The Baronet's Bride

wn the hill-side and sloping to the sea, arid and dry in the summer-time-sloppy and sodden now-that was his destination. It was called Hunsden's Heath-a forlorn and desolate

, swinging stride, and he had walked five miles at least; but he paused now, with little sign of fatigue in his strange

children even to the third and fourth generation,' saith the Book Christians believe in. Christians!" he laughed a harsh, strident laugh. "Sir Jasper Kingsland is a Christian! The religion th

ce-sharp staccato knocks-at the door. The third one was an

thee, P

s I,

is hands, and kissed both brown cheeks. The girl's dark face lighte

h thee, my Zara, a

. And thyse

l. And th

u will always see her in this lower world-dead in life! And he"-

the past, and terrified him for the futu

e hour of his birth, and upon all who bear his hated name! Say, Pietro, why did

s lullaby. No profane eye must rest on this sacred treasure fresh from the hands of the gods! Is he not the heir of Kingsland? But Achm

"I would throttle the baby snake, and fling him dead in his father's fac

r long black braids caress

shall come to pass, and the son of Sir Jasper will live to curse the day of his birth. A

came sifting through the chinks in the broken walls. A smoky fire of wet driftwood smoldered, under a pot on the crook. There was neither table nor chairs. A

llet. "Our pretty baby, Zara. Ah, if Sir Jasper Kingsland loves his first-bo

, fiercely. "The lion loves its whelp, the tiger its cub; but he, less

r of a degraded mother-his toy of an hour? And there is another daughter-a fair-haired, insipid nonentity of

f scarce two years, the cherub face rosy with sleep, smiling in her dreams; the long, silky black lashes sweeping the flushed chee

o where the

mured. "Pietro, the sun shines on nothi

is a Spanish gypsy, as her mother and grandmother before her. Nay, not he

obbed in my heart, the first knife I met should let it forth. Look at me!" she wildly cried

here is no look of the great Sir Jasper in your gypsy face,

" the woman said, her passionate face aflame. "Pietro, my blood

l will turn and our time c

lid, and a savory gush of steam fil

rsel for the mother, Zara, and tell her I will be with he

together in a corner, and now he stood in the center of the room, a stalwart young fellow of

ving himself a shake, "and Pietro is himself again. Sir Jasp

and head into the cold water. Five minutes' vigorous splashing and rubbing, and he

pot, seizing a wooden spoon, and drawing up a cricket. "My tramp

ood," said Zara. "While

ther. Come up w

ne at his very unmagician-like work of scraping the pot with a wooden spoon. Once or twice, as the fancy crossed him of the contrast be

y fine thing to be a baronet with fifteen thousand pounds a year, a noble ancestral seat, a wife you love, and a son you adore. And yet Pietro, the vagabond tramp-the sunburned gypsy, with stol

ed with passionate vind

eth, setting his face toward Kingsland Court. "You, my Lord of Kingslan

little voice, gleefully.

up, her bright, dark face sparkling,

is vindictive fac

! his life! his angel!

bea

, covering her f

my black-eyed beauty, to perpetuate the malediction. When his son is a man, you will be a woman, with all a woman's subtle power and more th

papa!" lisped

wife, "if you have do

wake and wo

g, car

ed her on the pallet, and spr

a bed on the floor, more decently covered, two broken chairs, a table with

It was the wreck of a woman who, in the days gone by, must have been gloriously beautif

of Zara-the eyes of the baby Sunbeam below-and this wom

llet and tenderly kiss

yes turned upon h

tro?" in a breathless so

ther; I have spoken to

Kingsland l

while passion throbbed in every line o

ere

and threw up her withered a

f the Tribe-I, once beautiful and powerful, happy and free! I lie here,

madness, she leaped up in bed, tossi

e to him, if ye are children of mine, that I may hur

man Pietro caught her in his arms. Quivering

yet," Pietro said. "H

ttle into a cup, and Pietro held

d, and, as if by magic,

he laid her ba

now, Zara," he s

, the man laid his hands on his wife'

ortunity she will make her escape and seek out Sir Jasper Kingsland