Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-04

/ his lips
What has happened?" she reiterated.
more impatiently
Nothing he replied. that need worry
| you. 1 think. Shall we sit down here?
You won't catch cold?' and he indicated
a seat well sheltered against the cold
| breeze and the impairment gaze Of the
| passersby.
Il never catch cold,' said Louisa. smil-
! ing in spite of herself at Lukes funny,
awkward ways. But we won't sit down.
Let us stroll up and down, shall we? You
can talk better then and tell me all about
it,
There's not much to tell at present.
And no OCCASION to worry"
There's nothing that worries me so
much as your shilly-shallying. Luke. or
the thought that you are making futile
endeavors to keep something from me-
she retorted, almost irritably this time,
for, strangely enough, her nerves-she
never knew before this that she had any
were slightly on the jar this morning.
II don't want to shily-shally, little
girl. he replied, gently, NOR to keep any
thing from you. There, will you put
Your hand on my arm? AIRY and Ar
riet, Ell? Well, never mind. There's no
one to see.''
He took her hand-that neatly gloved.
small hand of hers-and put it under his
arm. For one moment it seemed as if he
would kiss that tiny and tantalizing place
just below the thumb where the pink
Luke was not a demonstrative lover, he
was shy and English and abrupt: but this
morning-was it the breath of spring i'm
the air. the scent of the Roman hyacinths
In that bed over there, or merely the
shadow of a tiny cloud on the uniform
hlue of his life's horizon that gave GER
tain rugged softness to his touch, as his
hand fingered over that neat glove which
nestled securely in among the folds of his
coat sleeve?
Now she said, simply.
Have YOU" he asked, with abrupt ir
relevance, read your paper all through
this morning.
Not all through. Only the important
headlines
And you saw nothing about claim
to a peerage?'
Nothing
well! that's all about it. A man has
sprung up from nowhere in particular.
who claims to be my Uncle Arthur's son,
and therefore, heir presumptive to the
title and all
Luke heaved a deep sigh, as if, with
this brief If ungrammatical statement,
his own heart had been unburdened of a
! tiresOme load.
Your Uncle Arthur" she repeated,
somewhat bewildered.
Yes. You never knew him, did you?
No she said, II never knew him.
though as baby 1 must have seen him.
1 was only three. l think, when he died,s
But never heard that he had been mar
rIeu ain sure Idtf1er never knew.
Nor did /, nor did Uncle Rad nor any
of us. The whole thing is either
thunderbolt or an imposture.''
Tell me- she said "a little more clear
ly. Luke, dear. will you?i am feeling
quite muddled.'' And now it was she
who led the way to the isolated seat be-
meath that group of silver birch, whose
baby leaves trembled beneath the rough
kiss of the cool April breeze.
They sat down together, and on the
org lo6 n In nf hayV rnhi in
hoped half shyiy, half imperjnently.
about and gazed with tiny, inquisitive
eyes on the doings Of these big folk All
around them the twitter of bird threats
filled the air with it's magic it's hymn to
the reawakened earth. and drowned in
this pleasing solitude the distant sounds
of the busy city that seemed SO far away
from this secluded nook inhabited by
birds and flowers, and by two jewellers in
Fata Morgana's land.
Tell me first said Louisa, in her
most prosy, most matter-of-fact tone of
voice. ''all that is known about your
Uncle Arthur
well, up to now, l individually knew
very little about him. He was the next
eldest brother to Uncle Rad. and my
father was the youngest of all. When
Uncle Rad succeeded to the title Arthur
was heir presumptive, of course. But, as
you know, he died-as was supposed I'M
married-nineteen years ago, and my
poor, dear father was killed in the hunt
ing field the following year. 1 was a
mere kid then and the others were babies
orphans, the lot of us. My mother died
when Edith was born. Uncle Rad was
said to be confirmed bachelor. He. took
us all to live with him, and was father.
mother, elder brother. elder sister to us
ALL Bless him.
Luke paused abruptly, and Louisa, too,
was silent. Only the song Of thrush.
soaring upward to the skies, called for
that blessing which neither of them at
that moment could adequately evoke.
YES" said Louisa. at last, Il knew all
that
Lord Radcliffe and his people were all
of the same world as herself She knew
all about the present mans touching af-
lection for the children of his youngest
whom he bestowed an amount of love and
tender care which would have shamed
many father by its unselfish Intensity.
That affection was a beautiful trait in an
Il daresay," resumed Luke, after lit
tie while. that I have been badly
brought up. l mean in this way. that if
II the whole story is true-if Uncle Ar
thur did marry and did have a son, then
I should have to go and shift for myself
and for Jim and Frank and Edith. OF
course Uncle Rad would do what he could
for us. but should no longer be his heir
and We couldn't go on living at Gros-
venOr Square and
fast. dear?' said Louisa, gently, while !
she beamed with an almost motherly |
spile-the smile that woman wears |
when she means to pacify and to COM |
fort-on the troubled face of the young
man.
"Of course am he replied, more |
calmly, but I can't help it. For some |
days now I've had sort of feeling that |
something was going to happen-that-l
well. that things weren't going to go |
right. And this morning when I got up |
l made up my mind that I would tell |
you
when did you hear first and from
whom?' |
THE first thing we heard was last au-
tumn. There came a letter from abroad |
for Uncle Rad. 1t hadn't the private |
mark on it, SO Mr.. Warren opened it |
along with the rest of the correspondence |
signed Philip de Mountford. and began.
My dear uncle I couldn't make head or |
tail of it: thought it all twaddle You've !
no idea what sort of letters Uncle Rad |
gets sometimes from every kind Of luna
tic or scoundrel you can think of, who !
wants to get something out of him. Well |
this letter at first looked to me the same
one who had the right to say dear
uncle to Uncle Rad-but it had a lot in
it about blood being thicker than water |
and all the rest of 1t. with q kind Of re-
quest for justice and talk about the
cruelty Of fate. The writer, however, as
serted positively that he was the only
legitimate son Of Mr.. Arthur de Mount
ford, WIDTHS he professed to have only
heard recently-was own brother to the
Earl of Radclyffe. The story. which he
went on to relate at full length. was
queer enough in all conscience l remain