Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VAUXNTr 2LSTKAT D y' SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I-John Valiant, a rich so ciety favorite, suddenly discovers that the Valiant corporation, which his father founded and which was the principal source of his wealth, has failed. CHAPTER II-l-He voluntarily turns over his private fortune to the receiver for the corporation. CHAPTER III-His entire remaining possessions consist of an old motor car, a white bull dog and Damory court, a neglected estate in Virginia. CHAPTER IV-He learns that this es tate camo into the family by royal grant ad has been in the possession of the \ aliants ever since. CHAPTER V-On the way to Damory court he meets Shirley Dandridge, an au *rn-haired beauty, and decbts that ha +a going to like Virginia immensely. CIIAPTER VI-An old negro tells Shir Y's fortune and predicts great troublo for her on account of a man. CHAPTER VII--Uncle Jefferson, an old Negro, takes Valiant to Darnory court. CHAPTER VIII-Rhtrloy's mother, Mrs. Iandridge, anti 'Major Brist'w exeltango "mlniscences during whleh it is revealedl tat the major. Valiant's father, and a -tan named Sassoon, wore rivals for the and of Mrs. Dandridge in her youth. -assoon and Valiant fought a duel on her account in which the former was killed. CHAPTER TX-Valiant finds Damory 'curt overgrown with weeds and creep 're and the huildings in a very much .eglected cond n. Unclo Jefferson and Is wife. Aunt Daphne, are engaged as eorvants. CHAPTER X-Valiant explores hle an "stral home. He is surprised by a fox minting party which invades his estate. -le recognizes Shirley at the tead of the Marty. CHAPTIER XI-Ife gives sanctuary to the cornered fox. Gossips <liscuss the ad -ent of the new owner and recall the Sragedy in which the eltier Valiant took piart. QHAPTIER XIT-Valiant decides to re habilitato Damory court anl make the rLnd produce a living for him. CTAPTER XTI-IIe meets Shirley, who as leen gatthering flowers on the Valiant sti.to, ant reveals his identity to her. C(RAPTER XIV--Valiant saves Shirley ^m tle hite of a snake, which hites N:n. mnowing the dendliness of tie bite, Sotir 'y sicks tho poIson front the wound and caves his life. CHAPTER XV. The Annivcrbp. y, The story was not a ItrLg d, though it omitted nothing. the am a ing -fox-hunt and the identification of the new arrival at Damnory Court as the owner of yesterday's stalled mo tor; the afternoon laid on the jessa. mine, the conversation with John Va. liant in the woods. Mrs. Dandridge, gazing into tlh: fire, listened without comment, but more ;han once Shirley saw her hands clasp themselves together and thought, toQ that she seemed strangely pale. 'Ik. :.wift and tragic sequel to that meet mug was the hardest to tell, and as she ended she put up her hand to her ashoulder, holding it hard. "It was horrible!" she said. Yet now she did rot shudder. Strangely enough, the sense of loathing which had been surging over her at recurrent inter vals ever since that hour In the wood, had vanished utterly! She read the newspaper article nloud and her mother listened withl an expression that puzzled her. When ahe finishled, both 'were silent for a maomient, thlen silo asked, "You must have known his father, dearest; didn't you?" "Yes," said Mrs. Dandl'idge after a p)ause. "1--knew his father." Shirley said no more, and facing each othler In the candle-glow, across he spo0tless damlask, they talked, as wvith common conlsent, of othter thlings. She thouight site had never seen hei' mother more briliant. An odd excite mnent was Iloodimng her cecek witht red and she chatted and laughed as shle had nlot done for years. B~ut after dlinnter tile gaiety andl ef fervescence faded quickly andi Mrs. D~andridge went early to her room. :3he mounted the stair with her arm ihrown about Shirley's ptliant waist. At her door sihe kissed hecr, looking at lIer with a strange smile. "How cu-. aloue," she said, as if to herself, "thtat it should have happenled today!" The reading-lamp, hlad been lighted on her table. She dlrewV a slim gold chain from the bosom of her diress and held to thto light a little locket brooch it carrIed. It was of hlack en amel, with a tinty laurel-wreath of pearls on one ide encircling a single dtiamondl. 