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About Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1906)
T H "One does not'ery, little one, whenj one is suddenly endowed with a wealthy and distinguished relative.) Now, I did not spring this revelation on you without a motive. If a cleav age has to come let us at least face every consideration. Providence by in scrutable decre? ordained that my wife and I should meet after twenty-one years. That cannot have been a pur poseless meeting. In my careless youth, when I assigned all things their scientific place, I have scoffed at pre sentiments and vague portents of com ing evils. I retract the immature judg ment then formed. During the height of the hurricane when I feared the sea I was vouchsafed a spiritual warn ing. I could not read its import. These things baffle a man, especially one whose mind leans toward materi alism. Nevertheless I knew, though not in ordered comprehension, that my life was tending toward a supreme crisis. As the storm died, so I be came normal, and I attributed a glimpse of the unseen to mere phys ical facts. I was wrong. The coming of that ill fated vessel was heralded to me. I lacked the key of the hidden message. Now I possess it. On board l,n flit -1 PAnctnnio TTnc rnnr mnfll- er. How strange that her advent should be bound up filso with the mys tery of Enid's parentage!" "Father, dear, if you can bear it, tell me of mv mother. She knew me, and that is why she asked me to kiss her." "She asked you. to kiss her?" Each word was a crescendo of surprise. "Yes. One night she cajne to me. Oh, I remember. She wished Mr. Pyne to telegraph to his uncle. When he quitted us to take the message she, too how weird it all seems now! admit ted that she experienced something of the intuitive knowledge of the future you have just spoken of." "I am not surprised. Poor Nanette! She was always a dreamer in a sense. Never content, she longed for higher flights. She was a woman in ambition ere she ceased to be a child. When t married her she was only eighteen. I was ten years older. My thought was o educate her ton somewhat higher ideal of life than the frivolities of a fashionable world. It was a mistake, if a girl harbors delusions before mar riage the experience of married life is not a cure, but an Incentive. A less tolerant man would have made her a safer husband." Constance would listen to nothing which would disparage him. "I hate to be unjust to her even in my thoughts, but where could she have found a better husband than you, dad?" "Millionaire, indeed!" protested Enid, breaking In with her own tumultuous thoughts. ' "I would not exchange you for twenty millionaires." "My methods cannot have been so ill considered If they tire brought me two such daughters," he said, with a mournful smile. "But. there! I am only deluding myself Into a postpone ment of a painful duty. My secret must out to you. at any rate. ,When I married your mother, Constance, I was an attache at the British embassy In Paris. Her maiden name was Mad eleine Nanette de Courtray. Her fam ily, notwithstanding the French sound of her name, was almost wholly Eng lish. They were Jersey people, re cruited from British stocki but two generations of English husbands were compelled to assume the style De Cour tray owing to entailed estates on the island. There is something quaint in the idea us it v.crkoJ out. The place was only a small farm. When we were married the stipulation lapsed, be cause it was more advisable for me to retain my own name. I was then the heir to a title I can now claim. I am legally and lawfully Sir Stephen Brand, ninth baronet of Lesser Ham bledon. in Northumberland." "And you became . a lighthouse keeper!" It was Enid who found breath for the exclamation. Constance braced herself for that which was to come. That Stephen Brand was a well born toan was not a new thing in their ia ielligence. "Yes, a cleaner of lamps and trans mitter of ships' signals. Have we been less happy?" A most vehement 'No was the answer. "Don't run away with the idea that I was, therefore, endowed with ample means. There are baronets poorer than some crossing sweepers. The es tate was encumbered. During my father's life, during my own until five years ago. it yielded only a thousand a year. Even now, after fifteen years of retrenchment you both forget that while I was stationed at Flamborough Head I was absent for a few days to attend my father's funeral it pro duces only a little over 3,000. Enough for us, eh, to enjoy life on? Enough to satisfy Lady Margaret's scruples, Enid, ! as to her son's absurd notion of matri j mony? Enough, too, Constance, to i mate yoa to the man of your choice, whatever his position? "Dad, murmured Constance, "Is there no hope of the old days coming back again?" " "Who can tell? These things are not la mortal ken. I need hardly say that I my allowance of one-third 6f ,t& fam ily xevtnuea was barely Bumcieai .to maintain Innlor inr iba diplomatic LIGHT L By Louis Tracy, Author of The Wings of the " Copyright. 