Mm dr e d jz> cf;ret)a n ion DY THE DUCHESS. >itiT «♦/ vi> vtv vtw Wl . . A A A A CHAPTER VI.—(Continued.) "A little, I confess. A strange ac knowledgment, you will say for a man who ha3 spent his seasons regularly In London for a number of years; but bo It Is. Circumstances alter cases, you know, and I have a fancy to see Miss Mabel and Miss Sylverton, and—• and you in ball costume.” "You cannot imagine anyone half so charming as I look in mine," said Miss Trevanion, with gay .audacity; "in fact the other two you mentioned are ‘no where,’ when I appear. And, if you don’t believe this statement, you may judge for yourself the night after next. So that is why you are thinking a lit tle about It—eh?” "I would think a great deal about it if 1 dared. For instance, I would never cease dreaming of it from the moment until then, if you would only promise me the first waltz.” “But, at that rate, consider how stu pidly insipid you would be for the next two days. I would not have it on my conscience to be the means of reducing ► you to such a state of Imbecility. And, beside, you don't deserve anything at my hands, as you have not told me tho ’something else’ you spoke of when we first met at the cottage.” “Perhaps if I told you you would be nn$ry,’’ he said. “What should there bo in your thoughts to cause me anger?” she answered—and just a degree of the light buoyancy that had been animat ing her voice ever since they began their walk faded out of It, and did not < return. “Well, then, as I stood at the cottage door before entering I heard Mrs, Dempsey tell you of a report she had heard—a report that gave you in mar riage to Lord Lyndon. I was thinking of that when you first spoke to me, and wondering—” He stopped abruptly, and, turning looked at her with eyes full of wild entreaty. "Tell me” he said, almost fiercely, "is It true?” They were inside tho gates of King’s Abbott by this time and were rapidly nearing the house. Already the grand, beautiful old mansion appeared at in tervals, gray and stately, through the intersecting branches of the lime trees beneath which they walked. Miss Tre vanion's face had subsided from its expression of gay insouciance into its usual settled look of haughty impene trability and, gazing at her, Denzil felt his heart grow cold and dead with in his breast, as hope fled and dull despair crept into fill its vacant place. “By what right do you dare to ques tion me on such a subject?” she asked, her voice low but quick with anger. And he answered, with sad truthful ness—"By none. I have no right.” r After which they continued their walk in utter silence until the hall door was reached, w'hen, drawing back to allow her free entrance, he said, with a faint trembling in his tones: “And about that waltz, Miss Tre vanion—may I have it?” "No,” she answered with cold dis tinctness—"I have almost promised it to another,” and went past him into the house without further look or word. CHAPTER VII. The ball was over ami Mabel had gone to her sister's room to discuss the events of the evening. "It was a delicious evening, wasn't It?” began Mabel, enthusiastically set tling herself comfortably opposite her bister’s fire. “Very like all balls, I think,” Miss Trevanion answered—“a mixture of bad dancing, unhealthy eating, and time-worn compliments—a little sweet ness and no end of biitterness.’’ “Then you didn’t enjoy yourself?” said Mabel, with disappointment in her tone. “Oh, yes, I did, immensely. Can anything bo pleasanter, more lieart Btirrlng, than to hear your own prais es sounded until long after midnight, all in the same drowsy tone?” “Of course, you refer to Lord Lyn don. Then why did you dance so much with him?” “To see how much of him I could en dure—to see how much wretched danc ing and idiotic nonsense I could put up with during one evening, I suppose. Besides”—with a mocking laugh— “have you forgotten, iny dear Mabel, what an excellent thing if would be if Lord Lyndon should be graciously pleased to bestow upon me his hand and—ah!—fortune? Just fancy what a blessing it would be to the family— a real live lord as son-in-law, brother in-law and husband! “Nonsense, Mildred; don’t talk like j that. I hate to hear such speeches, A title is all very well, but it doesn’t make up for everything; and you would be the last girl in the world to sell yourself to any man.” "The very last perhaps; but who can say what may happen?” Mias Tre vanion said, dreamily. "Of courso you would be,” Mabel acquiesced, cheerily. “And now, talk ing of dancing, it is most unfair of you to stigmatize all the dancing to night as bad. Why, Denzil Younge is an excellent dancer.” “I didn't dance with him," Mildred said, coldly; and then, after a Blight pause, “He is not in love with you then, after all, Mabel?” “In love with me!” echoed Mabel. “Well, that’s the calmest thing I have