'Te othear side was of cry. tal and1 covered a baby's russet-col ored curl. lit hera fingers it opened and disclosed a miniatulre at which she looked closely for a moment, 11cr eyes turned( restlessly about thle room. It had been horus ats a girl, for [Rosewood had been tile old Garlapd homestead, It seemed now all at onio to be full of calling larmorica of her youth. * * * * * * * "How strange that it should have bleen today!" It htad been on Shirley's lips,- to cluestin, bumt the door hlad closed, andl site went slowly dlown stairs. She sat a whIle thinking, but at lengthl grew restless and began to wvalk to anld fro across the floor, hler hands claspedl behind hecr hlead so that ihe cool ala' filled her flowing sleeves. in the htall she couldl he~ar the leisure-. ly k(on-kon--kon-kon of the tall clock. Tihe evening outsidle wan exquisitely still and tile metallic monotone wag threaded wvithl the airy fiddtle-fltddle of nrickets in the gmass atnd punictuiated withl the rain-glad cloap of a farog. Shirley stepped lightly diown to the wet graB$, 'Lookig hnek she autA LAUREN 5TOUT see her mother's fighted blind. All around the ground was splotched 4tth rose-petals, looking in the square, of light like bloody rain. She skimmed the lawn and ran a little way down the lane. A shuffling sound presently fell on her ear. "Is that you, Unc' Jefferson?" she called softly. "Yasm!." The footsteps fnme near .r. "iet's me, Aliss Shirley.' lie tite teredl no-Jlessly, and the could see his bent form vibrating in the gloom. "Yo' reck'n Ahl done forgit?" "Nu, indeed. I knew you wouldn't do that. How is ho?" "lie right much bottah," he replied !n the, same guarded tone. "Doctah lie say he be all right in or few days, on y he gotter lay up or while. Dat Aias er ugly nip he got f'om dat 'spis able reptyle." 'Do you think there can be any others about the grounds?" "No'mu. lley mos'ly keeps ter do na'sh-inn' en on'y runs whah de un dah-bresh or thick. I gwineter fix dat ter-morrow. Mars' Valiant he tell me ter grub et all out en make or bon tlh ob it." "That's right, Unc' Jefferson. Good night, and thank you for coming." She started back to the house, when his voice stopped her. "Mis' Shirley, ye' don' keer ef de ole man geddahs two er three ob dem roses? Seems lak young mars' moughty foi' ob dem. ie got one In er glass but et's mos' (laid now." "Wait a minute," she said, and dis appeared in the darkness, returning III "I'm Tempted to Stay Sick and Do: Nothing but Eat." quickly with a handful which she put in his grasp. "There!" she whispered, and slipped back through the perfumed dark. An hour later she stood in the cozy stillness of her bedroom. She threw off her gown, slipped into a soft loose robe of maize-colored silk and stood before the small glass. She pulled out the amber pins and drew her wondlerful hair on either side of her face, looking out at her reflection like a mlermalid from between the rip pling wvaves of a moon-golden sea. At last she tuirnedl, and seating her self at the (lesk, took from it a diary. She scanned the pages at random, her eyes catching lines hero and there. "A good run todlay. Bletty and Judge Chalmers andi the Pendieton boys. My fourth brush this season." A frown drlew itself across her brows, and she turned tie page. "One of the hounds broke his leg, andi I gaveo him to Rlickey." * * * "Chilly Lusk to dinner today, after swimming the Lor' ing Rapid.'' She bit her lip, turned abruptly to the newv page and took up her pen. "This morning a twvelve-mnile run to Damory Court," she wrote. "This after'noon wvent for cape