1904. by Edward J. Clod m me oursuance of an Ideal, only me.' to find my ideal realized, after much en mains' on lonelv rocks and bleak headlands. With strict economy we existed happily until you were born. My wife at first was sufficiently de lighted to exchange Jersey society for Paris and the distinguished circle In which we moved there. But you were not many months old until a change came. A Frenchman, a rich fop, began to pay her attentions which turned her head." I do not think she meant any harm. People never do mean ' harm who accomplish It most fatally. I did that which a man who respects himself s loathes to do I protested. There was a scene, tears and wild reproaches, Next day the crash came. She endeav ored to mislead me as to an appoint ment. God knows I only wished to save her, but it was too much to ask me to pass over in silence the schemes of a libertine, though he, too, was in- your lives and mine. It was a need fa tuated by her beauty. I discovered less burglary. . I persuaded myself that them in a clandestine meeting, and it was necessary In the Interests of and my blood was hot and the coun- the Trinity Brethren, those grave gen try was France. We fought next tlemen in velvet cloaks. ' Enid, who morning,- and I killed him." V would be horrified by the mere sug- Constance bent her head and Kissea his right hand. Here at least was a lineal descendant of nine generations of border raiders", who held their swords of greater worth than musty laws. Brand's eyes kindled. His voice be came more vehement. The girl's im pulsive action seemed to sanctify the deed. "I did not regret, I have never regret ted, the outcome of the duel. He was mortally wounded and was ,carried to his house to die. . I fled from Paris to escape arrest, but the woman in whose : defense I encountered him Denavea most cruelly. She deserted me arid went to him. Ask Mrs. Sheppard. She was your English nurse at the time, Constance. It was she who brought you to England. I never met my wife again. I believe, on my soul, that she was innocent of the greater offense. I think she rebelled against the thought that I had slain one who said he wor shiped her. Anyhow, she had her price. She remained with him, in sheer de fiance of me, until his death, and her reward was his wealth, i Were it not for this we might have come together again and striven to forget the past in mutual toleration. The knowledge that she ,was enriched with that man's gold maddened me. I could not forget that. I loathed all . that money could give the . diamonds, the dresses, the Insane device's of society to pour out treas ure on the vanities of the Ihour. By idle chance I was drawn to . the light house service. It was the mere whim of a friend Into whose sympathetic ears I gave my sorrows. It. is true I did not intend to devote my life to'my present occupation. But Its vast ,sl lences. Its Isolation, its seclusion from the . petty, sordid, money grabbing life ashore, attracted me. I, found quiet joys, ' peaceful ' days ana "dreamless nights In its comparative dangers and privations. - Excepting my loyal serv ant and friend, ,Mrs. Sheppard, and the agent and solicitors of my estate, none knew of my whereabouts. I was a lost man and, aa, I imagined, a fortu nate one. Now, .In' the last week of my service for I would have retired In a few days, and It was my Inten tion to tell you something, not all, of my history, largely on account of your lovemaking, Enid the debacle , has come, and with it my wife." ' 1 1 "Father." asked Constance, "is my mother still your wife by law?" , "She cannot be otherwise." "I wonder if 'you are right. I am too yoimJT to judge these things.' but she spoke of her approaching marriage with Mr. Traill In a way that suggest ed she wtml 1 not 1o him a grievous vrong. Pbt does not love him as I ur.(".orslr.