Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Jl YELfLt0W .AST*E^. \ BY © IOTA. CHAPTER XIX. Strange fourd the prelimin aries of his induction into the role of an English Squire even more unpleasant than he had exdected. During the period when he had read Roman law and knock ed about the Courts with the hope of supplementing his in come by the experience he pick ed up there, the technicalities of the law had bored him to excru ciation point. Now, when they were brought specially to bear on him he found them more galling still, but being a wise man in his way, he shirked none of them, and took good care not to take a solitary step in ‘he dark, till, by the time they had got him off their hands, the so licitors of the Stranges were in a position to congra ulate them selves at last, on the fact of having found a whole man in the family. He had gone the rounds of his duties doggedly and had found them insufferably dull, he had been down to Strange Hall, had left things there in trim, and had now flown back to London. One afternoon in June he was standing in the shadow of a deep window, in one of his rooms in Piccadilly, lazily sharpening a pencil. He had plenty of work to do, but somehow he had no stomach for it, the change in his life had got into his bones, and had fill ed him with unrest and certain loss of faith in himself. When at last after a long meditation, the truth of this broke upon him, it came with an audible and ample “ 1” “I may as well give up and amuse myself in a mild way,” he thought, after a hasty review of the matter, “nothim? can be too weak and vapiT for my present condition—I feel flab by.” A mild grunt at his back made him swing round. It was Tolly, just back from the dentist, of a deeper puce than usual, and with a terrible uncompromising row of glistening teeth shooting out aggressively between his thin lips. He gave a deferential duck, and stood on approval, with a labored attempt at an appear ance of modest deprecation. “Turn round, Toll,” said his master, “away from me, I can’t bear it all at once!” He was shaking with silent laughter. “How do you feel about them yourself, Tolly?” “Fust-rate, sir—your wus- sup.” Since his master’s rise in life he was much exercised as to the best terms by which to give him honor, and he varied them daily. “I can bite nails, your wus- sup.” “Ah! You mustn’t play fast and loose with these tusks as you might with ones bred and reared on the premises.” “Lord! your w u s s u p , I wouldn’t make that free, being, as they are your property, sir, besides, any fool can see as how they be the real bought article money down, not your everyday common grinders. There weren t a toff I met as didn't mention ’em, I tried to keep ’em dark, sir.” “I shall except a good deal more from you,” said Strange, pointing themoral, “now you’re complete. If anyone calls to day say I’m out and I won’t be home till night, and—take these to post before I start,” he point* d to a big heap of notes on the ta ble, “and don’t drop any of them, nor swallow your teeth,” “Twenty invitations in a week,” reflected Tolly’s master, “the first-fruits of my rise in life! they used to average six a week. I’ll go and see Lad\ Mary. it all, why need a man lie to himself, I’ll go to Sep Miss Waring!” And he went, and somehow the next day he went again, and the next, and the next aftet that. Then he and Gwen dis covered a mutual passion for rid ing, not up and dow the Row. that seemed as tame a pastime to the one as to the other, bui jp the early mornings out on the heath at Hampstead, or some times far out on the Surrey side. jlOnce they went as far as Sur biton, where they got drenched in a shower and had to tak* refuge and have tea in an olo ; nn. but it is not at all to be sup posed that with all this intima cy those twp got an inch nearei ope another, they were intellect ual companions, nothing more, not even to be called comrades. Gwen neither evaded not shirked conventions, shesimplj swept them aside, as she did hei lovers. As for Strange, he felt her and the rides very distincth a boon. She was an excellent flint to make sparks with, hei ways of thought were so new. let alone startling, her tongm so remarkably sharp, and sh* had such a brutal habit of speak ing undiluted truths. Fer the I once the two agreed, thav dis agreed at least three time's, and a good pitched battle had to be fought to settle any question. The sponge was never by any chancethrowuup, it was forced out of the hand of one or of the other of them. It was a most bracing and delightful expe rience for Gwen, it was so satis factory and so absolutely free from mawkishness. and she re flected, with superb self-con gratulations, that the man had just as little capacity for that phase as herself. “She’s hard—hard as