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About Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930 | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1900)
t k - V I X irr f L BY B 2HE OR0KER J8 jAilitapyomaneeofgoiifcFpica - CHAPTER XV Continued You were in too great a hurry old man said Teddy reprovingly Why did you not take your time you should look before you leap Why did you not ask What was there to askV Had I not seen for myself And is not seeing be lieving I never dreamed that she had another brother never In any case you or any fellow would have done just the jsame Im awfully sorry said Teddy slow ly speaking with his eyes meditatively fixed on the ground sorry for the money Its a bad business about that Money its not the money Im think ing of returned Miles huskily Oh if you are thinking of Esme shell be all right rejoined her brother cheer ifully Once the mistake is known and you make the amende honorable you need not be a bit uneasy about her it will be all right which was Teddys usual way of summing up most questions All right How very likely returned his cousin sarcastically She will never speak to me again as long as she lives never Do you not understand that we were within one day and a half of being married that the guests were bidden the dresses and everything in the house all ithere but the bridegroom I was as I always am when Im in a rage mad I never stopped to breathe much less to reflect or think all I wanted to do was to put the seas between us Have you had any letters Not one line since I came out You are the first who has opened my eyes to the awful mistake I have made I hope Miles said Teddy humbly that you wont hate the very sight of me for I was the cause innocently enough but still the cause of the whole catastrophe No no Why should I It was not your fault it was no ones fault it was gust sheer bad luck What evil spirit Induced me to go to Portsmouth that day of all others he demanded pas sionately It is all chance returned Teddy Do you know that once you were actually within a hair of finding it out It all turned upon such a little thing as the striking of a match It did indeed I dont know if you remember the last night you were at Baronsford in August Well I was there too prowling about the bushes on chance of seeing Esme She came running out about nine oclock I now remember it perfectly inter rupted Miles hastily I suppose every one within twenty miles of Baronsford thinks me the most finished and complete vBcoundrel and goodness knows I cannot blame them Appearances are frightful ly against me I think the best thing you can do for me Teddy with a grim smile is to blow my brains out quite accident ally Stuff and nonsense If it is Esme you are so much afraid of I can tell you that you need net be uneasy she will marry you all the same Even if she would which 1 am sure ehe wouldnt how could I marry with scarcely anything besides my pay Pooh Thats easily answered Esme has never been brought up to luxuries Shell make a grand poor mans wife Why she used to turn my ties and patch my coats Yes all very well for her to do those things for her brother but Im different Why should I bring her to poverty What right have I to ask her to share my pit tance Mrs Brabazon would never listen to it Mrs B be bothered interpolated Teddy rudely who cares for her And she will marry some rich swell A pretty girl like her a face like hers will have dozens of suitors and of course she will marry one of them and I cant blame her Not she returned Teddy stoutly and Ill tell you the reason old fellow taking his cousin literally by the button of his red serge coat She wont look at a duke if shes the girl I take her to be and I ought to know her pretty well because smiling and pausing for a mo ment Yes with feverish eagerness Because she likes you Cant you grasp that It was about the only pleasant fact that had been placed before him this morning and he seized it with avidity And he did grasp it most gratefully Of course the loss of the money is a bore said Teddy but I think you and Esme would have fancied one another anyhow without that Old George Brab azon was certainly touched in the top story leaving the reversion after six months to this perfectly unnecessary na tive college in Calcutta I think we all are a little queer Uncle Sandy Uncle George Aunt Jane myself and you with your rushing out here at three days no tice have certainly qualified for bring called eccentric Hullo theres the breakfast bugle and I must be off Cheer up oldnnan it will he all right youll see Captain Brabazon sir said a rich Milesian accent breathlessly Mr Mitchells compliments and would ye oblige him with the lind of a tin of cocoa Yes yes certainly impatiently go to White Time for us to be moving too to our morning meal theres not much to set before you Teddy but cold stew and black coffee our rations being of the least luxurious description Im not particular about quality as long as I have quantity and I fancy you are even better off for grub than we are Youre sure you dont hate the sight of me Miles he added diffidently as they pncemore came near the tents ThaVs the second tie youve asked me that Teddy No In fact