-i:l love. LUe regards him as a man admirable lu many ways, but J rhe impressed tne with the idea that tlie bel'eve;! s!?o was dsin that which was Hjrht. though slie feared some un fori'en dilSeu'.ty. r.a-id 1 -.nkPd at her with troubled eyes. It Is always amazing to a parent to find unexpected powers of divination In a child. CMistance was still a little -Tlrl In his heart. AThat had conferred till:? i:is!ght Into a complex nature like her mother's? "There is something to be said for that view." he admitted. "I recollect now that Pyne told me she had, lived some years In the western- states, but he said, too, that her husband, the man whose name she bears, died there. My poor girls, I do, indeed, pity you If all this story of miserable Intrigue, this squalid romance of the law courts, Is to be dragged into the light in a town where you are honored. Enid, yon see now how douhly fortunate you are In being restored to a father's arms" "Ob, no, no!" wailed Enid. "Do noJ say that. It seems to cut ns apart.' What have you done that you should dread the worst that can be said? And why should there be any scandal at all? I cannot bear you to say such things." ' -! " "I think I understand you, dad," said Constance, her burning glance striving to read his hidden thought. "Matters cannot rest where they are. Yon will jkot allow my mother to go away A pecond thne without "a clear state Zaextt as to the future and an equally frooes explanation of the past." f?;f a read ecu it had forced" U unwtlcome presence upon him in the first moment of the meeting with nia wire, oui ue was a man of orders of discipline. Hie ; habits of rears misfit not . be flung ; aside so readily. " It was absurd. , be ' held, to infict the self torture of use- less .imaginings on the. first nfght of : their home coming after the sever? trials of their precarious life on , the " l"OCk. . 'V 'i -'.'. ' " " A-";; Above all else it was necessary to re tssure Constance.-whose strength only concealed the raging fire beneath, and Enid, whose highly strung tempera ment was on the borderland of hys-: teria. '-. : ; He was still the arbiter, of their . 5"L!SJ5S? Ja prospect of a night of sleepless misery for these two, and It needed - his em-J phatlc dominance to direct their thoughts into a more peaceiw cnan- nel. - . -j So he assumed the settled purpose be was far from feeling and sum moned a kindly smile to his aid. ; ."Surely we-have discussed our diffi culties sufficiently tonight," be said. J'ln the morning, Constance, I will meet Mr. Traill. He is a gentleman and a man of the world. I think, too, that his nephew will be resourceful ana wise m counsel vuu u jcaia, Now we are all going to obtain some much needed rest. . Neither you nor I, will yield to sleepless hours of brood ing. Neither of you knows that not fortyeight hours "ago I made myself a thief in the determination to save gestion. i reruse xo piace myseu yu the moral rack another time. In the old days when I . was a boy the drama was wont to be followed by a more lively scene, t forbid further discus sion. Come, kiss me, both of you. I think that a" stiff glass of hot punch will not do me any harm, nor you, un less you imbibed freely of that cham pagne I saw nestling in the ice pail." . They rose obediently. Although they knew he was acting a. part on 'their account they were sensible that he was adopting a sane course, Enid tried to contribute to the new note. She bobbed in the approved style of the country domestic. "Please, Sir Stephen," she said, "would you like . some lemon In the toddy?" Constance placed a little copper ket tle on the fire. Their gloom had given way to a not wholly forced cheerful ness for In that pleasant cottage sor row was an unwelcome guest wben- they were surprised to hear a sharp knock on the outer door. At another time the incident, though unusual at a late hour, would not have disturbed them. But the emotions of the night were too recent, their sub. sldence too artificially achieved, -thaj they should hot dread the possibilities which lay beyond that imperative sum mons; " . -Mrs. Sheppard and the servant had retired to rest, worn out with the anxious uncertainties of events re ported from tfhe lighthouse. s So Brand went to the door and the girls listened Jn nervous foreboding.' They heard thelif father say: ' ', .VHello. Jenkins, whatsis Jhe matter. nowr Jenkins .was a sergeant of . police whom they knew. "Sorry to trouble you, . Mr. : Brand, but an odd thing has happened. A, lady, a ""Oh, Connie, it U she!" etranger. met me ten minutes ago and asked me to direct her to your house, I did so. She appeared to be in great trouble, so I strolled slowly after her, I was surprised to -see her looking In through the window of your sitting room. As far as I -could make out she was crying fit to break her heart, and I Imagined he meant "to knock at the door, but was afraid."" "Where Is she? What has become of her?" Brand stepped out into the moon light The girls, white and trembling, followed. "WelL she ran off down the garden path and tumbled In a dead faint near the gate. I was too late to save her. I picked her up and placed her on a eat. She is there now. I thought It best before carrying her here to tell you" Before Brand moved Constance ran out, followed by Enid.' In a whirl of pa la the lighthouse keeper strode after them: ' He 'saw Constance stooping over a motionless figure lying prone on the garden seat To those strong young arms' the slight; graceful form offered ah easy task.;': f'1 V ' Brand heard Enid's whisper: , Bn,t the daughter, clasping her moth er1 td l breaatj sald itttji. 