The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1916-07-20
LORD OLLIE
BY lola FORESTER.

3 BY izoLA FORESTER. !
We have been accustomed to hear
Ollie speak of the Countess in. well.
not exactly friendly or comradely or
familiar terms. but as II he knew her
pretty we'll. For instance, he would
say when the mail was brought in:
Another letter from the Countess.
Now III get it for not writing" Quite
as IL it 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 a 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 q 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
can't 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 q
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 hts napkin as usual, glanced at II
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 . different az.
pect from that moment. At first. with
suspicion as II he might be poking
fun at her. You see, Jessica came
from small town in South Dakota,
and she was twenty-one. She won.
dered. just as we all had, II Ollie were
telling the truth.
Jessica waited until she had him to
herself on the green garden bench.
She approached the subject of Olliee
connection with the English nobility
without fear or compromise.
is the Countess really your moth.
er?'
so have always been told,' re-
piled Ollie.
Countess WHAT"
Countess of Walstngham. Her
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 a certain class, you owe
it to your times. to the spirit of your
times, to stand for the morale of that
class.
! Rot" said Ollie. and he opened the
last letter from the Countess. She was
silent as he read it. Presently he
! spoke in curious voice. sort of BAT.
fed voice, as il fate had handed him
. foul.
by Jove!" he said. Poor old
Bert!"
For a minute Jessica didn't get the
portent Of his words. he had spoken
80 quietly. but she turned her head
and saw his face, suddenly sharp and q
bit white in the half light.
who Is he?"
! Ollie stood up
I'm going back. She wants me to
My brothers dead
And this is the strangest part. AS
he stood there looking down in her
face. suddenly all the little foolish
conventionalities of everyday life
dropped from them.
You're going over there to tight?'
she asked.
or course. Bert died somewhere
in France. 1t isn't so much the war
you understand" His hands clenched
at his sides. It's what they've done
to him. want to 60 and Just give
it to them for his sake. and my moth
er expects me to"
I'm sailing on the 10th" Jessica
spoke eagerly. Il didn't want to tell
you because you had way of taking
all the spirit out of it for me, and
wanted to 60 the other way-believ
/! ing in it. mean
Well sail together" he told her
You said once that had no morale
| Mavho havou't don't lilo thu ,,oc.