Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1919-08-28

bourne, had summoned him to save
the stately Melbourne Hall from its
only enemy-time. He could not
have found more congenial task
upon all the continents.
There can be no journey more
pleasant than that which carries us
a stage upon the road to our ambi.
tions. Every event Of the wayside is
then an adventure to us; every inn
at which we rest seems to offer us
ambrosia. Here was Gavin Ord, at
ten O'Clock OF the night, as good a
walker upon the road to Melbourne
Hall as any trained athlete out with
the lark for morning breather. Five
or ten miles to go, It mattered nothing
to him. He had forgotten already the
Ave hours in stuffy train; his mind
was set upon the beauties of the moon
lit landscape, the fine wooded slopes
OF the hills, the twinkling lights in
the hollows, the dark towers Of the
scattered churches-more than all,
upon the distant goal and the recep-
ton which would await him there.
How earnestly had the old Earl
implored him to go to the Manor!
Here is the finest Tudor house in
England" he had written ''you can
save it. Make 1t your home and learn
to love it as do. They tell me that
In your leisure you ride and shoot. l
will introduce you to the finest fencer
In Derbyshire. and you shall tell me
what you think of the pheasants.
Don't expect to find house-party. l
see few people. desire to see fewer.
My daughter will play tennis with
you, and, If you are golfer. there
are lean long women on the hills who
talk of nothing else but hazards and
whins. These preach sermons in
stones. Come and hear them, and my
motor shall show you Derbyshire. But,
above all, become the servant of the
Manor, as every true artist must be-"
The letter of a man, Gavin said to
himself when he read it. He liked 1t
best because there was no gilt-edge
of money upon 1t. The Earl's prodigi-
GUS wealth had been the one blot
hitherto upon the fair panorama Of
his desires. There will be a host
of flunkies in red breeches," he had
thought, "and every one of them will
look the question, How much is he
good for?'" He knew that the present
Master of Melbourne Hall had come
to the estate and the title almost by
accident late in life, and after an ad-
venturous career which men spoke Of
openly in clubs, but rarely in private
life. A wild man who had been every
thing from discredited attache at
Bucharest to an equally unsuccessful
miner in Australia-this was the third
Earl OF Melbourne.
And what of his daughter, the Lady
Evelyn?
There were but wild fables spoken
about this unknown girl and the Sc
cluded life her father compelled her
to live at the Manor House. Some
said she was the daughter of Rou-
nanian gypsy whom the Earl had
married after his disgrace at Buk-
| harest. Others declared that her dead
mother had been an actress who had
enjoyed brief spell OF notoriety in
Vienna and thence had been driven
out by the infatuation Of an archduke.
None knew the truth, but there were
many to suggest what the truth might
| We. Openly and scandalously, as the
world will, idle tongues hinted that
the Earl must have some good reason
| or his eccentric conduct There we're
| even stories that the Lady Evelyn was
lnmistakably gypsy girl herself.
| AS brown as a walnut chiffonier,
1 said little Backbiter at the Club. The
elbow had never been within fifty
| :.iles OF Melbourne Hall; and II he
had met the Earl, he would have gone
down on his marrow bones to him.
Gavin Ord recalled some of these
tories as he followed the tortuous
DAD and left the solitary village still
'arther behind him. They did not in
crest him. He had gone into Derby
hire to see not woman but house
eight that he should be chosen fol
Guardian of such a national treasure
Melbourne Hall went with hin
ron his way. He must be now, he
bought, but d mile from the Manor
,ates. He would accomplish some
hing amid those ancient stones b,
ahich men should remember him. The
SEPARATION quickened his step. A turf
If the road revealed the lodge-gates
with lighted window and pleasan
cottage. He entered Lord Melbourne!
park and discerned the Hall, dim ant
stately and starred with lights, across
he little river which stood for moa
lcfore ita walls.
This. then, was his goal. this su
erb fabric which the genius of tn,
nodlaeyal age had boqueathed II
England and to pos.erity. No word
could rightly have described the emo
lions which stirred his imagination a
ne stood to contemplate the jagge'
line OF building and battlement
chapel, tower and stable, which hi
hund should snatch from the greed.
hand of time. The very park, with 1t
| .oft e,racaaa and dqar In shadow nif