Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-07-03
John Fleming was too much overcome

| TO speak.
"Leave him with me, my darling. Join
Walter yonder by the window for few
moments" said Mr. Sterling to Garry,
who tearfully obeyed him. Then he leant
| over John Fleming and said, "Come, come,
my old friend, look up; the time is past,
thank heaven! for your head to be bowed
low. Look up, I say-and be happier
than you have been for many, many
years p
| "Has the-has the thief been found?"
| "Speak lower-speak lower" whispered
Mr.. Sterling, looking anxiously toward
his friend, whom he had called Walter
"The secret Of the disappearance of that
money from your desk was brought to
| light four years ago"
| John Fleming threw himself upon his
knees and fervently cried
| "Thank God thank Godr'
| "Amen, with all my hearth said Mr..
Sterling, still turning an anxious look
toward Walter. "We have sought you
high and low, during these four years
Walter, in India, China, America, and
| Australia but your unfortunate change
of name defeated all our endeavors. Ais
well now, however; and what we've got
to do is to try and forget the past as
| quickly as we can. You must come back
to us, but not in the old counting house; !;
that has been swept away in the tide of
the city improvements, and we've got a
palace ola place for you to come to. Don't
| interrupt me, Pm an ignorant, overbearing
old fellow now, and won't be interrupted
in the flow of my oration, even by you
1t was always settled thing between me
and old Wright that you were to come
into the firm; well, now it's an equally
settled thing between me and Walter-his
fathers been dead these fourteen years
that you must come in and make up the
old number of three partners. Say the
word and in six days from this we'll have
the signature at the Bank of England
changed from Sterling and Hartwell to
Sterling, Hartwell and Fleming, and
deucedly well It'll look on cheque, can
tell you. Is it bargain? Do you close
hands on it ?'
Mr.. Sterling held out his hand, and
John Fleming, through his tears, was
about to grasp it, when Walter stayed
him by deprecatory gesture.
"Before you consent to link your name
with mine, Mr.. Fleming" he said, his
voice slightly trembling as he spoke,
"there is something which must be made
known to you. My dear friend and guar
dian here would have spared me the pain
of making terrible avowal but my duty
is imperative, and I will not shrink from
it. Mr.. Sterling has told you that four
years ago discovery was made; it was,
that the person who abstracted the money
from your desk, did it under the excite
ment of tipsy wrangle about the settle
ment of lost bet, and with the determi-
nation of replacing the sum before you
could reach the counting house on the fol-
lowing morning"
Good heavens land that person was
was"
eyes, sir" replied Walter, with bowed
head and broken voice, "my unhappy
father-your companion of the race
course,-who, burdened with this dread
full secret, which he had not strength of
soul to divulge, went to his grave within
three years, leaving in the hands of my
guardian, Mr.. Sterling, sealed packet. to
be given to me when [ came of age. That
packet contained full confession of all
the circumstances of the-of the-crime
he had committed, accompanied by an
exhortation to me never to swerve, by a
hairs breadth, from the straight path in
life"
For few moments there was nothing
more said. Walter Hartwell turned away
his face to hide the tears which, in spite of
his manly resolve to do his duty bravely
and to the utmost, had sprung to his eyes
and trembled in his voice; Mr.. Sterling
anxiously watched the effect produced upon
John Fleming by Walters revelation; the
father and daughter were locked in each
others arms, under the influence of emo
tions too great and tender to find vent in
words.
Mr. Sterling at length broke the silence
" old fri bn sold o6I
John Fleming, 81 own that Walter has
gone beyond what l hoped would have
suff1ced to blow away the cloud that has
so long darkened your life; but Pm not
sorry that he has done what he has done,
since it leaves us nothing to conceal from
you in carrying out the work of repara-
ton on which both he and / have set our
hearts. If your trials have not thoroughly
| changed your nature, John Fleming, /
know you are not the man to punish the
innocent child for the guilty acts of it's
father. A childless old bachelor myself, |
| have had Walter under my eyes from his
boyhood and can say of him, with all
my heart, that if had son | couldn't
make better prayer to Heaven than to
grant that he might in all things resemble
| Walter Hartwell He loves your daughter
has loved her long and honestly; it is
for you, John Fleming, to say whether he
shall love her hopelessly."
Thus appealed to, John Fleming looked
into his daughters face. What he read
there, it is, perhaps, needless to tell what
ever it was, it induced him to kiss her
fondly before placing her hand in that of
Walter Hartwell
"All the dark past is buried with the
mortal DUST" he said. "I give you my
child's happiness in trust, Walter Hart
well. Love her well, for she has been
used to be very dearly loved"
81 will have but one object in life-to
make her happyr' cried Walter, fervently.
You may trust him, Fleming; his
word is as good as his bond any day!"
cried Mr.. Sterling, wringing John Flem-
ing's hand joyously; and he isn't such a
goose as not to know how to make the
most of the luck that has given him
all to himself, to turn his home into an
enchanted palace and his life into fairy
tale-the Queen of the Realm of Million
Delights.
IT,