jessamines." There she paused. The happenings andl sensations of that (lay would not be recorded. They we're unwritable. She laidl down her pen and put her foreheadl on her ciaspedl hands. How empty andl inane these entries seemed beside this rich and eventful twenty four hours just passedl! What had she been (doing a year ago today? she wondered. The lower' drawer of the des5k held a numtiber' of slIm diarIesI like the one before her. She pulled itI out, took up the last-year's volume and opened it. "Why," she said in surprise, "I got1 Jessamino for mother this very same (lay last year!" she ponderedl frown. I ing, then reached for a third and a< fourth, From these she looked up, startled. Trhat (late in her mother's I calendar called for cape jessaminos, i What was the fourteenth of May toI her? She bent a slow troubled gaze about her. The room had been hers as a child. She seemed suddenly back in that childhood, with her mother beiid. ing over her pillo0w and fondling her rebellious hair, When the wind eried for loneliness out in the dark she had sung old songs to her. Sad songs! I Even in those pinafore years Shirley I had vaguely realized that pain lay be. I hind the brave gay mask. Was there something - seine ov'ent -- that had I caused that dull-colored life and uin fulfilment? And was todlay, perhaps, its anniversa~ry? . John Valiant sat nropned lipon tile library couch, an olens -haga'lne un heeded on his knee. The reading. stand beside him was a litter of let ters a"d papers. The - bow-window was open and the honeysuckle breeze blew about him, lifting his hair and ruffling the leaves of the papers. In the garden three darkies were labor ing, under the supervision of Uncle Jefferson. The unsightly weeds and lichen were gone from the graveled paths, and from the fountain pool, whose shaft now spouted a slender spray shivered by the breeze into a million diamonds, which fell back into the pool with a tintinabulant trickle and drip. The master of Damory Court closed the magazine with a sigh. "If I could only do it all at once!" he muttered. "It takes such a confounded time. Four days they've been working now, and they haven't (lone much more than cl.':.n up." -lu laughed, and ' .' " . m' A il dog who --' -la rity. "After "i's beon thirty years getting in this cwdition. I guess we're doing pretty roll." He stretched luxuriously. "I'll take a hand at it myself tomorrow. I'm as right as rain again now, thanks to Aunt Daph and the doctor. Some, thing of a crusty citizen, the doctor, but he's all to the good." A heavy step caime along the porch and Uncle Jefferson appeared with a .ray holding a covered diah with a plato of biscuit and a round jam-pot. "Look here," said John Valiant, "I had my luncheon three hours ago, I'm being stuffed like a milk-fed turkey." The old man smiled widely. "Et's les' or 11'1 snack or broth," he said. "Reck'n et'll kinder float eroun' do yuddah things. Dis' yeah pot's (at apple-buttab whut Miss Mattio Sue men' yo' by Rickey Snyder." Valiant sniffed with satisfaction. "I'm getting so confoundedly spoiled," he said, "that I'm tempted to stay sick znd do nothing but eat. By the way, Uncle Jefferson, where (lid Rickey come from? Does she belong hero?" "No, suht. She come f'om Hell's i-alf-Acre." "What's that?" "Dlat's dat ornery passlo o' folks yondah on do Dome," explained Un elo Jefferson. "Dey's been dah long's Ah kin recommembah-jes' or rain shackle lot o' shif'less po'-white trash whut git erlong anyways 't all." "That's interesting," said Valiant. "So Rickey belonged there?" "Yas, suh; nobbah 'd a-come down beah 'cep'in' fo' Mis' Shirley. She do one whut fotch de li'l gal outen dat place, en put huh wid Mis' Matjio Sue, three yeah erg. A pni'd'1 color came into John Va ' t's cheeks. "Toll w) about it." His voice vibued eagerly. "Wel, suh," continued Uncle Jeffer son, "cey was one o' dem low-down Hell's-Hlalf-Acrers, name' Greet King, whut call hese'f do mayah ob do Dome, en he wont on de rampage one day, en took ahtah his wife. She was or po' sickly 'ooman, wid er li'l gal five yeah ol' by er fust husban'. He done beat huh heap o' times befo', but li8 time he boun' ter finish huh. Ah reck'n he was too drunk fo' dat, en she got erway on run (hown heah. Et was wintah time en dah's snow on de groun'. Dlah's or road f'om de Dome lat hits do Red Road clost' ter Rose wood--dat ar's (e Dandridge place on she come dah. Rock'n she wuz or pitiful-lookin' obstacle. 