The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-10-03
CHAPTER II.
LADY DRuMLoCH.

NO further adventures overlook the
w ladies. The mail coach picked
them up at the cross roads nj carried
them to London in course of time.
where they were soon safely housed
With their grandmother, Lady Drum
loch.
My Lady Drumloch was, as all the
world knows, a very great lady, and
back in the days of King Charles II.
had been a beauty and a toast. The
daughter of a duke n the wife of an
earl, she had queened it in two courts,
a gone into exile with King James,
intrigued n plotted with the Ja-
cobites, and finally, having lost hus-
band n son and fortune in her de-
votion to a hopeless cause, had made
her peace with Queen Anne and re-
turned to England to exc out her last
years in the soul crushing poverty of
the great.
But as with her she brought her two
granddaughter. the Hon. Margaret
Moffat and Lady Prudence Wynne, her
meager little house on the outskirts
of Mayfair soon became not only the
mecca OF other 'Jacobites as aristocratic
and as poor as herself, but of many
who We're neither Jacobites nor in re-
classes the Lady Prudence, though but
Is, soon found courtiers to pick and
choose from. The Saucy child with her
skin of milk n roses, her tangle of
dark curling locks and her wonderful
blue eyes, was already possessed Of
that mysterious charm of ~fenininity
by which the world has been swayed
since the day of Eve.
To crafty her grandmother's ambi-
ton. and at the same time emancipate
herself from the restrictions of the
school room, she married the Viscount
Brooke, heir of h a Of Overbridge.
But the marriage resulted disastrously.
The %viscount had long before exhausted
his private a and although his
father, hoping that marriage would
sober and settle him, made a suf-
iciently liberal allowance to the young
couple, a few months of reckless ex-
travagance and gaiety plunged them in
an ocean Of debt, from which the Wis
count, in a fit of delirium, extricated
himself by means Of a bullet in his
brain. leaving Prue a widow at 16 with
no home but her grandmother's little
house in Mayfair, and not a penny be-
yond the grndging bounty Of her ia
therinlaw.
Still, it was delightful to b a widow,
and, consequently, free from all au-
thority. Having curtailed her mourn
ing within the scantiest limits, she re-
turned to society with renewed ardor.
where her youth and beauty, enhanced
by her widowhood, secured her a fiat
tering welcome. She played the hostess
in Lady Drumloch's shabby drawing
rooms, filling them with laughter, scan
dial and o making. She chaperoned
Margaret Moffat. who was 10 years her
senior, and who owe her with the in
~fatuation n sometimes, if rarely, OBJ
serves in a Very plain woman for a
very beautiful n
Poor as h VIGOROUSLY was, the Oft
repeated rumors of Prue'S engagement
to n or another of her wealthy adj
mirers enabled her to run into debt
time and again for such necessaries
of existence as fashionable dresses and
costly jewels, for which she certainly
never expected to pay out of her own
pocket. Nay, even money lenders, be-
guiled by her bright eyes and her I'M
questionably promising matrimonial
prospects, had furnished the sinews of
war for which her future husband
would have to pay right royally,) and
this despite the fact that the Lady
Prudence Brooke, widowed at 16, was
still a widow at W. and twenty.
Lady Drumloch's granddaughter
were not expected at her town house,
and when the hired cabriolet in which
they arrived drew up at her door, the
JOY at the sight of the two bright young
faces and t~repidation as to the
welcome they might expect from the
higher powers Mrs. Lowton, my lady's
waiting woman, was troubled by no
such complex emotions. She mad lit
NC tSclLAP I SOLCedi ueT own QlSSaL-
isfaction or to disguise the fact tina
the old countess was in no humor for
gay company. lis
MY lady has had an awful attack
of govt" she averred, land the doc
tors have ordered the strictest quiet.
The least agitation might be fatal
We will be as quiet as mice, Low
tom said Lady Prudence, o~stenta-
tiously tiptoeing across the narrow hall
and up the steep stairs. James, pay
the cabman and let, me know how much
I Owe you"
The butler obeyed. though with no
great alacrity. Her ladyship amt long
getting back to her old tricks he
muttered with rather a wry smile, as
he hunted his pockets for the coach
hire. Il gave the man two shillings-
and sixpence for himself. he said.
coming back promptly. IT suppose you
ladyship has not forgotten that before
o went to YORKSHIRE
"Oh, never mind that. James," she
interrupted hastily. Let bygones be
bygones, and when I come into my
fortune you will see whether I for
get anything. Come. Peggie, let US 20
to bed. l am fainting for want of
sleep"
81 am fainting, too retorted Miss
Moffat, but more with hunger than