The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-04-30
CHAPTER I.
 The Van Nornans.

The old Van Norman mansion was he finest house in Mapleton. We'll back from the road, it sat proudly among it's finely kept lawns and gar fans, as if with a dignified sense of it's osvn importance, and it's white. sEsonia1 columns gleamed through the trees. like sentinels guarding the entrance to the stately hall
 All Mapleton was proud of the pie turesque old place, and it was shown to visiting strangers with the same pride that the native villagers point ed out the Memorial Library and the new church.
 More than half century old, the patrfcian white house seemed to glance co1dly on the upstart cot tages whose inadequate pillars sup- ported beetling second stories. and whose spacious. flgreed verandas left woefnlly small area for rooms inside the house.
 The Van Norman mansion was not like that It was long rectangle. and each Of it's four stories was a series sof commodious, well-shaped apartments.
 And its owner. the beautiful Made lefne Van Norman, was the most en- vied as well as the most admired young woman in the town.
 Magnificent Madeleine, as she was sometimes called, was of the naughty. tIlperIous type which inspires ad- xr1ratlons and respect rather than love An orphan and an heiress, she had lived all of her twenty two years a %F. I7 zhe death Of her uncle. two years before, had continued as mistress of me place. ably assisted by a pleas ant. motherly chaperon. a. clever social sacretary, and corps of cap able servants.
 The naansfon itself and an income annp1x sufncient to maintain it were already legally her own, but by the terms of her uncle.s will she was soon to come into possession of the bulk of the great fortune he had isft
 Madeleine was the only living des cendant Of old Richard Van Norman, save for one distant cousin, young man of a scapegrace and ne'er-do-
 sort, who of late years hadl lived abroad.
 This young mans early life had seen spent in Mapleton, but his fiery temper having Drought about a. serious quarrel with his uncle, he had wisely concluded to take himself ont Of the way.
 And yet Tom Willard was not of a aglarrelsoTne disposition. His bad temper was Of the impu1sive sort reused suddenly. and as quickly sup pressed. Nor was it often in evil 5ehce. Good-natured, easy going rom would put up with his uncle's criticism and fault-dnding for weeks at time, and then, perhaps goaded beyond endurance. he would fly in Go a rage and express himself in fluent if rather vigorous English
 For Richard Van Norman had been hy no means an easy man to live with And it was Toms general an7Iability that had made him the usual scapegoat for his uncle's i'll temper, Miss Madeleine would have none of it. Quite as dictatorial as the old man himself she allowed no interference with her own plans and slo criticism of her own actions.
 This had proved the right way to Inanage MT. Van Norman, and he lad always aceeded to Madeleine's requests or submitted to her decrees without objection. though there had never been any demonstration of af- lection between the two.
 But demonstration was quite foreign to the nature of both uncle and niece. and in truth they were really fond of each other in their quite, reserved way. Tom Willard was different. His affection was of the honest and outspoken sort, and he made friends easily, though he oaten lost them with equal rapidity. On account, then. of his devotion ta Madeleine, and his enmity towsrd young Tom Willard, Richard Van Norman had wiIled the old place to his niece. and had further directed that the whole of his large fortune should be unrestricted1y bestowed up- on her on her wedding day, or on her twenty-third birthday, should she reach that age unmarried. In event Of her death before her marriage, and also before her twenty third birthday. the whole estate would go to Tom Willard.
 It was with the greatest reluctance that Richard Van Norman dccreed this, but a provision had to be made in case of Madeleine's early death. end Willard was the only natural befr. And now, at twenty-two, Made leine was on the eve of marriage to Schuyler Carleton, a member of one of the oldest and best families of I Mapleton.
 The village gossips were pleased to commend this union. as MT. Carleton was man of irreproachable habits and handsome enough to appear well