'Peaha Ink she done put do li'1 gal up in do dabin lot' en hid do laddah, en she moes' crazy fo' foalh Greet git huh. She let' he huntin' fo' do young 'un when she run erway. Doy was on'y Mis' Judith on Mis' Shirley en do gal Em'. line at Rosewood. Well, suh, (dcy wa'nt no time ter son' fo' men. WVhut yo' reck'n Mis' Shirley do? She ain' safeahd e' nuffin on dis yert, en she :m'y sebenteen yeah ol' den, too. She :lon' toll Mis' Judith--no, suh! She run out tor do stable en saddle huh bloss, e~n she gallop up dat road ter Flell's-Half-Acre Ink or shot outen or shovel." Valiant brought his hands together sharply. "Yes,- yea," he said. "Anid thsen?" "When she conme ter Greet King's 3abin, lie done foun' do laddah, en one er he toots wvas on (10 rung. Hie had 3r ax in he han'. Do 1po' li'l gal was )eepin' down thee' do cracks 0' (10 lo', on pray'in' do bestes' she knowv iow. She say arterwuhda dat she -ck'n de Good Lawd son' or angel, '0' Mis' Shirley were all in white uhe didn' stop ter' change huh close, The didn' say nsulln, Mis' Shirley idn'. She on'y lay huh han' on Greet Gang's ahim, en lie look at huh face, m lie dIrop he ax en go. Decn she :lumb do laddah ems fotch (de chle lewns in hsuh ahsms on take huh on (Ie loss en come back. Dat do way ot lappenO, suhl." "And Rtickey wvas that little child!" "Yas, suh, she she' was. Ini do nawnin' or posse (lone ride up ter lell's-Hlalf-Acre en take Greet King n. Deo majah he argyty do case to' Ie State, en when lie done git thee', buy mos' put do tow eroun' King's 'ek in do co'ot r'oom. Hie done got ix yeah, en ot mos' broke (10 majah's i*'at (dat dey cou)dn' give him no no'. H~e wuz cort'n'y or bad aig, dat breet wuz. Dey say he (lone sw'ah ec gwinoter (10 up do majah when he it out." Such was the story which Uncle eofferson told, standing In the door vay. WVhen his ishuffling stop had ro rentedl, Valiant went to the table and icked usp a slim tooled volume that ny there. It was "L~uciio," which ho ad found in the hall the night of his .rrival. Hie opened it to a page whore, ressed and wrinkled but still retain ug its bright red pigment, lay what ad been a rose. Hie stood1 looking at it abstractedly, is nostrils widening ito its crushoo, plcy scent, then closed it and slipped into Ihis pnnket CHAPTER XVI. In Devi-John's Day. He was still sitting motionless when there came a knock at the door and it opened to admit the gruff voice of Doctor Southall. A big form was close behind him. "Hell. Up, I see. I took the liberty of bringing Major Bristow." The master cf Damory Court came forward-limping the least trifle-and shook hands. "Glad to know you, sah," said the major. "Allow me to congratulate you; it's not every one who gets bit ten by one of those infernal mocca sins that lives to talk about it. You must be a pet of Providence, or else you have a cast-iron ' constitution, sah." Valiant waved his hand toward the man of medicine, who said, "I reckon Miss Shirley was the Providence in the case. She had sense enough to send for me quick and speed did it." "Well, sah," the major said, "I reckon under the circumstances, your inrst impressions of the section aren't anything for us to brag about." 