nails,” he reflected after an evening at Lady .Mary’s, “and yet, she wasn't made like that, I could swear. I wonder what the dev il’s wrong with her eyes, and what’ll put them right? I be lieve, upon my word I do, that a baby might do the business for her. There’s not a man liv ing that would have any effect upon them, and yet there are fallows going who would take that dewiness, for softness, hang it! it’s mere moisture, but—ah, well, the effect is magnificei t!” He took out his watch, but his hand shook so that he could not open it. “God forgive me!” he mutter ed, “this is awful! I have had a good deal in the way of edu cation at women’s hands, but this is a a new experience,” he remarked after a pause, grin ning, and flicking a spot of ash off his coat, “her want of self- consciousness is next to ghastly, it has an uncanny sexless sort of air about it that gives one the shivers.” The intellectual companion ship continued unabated for ten more days, then one evening at the end of June, Gwen Waring told Strange that she and Lady Mary were going down into the country early in July. When he got home that night he had a difficulty in mounting the stairs. When he succeded he got himself to the glass, and found he was white to the lips. He had had a shock—he had discovered, as he had turnd out of Lady Mary’s softly lighted hall into the street, that he lov ed the girl irretrievably, and with the knowledge came fear Fora few minutes he leaned against the mantlepiece, his head sunk into his hands, then he raised himself with a sigh, threw i»ff his light overcoat, and sat down to smoke, but he couldn’t draw a puff, then it struck him that he was numb with cold. He looked at the grate with a purpose to make a fire lighting in his eyes, but with a shrug he shirked the trouble. He could not go to bed, that was out of the question; as for sitting there freezing, that was just as im possible. He must move, he must feel the life stir in him a gain. He stood up and shook himself, then a thought struck him; he hurried to his room, changed his clothes, and went out round the corner to the mews where he kept the horses he had brought up from Strange Hall. He found the gear, saddled the freshest, and rode away through shortcuts and by ways, away from the noise and hurly burly, out into the quiet of the country. Then he drew rem, pulled the mare aside on to a green strip flanking the road, and let her go her own pace. For a long time he, gave her grace and smoked savagely. “It is about the most killing blow that could befall a man. It would be bad for any fellow; but for me, who can love if I can do anything, to have to pour it all out at the feet of a girl who couldn’t understand what love, much less passion, means, to save her life! It’s a beastly backhanded stroke of fate, and I don’t know that I’ve ever done »ny thing bad enough to deserve it. Lord, how the mare’s sides smoke! I must have ridden like » maniac. The worst of it is, this isn’t a thing one can clear off and forget—with the wo man right in one’s soul!—the fine, grand, proud creature! God! it’s almost sacrilege to ex pect her to love, with love in the beastly state it is—to love any man-Jack of us; it’s honor e- nough to love her and yet,—yet, —when a man has once done it, done it once and forever, the on ly thing in life seems to be to get something in return. What commercial brutes we are even in this holiest connection of all! But let her love or not. I’ll give her my love if she’ll take it and l shall pick up crumbs like old Lazarus.—Pan, how she domin ates one!—Ah, and when her love wakes up—but, the devil! suppose another lellow is the mstrument chosen! Ah!—ah! hold up, mare, are ypp stumb ling or am I reeling? It’s my self, by Jove, Goi help us!” Involuentarily he drove his spurs into the beast, she started forward angrily, unused to Presently he came to; dropped his head in his hands him in exchange, she knew to understand that if I take you and pulled her up J and trembled from head to foot, perfectly well she was about to at your word and become your when he raised it he felt stead- do him a grevious wrong, and wife—wife,” she repeated, “how ier and not so raging hot. yet her whole being was con-! astonishing the word sounds in “I shall chance it,” he said, centrated into one imperitave, connection wdth me!” “I shall chance it. ” | demand to hear what he had to' She laughed in an untransla- maniacs. his senses with a drag on her mouth that she did not forget for some time. She went sulky and stumbled for the next mile, small blame to her! A Christian would have done more. Gradually her master’s face cleared itself and softened. “Perhaps,” he muttered, “perhaps no other fellow after all, but—who knows?