1 J " - .HtTt V may be dying. We" mu'sf take her In." He made - no direct answer. What could -he say? The girl's fearless words admitted of neither '"Tea" nor -No.' ' ' He turned to the policeman. . "I am much obliged to you, Jenkins, he said. "We know the lady. Unless unless there are' serious consequences will you oblige me by saying nothing about her? But stay, wnen you pass the Mount's Bay-hotel please call and' say that bits, vansiiian ua -uwu seized with sudden illness and fe being cared for at my house." - v - "Yes. sir," said the sergeant, salut ing. ..:..-nv. -'. .As he walked away down the garden path he wondered who Mrs. Vansittart could be and why Miss Brand said she : had "come home." ' 1 - ; Then he glanced back at the house . into which the others had vanished. He iatj,hed;. "Just fancy it," he said; "1 treated .him as If he was a bloomin' lord. And I suppose my position Is a better one than his. Anyhow-; he is a splendid chap. ? I'm glad now I did it, for his . sake and the sake of those two girls. How nicely they were dressed.; It has always been a puzzle to me Kow they can afford to live in that style on the pay of a lighthouse keeper. ; WelL It's none of my business." CHAPTER XVIII. ADY MARGARET took her de parture, from the hotel at an early hour. Her son went with her. Their house was situated n tiio outskirts of the town, and. al though Stanhope would gladly have re mained" with the two men to discuss the events of this -night of surprises, he felt that his mother demanded his present attention. Indeed, her ladyship had much to say to him. She, like the others, had been imDressed by Mrs. Vansittart's appearance, even under the extraordi narily difficult circumstances of the oc casion. The feminine mind judges its neers with the utmost precision, its analytical methods are pitilessly sim ple It calculates witn matnemaiicai nicety tnose aetans ui luhcu, . ui delicate nuances of manner, which dis tinguish the -woman habituated to "re finement and good society trom tne interloper or mere copyist. ilt had always been a matter or mna wonder In Penzance now jonsiance Brand, had acquired her French trick of wearing her clothes. Some women are not "properly dressed after they have been an hour posing In front of a full.' length -misror; others can give one glance at a costume, twist and pun it into the one correct position ana walk out perfectly gowned, with a hap py consciousness that all is well. Every Parisienne, some Americans, a few Englishwomen, possess this gift. Constance had it, and i.aay Mar garet knew now that it was a lineai acquisition from her mother. The dis covery enhanced the belief, always prevalent locally; that Brand was a gentleman , born, and her ladyship was now eager for her son's assistance in looking up . the '.'Landed Gentry" and other works of reference which define and glorify the upper ten thousand of the United Kingdom. .Perhaps that way light would! be vouchsafed. , Being a little narrow minded, the ex cellent creature believed that a scandal among "good" people was not half so scandalous- as an ; affair ; Jn which the principals were tradesmen "or. worse." She confided something of this to her son as they drove homeward and' was very wroth with him when he treated the idea with unbecoming levity. ' '. "My dear boy;" she cried vehemently, "you don't understand the value of such credentials.' Yon always speak ; and act as If you were oh board one of your hectoring warships, where the best metal and the heaviest guns are all im portant. It is not so in society, even the society of a small Cornish town. Although I am an earl's daughter, I cannot afford to be quietly sneered at by some who would dispute my social supremacy." : - ' , As each complaisant sentence rolled forth he laughed quietly in the dark ness. "Mother." said he suddenly, "Mr. Traill and I have had a lot of talk about Enid during the past two days. I have not seen you until this evening before dinner, so I have had no op portunity to tell you all that has oc curred." "Some new Imbroglio, I suppose," she said, not at all appeased -by his seeming ycarelessness as to what the dowager Lady. Tregarthen or Mrs. Taylor-Smith might say when gossip started.' "Well, it Is, In a sense." he