ever heard! Surely, my dear Mildred, you would not require any poor man [ to be in love with two sister® at once!” “I don't understand you,” said Mil dred. “Don’t you? I should have thought [ bis Infatuation for another member of tills household was pretty apparent by ' this time." “I nope he is r.ot in love w’th me. if that it, what you mean,” Mildred ex I claimed, with some show of Irritation. ' Why?” demanded Mabel. “Because, should he ask me to marry him—which is a most unlikely thing to occur,” said Mildred iu a low voice— “I should refuse." “Well, I think you might do a great deal worse than marry him,” “the queen” declared, emphatically. “And how you could compare him for one moment with that insipid earl I can not imagine—a creature who dreams of nothing, I do believe, from morning to night beyond his horses an!? the cor rect treatment of liis pug. Now Den zil, on the contrary, though quite as much up in horseflesh as my lord is, has the good breeding to suppress bis : knowledge—in the drawing-room at all events.” "There, there—if it has come to 'breeding,' we won’t follow up the | subject,” interrupted Miss Trevanlon, impatiently. “I don’t find It guffictent | ly interesting to care to watch for daylight over it. Are you going to sit up until dawn, Mabel? Because I am not; and so I should advise you to get to bed at once, unless you wish to look liko a ghost in the morning. By the bye, that good-lookiug new ad mirer of yours, Mr. Hoy Blount, said something to mamma about calling to morrow, did he not?" “Yes-—I don’t know. It is cruel of me to keep you up like this,” stam mered Mabel, with a faint blush, start ing to her feet as she spoke; “you are looking quite pale and wan. I am afraid, after all, Milly, you found the ball a bore; and here have I been teasing you about it. Good-night.” “Good-night, my darling,” returned Miss Trevanlon. suddenly, kissing uer with rapid, unexpected warmth. After this they separated for the night and got to bed, and dreamed their several dreams of joy or sorrow, as the case might be. • ••••• Sir George and his wife, in their room, at about the same time as the foregoing conversation had been held, were having a few words together on the same subject. “Well, Carry.” said Sir George, “you were wrong, I think, my love; 1 don't believe Denzil Younge is as much taken with Mabel as you gave me to understand, eh?” • ino, but he is dreadfully in love with Mildred,” his wife said. “Well, nothing could be better.” “Nothing could be worse, you mean.” “Why?” “Because she will refuse him.” “In the name of patience, for what?” demanded Sir George, explosively. “Is it because he is rich, handsome, and prosperous?” “No; but simply because his father has sold cotton.” “Fiddle-de-dee!” exclaimed Sir George, with great exasperation, and he strode up and down the room twice with rapid, hasty footsteps. "Look here. Carry,” he then said, “something must be done. My affairs altogether are in a very critical state; Bolton told me so in as many words the other day. lie said that I could not weather the storm much longer—that 1 had not, in fact, a leg to stand on (these were his own words, I assure you)—that money must be got somehow, and so on. And where the deuce am I to get ready money, do you suppose? Every method of procuring it that 1 know of has been used up long ago. I see nothing but absolute ruin staring me in the face. And here is this willful girl actually throwing away fifty thousand pounds a year—every penny of it!” By this time Sir George was greatly excited, and was pacing up the carpet and down again. Lady Caroline had subsided into silent weeping. “Well, well, there is no use in an ticipating evils,” continued her hus band, presently; “perhaps—who knows?—affairs may brighten.” “If she would even encourage Lord Lyndon,” said Lady Caroline. “Ay, Just so,” returned Sir Georg'': “but how she could throw over Younge for such a heavy substitute as Lyndon passes my comprehension. Besides, Lyndon's rent-roll is barely twenty thousand a year—not even half the other’s.” “Still, I think that would do very ; nicely,” put in Lady Caroline, meekly, j “If she could only be induced to look kindly on any one, I should be satis ! fled.” “So should I, so long as the 'some one’ had Penzil's money,” observed Sir George, and went back to his dressing room. CHAPTER VIII. The Younges' visit was drawing to I a close. Nearly a month had elapsed since their arrival, and Mrs. Younge | began to speak seriously of the day that should see them depart. This she mentioned with regret—a regret audi bly shared in by most of the young j Trevanions, with whom the elder pair and Denzil were immense favoritea. ; Sir George, too, seemed sorry at the | prospect of so soon losing his old schoolfellow, while Lady Caroline, glancing at the son-in-law whom she would go gladly have