—a baby’s tender little mouth may do it.” CHAPTER XX. Wh<-n Strange got back to town, after baiting man and beast at a little inn on the out skirts of Weybridge, Tolly’s greeting, which was blasphem ous and amazed, and the unus ual look in his green eyes, caus ed his master to glance at him self in the glass. “Heaven!” he thought, turn ing away, “I’m a nice object to go courting! One would think I had just emerged from D. T., or Bedlam! Tolly, turn on the hot water, empty a bottle of vinegar into it, and put out clean clothes for me. I feel like jelly. Good Lord! has love this limping effect often?” He turned into his bedroom. As he was wrestling with one of his shirt buttons he mutter ed: “However this goes, it's a toss up what the gain will be, heaven or hell. Well, a man might do worse <han face hell for her.” He had nardly made this he roic remark when the absurdity of it struck him; he laughed aloud. “1 had better face my bath,” he said. When he w-as washed and dressed, he rather thought of the Club and a good lunch, but the game didn’t seem worth the candle. He felt that his hands were quite sufficiently full with one woman, he had no desire for men, more especially at feed ing time. "1 shall have my lunch nere.” he said, 'aoking up from his pa per, “g t out some bread and cheese, aad beer, and anything else you can lay your hands on.” In five minutes Tolly had cov ered a little round table with a cloth, and had set out on it a mixed assortment of cheese, beer, jam, and a freshly-opened tin of foie gras, and he stood proudly in attendance with nap kin on arm, keeping down with difficulty a grin of self satisfac tion. However full he was of him self. Strange never let a new accomplishment of Tolly’s es cape him, if he did, the effect on the boy would have been dis astrous. No sinner ever strove after God as this sinner after his owner. “Well done. Tolly, you’ll shine in life yet, the way you flourish that damask is sub lime!” “Beggin’ your pardon, your wussup,” said Tolly, “Bill, the groom, ’e were round after yee, a stormin’ at me because the horse was out. Bill always lets out at me like when he feels hisself put about in Ms mind, and he thought you and the beast were lost,” sniggered Tolly. “I told him you was big enough to take care of yourself, and that gents often finds the nights more convenienter than the days,” he remarked confi dentially, pushing the salt un der his master’s nose. “Bill is that ignorant, sir, of loife and sich, he erstonishes me.” Strange drank his beer with a look at the half-made creat ure who had plumbed “loife” from the vantage ground of her sewers. “Very like his betters.” he thought, “we get lots of our views from a vantage ground not one whit sweeter or cleaner than Tolly’s.” He made a fresh dive into the pate and his thoughts broke out on a new track, “I think we’re going off some how. I believe it is a good deal the women’s fault; this new craze for advanced talk between the sexes is no good, the women who affect it are never clever enough nor good enough to make a success of the thing, it’s a pose mostly, as their smoking is, just done for effect—Tolly, pass that jam!” When he had rounded off nis meal with a hunch of bread and strawberry jam, he stretched himself, went t > the window and looked out, drumming gent ly on the pane. “I wonder,” he thought. “I wonder if I am quite a fool or not, but—bpt, God! how I love herj’* Then he stopped drumming, and began to wonder vaguely how in the name of -Heaven he was able to eat great hunches When he reached Lady Mary’s, say. he was in a much more whole- “You may speak,” she said some frame of mind. He had in a hard emotionless voice, gone there by roundabout ways, Then he told her simply, with where he saw a good deal of neither condonation nor reser- stark, staring, nuked humanity:; vation, the whole truth about this helped to crystallize his bis life. emotions, to sift the dross out and leave the clean stuff. He never in his life felt clear er-headed than when he went up the stairs unannounced, and paused to look through the half opened door at Gwen, sitting near a window in a cloudy dress of soft yellow crepy stuff and with her strong, long-fingered, composed hands lying idle in her lap and the guard dropped from her eyes, showing a good deal more of herself than he had ever seen before. He only paused tor one min ute, he had no right yet to the girl’s secrets; then he threw open the door with a little bung and brought her back to the present. “Ob, is it you?” she said with the ghost of a start, looking up at him. She felt in a vague way that he knew more of her in that one minute than he had any busi to do, and she was not quite sure if she liked it or not. He did not offer to shake h&nds with her but glanced round the room silently. Gwen laughed. “You are looking for Lady