1 "I'm delighted; it's hard for me to tell how much." "Wait till you know the fool place," growled the doctor testily. "You'll change your tune." The major smilled genially. "Don't be taken in by the doctor's pessimism. You'd have to get a yoke of three year oxen to drag him out of this state." "It would take as many for me." Valiant laughed a little. "You who have always lived here, can scarcely understand what ' am feeling, I imag ine. You see, I never knew till quite recently--ny childhood was largely spent abroad, and I Jiave no near rela tives--that my father was a Virginian and that my ancestors always lived here. Why, there's a room upstairs with the very toys they played with when they were children! To learn that I belong to it all; that I myself an the last link in such a chain!" "The ancestral instinct," said ,the 'doctor. "I'm glad to see that it means something still, in these rotten days." "Of course," John Valiant continued, "every one knows that he has ances. tors. But I'm beginning to see that what you call the ancestral instinct needs a locality and a place. In a way it seems to me that an old estate like this has a soul too-a sort of clan or family soul that reacts on the descendant." "Rather a Japanesy idea,. isua't it" observed tehoe miaj. '"But I know what you mean. Maybe that's why old Virginian families hang on to their ,land in spite of hell and high-water. They count their forebears real live people, quite capable of turning over in their graves." "Mine are beginning to seem very real to me, Though I don't even 'know their Christian names yet, I can judge them by their handiwork. The men who built Damory Court had a .sense of beauty and of art." "And their share of deviltry, too," put in the doctor. "I suppose so," admitted his host. "At this distance I can bear even that. But good or bad, I'm deeply thankful that they chose Virginia. Since I've been laid up, I've been browsing In the library here-" "A bit out of date now, I reckon," said the major, "but it used to pass muster., Your grandfather was some thing of a book-worm. Ho wrote a history of the family, didn't he?" "Yes. I've found it. 'The Valiants of Virginia.' I'm reading the Revolu tionary chapters now. It never seemed real before-it's been only a slice of impersonal and rather (lull history. But the book has made it come alive. I'm having the thrill of the glob. trotter the first time lhe sees the Tow eor of London or the field of Waterloo. I see more than that stubble-fld out 'yonder; I see a big woodlen stockade 'with soldiers in ragged buff and blue guarding it." The major nodded, "Ah, yes," he said. "The Continental prison-camp." "And just over this rise there I can see an old court-house, and the Vir ginia Assembly boiling under the golden tongue-lashing of lean raw boned Patrick Henry. I see a messen ger gallop up and see the members scramble to their saddles-and then, Tarleton and his red-coats streaming up, too late." "Well," commented the doctor delib erately, "all I have to say Is, don't materialize too much to Mrs. Poly Gifford wvhr ' you meet her. She'll have you lecturing to the Ladies' Church Guild before you know it." "I hope you ride, Mr. Valiant?" the latter asked genially. "I'm fond of it," said Valiant, "but I have no horse as yet," "I was thinking," pursued the ma jor, "of the coming tournament." "Tournament ?" The doctor cut in, "A ridiculous cock-a-doodle-do which gives the young bucks a chance to rig out in silly tog gory andi pr-ance their colts before a lot of petticoats!". "It's an annual affair," explained the major; "a kind of spectacle. For many years, by the way, it has been beld on a part of this estate--perhaps you will have no objection to its use this season?--and at night there is a dance at the Country Club. By the way, you must lot me introduce you there-tomorrow. I've taken the liberty already of putting your name up." "Good lordi" growled the doctor, aside. "Hie counts himself young! It I'd reached your alga, Bristow-" "You have," said the major, nettled. "Four years ago!--As I was saying, Mr. Vrallant, they3 ide for- a p~riso. 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