Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-12-12
CHAPTER I.
Lady Diana Follows the Pack.

Lady Diana Follows the Pack.
To Lady Diana Sartoris, 'the clean
est sportswoman in all England'-the
orators of the hunt breakfasts of the
Beverley hounds would have 1t so-a
fence was merely an obstacle. And
so after this morning with the Bever-
ley pack Lady "Di" on her return to
the kennels Of her grandfather, the
MARQUIS Of Beverley, found defiant
pleasure in putting her hunter over
every such obstacle.
Though the day was one OF those
perfect Yorkshire days, when rural
England seems made for the sports
man, Lady Diana's gallop at the heels
of the pack had not been altogether
Of pleasure.
To begin with, her grandmother
the pompous and morally bombastic
MARQUIS of Beverley, had been in no
good humor. Although Falconhurst'
the most secluded and retired Of the
several country seats Of the family,
was filled with the members OF a
house party for Lady Diana Satoris'
Beverley had carefully warned them
away from the Downs, and indeed nao
sent all of them otter hunting with
Captain Greviile Sartoris, Lady d.
ana's cousin.
And otter hunting of all sports In
the world" Lady Diana had breathed
sarcastically to her maid. "One might
quite as we'll hunt bally mouse as an
otter, you know"
The reason Lady Diana knew or
course. The Whip, the newest racer
in the great stables of Beverley, was
being exercised on the Downs that
morning, and although this expected
successor of the Newmarket winners,
Silver Cloud, Falconhurst and BeVer-
ley's Hope, had not had her trial and
was not likely to have for some time'
the racing marquis was determined
that no strange eyes should learn any
thing of the speed pet of his declining
years.
Stable secrets had been leaking OF
late in regard to some Of the others In
the string, bat none should respecting
The Whip.
This prohibition had extended to
Lady Diana herself. 1t was not that
through her there was danger OF the
betting ring getting advance informa-
tion, but the young girl who shared al
most equally in Beverley's affection for
The Whip, could not have been with
the promising filly and her contempo-
raries without being upon the back OF
the speediest.
For the girl rode The Whip or any
of the other racers in the Beverley
stables, as Diana of old hunted, with
divine inspiration.
But the little fllys growing up.
or, rather, my granddaughter Lady
Diana is growing up" the marquis
had said more than once, "and
filly isn't a colt any more, rather
Young woman of position and rank
isn't a girl, and she really can't ride
with the lads of my stable
So Lady Diana, in the warm rebel
lion of youth, at the first trammeling
appearance Of that convention which
ultimately molds us all until we lose
our little distinguishing essence and
become as so many peas, was irri-
tated by this abrupt separation from
the things Of her childhood.
Hence this finely strung, perhaps
ordinarily too emotionless, young
Englishwoman took the highest and
toughest of the obstacles in her
course as she followed in the wake of
the Beverley hounds, for the hounds
were not the features of hunt, but
merely out on one of their exercising
expeditions, when to keep their
scent in" they were permitted to
range for trails under the guidance
of the whips.
One Of the obstacles which Lady
Diana took that morning was a
stone fence that separated the lands
of Falconhurst from the property OF
the Earl of Brancaster, in the midst
of which stood the old stone tower,
Rievers. AS her hunter cleared well
with all fours the fencing and for a
moment trespassed upon the lands
of one regarded by the simple folk OF
Yorkshire as "the wicked earl" the
girl looked toward the rocky heights
accentuated by the feudal tower, con-
tinuing to the eyes the long ascent OF
stone upward.
To her mood of the moment, While
Rievers appeared less barren and
more the abode of a human being,
still there was the sinister atmosphere
of a place of i'll omen, which was not
decreased by an open window and the
movement of a hanging at one OF the
easements in the more modern part OF
the structure.
Even with the evidences of home
life about the tower, which there were
not. the place would have worn its all
of sullen tragedy, its seeming appear
ance of a center radiating unwhole-
some forces.
Then as she cantered along over a
level expanse skirting the eminence
upon which Rievers stood and cast a
glance upward occasionally, Lady Di-
ana thought of what her grandfather
had told her when she was child
1t was shortly after the death in the
service of her father, and the death
of his comrade, Robert, the Earl OF