welcomed, sighed a disappointed s'gt> with all sincerity. "We must give a ball, or something, before their departure," whispered Sir George to his wife; and, after mueh arguing, the “something,” in the shape of tableaux vivants, with a dance after ward, won the day. When at length the night arrived, King’s Abbott was in a state of con fusion impossible and hopeless to de scribe, the most remarkable feature in the whole case being that nobody seemed in a proper frame of mind, the spirits of all being either too high or too low to suit the part allotted them, so that a sensation of mingled terror and delight prevailed through every dressing room in the house. There had been numerous meetings and rehearsals, for the most part pleas urable. although here and there dis putes had arisen about trifles light as air. and everything had been arranged on the most approved principles. The guests were assembled In the drawing-room, facing the folding doors, behind which, in a small back apartment, the stage had been erected. Already were the younger members of the audience showing evident signs of impatience, when the doors were thrown open, the curtain rose, and in tlie center of the stage Mildred Tre vanion as Marguerite stood revealed. Denzil—who begged hard to be al lowed to withdraw from the entire thing, but whose petition had been scoffed at by Mabel and Miss Sylverton —as Faust, and Lord Lyndon as Me phistophelcs, enlivened the back* ground. Mildred herself, with her long fair hair, plaited and falling far below her waist, with the inevitable flower in ha? hand with which she vainlj' seeks tft learn her fate, and with a soft innocent smile of expectation on her lips, formed a picture at once tender and perfect in every detail. At least bo thought the spectators, who, as the curtain fell, concealing her from theii view, applauded long and heartily. After this followed Miss Sylverton and Charlie in the "Black Brunswick er,” and Mabel and Roy Blount as Lancelot and Elaine, which also were mueh admired and applauded. Then came "The United Kingdom,” when Frances Sylverton, as "Ire land,” undoubtedly carried off the crown of victory. Perhaps altogether Miss Sylverton might have been termed the great success of the evening. The tableau terminated with a scene from the court of Louis XIV, the dress es for which, as for most of the others, were sent from London. After the tableaux followed a ball, to effect a change of raiment for which soon caused the rapid emptying of the impromptu theater. Denzil, who scarcely felt in humor for balls or any other sort of amuse ment just then, passed through the library door which opened off the late scene of merriment, and sunk wearily into an arm-chair. Ho was feeling sadly dispirited and out of place amidst all the gayety sur rounding him; a sense of miserable depression was weighing him down. His one thought was Mildred; his one deep abiding pain, the fear of hearing her engagement to Lyndon openly ac knowledged. For the past week this pain had been growing almost past endurance, as I19 witnessed the apparently satisfied man ner in which she accepted his lord ship’s marked attentions. He hated himself for this fatuity—this mean ness, as it appeared to him—that com pelled him to love and long for a wom an who showed him plainly every Iiout of tlie day how little she valued either him or his devotion. Still he could not conquer it. As these thoughts rose once more unbidden to his mind and took posses sion of him. he roused himself deter minedly, and getting up from liis chair threw out his arms with a quick im pulse from him, as though resolved upon tlie moment to be free. (To be continued.) FUTURE SEAS SPEED. mil. lene/ of Steam Tower Affor.le.l hj tlie Tilt-bine System. Prof. Thurston, the greatest living authority on the steam engine, has re cently given It forth ns his opinion that the steam turbine of the Parsons or De Ltval type combines within it self the greatest simplicity ami the highest thermal efficiency of any form of steam power. Such a statement as this from an authority of the weight of Prof. Thurston must be somewhat disconcerting to Mr. Thorncycroft and others, who have staked their reputa tion on the inherent superiority of the reciprocating engine. When we add to Prof. Thurston’s declaration the fact that the Parsons Marine Steam Tur bine company has contracted for a riv er steamer 250 feet long for Clyde ser vice, and that they are contemplating the construction of a large deep-sea boat, the prospect of the new means of marine propulsion exemplified in the Turbinia and the Viper would seem to have a brilliant future. But there is another side of the picture. Supposing that, in face of a multitude of current predictions, an oceunte turbine vessel would be so economical as to have room for cargo during her voyage, as well aa coal, and be able to thrash her way across the Atlantic at the speed threatened us In the near future, would the rivets of the vessel stand the strain of the concurslve force implied in forcing a vessel through seas at the rate of even thirty knots an hour? Ex perienced marine sages say that no vessel could be built that would hold together under such conditions.