M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1857-02-12
How an inheritance was Lost.

From Paris Correspondence of N. Y. Times.
| have a story to relate to your
readers this week, which conveys so
excellent q moral, that | have yielded
to the temptation to give it full. 1t
is a lesson to indiscreet self'sutticien-
cy and ingratitude.
The train from Paris to Lyons stop
ped at the station of Joigny, a town
upon the route, and again went on af-
ter leaving a few passengers. The
depot, for a moment crowded with
railroad agents and lookers.on, was
soon deserted by all but two lndivid-
uals. One Of these was an old man,
dressed in the garb of a well-to-do
farmer the other, youth of five and
twenty, seemed to be waiting for some
one to come and meet him. To this
parsonage the old man finally ad-
dressed himself,
MAY | presume, SIR said he, to
inquire you are Mr.. Clement By
tYes, my good man. replied the
youth, with haugtiness Of manner
'and / have no doubt you are Mr.
Martin p
'Atyour service, SIR returned the
other.
Well, Mr.. Martini continued
CLAIMANT in the same tone. | began
to imagine you intended to keep me
waiting. That would not have been
the best manner in which to have in
sinuated yourselfinto my good graces.'
The old man, instead of replying,
let his head fall upon his breast, as if
in deep affliction, and conducted the
newcomer, toward a large, old-fash-
ioned carriage, to which rough-look-
ing horse was harnessed.
7Here is your carriage, SIR said
Martin. If you will be good enough
to get in, l will have the honor ofcon-
ducting you to the Hermitage
FThat my carriage!' cried Clement.
s Why, l shall be taken for travel
ing pedlar i Notwithstanding, as
there seemed to be no means Of avoid
ing it, he took his seat beside the old
man, not without other expressions OF
disdain. In another moment, the old
man had seized the reins, and the
horse started on clumsy trot.
But a few moments before, Mr..
Clement B., who now put on SO many
airs, was simple clerk in crockery
store in Paris, and possessed the rep
utation of being a quiet, unpretendlng
little fellow. What, then, had brought
about this sudden and radical trans
formation He had become, since
the previous day, rich man, and it
may be we'll understood that the pos
SCISSOR Of an income Of 10000 francs a
year finds it difficult toretain the mod
est demeanor of poor clerk. On the
previous day, whilst busting the piles
of crockery under his charge, q letter
had arrived for him, by the post, con-
veying to him the startling intelligence
that one ofhis uncles, ofwhom he had
often heard of, an eccentric and very
wealthy old man, but whom he had
never seen, had just died at his chau'
teau in Burgundy, leaving his neph-
ew, Clement, sole legatee ofhis estates
to the exclusion of many other heirs
The letter was from a notary OF the
province, who desired him to leave
Paris Immediately for Joigny,i the
town near which his uncle had resided,
where he could be met by Martin, AN
old confidential servant of the defunct,
and conducted from the railroad to the
Hermitage the name which the de-
ceased had given to his chateau and
estate, which constituted the main
portion of the legacy. The young
man almost driven out of his senses
by such an unexpected stroke of for
tune. FASTENED to obey the notary's
direction; and, upon his arrival at
Joigny, joined old Martin as we have
seen. ~ ,.'...
On iolted the queer vehicle, in which
our hero had SO contemptuously taken
a place, until, after a ride Of several