, 1915-05-13

bOoiSu OhNSicPSb nSAopb "hlCh Wd5
written in faded ink and in an unfa-
miliar dashing. slanting handwriting.
his own lame The envelope con-
tanned a creased yellow parchment.
from between whose folds there
clumped and fiuttered down upon the
floor a long flattish object wrapped
in a paper, a newspaper clipping and
a letter.
Puzzled he unfolded the cracking
thing in his hands. Why he said
half aloud, "it's-it's a deed made owe
to ne" He overran 1t swiftly. Part
of an old Colony grant a
plantation in Virginia, twelve hun
dred odd acres. given under the hand
of a vice-regal governor in the six
teenth century. l had no idea titles
in the United States went back SO far
as that" His eye fed to the end.
1T was my fathers! What could he
have wanted of an estate In Virginia?
1t must have come into his hands in
the course of business"
He picked up the newspaper clip
ping. 1t vas worn and broken in the
folds as II 1t had been carried for
months in a pocketbook.
1T will interest readers of this sec
ton of Virginia (the paragraph be
gam to learn, from a recent transfer
received for record at the County
Clerks office. that Damory Court has
passed to Mr.. John Valiant, minor"
He turned the paper over and found
a date; 1t had been printed in the year
of the transfer to himself, when he
was six years old-the year his father
had died.
John Valiant, minor. the son of
the former owner.
There are few indeed who do not
recall the tragedy with which in the
public mind the estate is connected.
The fact, moreover that this old home
stead has been left in its present state
(for, as is well known, the house has
remained with all it's contents and fur
nishings ~untouched) to rest during so
long a term of years unoccupied. could
not, of course, fail to be commented
on, n this circumstance alone has
perhaps tended to keep alive a melan-
choly story which may well be for
GOTTEN.
He read the elaborate, rather stilted
p~hraseology in the twenty-year-old pa
per with a wondering interest. An
old house." he unused, with a bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell it,
and maybe nobody would ever live in
1t. That would explain why 1t re-
manned so long unoccupied-why there
are no records of rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
IT'S an offset to the ~hall.bedroom
idea. at any rate" he said to himself
humorously. 1T holds out an escape
from the noble army of rent-payers.
When my t~wenty-eight hundred is
gone, / could live down there a landed
proprietor, n by the same mark an
honorary colonel, and raise the cab
bages l was talking about-eh, Chum?
while you stalk rabbits. How does
that strike your"
He laughed whimsically. He, John
Valiant. Of New York, first-nighter at
its theaters, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in its
club corridors and welcome diner at
n one of a hundred brilliant glass
misunderstanding supper tables, en-
tombed on the wreck OF a Virginia
plantation, a would-be country gentle
hbiA vi al All ueA IL
nothing a year!
He %bethought himself of the fallen
letter and possessed himself CT 1t
quickly. 1t lay with the superscrip-
ton side down. On 1t was written, in
the same hand which had addressed
the other envelope:
For my son, John Valiant,
When he reaches the age of twenty
five.
That, then, had been written by his
father-and he had died nearly twenty
years ago! He broke the seal with a
strange feeling as If, walking in some
familiar thoroughfare. he had STUN
bled on a lichened and sunken tomb.
stone.
When o read this, my son, you
VIII have come to a estate. 1t is
curious to think that this black, black
ink may be faded to gray and this
white, white paper yellowed, Just from
lying waiting 80 long. But strangest
of all is to think that you yourself
whose brown head hardly tops this
desk, will be as tall Il hope as Il
How wonder what you will look like
then! And shall THE real, real l. l
mean-be peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
a thing possible-and am not a bit
wise.
John. you will not have forgotten
that o are a Valiant. But you are
also a Virginian. viii you have dis
covered this for yourself? Here is the
deed to the land where ! and my
father. and his father. N many, many
more Valiants before them were born.
Sometime, perhaps. you will know why
you are John Valiant of New York in
stead of John Valiant of Damory
Court. i a not tell you myself. be-
cause it is too true a story. and / have
forgotten how to tell any hut fnirv