Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-02-05
CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XII.
Harold Denison touched his hat haught-
lily, and rode home but the old usurer's
artrul speech still simmered in his brain.
why should it not be? It would cut the
tangled knot Of his difficulties. He had
made inquiries. Young Pearman had
oeen brought up gentleman, and visited
IN several good houses in the county. He
naturally little exaggerated this to him
selr, to justify the course he intended to
pursue; nay, for the matter of that, had
Deen pursuing for some days. His wife
nao told hlm 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-indeed,
mat may be looked upon as mere mild and
sanitary punishment compared to the 9th
er-that other which, to speak metaphor
1cally, 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
watering place was good enough for him
to wear out his miserable life in. He
deplored the follies of his youth. 1t
was sad that father should plead be-
bear anything but the thought that the
Denisons of Glinn should be expunged
from the roll of the county in which they
had dwelt and been known since the Wars
of the Roses; all this it was in Maude's
power to avert. Why could she not mar
ry this man? He hard been brought up
gentleman, and mixed in the best society
in the county. If not quite her equal in
blood, he would repair the shattered for
tunes Of the family. Such matches were
made every day. The destiny Of the plu-
tocracy was to strengthen the aristocracy
Far be it from him to put any pressure
upon her, but it was his duty as parent
to lay the whole case before her.
Calamity did Maude fight her battle,
and though at the end Of this long inter-
view she stood with flushed and tear
stained cheeks to listen to her fathers
final exordium, she was still resolute in
her refusal.
But the struggle was too unequal. I'm
der the pressure put upon her by her hus-
band Mrs. Denison had not only made
Maude write a letter of remuneration to
Granville Rose, but had penned him very
severe philippe herself, in which she in
sisted that all correspondence should
cease between them. She had further,
under the threat of revealing everything
to Mr.. Denson, extorted promise from
Maude that she would write no more to
her cousin. She knew her daughter we'll,
and felt implicit confidence that, her word
once pledged, troth would be kept.
have described the first stage of the
attack It is a common enough story,
as many woman could bear witness to,
as far as the general details go. Can
YOU not easily guess the result? She was
a high-spirited girl, and bore herself
bravely in the beginning; but cut off
from all communication with her lover,
she gave way at last to the moral pres
sure brought to bear upon her, and, with
male cheeks and heavy eyes, whispered her
mother ''that they might do with her as
they liked; if she couldn't marry Gren,
she didn't care who it was"
Ito be continued.)