The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-30
LORD OLLIE
BY IZOLA FORESTER.


Ollie speak OF the Countess in, well,
not exactly friendly or comradely or
familiar terms, but as If he knew her
pretty well. For instance, he would
say when the mail was brought in:
Another letter from the Countess.
Now I'll get it for not writing" Quite
as IL 1t mattered to the Countess
whether he wrote or not.
He had come to the old-fashioned
boarding house on West Fifty-fifth
street in the summertime. From his
tone and words we gathered that he
was man of peace and would not
go to war, that the Countess disap-
proved OF his sentiments, and that his
elder brother was fighting somewhere
in France.
He was a slim, dark, nice sort of
chap, with big, speculative, humorous
blue eyes behind eyeglasses. Until
Jessica came to stay with US, he had
matters his own way in an argument
down in the dining room. The rest of
us were too hungry and weary to COM
bat world peace or anything else
But Jessica was different. Fresh
from the West she was, and thorough
ly prepared for war at any moment.
| She was in the nurses training school,
waiting for her chance to go abroad
in Red Cross work
Ollie was all for social evolution,
and the two of them would sit and let
| their dinners grow cold while they
thrashed the wars of the nations over
and over again. His name, by the
way was Oliver Grovesnor. Sometimes
his mail came to Mr.. Oliver Grovesnor
and sometimes to Lord Oliver Francis
Grovesnor, but we called him Ollie.
A boarding home is a curious COM
monwealth. To save your life you
cant help knowing every other body's
business. We used to run across the
two of them sitting out on the little
! green wooded bench in the bit of a
front yard talking after dinner.
Then came another letter from the
Countess, the first one since Jessica
had come to stay Oliver found it I'M
der his napkin as usual, glanced at it
whimsically, said it was another let
ter from the Countess, and that he'd
get it for not writing.
And Jessica, being woman, prompt.
ly asked who the Countess was.
Whereupon Ollie answered simply:
My mother"
She eyed him from a different as
pect from that moment. At first, with
suspicion as if he might be poking
fun at her. You see, Jessica came
from a small town in South Dakota,
and she was twenty-one. She won
dered, just as we all had, if Ollie were
telling the truth.
Jessica waited until she had him to
herself on the green garden bench
She approached the subject of Ollie's
connection with the English nobility
without fear or compromise.
Is the Countess really your moth
err"
SO | have always been told,' re
piled Ollie.
Countess WHAT"
Countess of Walsingham. Hel
name, though, is Margaret. Margaret
Olivia"
Il blame you more than ever" she
said briefly and tensely. Since you
| do happen to be born in this particu
| lar age and in certain class, you owe
| it to your times, to the spirit Of you
| | 10 Cto ho 10 NJ ho+
class"
Rot" said Ollie, and he opened tn
last letter from the Countess. She wal
silent as he read it. Presently hi
spoke in curious voice, a sort of BAT
fled voice, as if fate had handed hin
foul
by Jove!" he said. Poor OLE
Bert"
For a minute Jessica didn't get tn,
portent of his words, he had Spoken
so quietly. but she turned her heat
and saw his face, suddenly sharp and
bit white in the half light.
Who is he?"
h Ollie stood up.
ll I'm going back. She wants me to
My brothers dead"
II And this is the strangest part. A
he stood there looking down in he
! face, suddenly all the little foolisl
!; conventionalities of everyday lif
dropped from them.
\ You're going over there to fight?
L she asked.
"Of course. Bert died somewher
| in France. 1t isn't so much the wal
you understand" His hands clenche
! at his sides. It's what they've don
to him. want to go and Just Civ
Y it to them for his sake, and my mott
H er expects me to-
II I'm sailing ON the 10TH" Jessie
II spoke eagerly. Il didn't want to te
you because you had way of takin
H all the spirit out of it for me, and
n wanted to go the other way-belieN
II ing in it, | mean
II Wen sail together" he told he
n You said once that had no moral,
u Maybe haven't. | don't like the mes
over there. and don't believe in wa
but when the wolf climbs over tn
sheep shelter, one grabs a gun,
guess"
II And then he looked down at he
and said in that simple. square, mic
way of his we all liked, as if it Sc
tied the whole thing between then
The Countess will think you're an av
fully plucky girl"
II And the next morning they saileC
married sure and last. Somehow
they seemed to take a little of tn
II springtime with them, perhaps int