—Lon don Express. Laziness begins with cobwebs and ends In chains. UNJUST TARIFF LAW FAVORITE EXPRESSION OF DO MESTIC FREE-TRADERS. t Would He Hard to Name n Single j Interest That Is Injudiciously Affected, ! Unless II He Foreign Manufacturer* and American raw nl inkers. "Our unjust tariff laws" is a phrase much in use these days by the pro fessional American Cobdenite and the free trade press in general. Unjust to whom? The National Treasury'.’ For two years our customs duties have averaged $20,000,000 a month, nearly half the expenses of the gov ernment,exclusive of the postal depart ment, which is nearly self-sustaining. Our customs revenue was never so large, and it is paid by those who can afford to pay it. Tli© CiipitalUt? American capital was never so large ly or profitably employed as now, not i only at home, but the world over. The Wage Earner? More people are employed today in the United States than ever before in | our history, and these people are In- j dividually and collectively working more days in the year and getting more pay for each day's labor than in i any previous year or period. Tli© Con it nm or? The cost of living is much lower to day than during the period when the Wllson-Oorman free trade law was in j operation, and the general cost of iiv- ; ing is as low or lower than any time in twenty-five years. There Is such a thing as commodities being too cheap, j The Farmer? He is selling all he can raise at good \ prices. He has paid off millions of 1 mortgages in the last three years, and his farm has doubled in value. Tli© Railroads? The only complaint that conies from railroads these days Is lack of cars. ; They are carrying more passengers ' and more freight and paying higher i wages to more men, and stockholders j are receiving better dividends. Our Hanks, ICio.? These great depositories for money I reflect the prosperity of the working class,by which we mean all who work for wage or salary. Surplus income is put in the bank, in the home or 111 the Insurance policy. This not only pro vides for the future, but it furnishes capital for great and small enterprises and increases the number of employed and adds to the great home market which creates such a huge demand for products of the farmer and factory. In this way our ihdustries are diversified and the endless ehain of independence is ceaselessly continued, gaining in volume and strength at every turn. Again we ask, Unjust to whom? We can think of only one class and that is the pawnbroker and his kind. Perhaps, however, our free trade friends have in mind the foreign manufacturers. Yes; our tariff law may be unjust to them; but what law. Di vine or human, demands that we go naked and hungry and cold ourselves to provide for our neighbor who should provide for himself? There never was a more just tariff law on our statute books than the so called Dingley law now in such suc cessful operation. As a measure for revenue and for protection to our di versified Industries and our millions of laborers it is more than fulfilling the expectations of its framers and most thoroughly vindicating their wisdom. AY lien it needs to be amended, as do all tariff laws,to meet changed conditions, it will be amended on a just basis to continue the greatest good to the greatest number. FREE-TRADE TRUST SLOGAN. Koine Tiling* Whlc'.i Intelligent Voter* Will Remember, Our evening contemporary, referring to the "Commercial's” article on trusts in Thursday’s edition, asks: "Why not acknowledge that unjust protective tariff laws enacted and sus tained by republican legislation have created the enormous trusts and mo nopolies that threaten the life of the republic.”—Sun. Well, neighbor, for the very excellent reason that it is not true. The slogan "The tariff is the mother of trusts” was started by the free trade element of the democracy with a view to dis crediting the tariff by placing it in bad company in the eyes of the people. A direct attack upon the protective policy has been so often repulsed that its ene mies decided to adopt a new plan of at tack. They looked about for the worst thing with which they might associate it in order to give it a bad odor and de cide* upon the trust as the most likely of success. They have never been able to advance even a plausible, much less a convincing argument to sustain the assertion. Yet on the principle that a lie well stuck to is as good as the truth” they have continued to make the assertion. Notwithstanding that a near ap