The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-07-14
miscellaneous.
UNCLE INGOT.
How he was Taken In"

" If ever you or yours get FIVE pounds out
of me, madam, before die promise you,
YOU shall have FIVE thousand and | am a
man of my word % So spoke Mr.. Ingot
2eardmore, drysalter and commencement
man OF the city of London, to Dorothea
Elizabeth, his widowed sister-in-law, who
had applied to him for pecuniary succor
about three months after the death of his
Younger brother Isaac, her husband. There
was harshness and stubborn determination
enough in his reply, but there was no mig
gard cruelty. Mrs. Isaac wanted money,
it is true, but only in the sense in which we
all want it. She was only poor in compar-
ison with the great wealth of this relative
bymarriage. Herincome was large enough
for any ordinary-Mr. Ingot said legiti-
mate purpose, but it was not sufficient
for sending her boy to Elton, and finishing
him off at the universities, as it was the
maternal wish to do. Mr.. Ingot hated
such genteel intentions Christ'S Hospital
had been fashionable enough school for
him, and he had finished off, as clerk at
forty pounds year in that very respectable
house of which he was now the senior part
ner. With the results of that education,
as exempliied in himself, he was perfectly
satisfied, and if his nephews only turned
out half as we'll, their mother, be thought,
might think herself uncommonly lucky
Her family had given themselves airs upon
the occasion of her marrying Isaac" ally
ing herself with commerce" some OF them
called it-and Ingot had never forgiven
them. He gloried in his own profession,
although Government had never seen tit to
ennoble any member of it-and perhaps all
the more upon that account for he was
one of those radicals who are not snobs
at heart, but rather aristocrats. He hon.
estly believed that noblemen and gentle
men were the lower orders, and those who
toiled aud strove, the upper crust of the
| human pie. When he was told that the
former classes often toiled and strove in
| their own way as much as the others, he
made gesture of contempt, and blew
| like an exasperated whale. 1t was vul-
gar sort of retort, Of course, but SO eminent
| " expressive that his opponent rarely pur-
sued the subject.
! He rather liked his sister-in-law, in spite
of her good birth, and would doubtless
largely have assisted her had she consent
| ed to bring up her children according to
his views but since she preferred to take
her own way, he withdrew himself more and
more from her society, until they saw moth
ing at all of one another. He had no in
tention of leaving his money away from his
brothers children; he had much too strong
a sense of duty for that; and as for mar
rage, that was an idea that never entered
into his hard old head. He had not made
fool of himself by falling in love in middle
age as Isaac had done, lin youth he had no
time for such follies,) and it was not likely
that at sixty-five he should commit any such
| imprudence. So his nephews and nieces
| felt confident of being provided for in the
| future. In the present, however, as time
wore on, and the education of both girls
and boys grew more expensive, Mrs. Isaac's
income became greatly Strengthened. Her
own family very much applauded the ex
pensive way in which she was bringing up
her children, and especially her indepen-
dence of spirit with relation to her trades
man brother-in-law, but they never assisted
her with penny. The young gentleman
at Cambridge was therefore kept upon short
allowance and the young ladies, whose
beauty was something remarkable, affected
white muslin, and were no meretriciOus jew
elry. Their pin money was very limited,
poor things, and they made their own
clothes at home by the help of a sewing ma
chine. If Uncle Ingot could have seen
them thus diligently employed, his heart
would perhaps have softened toward them;
but, as have said, they now never got that
chance. Julia the elder, had been but six
years old when he had last called at their
highly rented but diminutive habitation in
Mayfair, and now she was eighteen, and
never seen him since. Although she had
of course grown out of the old mans recol-
lection, she remembered his figure head, as
she wickedly called his riged features, I'M.
commonly we'll and, indeed, nobody who
had ever seen it was likely to forget it,
His countenance was not SO much human
as it was ligenous and his profile Nephew
Jack actually seen upon a certain noby
tree in the limewalk Of Glare Hall at Cam
bridge-much more like than any silhouet;
4 te ever cut out Of black paper: They had
laughed at the old gentleman in early days,
and had snapped their fingers at his churl'
ishness, but. il had become no laughing mat
ter now.