
naturally little exaggerated this to him
SELF to justify the course he intended to
pursue nay for the matter of that, had |
been pursuing for some days. His wife |
had told him that she had laid the Pear |
man proposition before Maude, and that
the young lady had declined, with thanks;
since which intelligence he had bullied
Mrs. Denison, and snubbed or treated his
| daughter with cold indifference. The heads
of the family can make contumacious
children conscious of their high displeas-
ure without any unseemly rating
that may be looked upon as mere mild and
salutary punishment compared to the 9th
er-that other which, to speak metaphor
ically, consists in being condemned to the
domestic ice house. 1t is hard to describe,
still there will be few of my readers
who, if they have had the good fortune
not to experience it, but must have seen
some culprit enduring that slow punish
ment-meted out more often, perhaps, to
daughters than sons. But don't we all
know it; the chilling rejoinder that meets
any attempt at geniality-the austere
; look that seems to say it is heresy that
we should presume to forget the measure
of our offending-the moral thong always
awaiting us should we show any signs Of
! +. relapsing into cheerfulness? Bah those
: physical torturers of the middle ages were
mere bunglers at their craft.
:. From this time poor Maude's life was
= made heavy to bear. Harold Denison sent
for her to his study, and himself put
Pearman's proposal before her. He en-
larged upon it's advantages, and declared
. that it was her duty to save the property
: to her descendants; on her head it rest
= ed whether the Denisons of Glinn should
cease to exist, as of course her future
: husband must take her name. For him
" self, he cared not-he was an old man
:. and it mattered little to him. Any foreign
II watering place was good enough for hin
" to wear out his miserable life in. HI
;, deplored the follies of his youth. 1
:. was sad that a father should plead be
:, fore a daughter in this wise. He coult
!, bear anything but the thought that tn
- Denisons of Glinn should be expunget
- from the rel. Of the county in which the,
had dwelt and been known since the War
of the Roses all this 1t was in Maude'
power to avert. Why could she not mar
:, ry this man? He hard been brought up
! gentleman, and mixed In the best societ
~ in the county. If not quite her equal L
blood, he would repair the shattered for
= tunes of the family. Such matches wer
made every day. The destiny of the plu
tocracy was to strengthen the aristocracy
II Far be it from him to put any pressur
" upon her, but it was his duty as paren
- to lay the whole case before her.
=. Calamity did Maude fight her BATH
and though at the end of this long inter
view she stood with flushed and teal
~ stained cheeks to listen to her father
- final exordium, she was still resolute |
- her refusal.
~ But the struggle was too unequal. Oh
:. der the pressure put upon her by her hu
~ band Mrs. Denison had not only MAD
- Maude write letter Of remuneration
o. o. Granville Rose, but had penned him a vel
severe philippe herself, in which she Il
"a sisted that all correspondence shou
70. cease between them. She had furthe
under the threat of revealing everythiI
-. IN to Mr.. Denison, extorted promise fro
-, Maude that she would write no more
az her cousin. She knew her daughter we
=. and felt implicit confidence that, her wo
.en once pledged, troth would be kept.
s -,s 1 have described the first stage Of t
'iu attack. 1t is a common enough stor
Iee as many a woman could bear witness
W. as far as the general details go. G,
~. ne you not easily guess the result? She W
in a high-spirited girl, and bore hers,
AZ AZ bravely in the beginning; but cut
ne from all communication with her Low,
tor she gave way at last to the moral pr,
sure brought to bear upon her, and, wi
p pale cheeks and heavy eyes, whispered h
en mother "that they might do with her
"a SA they liked: if she couldn't marry CIR,
~. =, she didn't care who it was"
ny Ito be continued.)