Mary? She has a bad headache, an abnormally bad one, and won’t be down till five.” He offered up a dumb thanks giving and sat down carefully, then he felt a horible desire to say, “Hem!” or to mention the deuce or the weather. He had felt intensely reason able the minute before, but he was confused by the beauty of the girl sitting so close to him, with the flickering sunshine running golden threads in and out her twisted russet hair, and clothing her in pale molten gold. “She shall have nothing to add to her beauty,” bethought, “I shall not make a beast of myself to desire the least of her when it is the greatest I want.” He started up, and asked if he might draw down the blinds. “Yes.” said Gwen wondering ly, as she saw his big brown hand tremble on the blind line Then a sudden certainty of his intention came upon her with a burst of angry horror, but she swept this off and wait ed coolly, with a sort of sneer ing excitement. Strange drew his chair farther forward and sat facing her. “Miss Waring,” he said, “I have come to ask if you will listen to the shady side of a man’s life.” There was no more tremble or hesitation about him now, he looked as cool as she did. “It is a side that men as a rule keep to themselves and to their male companions, no mat ter how near a man and a wo man come to each other, this impalpable barrier keeps them apart. This has always struck me as a rather low fomi of lie and distinctly dishonorable, es pecially practiced, as it is, 1 y the stronger on the presumably weaker. If a woman is not strong and pure and magnani mous enough to bear this knowledge, a man should find it out and go his way before dared to touch her life; if she is strong enough she should be given the opportunity of gaining this knowledge at first hand, and making her subsequent course accordingly. You areimmeas urably nobler than any other woman who has crossed my path.” Involuntarily he lowered his head as he spoke, in a reveren ial way that touched Gwen and forced her to hear him. After the first disgusted shock her impulse had been to send him about his business. She had half risen fiom her seat on the spur of this impulse, but some how she had sat down again, and in spite of herself she had let him speak. “No decent man could deceive you,” he went on, “even if eve ry word he spoke were to cut his own throat. May I speak to you as man toman?” He watched the palpitations of her throat—which unfortu nately were beyond her control -a-with a sort of choking sensa tion— “Or more,” he added simply, “as if you were God.” Gwen’s color neither increas- nay life.” He winced, her say the least of it, It is all very well to talk glibly about the advantages of calling a spade a spade, but when it comes togivingdozensof spades their unvarnished titles in the presence of one virgin clean wo man, and when every fresh spade may bo about to dig up the heart you would foster, the matter is no joke. By the time that Strange had arrived at the end of his una dorned record, his smooth, brick-dust checks looked gray and haggard, and his voice sounded tired. Once-during the recital Gwen had lost guard over herself and had let a flash of half triumph ant interest escape from her eyes. It was when he had said —“Thank Heaven! I never loved one of these women, that is, ta king love in its ail round, large sense.” When he had finished he stood up and and looked at her, waiting. She had herself still in her power, she felt, with a wild leap of her spirit, she could yet ward off her fate and “his;” she thought with a wave of soft un accustomed pity. She bad nothing to give this man, noth ing, not even the germs of a possible something—something called Love She laughed aloud and looked in his face when the empty word stirred her brain, then she lowered her eyes and turn ed all her thoughts in on her self, moving a small pearl ring up and down her fingers with a swift rhythmic movement.— This man would take her for mere hope—hope that had no foundation in fact,—it was a mean exchange, nothing for everything,—mean and unjust; for the minute she was hideous to herself, with her own whole life a protest against the injus tice of others. She looked at him again, and a horrible power seemed to drag and bind ner to him, she turn ed her eyes aw ay angrily and made a little involuntary sound of trouble. “Oh, if I only could treat him as I did the others!” she mut tered under her breath, “but I can’t, I can’t!” She was frightened at her self—at the power which drove her to the man inexorably,—she looked at the door and st’rred in her seat, half rising, but she sat down again and began to move her ring with tne old movement, only quicker and with tenser fingers. Then a cold feeling of finality came on her, she knew she must say something and she