proach to a purely revenue tariff adopt ted by the Cleveland administration proved ruinous lo the industries of the country, despoiled the laborer of hi3 income and brought the wolf to the door of thousands of homes, these ghouls who fatten on the corpse of prosperity still seek to rehabilitate th-> low tariff policy and substitute import ed goods made ry foreign labor for home made goods produced by Ameri can labor. In order to do it they seek falsely to make the tariff responsible for an evil with which it has no con nection whatever. There are just two or three things to be remembered by the voter when hs cornea to consider the tariff. The fl-st of these lii that every dollar's worth of goods imported from a foreign coun try, whether sold at the same or a low er price, displaces sn equal amount of American made goods, and that the ar ticles purchased with the wages paid for its production are likewise of for eign production, and benefits no Amer ican laborer, producer or tradesman. Secondly, the American laborer is able to buy less of the products of the farm garden and workshop, and thus con tributes less to the support of his fel low laborers by the amount, of wages so lost. A policy, therefore, which tends to increase the importation of foreign made goods can have but one effect on the productive industries of this country, and that is bound to be a depressing one.—Vincennes find.) Commercial. CHANCES IN SUG AR INDUSTRY. In » I'alr Wav to Supply All of tlio Countrj'H Niu'il*. The sugar industry of the world is brought into fresh prominence by the prospect that a duty, probably with discriminating rates to offset the boun ties paid in Germany, France and other countries of continental Europe, will be imposed in Great Britain, though it will make the first great break in the long trial of free-trade in the necessaries of life since England undertook to give the masses cheap food regardless of other considerations. It appears that British refiners have been finding it almost impossible to compete with foreign rivals, and the sore need of more revenue for the war in South Africa is leading the present ministry to take up the question of taxing sugar, and, at the same time, helping the British refiners. Any such action would tend to make competition all the keener between the bounty-fed producers of Germany and other coun tries which export sugar, and the result might be felt in some lowering of prices in the United States owing to the increased pressure of supplies abroad. Meanwhile the development of tha beet sugar industry in this country is going on at a rate little understood by the average American. It. already cov ers a large part of the domestic con sumption. The continued expansion of this great business is so well assured that it may easily leap into a com manding position within a few years. In Michigan alone the production of sugar last year was no less than 5:5. 000.000 pounds, all of the finest quality. California did still better, and other states contributed largely to a total which is truly imposing in view of the brief period covered by the beet sugar industry in this country. The beet sugar works may supply 25 per cent of the sugar used in the United States be fore the end of the present decade. As American exports increase in quantity and extend to a wider range of products, the independence of this country in supplying its own needs be comes more nearly complete. The re sult may well trouble all foreign statesmen.—Cleveland leader. Protection and Wage Karncri. A London cablegram of March 17 Bays: "Owing to the depression in various trades and general business through out England, 220,000 English work ingmen have had to accept an average reduction of two shillings (48 cents) a week in their wages within the past 30 days.” Loss of markets through the com petition of American manufactured products is chiefly at the bottom of the industrial depression now complained of in Great Britain. Two protection ist countries, the United States and Germany, are winning world trade away from British producers, and are even displacing British goods in the British market. The blow falls first upon English wage-earners, who are compelled to accept a reduction of pay as the only way to hang on to such employment as they have. The same thing happened in the United States in 3 894-97, when a Democratic tariff law allowed foreigners to displace Ameri can goods in the American market. But the Dingley law restored the Am erican market to American producers, and !u place of wholesale reduction of wages, as in England, wages have in creased in our country, and employ ment was never before so plentiful. That Is how protectlou affects wages and wage earners. Where tU«* Faruier i'on-e^ In. According to a recent announcement of the agricultural department, the farmers of the United