admitted. "You see, we are jolly hard up. It is a squeeze for you to double my pay, and, as I happened to Inform Mr. Traill that I was going to marry Enid, long before he knew she was his daughter, It came as a bit of a shock afterward to hear that he intends to endow her with 200,000 on her wedding day. Now the question to be discussed is not whether the adopted daughter of a poor light house keener, who may be Lord This-and-That in disguise, is a good match for me, but whether an impecunious lieutenant in the royal navy is such a tremendous catch, for a girl with a great fortune." Lady Margaret was stunned. - She began to breathe quickly. Her utmost expectations were surpassed. .Before she could utter a word her son pre tended to misunderstand her agitation. "Of course it was fortunate that Enid and I had jolly well made up our minds somewhat In advance, but It was a near thing, a matter of flag signals otherwise I should have been com pelled to consider myself ruled out of the game. Therefore, during your tea table tactics. If the 'dowager, or that old spitfire.'Mrs. Taylor-Smith, says a word toyoa about Brand, just give 'em f a rib roaster with Enid's two hundred Jhou. wHI yon . While "they aro woU lng 'tinder tneTfr W.thraw wt a fenff (El Hint that Oonslauee' Jnay" " ensuare Traffl's nephew. 'Ensnare is" the right word, isn't it? The best of it is, I know they have been worrying you for month's about my friendship with '"girls of their class." Oh, the joy of the'eu-. counter! It must be like blowing up a battleship with a' tuppenny bapenny torpedo boat." ' ' -. "" v So her ladyship not without ponder-; ins over-certain entries in, the books of. 'the proudly born, which recorded the birth and marriage of Sir Stephen. Brand, ninth baronet, "present where abouts unknown" went to bed, but not to sleep." whereas Jack Stanhope never afterward remembered undress ing, so thoroughly tired was he, and so absurdly ha bny. notwithstanding the awkward situation divulged at the dinner. : ( pA ,pfl. w5tJl nis vmele. set hlm- self to divert the other man's thoughts Ifrom the embarrassing topic of Mrs. Vansittart. " He knew that Brand was not likely to leave tkem in' any dubiety as to the past. 'Discussion now was useless, a mere idle guessing at probabilities, so he boldly plunged into the mystery as yet surrounding Enid's nrst year or existence. ' ' Mr. Traill, glad enough to discuss a more congenial subject, "marshaled the ascertained facts. Jt was easy to see that here at least he stood on firm ground. : . 1 "Y. our father, as you know, was a noted yachtsman, Charlie," he said. "Indeed, he was one of the first men j to cross the Atlantic in his own boat i under steam and sail. Twenty years ago in this very month he took my Wife and me, with your mother, you and our little Edith, then six months old, on a delightful trip along the Flor ida coast and the gulf of Mexico. It was then arranged that we should pass the summer among the Norwegian fiords, but the two ladies were nervous about the ocean voyage east in April, so your father brought the Esmeralda across, and we followed by mail steamer. During the last week of May and the whole of June we cruised from Christiania almost to the North cape. The fine, keen air restored my wife's somewhat delicate health, and you and Edith throve amazingly, do you re member the voyage?" "It is a dim memory, helped a good deal, I imagine, by what I have heard since.".. ... " (To be Continued) ' f Additional Local. FOR SALE Fir wood; can de liver at any time. Call P. A. Kline's line, Phone No. 1. 84tf First football game of the season at OAC tomorrow afternoon with, the AI- banv Athletic Club. Econctny Ffuil Jars at Zierolfs. ,, 74tf Rev. G. H. Gibbs, the newly appoint ed pastor of the M. E- church, South, for the Corvalli8 charge, will fill bis pul pit next Sunday at 11 a. in', and 7 :3tii p. m. Sunday school, will be held , at ten The .Woman's Home -Mission Society will, meet in the' church on Tuesday, Oct. 16tfc at 2 :30 p. pa. ' . Organs and pianos for sale or rent. R. N. White.. Phone 405. 82-tf A dispatch from Vancouver in Tues, day's Telegram says : Apparently tTho mas Anderson, the soldier accused with the murder of Corporal Breiter, has te FOIESSECM for chlUrtnt ttt, urr The Kind You Have Always in use for over SO years, and 0 - All Counterfeits, Imitations and ' Just-as-g-ood" are but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the health ot Infants and Children Experience against Experiment , What is CASTOR I A Castoria is a harmless substitute for Castor Oil, Pare gorie, Drops and Soothing- Syrups. It is Pleasant. 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