In Her Own Right

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Scott John Reed. In Her Own Right

I. BROKEN

II. GOOD-BYE

III. CLARENDON

IV. PARMENTER’S BEQUEST

V. MISS CARRINGTON

VI. CONFIDENCE AND SCRUPLES

VII. GREENBERRY POINT

VIII. STOLEN

IX. THE WAY OUT

X. PIRATE’S GOLD BREEDS PIRATE’S WAYS

XI. ELAINE CAVENDISH

XII. ONE LEARNED IN THE LAW

XII. I COULD TELL SOME THINGS

XIV. THE SYMPHONY IN BLUE

XV. AN OLD RUSE

XVI. THE MARABOU MUFF

XVII. A HANDKERCHIEF AND A GLOVE

XVIII. THE LONE HOUSE BY THE BAY

XIX. ROBERT PARMENTER’S SUCCESSORS

XX. THE CHECK

XXI. THE JEWELS

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The Cavendishes were of those who (to quote Macloud’s words) “did belong and, thank God, showed it.” Henry Cavendish had married Josephine Marquand in the days before there were any idle-rich in Northumberland, and when the only leisure class were in jail. Now, when the idea, that it was respectable not to work, was in the ascendency, he still went to his office with unfailing regularity – and the fact that the Tuscarora Trust Company paid sixty per cent. on its capital stock, and sold in the market (when you could get it) at three thousand dollars a share, was due to his ability and shrewd financiering as president. It was because he refused to give up the active management even temporarily, that they had built their summer home on the Heights, where there was plenty of pure air, unmixed with the smoke of the mills and trains, and with the Club near enough to give them its life and gayety when they wished.

The original Cavendish and the original Marquand had come to Northumberland, as officers, with Colonel Harmer and his detachment of Regulars, at the close of the Revolution, had seen the possibilities of the place, and, after a time, had resigned and settled down to business. Having brought means with them from Philadelphia, they quickly accumulated more, buying up vast tracts of Depreciation lands and numerous In-lots and Out-lots in the original plan of the town. These had never been sold, and hence it was, that, by the natural rise in value from a straggling forest to a great and thriving city, the Cavendish and the Marquand estates were enormously valuable. And hence, also, the fact that Elaine Cavendish’s grandparents, on both sides of the house, were able to leave her a goodly fortune, absolutely, and yet not disturb the natural descent of the bulk of their possessions.

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“Yes, sir. Seventh Maryland Cavalry – he commanded it during the last two years of the war – went in a lieutenant and came out its colonel. A fine record, sir, a fine record! Pity it is, he had none to leave it to! – he was the last of his line, you know, the last of the line – not even a distant cousin to inherit.”

Croyden looked up at the tall, slender man in Confederate gray, with clean-cut aristocratic features, wavy hair, and long, drooping mustache. What a figure he must have been at the head of his command, or leading a charge across the level, while the guns of the Federals belched smoke, and flame and leaden death.

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