The Detroit times., 1913-01-20
CHAPTER VII.
The Beauty OF elizabeth.


stand her as he-Aad4 that, after all
perhaps the significance he had given
10 her words VAS of his own imagin.
ing.
He waited in his room until she
should have time TO be we'll or her
way home. then hurried downstairs
He was TO dine at the Herberts al
o'clock, and as their place was but
scant two miles from town he deter
mined 10 walk He crossed the
Square. only stopping 70 speak with
the little lamplighter and twenty
minutes later Mount Hope, in the cold
breath OF the storm had dMindled 10
4 htsdaie Of ff;rttft Ftfestft- ATS on the
hillside and in The valley,
The Herbert home SNOWY coun.
try-place in a re9iOn OF farms, merited
a name, but no one except Mrs. Her
| bert, who In the first flush of posses
sion determined 50 TO dignity it, had
ever made use OF the name she had
chosen after much deliberatiCn Gen,
! eral Herbert himself called II simply
| the farm. while t. the neighbors and
! the dwellers in Mount Hope IL was
known as the generals place. which
perhaps sufficiently distinguished IT,
/ FOR It's owner was still always spoken
/ OF as the general. though since the
| war he had been governor OF his state.
| Rather less than half a century be-
fore, Daniel Herbert, then a country
urchin tending cattle on the hillside
where new stood his turreted stone
mansion. had decided that some day
| when he should be rich he would re
turn and buy that hillside and the
great reach OF flat river bottom that
/ lay adjacent 10 II. and there build his
home. His worldly goods al the time
of this decision consisted of pair OF
jeans trousers, a hickory skirt, and a
battered straw hat. For years he had
forgotten his boyish ambition. He
had made his way in the world; he
had won success in his profession, the
the law; he had won even greater
distinction as a soldier in the Civil
war: he had been a national figure
in politics, anG he had been COVER
nor of his state. and then had come
the country-bfeG mans hunger for
the soil. He had remembered that
! hillside where as a boy he had tended
his fathers nerds
| lie was not rich man, but he had
4 married a rich woman, and ii was
her money that bought the many
acres and built the many-turreted
! mansion. Wishing, perhaps, to mark
the impermanency OF the life there
and TO give II a purely holiday aspect,
Mrs Herbert had christened the place
LIdla-H ouI-hIt governor Aeyeaa
occasional participation in local pol
itics, never again resumed those &C
tiyities by which he had so distin-
guished himself. He wore top-boots
and rode about the farm on an old
gray horse, while his intimates were
the neighboring farmers with whom
he talked crops and politics by the
hour
In panied surprise Mrs. Herbert, a
woman OF great ambition, had endur-
ed five years of this kind OF life: with
unspeakable bitterness OF spirit she
had seen the once potent name OF
Daniel Herbert disappear from the
newspapers, and then she had died
On her death the general became a
rich and, in a way free man, for
now he could, without the silent pro- 1
test or his VIE, recover the neglected .
lore of wood and field, and practice
forgotten arts that had In his boy
hood come under the elastic head OF
chores. Elizabeth, his daughter, had
never shared her mothers ambitions
Perhaps because she had always had
II she cared nothing for society. She
was we'll content 10 ride about the
farm with her father, whom she great.
ly admired, and at Whose eccentric
tiles she only smiled. Il
In this agreeable comradeship with
his daughter, General Herbert had .
lived through the period OF his be.
reayment Win very tolerable com /
fort. He had rendered the dead the I
dead's due OF resretful tenderness; {
Elizabeth never asked him when he !
was going 10 make his re-entry into /
politics; and she never reproached I
him with having wasted the very best i
years OF his life in trying 10 make a
our hundred acres OF scientifically
armed land show profit, feat he r
had not yet accomplished
Quitting the highway, North turned
n al two stone pillars that marked
he entrance to Idle Hour and walked
apidly up the maple-lined driveway [,
G the great arched yestibule that s.
gave 10 the house the appearance OF
4 Norman-FreBch chateau.
Answering the summons OF the bell, h
maid ushered him into the long s,
drawing room, and into the presence
Of the general and his daughter. The =,
former received North with a uerceptL
BE shade OF reserve. He knew more (,
about the young man than he would a,
have cared TO tell his daughter. since n
he believed ii would be better for her n
TO make her own discoveries where
North was concerned.
He had not opposed hiS~TTeuuent II
visits TO Idle Hour, for he felt that v
II Elizabeth was interested in the a
young fellow opposition would only g
strengthen IL. CHANGING at North
as he greeted Elizabeth. the general q
admitted that whatever he might he o
he was presentable. indeed good-look.
Ing. handsome. Why hadn't he done q
something other than make a mess
OF MS me- He wondered. too. wish. ,
ing to be quite fair, II North had not
been the subject Of good deal of mn. ,
lmerited censuie; II after all his Idle
ness had not been tho woret thing
about him, He hoped this might be v
true. Still he regretted tha,-Fz tiza-4
beth should have allowed their boy
and girl friendship-they had known |
each other always-to grow into |
closer intimacy.
In the minds OF these two men
there was absolute accord on one
point. Either would have said that
Elizabeth Herbert's beauty was a