The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-16 00:00:00

CHAPTER IX.

WOOED AND WON.
Oh, happiness! Our being's end and aim:
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whata'er thy name?
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die.
Do. SAMPSON and the friend whom he was about to
visit had been first schoolfellows and afterwards
entered at the same college, where they followed up
their former intimacy, and had never since lost
sight of each other in the course of a life of labour
in the respective professions they adopted, remaining
fast friends through good and ill-fortune, of which
each had his full share.

Mr. Sartoris was destined for the bar, and a pos-
sible seat in Parliament, of which his father, a York-
shire ironmaster and owner of a whole fleet of

trading vessels, had long been a member. But one
of those sudden reverses of fortune which so often

occur to change the whole current of a man's life
had come to dispel his more ambitious dream, and
reduced his family to poverty. The young man,
forced to work for a bare existence, man-
fully abandoned all the bright future he had
mapped out for himself and entered an attorney's
office as an articled clerk. Here he gradually
worked upward, earning for himself, if not fame
and the distinction he had looked for, sufficient of
this world's wealth to take to himself a wife, who
_ .

unfortunately died in giving birth to their first
child, a boy.
A few years afterwards Mr. Sartoris' who had
not married again, was chosen by one of his clients
as guardian to his motherless daughter, a prospec-
tive charge which the sudden death of Mr.. Granton
soon afterwards converted into an existent and not

altogether agreeable fact. However, in the begin-
ning it was easy to get rid of the responsibility,
and Mr. Sartoris did so by sending the orphan to
school at once, and allowing her to remain there
un il such time arrived as she would be fitted to
enter the world.
Gertrude 0 ranton was to a small extent an
heiress; that is to say, she would have on coming
of age, or marrying with her guardian's consent,
eight thousand pounds, and Air. Sartoris, as she
grew up and showed unmistakable signs of increas-
ing beauty, began to think that it would be a very
pleasant arrangement if his son and his ward were
to make a match of it and settle down near him.

_
His motives could scarcely be called mercenary,
looking at the very modest proportiOns of his ward's
dowry, but they were certainly selfish in so far as
this, that he was actuated more by a wish to bind
his sou to some settled home than to secure a cer-
tainty of happiness for the girl he desired him to
wed; for George Sartoris, without being vicious or
the possessor of habits that could fairly be called
bad, was yet of a nature and disposition the least
suited for conjug -1 happiness. Cold, selfish and
indolent, he was content to live upon the income
derived from a small inheritance that came to him
through his mother, eked out by an allowance from
Mr. Sartoris, and positively declined to enter intg
any calling or profession.
"I can enjoy life in my own fashion very well as
lam," he said, in answer to his father's remon-
strances. " My.wants are few, and easily supplied.
I am not extravagant, and I like to be my own master,.
As for a wife !"--and he shrugged his shoulders care-
lessly—" I would rathet be without one, if it's all
the same to you."
But it is not the same to me, George,"
answered the old man, a little sadly. "I should
like to see you with some interest in life, some-
thing to occupy you, to make you think sometimes
less of yourself and more of others. And, by the
way, I hope you'll try and make things pleasant by
being near at home in future. Gertrude will soon
be here for good now, you know, and it would be
very dismal for her, poor girl, to have no society
but that of an old fogey like me."
" Oh ! girls can always manage to amuse them-
selves at home," carelessly answered the young
man. " Gertie will do very well without me, I
"She's grown a very lovely girl, don't you
L!cink ? "
"Can't say I've noticed particularly, sir. The
last time I saw her she seemed to be all elbows,
shoulder-blades, and cheek bones, but I daresay
she'll be passable enough when she's filled out." -
" Upon my word; you ;are not very complimen-
tary. But filled out or not, I consider Gertucle to
be very beautiful, and most young men would be of
my opinion I think." •
"Shouldn't be surprised," coolly replied George,
helping himself to another slice of tongue, for it was
over breakfast that the dialogue took place. "Most
young men are simply idiots as far as the other sex
is concerned. Thank Heavenl'm wiser in that
respect than my generation !."
" Why ! yon—you cold - blooded, insensible
scoundrel ! " exclaimed Mr. Sartoris, hardly know-
ing 'whether to laugh or be angry at his son's
affected cynicism. "Do you mean to say you've no
admiration for a pretty face ? "
• " Not much, I must confess," languidly answered
the young man. "Besides, in this case I only
betray a proverbial insensibility, you knew. A
fellow seldom gives his sister credit for good looks."
" Sister ! what nonsense you talk, George !" said
Mr. Sartoris, half angrily. "Why should you per-
sist in such an affectation when you know it to be
such, perfectly well P"
"In point of fact, yes. I suppose you're right,
sir," drawled his son. ?,'• But though I know there is
no relationship between us, I have been so accus-
tomed to look upon her in that light, that it is diffi-
cult to realise the contrary. However, I'll call her,
Miss Granton, if you prefer it."
"Call her what you please, and do try, if you
can, to help in making the old house pleasant to her
while she remains here, which will be till she
marries, I suppose."
" Ah ! yes' I suppose that will 'come to pass
'some day. Wonder who the happy fellow will
be f'