take It all around now that I hare got my breath again so to speak Im very glad to see you After all thingg are sot so black as they were yesterday I might get on the staff I might have some luck out here and if Esme will only forgive me if I thought there was any chance of that I would be all right It would not be necessary to describe the condition of Miles Brabazons mind at this period unless the term change able from fair to stormy might be ap plied to it At one time he was buoyed up with hopes that rested on Teddys as surance that Esme was a girl to stick to a fellow through thick and thin and that of course it would be all right but these gleams of sunshine were but rare generally he was plunged into an abyss of despair To find that he had thrown away a wife and fortune entirely through a case of mistaken identity from ignor ance of a somewhat transparent family secret was a maddening reflection He hated to be alone he hated to speculate on what might have been He wrote to Esme of course and also to Mrs Brabazon and he counted the very days until the answers would come He thought with a sinking heart of the meag er balance at his bankers Two hun dred and fifty pounds a year besides his pay was the very most he could scrape together Ample hitherto for himself and his modes i wants but for Esme it would be beggary And now his mind sometimes dwelt for a very long time with the most poignant bitter regret on the lost forty thousand pounds CHAPTER XVI What has happened now whence this beaming face and these seraphicsmiles inquired Gussie raising her eyes lazily from her book as her sister entered the room Ive just had a letter from Miles re plied Esme hastily advancing with an air of bashful elation such a nice let ter Oh is that it rejoined Miss Braba zon in a very wintry tone of voice And pray what has he got to say for himself Oh of course he is in a dreadful state of mind I believe it is really worse for him now than it ever was for me len iently I should hope so with a little angry sniff I should humbly trust that he was pretty thoroughly ashamed of him self and his insane and idiotic behavior You got out of the business better than could have been expected thanks to Mrs Bs presence of mind and talent for in vention assuring everyone that at the very last minute Miles had been compell ed to go on foreign service That only passed with outsiders said Esme fhaking her head of course all the servants and the villagers and the Bells knew and the way people used to stop on the road and look after me or whisper together and point was too too dreadful The little trip you took with Aunt Jane smoothed over matters that and Mrs Bs courageous fabrications so dont be ungrateful Yes dubiously in a kind of way but still I am always fancying that peo ple are staring at me and talking about me Nonsense my dear Your affair is forgotten long ago you are not of such importance as you imagine it was only a nine days wonder Yes I dare say you are right Gussie people have had heaps of other things to think about Ah now drawing a long sigh of relief of course it does not mat ter as its all right What on earth do you mean de manded Augusta sharply turning half round in her chair and surveying her sis ter critically I mean that the wedding dress locked away upstairs will be worn after all when he comes home said Esme shyly To this remark there was no answer for at least a minute and then Gussie said very decidedly Esme1 you must be mad you would not think of marrying him now speak ing as it were in capital letters And pray why not regarding her sister with angry blushes He did not sav anvthine about it in Phis letter did he apprehensively There was no occasion we are as much engaged as before there is no change No change Oh dear no certainly net by no means sarcastically What are you going to live upon you goose Your money is being turned into bricks and mortar at the other side of the globe and Miles is a genteel pauper who will find quite enough to do to keep himself much less you and your excellent appe tite with homely candor But hesitatingly but Gussie I have some money Not a penny unless you marry to please Mrs B and she hates Miles like poison I think you are very unkind to say all these horrid things returned Esme indignantly and with a suspicion of tears in her voice This is not the way 1 take your good news when you have any and you always pretended to like Miles so much So I do my sweet silly sister as a cousin but not as a brother-in-law Just sit down here giving a chair a little push and listen for a few minutes to sound common sense When Miles was an eligible parti you would not marry him your accepting him at all was sim ply because you saw him do a plucky thing at Sandborough and carried off your feet by the emotion of the moment you said yes and then the wedding was hurried on and the dresses and presents were such delicious novelties you had not the heart to go back But you were nev er one bit in love with him you would rather have Teddys little finger than fifty Mileses You are wrong quite wrong every word you have said has been wrong cried Esme with blazing cheeks be cause Miles and I did not make an hum bling