knew she was going to say the wrong thing; an inexplicable smile flickered across her face and touched her mouth, she grew quite calm and ceased to move her ring “You havp done me a very high honor,” she said; “thank you.” He came nearer and looked down on her. “I have tried to be perfectly honest,” he said, “and you have no idea what an awful grind it las been. It would be quite impossible for me to give you any idea of how 1 honor you, and us for love—” he stopped, breathing hard, “I have a heart full for you, dear, I don’t think I know myself how much I love you.” The girl looked at him cur iously, the simple intensity of his manner struck her, then her eyes fell and she sighed. “Love is such a mere name to me,” s*he said, “it seems such a collapsable bubbly thing and put to such feeble uses. You want me to be your wife then, and you offer me a whole heart full of love, whatever that may mean. I must be honest too, and tell you that I shouldn’t know how to dispose of a whole heart full of love. I know nothing at all practically about the matter, and theoretically it has never interested me. My situation is hard to explain,” she exclaimed, with a petulant sweeping movement of her hand, “in the face of all this I want to accept your offer, I don’t know why, I really believe it is not I. Gwen Waring, that wants this, it is something out side me that wants it for me. I never felt so impersonal in all table way and went on: “Remember and understand that I am doing it as an experi- meat.” He flushed, it was his own precise thought, but it seemed less hideous when thought than when spoken. “An experiment,” she repeat ed, “but whether it is fair to try experiments in lives is an other matter. “1 wish you were sufficiently clear and reasona ble yourself to help me to ans wer the question 1 am so ignorant in these matters.” A sudden crimson rushed t< her cheeks, he was furious What right had she to blush like a dairy maid and mislead the man? “I’m not blushing properly, as gir’s ought to blush,” she ex plained, “I am merely angry, I feel caught in a trap. Why can’t I tell you to be gone and leave me at pea. e?” she deman ded, looking at him with swift curious repulsion, "1 have never found any difficulty before,— why don't you help me?” In spite of his love. Strange shook with laughter. It was no laughing matter for Gwen, she kept her eyes fixed on him, angry and full of pain. “You stand there and laugh —laugh! 1 wish to mercy I could. Don’t you know I am going to accept you—I, who don’t know what love means— I, who am, I believe, sexless, don’t you know you’re mad and don’t you think it’s rather de grading to give all you offer me for nothing? After all, it is not absolutely necessary to my sal vation that I should make ex periments on you.” She felt a sudden tiredness come on her and nestled back in her cushions. “I am ready to take you with open eyes. Gwen; you are very honest, dear; you will lose some of that when you have suffered a little,” he added ; with a ring of sadness in his voice, as he looked tenderly down on her. She raised her head quickly. “Suffer! Why should I suf fer?” He watched her for a minute with sombre eyes. “I don’t know,” he said half-absently, “but you will. Then this is our betrothal, is it, dear?” She bowed her head. “O, my darling!” he said sud denly. “Will he often say it?” she thought curiously, “can I stand this?” “My darling, you have no idea how I shall enjoy giving you lessons in love.” “Will you?” she said grimly, “I doubt it, l tell you 1 have no taste for the cult. Well, it is at least fortunate that one can be honest and that it isn’t neces sary for me to befool you for the sake of your income. This marriage is the very perfection of an alliance from all such points of view, and yet—do you know. Sir Humphrey, I wish quite intensely, we were both of us in another position, in quite a low one, then we need not marry. Engagements are noth ing; 1 know as much of you now as any engagement can teach me. We might then try a preliminary experiment as to how life together goes; if it did not do, we might each go our own way and bury the past. I never wished for such a thing before, it follows, I suppose,” she added with a mirthless lit tle laugh, “that I care this much for you or for my experiment. Have you grasped the whole situation?” she demanded, turt- ing her troubled eyes full on him. My child, you have been very explicit, I think I have quite grasped it. When will you marry me?” She gave a little start. “I was wondering,” she said at last, “if this was final?” “It is final,” he said, “you know it is.” “Yes, I know; it was rather paltry to pretend I didn’t—oh ! Jt She looked up at him with her face held in both her hands. “Final? yes, so it is. I am one section of a puzzle moved