The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-05-05


together they went running down the
! street toward the little patch Of green
where the children played and among
whom Michael was il prime favorite.
Sitting. his head in his hands. his
eyes staring into the past. O'Connell
was facing the second great tragedy
Of his life.
While O'Connell sat there In that lit
tie room in New York trying to decide
Pegs fate a man who had played
some considerable part in O'Connells
life lay in q splendidly furnished room
In a mansion In the west end Of Lon
don-dying.
Nathaniel Kingsnorth's twenty years
of loneliness and desolation were COM
ing to an end. What an empty. arid
stretch of time those years seemed to
him as he feebly looked back on them!
After the tragedy of bis sisters reck-
less marriage he deserted public life
entirely and shut himself away In his
country house. except for q few weeks
in London occasionally when his pres.
ence was required on q or another OF
the boards of which be was a director.
The Irish estate. which brought about
all his misfOrtunes. he disposed Of at
a ridiculously low figure. He said
he would accept any bid. however
small. so that be could sever all con-
nection with the hated village.
From the day Of Angela's elopement
be neither saw nor wrote to any men,
Der Of his family.
His other sister. Mrs. Chichester.
wrote to him from time to time telling
him one time Of the birth Of a boy.
two years later Of the advent Of a
girl.
Kingsnorth did not answer any Of
her letters.
In no way %dismayed Mrs. Chiches-
ter continued to write periodically.
She wrote him when her son Alaric
went to school and also when he went
to college. Alaric seemed 10 absorb
most of her interest. He was evident
~ UeI ldNtlllG CulIu. QUO "lOSC h1Nh
seldom Of her daughter, Ether. and
when she did happen to refer to her
she dwelt principally on her beauty
and her accomplishments. Five years
before an envelope in deep mourning
came to Kingsnorth. and on opening
it be found u letter from his sister &C.
quainting him with the melancholy
news that Mr.. Chichester had ended a
life OF usefulness at the English bar
and had died. leaving the family quite
comfortably of.
Kingsnorth telegraphed his condo
fences and left instructions for a
suitable wreath to be sent to the fu-
neral. But he did not attend 1t, nor
did he at any time express the slight
est wish to see his sister. nor did he
encourage any suggestion on her part
to visit him.
When he was stricken with an ILL.,
ness from which no hope Of recovery
was held out to him he at nee began
! to put his affairs in order. and bis
lawyer spent days with him drawing
UP statements Of his last wishes for
the disposition Of his fortune.
With death stretching out its hand
to snatch him from a life he had en-
joyed so little his thoughts, colored
with the fancies of a tired, sick brain,
kept turning constantly to bis dead
sister Angela.
From time to time down through the
years he had a softened, gentle re-
membrance of her. When the news Of
her death came, furious and unrelent-
ing as he had been toward her. her
passing softened 1t. Had he known
in time he would have insisted on her
burial in the Kingsnorth vault. But
she had already been inferred In New