exhibition of ourselves and sit hand ia hand and arm in arm like other wgiiBa7ijTWii ijiiit i ii in i nil pie expressively you imagine that we that I dont care for him l ao very much I was not talking of love I was talking of sense my strong point you will please to re member This time next year my beauti ful impulsive sister I shall have you up to London and marry you to some very nice rich and if you are very good titled young man Think of that Marry anyone you like yourself my dear Gussie but as far as I am concern ed I shall never marry anyone but Miles never And yet in this very room and not so very long ago you raved and stamped and all but tore your hair out and declar ed that dragged to the foot of the altar you might be but become his bride nev er And ah I see you remember the episode I have just one little question to ask and only one Supposing now for the sake of argument that he wont marry you what then Ah this was a phase of the matter that Esme had never contemplated but al though she made prompt and cheerful an swer to herself to her sisters query she vouchsafed no reply beyond what might be called a superior smile and loud and triumphant poking of a most offensive fire Gussies allusion to Mrs Brabazon was timely Esme well knew That lady had always been antagonistic to her nephew when he was a moneyed man and was not likely to be any fonder of him now that he was as poor as a church mouse Quite lately she had awakened to a due appreciation of the unusual personal gifts of her younger step daughter and thor ough understanding of her marketable value a coronet Esmes visit to Brigh ton her appearance at all the winter country balls had given her quite a rep utation and a certain young honorable the eldest son of -Lard Mangei Wurzle was constantly finding his way over to Baronsford He was received by Gussie with open arms by Esme with smiles for he had been one of what Mrs Brabazon would have called Teddys boon com panions He was a pleasant ruddy faced young gentleman with a cheery voice frank unaffected manners and was real ly very much enamored of the beautiful Miss Brabazon Of course he heard that she had been engaged to her cousin but it was all broken off months ago and the dear girl had never really cared about him it was a family business so Mrs Brabazon had whispered confidentially tos Lady Mangei Wurzle and she looked for ward to a double wedding before long for Gussie had accepted her long suffering Freddy who had come in for another fortune and already as she remarked complacently the presents had been both numerous and costly Now here was this odious tiresome Miles Brabazon coming to the surface again and writing Mrs Brabazon a long letter from some outlandish camp in South Africa What was to be done with him What a worry and affliction he had been from first to last What a good thing it would be if the Boers were to kill him thought this amiable lady Should she answer his letter or not After some very grave reflection she decided that she would re ply and by the next mail in a friendly spirit giving him largely of her forgive ness and sympathy but appealing to him forcibly to release Esme from her pres ent ridiculous engagement The epistle took some time to put together and as she was sitting biting the end of her pen in the throes ofcomposition Esme came into the room with her hat on and said she was going to the village with -the post bag I am not quite ready yet but in ten minutes time I shall have finished I ant writing a rather difficult letter to Miles Yes returned Esme coloring and looking at her interrogatively Of course I forgive him freely but the engagement must not be talked of justl at present as matters are it would be too imprudent You see my dear although he is very nice himself he has nothing to marry on now But we can wait Mrs Brabazon Ah yes you are only twenty you have written to him too Yes holding up a letter Oh dear me you might have inclosed mine and saved me sixpence it is not stamped though I see Not yet Im taking it to the post Then give it to me it can go in mine there is plenty of room in my envelope and I have a stamp Esme handed it over with a little reluc tance She would have liked to have post ed it herself but she did not one moment doubt her stepmothers honesty of pur pose and was firmly convinced ten min utes later as she walked down to the village with elastic springing steps that she was carrying it over the first stage of its long long journey and that in five weeks it would be m Miles own hands Deluded young damsel The instant she had left the room Mrs Brabazon had taken up her epistle had turned it overj meditatively and said to herself This billet doux will encourage him and that would be fatal to all our hopes probably she is telling him she will wait for him for years smiling contemptuously No no we cannot have any of that kind of nonsense so this right minded honorable lady deliberately walked over to the fire poked an open place among the coals in to which she carefully dropped the mis sive for a second it lay seemingly star ing at her like some living thing with its clear address confronting her thus Captain Brabazon 2d Battalion Royal