The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1912-10-03
CHAPTER II.
LADY DRUMLOCH.

Nc further adventures overlook the
two ladies. The mail coach picked
them up at the cross roads and 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, n
back In the days of King Charles II.
had been a beauty and a toast. The
daughter Of q duke and the wife of an
earl, she had queened it in two courts,
had gone into exile with King James,
intrigued and plotted with the ia
cobites. and finally, having lost hus-
band and son and fortune in her de-
yotion to a hopeless cause, had made
her peace with Queen Anne and re-
turned to England to exc put her last
years in the soul crushing poverty of
thetgreat.
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 My the
mecca of other Jacobites as aristocratic
and as poor as herself, but of many
who were neither Jacobites nor in re-
duced circumstances. Among both
classes the Lady Prudence, though but
Is, loon found courtiers to, pick and
choose from. The saucy child with her
skin OF milk and roses, her tangle OF
dark curling locks and her wonderful
| eyes, was already possessed Of
that mysterious charm OF femininity
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 the Earl of OVerbridge.
But the marriage resulted disastrously.
The viscount had long before exhausted
his private means, and although his
father, hoping that marriage would
sober and settle him, made a suf-
flciently liberal allowance to the young
COUPLE, a few months or reckless ex-
travagance and gaiety plunged them in
an ocean of debt, from which the Wis
count, in q ft 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 h grudging bounty of her ia
therinlaw.
Still. it vas delightful to be a widow.
ard, 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
ny uCT "IuOW HOOu, SeCuEeu her a UdI-
tering welcome. She played the hostess
in Lady Drumloch's shabby drawing
rooms, filing them with laughter, scan
dal and love making. She chaperoned
Margaret Moffats who was 10 years her
senior, and who loved her with the in
fatuation one sometimes, If rarely, OBJ
serves in O very plain wonan for a
very beautiful one.
Poor as she 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
neve 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 two and twenty.
Lady Drumloch's gr~anddaughters
were not expected at her town house,
and when the hired cabriolet in which
they arrived drew up at her door, the
ancient butler was divided between
Joy at the sight of the two bright young
faces and trepidation as to the
welcome they might expect from n
higher powers. Mrs. Lowton, my lady's
waiting woman, was troubled by no
such complex emotions. She made lit
tie attempt to conceal her own dissat-
isfaction or to disguise the fact that
the old countess was in no humor for
gay company.
MY lady has had an awful attack
Of govt" she averred, and the doc
tors have ordered the strictest quiet.
The least agitation might be fatal"
I'VE will be as quiet a mice, Low
ton," gaid Lady Prudence, ostenta-
tiously tiptoeing across the marrow hall
n up the steep stairs. James, pay
the cabman and let me know how much
1 W 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. II gave the man two shillings-
and sixpence for himself" he said,
coming back promptly. II suppose your
ladyship has not forgotten that before
you rent to Yorkshire"
"Oh, never mind that, James," she
interrupted hastily. Let bygones be
bygones, and when ] come into my
fortune you will see whether I for
get anything. Come, Peggie, let US 80
to bed. I am fainting for want o.
sleep"
am fainting, too,' retorted Miss
Moffat, but more with hunger than
sleep. Lowton. for the love Of heaven.