Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-12-04

habit of believing that he must have been nm
der q penalty to forfeit some weekly allow
snce if he ever claimed q surname. He came
to light in this way IL wanted some infofms-
ton respecting the remotest of the Himalaya
range Of mountains, and / applied TO my
friend Benting "a member Of the Gedgraphf
cal Society, and learned on such points to
advise me. After some consideration, Bent
ing said, in half reluctant and constrained
way, very unlike his usual frank manner. that
he Thought he knew man" whe could tel
me, of his own experience what to karn. HI
appointment was made for certain evening
at Behring'S house: l arrived first, and had
OF observed for more than Eve minutes that
Benting was under curious cloud, when his
8. rvant announced-in flushed, aud l may
say unearthly manner" Mr.. john" A rather
stiff and shabby person appeared, who called
Benting by no name whatever "a siagularity
that always observed wherever saw them
together afterwards, and whose manner was
curiousy divided between familiarity and dis
lance. found this man to have been all over
the Indies, and to possess an extraordinary
fund of travellers experience. 1t came from
him dryly at first but he warmed, and it
flowed freely until be happened to meet Bent
ing IS eye. Then, he subsidized again, and lit
appeared to me, felt himself, for some unknown
reason, in danger Of losing that weekly allow
ance This happened dozen times in couple
of hours, and not the least curious part OF the
matter was, that Benting himself was always
as much disconnected as the other man. 1t
did not occur to me that night, that his was
Benting's brother, for had known him very
we'll indeed for years, and had always under
stood him to have none Neither can l now
recall, nor, if l could, would it matter, by what
degrees and stages arrived at the knowledge.
However this may be- Knew it, and Bentng
knew it, and Benting knew that l Knew tt
But we always preserved the fiction that l
could have no suspicion there was any sort OF
kindred or affinity between them He went to
Eexico this John--and he went 10 Australia
aud he went to Chna--and he died somewhere
in Persia--and one day, when we went down
to dinner at Bcnting's, would find him in the
diuing-roem, already seated, las if he had just
been counting the allowance on the table cloth, J
and another day would hear OF hun as beng
among scsr.et parrots i'll the tropics but l
never knew whether he had ever done any
thing right, or why he went about the world,
or how. AS have already sign6ed, l get ill.,
70 naolss VI S-.iasing and l have got into q
habit OF believing that Mr.. Jonn had ssouir-
thing to do with the dip Of the magnetic nee
dle--hc is all vague and shadowy to me- how
ever, and only know him for certain to have
been Struggled relation.
Other people again put these contraband
commodities entirely away from the llyht, rs
smugglers Of wine and brandy bnry tubs l
have heard of q man who never impaired, to
his most intimate friend, the terrific secret that
he had q relation in the world, except when he
lost one by death and then he would be
weighed down by the greatness OF the calaml-
ty, and would refer to his bereavement rs if he
had lost the very shadow Of himself, from whom
he had never been separated since the days OF
Infancy. Within my own experienced have
observed struggled relations to possess WOLF
derful quality of coming out when they die
Ny own dear Tom, who married my fourth sis
ter, and who is a great smuggler, never fails to
speak to me of one of his relations newly de-
ceased, as though, instead Of never having in
the remotest way alluded to that relatives ex-
istence before, he had been perpetuaiy dis
coursiug Of it. My poor, dear, darling Em-
N.Y. he said to ME within these six months,
" she is gone-I have lost her. Never un il
that moment had Tom breathed one syllable to
me Of the existence OF any Emmy whomsoever
on the face Of this EARTH III whom he HAD the
smallest interest. He had scarcely allowed me
to understand, very Instantly and generally,
that he had some relations-"my people," he
called them-down in Yorkshire. My own
dear, darling Eumy" says Tom, notwithstal-
ding, she has left ME for o better wCrd"-
(Tom mast have left her for his own world, At
least fifteen years. l repeated, feeling my
way, Emmy, Tom p my favorlte niece"
SAID Tc,u, III u reproaclfil tone, Emmy, sod
know: was her godfather, you tcmember:-
Darling, fai.-haiFsl Erims Precious, blie:
eyed child y Tom burst into tears, aud VIC
both understood, that hencetorth the fiction
was established between US that l had bee"
quite familiar with Emmy by reputation, thr0
q series Of years.
Occasionally, Struggled relations are discos-
cred by accident just as those tubs may be,
to which have referred. Ny other half--I
mean of course, my wife--ouce discovered
large cargo in this way, which had been long
concealed In the next street to us lived an
Acquaintance Of ours, who was a Commission
er Of something or other, and Kept handsome
establishment We used to exchange dinners,
aud have frequently heard him at his own
table mention his father as poor deaf good
old boy" who had bees dead for AIN indefinite
period. He was rather fond Of telling anec-
dotes Of his very early days, dnd from them it
appeared that he had been an only child: One
summer afternoon, my other halt, walking in
our immediate neighborhood, happened to per-
4 a. ~ =. L. II