The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-02-12

neN went u A.ue'l'a tDSe' net.
And the life suited Lionel we l. lie
knew good deal abo1t horses. he
liked fresh air. ae WAS "a :ood mas
ter and COMPETENT workman. The
powers he had was,ad in sdch G,a'es
as Monte Carlo AMI Biami;a cane
back to him IN tIe nae climate
and healthy su"rouadia5s of MS new
life.
But to Mrs. Glldwin =. vas hing
death. She IrooDei aud lined, and
grew so peeyish, So ailing, that he
was half distracted. He sent her
with maid, to Colorado Springs,
70 try and get her acc,imat.Ged, as
he said. She prayed to he sent
to England. He could not afford it.
The remains of his patrimony had
been sunk in the purchase Of his
pretty estate. and for him TO make
her such an allowance as would keep
her in England was simply ont OF
the question quite apart from ms
disapproval of the idea of separation
She went to Colorado Springs, and
wrote to one of the men she had
known and liked best in her society
days. to come and relieve her bore
dom. The result OF it was that she
returned to England with this man,
Percy Martin.
Those who had known young Glad
wyn were unprepared for the eX'
tent to which this catastrophe pros
trated him. His change of fortune
had braced him, had given him a
sense of responsibility. If his wife
could have reconciled herself to
the life, it would have been for him
happy one. He had thought o.
coaXing her TO become the mother
of one or two dear little sons or
daughters, whom he could teach to
ride and row and shoot and garden
and who would make the wilderness
a true paradise in the eyes of their
ia her
And now his wife had left him Be
cause he could no longer supply
her with the creature comforts and
luxuries which she craved, she had
gone away and left him disgraced,
miserable, alone.
Il never gave her "A rough word,
he said in a dazed kind of way.
or course, she put it on the usual
modern grounds-the plea OF ire
sistible passion But even Lionel had
sense enough TO see through that.
She was not that kind of woman.
she thinks Martin can do her bet
ter than ! can now" he bitterly re-
marked and in thai sentence sum
med up his wife's motives Justly
and completely.
1T was just at this point of his
career that he fell in with Mr.. Will
become odious to him, and under
the advice of his new friend he
sold it, and came to live with him.
The English air of comfort and good
management which peryaded every
thing in the Wilmot household was
soothing to his lacerated affections.
He became very fond of the little
English girl. whose father was al
most comically careful of the purity
OF her accent, and pleased that she
should have an English playfellow.
Time by very slow degrees les
sened the smart of his wound.
There had been no divorce To the
simple minded Lionel, his wife's de-
sertion of him had had in it some
thing so cold-bloodeG as to harden
his heart against her. He had fully
to him to set her free, but no let
ter arrived. In the isolation OF
his remote life, he heard no news
no news of any kind. He still re-
manned the legal husband of the wo-
man who sold herself to the high.
est bidder.
And as the gentle years rolled i'm
percep;ibly by, the child Vernon
grew to womanhood. Her father
died, and Lionel-quite suddenly
fell in love with her.
The situation thus created chang
ed everything. Apart from the fac,
of his having a wife living, he
knew that to ask a girl who mad
never seen anything of the world
TO marry the only man she knew
and he a widower or worse. and
considerably older than herself-was
not what he called playing the game.
He told her-he had to tell her.
But he urged her to 90 to England
before giving him an answer. To
toll tho t,rtth Naruon had no idaa