by fate, yqu’re another. It is hu miliating when one comes to think of it ” “Well?” “I will marry you when you like.” “The end of next month?” “Won’t it interfere with the shooting?” had forgotten that—I don’t tremities. “Mean deceitful wretch,” she cried, “to mislead that man, when I am only tired and want ing my_tea!” [TO BR CONTINUKD.] Guaranteed Cure. We authorize our advertised druggist to sell Dr. King's New Discovery for Consumption, Coughs and Colds, upon this condition. If you are afflicted with a Cough, Cold or any Lung. Throat or Chest trouble, and w ill use this remedy as di rected, giv ng it a fair trial, and experience no benefit, you may return the bottle and have your money refunded. We could not make this offer did we not Know that Dr. King’s New Dis covery could be relied on. It never disappoints. Trial bot tles free at Willcox & Co’s drug store. Lartre size 50c. and $1,00. When Rnl>y wa.; sick, wo gave her CiwtorlA. When site w;u> a Child, she cried for Cast or la. When she t> *ea:ne Miss, she clung to Castorio. When she had Children, she gave them C asiorla. FOR ItVtfPEPSIA, Indigestion, and Stomach disorders, take IIHOW* <* IKON ItITTEItS. Mldealerskc u if, M per bottle. Ceimlnchafl .ade inane n. 1 cr ssed red liuesou wrapper. For Malaria, Liver Trou ble, or Indigest ion, use BROWN'S IRON BITTERS The Sumier Institute for Women. rjlUK twenty seventh eallejfrate I year of the Institute begins September Itth, 18»4 With its full corps of effleient teachers, and its high curriculum^ it offers advantages for the education of young women second to no college in the State. It is tlie purpose of the faculty that the Institute shall grow in efficiency as it grow* in y.-ars and thus commend itself to all who have daughters to educate. For terms and particulars address H. FRANK WILSON, Sumter, S. C., President. (i. i IIMlilt & Mamilacturers —OF— Doors, Sash, Blmus, IVCOTJILIDIJNrGS —AND- Building Material. ESTABLISHED 1842. CHARLESTON, 8. C. Ipril, 2j 1808—1 |Are !You- ■ : out of employment, or in • a position that yon do not i like ? Possibly the solic- siting of Life Insurance is : your special forte. Many s people have, after trial, sheen surprised at their i fitness for it. To all such : it has proved a most con- • genial and profitable occu- : patiou. The Management • of the | Equitable Life i in the Department of the i Caroliuas, desires to add : to its force, some agents :of character and ability. : Write for infonnation. ’ ■ : W. J. Roddey, Manager, Rock Hill, 5. C. CAN b« CURED. We win SEND FREE W _ J.n * large TRIAL BOTTLE; ■ »l», . treatise on Epilegatr. DON'T SUFFER ANY LONGER I Glee Pott Ofc. See, Stmt, and Cututtg, and Ag. pUialjr. THE HALL CHEMICAL CO.,' MM FainwitM Ari.lll, Pt.iilXaf-n - ROOFING SLATES. ed nor left her, she neither trem- He winced, her honesty, to “I bled nor stirred. For a minute say the least of it, was a trifle think I shall mind—the end of she was quite silent except for bald. July, then.” of bread and jam not five min-1one quick little swallowing! “Perhaps I am more concern- He took her hands and kissed utes before. sound, she was fighting r.ith ajed in it than I think,” she went them, and be thought as he got He turned and watched Tolly ' concentrated restrained frenzy I on with a queer intense serenity, out into the street that he had | through the door, devouring at of despair against her fate, 1 dissecting herself audibly, “I felt them tremble. It was aj his ease, wjtb a-spdden shock against the overpowering long-1 like new sensations, lam cur- 1 pleasant surprise, on which hej pf disgust, more at himself than ing to hear this man, as he sat | ious, most things are so flat and, felt inclined to congratulate at the fellow, with his hideous there ready to spoil his own life: boring.” Limoaif sooner than to lie to her even! Strange started forward and in a fashion recognised by the was about to speak, she raised use of generations. j her hand imperiously. She was quite aware she had “Stop!” she cried, “I must grily together and scorned her nothing whatsoever to give ^ finish, 1 want you quite clearly j self for the feebleness of her ex mouth all moist and jammy. He turned again to the window and' tried to steady his brain, but it reeled and everything in the roopq swam before him, he himself The knowledge had a quite other effect on his betrothed. She smote her clenched fists an- 33 5 XpLEMING CEMENT ■V AND BRICK COMPANY MASONS’ SUPPLIES, 276 East Bay, CHARLESTON, S. C. Importer* of T knSuSh r T £>o:RTX. a.jK I CEMENT i and dealers in Eastern and SoctLcru Hoi-k Lime. Roseudale < X. Y Plaster Paris, Hair, Lc.lh*, Shingles Tiles, Brick.:, Fin. Clay and all Building Mater ial. ALL SIZES T. C. PIPE. BEST FULL SIZE FiHE BRICK. Telephone 291. ‘ ROOFING SLATES. w S d