The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-02-11

| the lall. she STOOD LOOKING Tor
| long time at the heavy, lowering face.
! 1t was a fine portrait, which Torrance
had boosted of in his time, the money
| it had cost filling him with ill-con-
cealed pride. 1t was the first thing
which, had shaken Janet in her devo-
ton to the imaginary father who had
| been the god Of her childhood. Tom
was not SO big; he was not tall at all
mot more than middle height,
I though broadly and heavily made It
was very like Tom. and yet there was
something in it which made the girl
I afraid. AS she stood gazing with
more and more uncertainty upon the
4 pictured face. Lady Car came quickly
into the hall-almost running-in
evident anxiety and concern. She
stopped suddenly as Janet turned
round, casting a half-frightened,
shuddering look from the picture to
| the girl before it. There was some
thing like an apology in her nervous
! pause.
Thought Tom was here she
said.
"He has gone out riding-with
! Beau "a
With rBeau?" Lady Car breathed
something that sounded like. sThank
/ God!s
4Isti there anything wrong with
/ Tom?G said Janet, gazing round upon
her mother with defiance In her eyes.
1 Wrong? / hope not They say
not. Oh. God Forbid" Lady Car put
her hands together. She was very
pale. with little redness under her
eyes.
"Then, mother. If there's nothing
wrong. why do you look like that?"
sLike that?v Lady Car attempted
little laugh. eLike what. my dear?"
She added. with long-drawn breath,
1T is my foolish anxiety: everybody
says it is foolish. It is plus forte
que moi.1
II wish you would not speak
French. Tom.' said Janet, @is well
enough, though he doesn't look well.
He ate no breakfast; and he looked
as if he would like to take my head
or. Isn't Tom-very like father?"
she added in low voice.
4 They were standing at the foot of
! the picture, full-length, which over
bore them as much in reality as i'm
agination. and made the woman and
the girl look like pigmies at his feet.
! Carry gave slight shiver in spite of
1 herself.
*Yes.v she said family; sand, my
dear--so are you, too"
Janet met her mothers look with
stolid steadiness. She saw Lady Cars
eyes turn from the picture to her own
form and back again, half sorry. halt
! pleased. She had very little under
standing of her mother. but a great
deal of curiosity. She thought to her
self that most mothers were pleased
with such resemblance-so at least
Janet had read in books She sup
1 posed her own mother did not care
for it-perhaps disliked it because
she had married again.
you never told us anything about
fathers she said, shut nurse does a
| great deal. She told me how he-was
killed. Was that the horse?v
sYes.S said Lady Car, with trem-
bling which she could not conceal.
st is because you are sorry that
you are SO nervous?" said Janet. with
those dull light eyes fixed upon her,
which were Torrance's eyes.
sJanet!s cried her mother, ado not
ask me about it, She said in low,
! hurried voice. els it not enough that
1t was the most terrible thing that
ever happened? cannot &c back
upon it.s
sBut Afterwards said the girl. i'm
/, RRAed by she knew not what-some
influence Of vague evaporation,
which was half opposition to her
mother and half disappointment to
find the dead father. the tutelary d.
vinity of this house to which she had
been so eager to come, SO different
from her expectations-"a fterward--
| you married Beau
jeanette Lady Car cried again. but
this time the shock brought back her
| dignity and self-control 81 don't
know what has got possession of you,
my dear. to-day. You forget yourself
and me. You are not the Judge of my
actions. nor can I justify myself be-
fore you.' She added, after time,
Both Tom and you are very like your
father. After while he will be mas
ter here. and you perhaps mistress till
he marries. Your father-might
have been living now" (poor Garry
/ grew pale and shuddered even while
! she pointed her moraD -"if he had
not been such hard rider. 500
/ careless. thinking he could go any
where. Do you wonder am anxious
about Tome You will have to learn
to do what you can to restrain him,
to keep him from those wild rides, to
keep him Lady Cars voice fall
tered. the tears came to her eyes. Il
believe it is common. I" she said, shat