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The Luck of the Lindsays,

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PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. The Luck of the Lindsays, By MARGARET TYNDALE. [COP Y R I GHT.] CHAPTER XXV. OF THE DEAD-NOTHINC BUT GOOD." Julia shed tears of real sorrow when she heard of her husband's tragic death, the news of which Adela broke gently to her on the following morning. Perhaps he was on his way here to tell you how sorry he was that he had treated you so badly, dear," she said soothingly, as the girl put her arms round her neck and began to sob violently. "I think he must have been, for your father heard him men- tion your name almost with his last breath." "Shall I have to wear crepe?" questioned the girl with quaint irrelevancy, "and horrid things hanging down my back that they call 'weeds,' isn't that so, mother?" Adela smiled in spite of herself, for the words made her realize very poignantly how young Julia really was, in spite of all the suffering through which she had had to pass. And somehow the thought brought her com- fort, for she felt that, in spite of the girl's terrible mistake, the better part of her step- daughter's life still lay before her. But the one to whom Gordon's death came as the greatest blow was perhaps Lady Violet Gilderoy. She had neutrally heard from Edward Conj-ngham of his rough treatment of his young wife, and also of Alee Lindsay's return to Chestermere; but where Gordon was, or what he was doing she had been un- able to ascertain. The sudden news of the terrible conclusion to his short, unhappy married life, therefore, was a shock from which she felt she would never recover. She refl: ¡e'd to listen to some of her friends' un- sympathetic remarks about the dead man, and in her great sorrow would have insisted upon erecting a marble monument to his memory in Chestermere churchyard had she not been firmly over-ruled by Conyngham, who considered such a mark of respect both unnecessary and inappropriate, for he could not forget the life Gordon had led, and al- tlioagli the fact that he was dead protected him in a certain measure from the censure of n ost of his fellow-men, Conyngham could not lightly condole his offences. In order to forget her own sorrows amidst those of her less wealthy sisters, Lady Violet began to take a keen interest in the poorer tenants on her cousin's estates, for since the deatn of his father Edward Conyngham's responsibilities had increased ten-fold. And I instead of discouraging her he did everything in his power to provide her with the work she desired, for he knew that her sorrow would heal only with time, and that the quickest and most effectual balm for her wound was the very work she had chosen. Meanwhile at the Priory, too, affairs had begun to shape themselves into something like order, for on looking into his accounts Lindsay had discovered that they were far from satisfactory, and he and Adela had therefore set to work to disentangle matters as soon as possible. Mainwaring had not put in an appearance, but one morning some weeks after Gordon's death, Alec received a letter bearing the post- mark of an obscure town in Italy. There was no other indication of his address, and even had Lindsay so wished he would have found the task of tracing Mainwaring a by no means easy one. My dear Lindsay (he had written),— "By the time you receive this, our mutual friend, Gordon, will have passed into the shades. I was on my way to join you at fVta P.w trlioTi hO ",H-1-1 mo Tlrifll tli,Q. ,I.v .L'l.J "I.J ..I..L' "v.u.I..l-LV, "LL 'J' trous consequences, as you know. I wish you joy in your new life without the guiding hand of my humble self, for I have the good taste to realize that now you no longer require my company. I would like to tell you one thing, however, as it may amuse you to hear of it. The stone by which you have in the past set so much store is nothing more than a quite ineffective piece of glass, which I took the trouble to have valued when the charming lady who is now your wife first brought her disturbing influence into my life. You will find it in one of the drawers of. my bedroom. ror cne re?n,, uouung remains but lor me to wish you the best of luck, a commodity which would seem to have deserted you on the disappearance of the Lindsay stone—a state of affairs for which I alone am respon- sible, although you can call it chance, if you like." This audacious epistle Alec and his wife read with some amusement. "What can one do in the face of such an out-and-out confession of roguery as that?" asked Lindsay. 1 did think of hunting him up and making things a bit warm for him, but after all, we should gain nothing by it, and merely lose our self-respect into the bargain." "I am very glad he has had the decency to confess about the stone in any case," replied Adela, feeling that her troubles were disappearing rapidlv. "We will return it to its resting-place at once—not for the luck it may or may not bring us, but to remind us of the bad times we have all been through during its absence." That's a capital idea!" replied her husband, with a tender smile. Besides, it may bring us good luck, after all, who knows!" "It will bring us good luck, Alec," said hia wife, softly, because it shall be a mascot against all misunderstandings, all doubts, all fears for the future." They experienced some trouble in finding the stone, however; but when it was once more safely in its case in the drawing-room, Adela felt that it metaphorically marked the beginning of the long road of the happy future, by which she and- her husband were to travel as long as life lasted. *»»»# The old Priory was once more filled with the sound of bright merry voices, for the "family"—as the servants put it-had returned after very nearly a year's absence. Alec Lindsay had deemed it better both for his wife's health and that of his daughter, to take them abroad for a while, and although at first he had not intended to stay away from England so long, the months spent in happy, aimless wandering crept on until with the return of spring, they found themselves in the Land of the Rising Sun with its wonderful people, its odd mixture of the ancient and the modern, and the wilder- ness of blossoms that had come with the yearly re-birth of Nature. Then only did Julia begin secretly to pine for home, for she had come to realize that all the beauties of the world around her mattered little when they were unshared by the one who, for her, held the secret of all joy. Adela instantly read the girl's secret with the knowledge gained from her own ex- perience, and so, without betraying the fact to anyone, she spoke to her husband of their return. "We have been away from home quite long enough, Alec," she said, "much longer than we ever thought for. I think Julia has secret leanings towards 'the auld countrie,' although she has actually said nothing to me about it." I thought you two were insatiable," laughed Lindsay, as he laid aside an ancient copy of the Times" he was reading, in reply to his wife's remark. "But we will go back just as soon as you desire. I jive but to serve you." His smile was very tender as he spoke, and Adela could not help contrasting her husband as she now knew him with the Alec Lindsay she had married. His former moroseness had entirely left him; she de- clared sometimes that he had even developed J a seflSlr*~of humour. The sorrows and mis- fortunes of the past had brought them closer together, it would seem, than the smooth tenor of an untroubled existence would have been likely to do been likely to do .We will talk it over with Julitt then,"

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CHAPTER XXV I.-THE LUCK OF…

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FOOTBALL & FOOTBALLERS.

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----KIMOC.

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Spring-TIme Diet

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The Luck of the Lindsays,

The Luck of the Lindsays,