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husband. "I never thought a daugh
ter of mine would disgrace me by
taking a foreign noodle head for a
husband."
Mrs. Bridges wept, declared her
heart was broken. She had read in
the newspapers about "titled misery"
until she had created a positive bug
bear in her mind.
Her husband was grumpy and
restless for a day or two, then savage
and wrathful. He brightened up at
the end of the week, coming into the
elegantly furnished parlor, to which
he had not yet become accustomed.
"Nancy," he announced, with a
grim chuckle, "I've found a way out"
"Out of what?" questioned the
wife desolately, for she was still
mourning over her daughter's mes
alliance, as she called it
"That duke," responded Mr.
Bridges.
His wife groaned. She wrung her
hands.
"You know and I know and every
body knows that these foreign
princes never marry except for
money," continued Mr. Bridges.
"Yes, John," assented his wiffe
woefully.
"I've got some money," pursued
her husband, "but he isn't going to
get it I've planned it all out I'm
going to put that duke through a
course of sprouts that will either
wear him out and send him back to
j 'Yoorup' post haste or make a man
-J of him."
"But if he deserts our darling!"
"She's brought it on herself, hain't
she?" sniffed Bridges, "and good rid
dance to bad rubbish, hey? Get ready
to move, Nancy."
"Get ready to move!" repeated
Mrs. Bridges, marveling.
"Right away."
"Where to, for goodness sake?"
"Back to the old home."
"Why, John!"
"Not a word now," directed Brid
ges, with a decisive wave of his hand.
"Can't you see through a millstone
with a hole in it? I'm poor, don't
you understand poor! poor! poor!'1
and there was a vengeful, gloating
satisfaction in the emphatic repeti
tion. "I I think I see, John," faltered
Mrs. Bridges, "but, oh! what a tear
ing up."
"Worth it, if it scares away this
scamp of a duke!" declared her hus
band. "Oh! Ill make it real to the
public to Hazel and this precious
sprig of nobility of hers. Poverty,
howling, grinding pauperism! Now
then no sentiment We'll furnish up
the old house just as bare and unin
viting as it can be done. As to the
meals, no fatted calf, wife! Give his
ludship a genuine workhouse diet It
will take some of the grand notions
out of him."
So the plot was laid. The new
neighbors of the Bridges pitied their
"sudden fall from affluence." The
old ones back at the home town
commiserated them for making a
costly splurge only to come back to
even more humble and restricted sur
roundings than before.
And one day bride and groom ar
rived. At the sight of the sunny
happy face of winsome Hazel, the
mother broke down and the father's
heart softened. To the duke, how
ever, the mother was distant and
the father fairly, uncivil.
"Duke Edward," however,, broke
the ice of severity, despite his
gloomy reception. He praised the
meals, he was like some high cheva
lier in his respect for Mrs. Bridges,
in his love for HazeL Early the next
morning he strolled outside to join
his father-in-law on the porch.
"Mr. Bridges," he began in his
brisk animated way, "Hazel was tel
ling me that you had over two hun
dred acres in your place here."
"Oh, yes, such as it is," growled the
old man. "Not much good without
capital to work it"
"Why," enthused Duke Edward,
"there you are mistaken! I'm up on
soils and you've got the right sort
here."
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