Marchers With the army in the field South Africa Then it became a delicate biscuit color then it curled at the edges and suddenly shot up in a bright flame and in another moment a few black fragments lazily sailing up the chimney were all that re mained of Miss Esme Brabazons foreign letter To be continued Mascagni as director of the conserv atory at Pesaro the heir of Rossini wants the Italian Parliament to pass a law exempting the Barber of Se ville the copyright of which has ex pired from the operation of the copy right law Hearing that the little son of one of her tradesmen was suffering from a needle Imbedded in one of his arms Queen Victoria sent her sympathy ana a book of aniamls Near the Caspian Sea there ire sot- era eternal fires sa called by the- na tives where natural gas Issues from the ground and has been on fed fas age 1 s rfA13pft JSPSP5 J - t rrrrra a - - i ii j SCENES AND CHARACTERS IN CHINESE WAR TfTI E N -T S I Vj SCW N TEQIOR O F THE WA iLg t CITY il Qyszf Mr s S - 5 m MMMMMMMMmMmMMMHMmMHMttnHiiMm LISCUM AND DAVIS KILLED Colonel of Ninth Infantry and Captain of Marines Fall at Tien tsin The Navy Department Monday morn ing received official confirmation from Admiral Remey of the reverse of the al lied forces at Tien Tsin on the morning of the 13th The dispatch is dated Che foo and says Reported that allied forces attacked native city the morning of the 13th Rus sians were on the right with Ninth in fantry and marines on the left Losses allied forces large Russian 100 includ ing artillery colonel Americans over thirty British over forty JaDanese fifty eight including colonel French twenty five Col Liscom Ninth infantry killed also Capt Davis marine corps Capt Tiemley Lieuts Butler and Leonard WBrm W 1 If nmUL f COLOKEL E H IISCUM wounded At 7 evening allied attack on native city was repulsed with great loss Returns yet incomplete Details not yet confirmed REMEY V K 7T Hi X3St VmJrl J Mrs it WvqCpngevlj Cogger 1 j Omej UNITED STATES MINISTER CONGER WIPE AND DAUGHTER RKVE3f GE IS THE CRY OF EUROPE SPREAD OF THE REBELLION Fate of ForetKuers in Pekin Stirs War Spirit in England Revenge to day mourning to morrow is practically the universalcry of Europe but it is sorrowfully admitted that there can be no revenge to day nor perhaps for many to morrows for the incredible barbarities that are reported to have marked the last scenes within the lega tions at Pekin Nothing is clearer a London dispatch says than that the anti foreign conflagration is rapidly permeat ing even hitherto quiescent provinces and the fate of the capital appears to threat en other towns like Tien Tsin Chefoo and even Shanghai The defeat of the allied forces at Tien Tsin seems to place that town in desperate straits and if re treat to Taku is necessitated observers consider that it will be likely to decide the policy of wavering viceroys Boxer Uprising Has Taken Hold of Points in Southern China A dispatch from Chefoo says Prince Tuan has mobilized 030000 men divided into different corps The northern corps has been ordered to expel foreigners from Amur The Pekin army is divided into four corps the first of which is to oper ate against Mukden and occupy the roads between Pekin and the second is to concentrate at Tien Tsin and the third at Pekin whence a column numbering 40000 will be sent to and Tsin Tau while the fourth corps will concentrate at Nankin There are now 23000 Japanese troops in China The rebellion has taken hold of south ern China The foreigners at Chu Chau and In Chau have been attacked and are fleeing panic stricken -x fi i rY T TTVT1T T 4 m fHTTIV mT M Direction of attack by American B ritish Japanese and French troops 2 i Point to which Americans retired 3 Direction of Russian attack 4 Chinese position reported captured July 9 by the allies At 2 oclock on the afternoon of the 13th 7000 of the allied troops attempted to storm the wall of the city The Chin ese on the walls were estimated conserv atively at 20000 They poured a temnc hail of artillery rifle and machine- gun fire upon the attackers The Americans suffered terribly lne chief surgeon of the Ninth infantry said a conservative estimate was that 2o per cent of the Americans were hit Col Wilson H Liscum was mortally wound ed as he was walking in front of the troops grggmga WAR AGAINST RUSSIA Chinaa Hostile Acts Considered Tanta mount to a Iteclaration Chinas acts of hostility in Manchuria are considered tantamount to a declara tion of war against Russia The Chinese seized a Russian transport boat laden with munitions near Aigun on the River Amur killed almost the entire Russian escort and next made a sudden attack upon Blagoveschensk bombarding the town The garrison held out bravely but were overwhelmed twatChirm Xaukin announces that Prince Tuan has ordered a great military movement owing to the appear ance of the Japanese in China The vice roy of Nankin has informed the foreign consuls there that he cannot be answera ble for -events in Chao Sin Chu Chau The foreigners arefleeing to Shanghai The position is alarming Six teen foreigners have- arrived at Nankin from where theousesof for eigners have been burned and mission aries horribly maltreated IITW t V v II M