States received $185,296,172 more for their corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, and hay in 1900 than they did in 1899; the total receipts for the last year be ing $1,861,466,582. as against $1,676,170, 410 in 1899. This Increase is in part accounted for by the fact that the av erage prices for each of the products enumerated were higher in 1900 than in 1899, although iu some instances the advance was but a fraction of a cent. The greatest advances were in corn and hay, the advance in the latter giv ing the farmers over $33,o00,000 more in 1900 for a crop of 50,000,000 tons than was received in the previous year for the crop of 56,615,756 tons. If the increased value of stock and other property were added to the increase in the value of products, it would prob ably be found that the four years of Republican administration had return ed to the agricultural interests of the nation a large proportion of the bil lion dollars shrinkage iu values which resulted from the preceding Demo cratic administration. — Springfield (Mass.) Union. HAS A THIRST FOR BLOOD. \ {(lttanre* of the FrrorloainfM of th« Common The weasel Is the boldest and most blood-thirsty of our small mammals; Indeed, none of our larger beasts is mere so, says John Burroughs. There is something devilish and uncanny about it. It persists like fate; it elude3, but it cannot be eluded. The terror it Inspires in the smaller creatures— rats, rabbits, chipmunks—is pitiful to behold. A rat pursued by a weasel has been known to rush into a room, utter dismal cries and seek the protection of ft man in bed. A woman in northern Vermont discovered that something was killing her hens, often on the nest. She watched for the culprit and at last caught a weasel in the cat. It had seized the hen and refused to let go when she tried to scare it away. Then the woman laid hold of It and tried choking it, when the weasel released its hold upon the hen and fastened its teeth into her hand between the thumb and forefinger. She could not choi-e U off and ran to a neighbor for help, brrt no one could remove it without tearing the flesh from the woman's hand. Then some one suggested a pail of wa ter. Into this the hand and weasei were plunged, but the creature would not let go even then, and did not until it was drowned. A farmer one day heard a queer growling sound on the grass. On approaching the spot he saw two weasels contending over a mouse. Both weasels had the mouse, pulling in opposite directions, and they were so absorbed in the struggle that the farmer eautiously put his hands down and grabbed them both by the hacks of their necks. He put them in a cage, and offered them bread and other food. This they refused to eat, but in a few days one of them had eaten the other up, picking his bones clean and leaving nothing but the skeleton. The same farmer was one day in his cellar when two rats came out of a hole near him in great haste and ran up the cellar wall and along its top until they came to a floor timber that stopped their progress, when they turned at hay and looked excitedly back along the course they had come. In a mo ment a weasel, evidently in hot pur suit of them, came out of the hole, but, seeing the farmer, checked his course and darted hack. The rats had doubtless turned to give him fight and would probably have been a match for him.—Chicago Chronicle GREAT SCENE OF TUMULT. I lf1/ Kn|(ll.)l Eltctloncerlnl W»j»- - Fighting untl lll<>uord Elcho (now Lord Wemyss), and Mr. George Hope cf Fenton Barns contested the county, a great disturbance prevented Lord El cho from being heard on the hustings. He jocularly declared that he was In no hurry, as he was not going to Lon don till night, and that he would meanwhile smoke a cigar. Hewing lit up he threw the contents of his cigar case among the crowd, and a shower of stones was the response to his Ut timed generosity. Ills Awful Blonder. A Chicago clergyman says that while travelling in Europe last summer he visited Venice, and among the institu tions of that city which particularly interested him was a public bathing re sort. A few days later, while in Hsu, and wandering about its famous lean ing tower, he encountered two young ladies, whose conversation, a few words of which he overhead satisfied him they were Americans. He intro duced himself, and they were delighted to meet him. They had just arrived in Pisa, and were very dusty and travel-stained. On learning that he had come from Venice they questioned him eagerly concerning the attractions of the place, as that was next on their itinerary. “Well,” he began, "you will want to go to the Malamoeco and take a bath—” “Sir!” they exclaimed, turning away instantly and leaving him to the realization of the faet that. In all innocence, he had made one of the great mistakes of his life.—Youths’ Compan'.un.