The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-12-31

| friend. All hear that wind shrek ! The
gale is increasingly
eyes" assented Lowder "And the
ward is Miss Irby-the golden haired
Blanche of whom you have talked so much,
and with whom you have exchanged let
ters?''
"Yes. My father formed project to
have me marry Blanche. He did not wish
us to grow up together lest we should
| learn to regard each other as brother and
sister. When Blanche came to live at the
Court my father sent me to Germany. The
night before | left home, he called me into
his library and told me all his hopes and
plans for my future, and entreated me to
continue worthy of his innocent ward, and
to keep my heart pure for her. l have
done so Jasper. have never yet loved any
woman. And yesterday | received my
| fathers summons to come home. He has
recalled me after five years of absence.
| know the wish that lies nearest his heart.
He wants me to return and marry Blanche.
l shIink from the proposed marriage. I
dread going home. And dread offending
my dear father, whom love better than
any woman. 1t is hard, Jasper. to revolt
against the hopes and plans of kind and
generous father, whose very love for me
causes him to urge on this marriage" ~
els it?' said Lowder, dryly, ard with a
| strange smile full of sneering bitterness
"My experience has been widely different
from yonrs, Tressiian. Did ever tell you
of my father?"
NO. l took it for granted that he is
dead" "Perhaps he is. l don't know, -
said Lowder, with reckless laugh But
if he is living, he is scoundrel Don't
start, Tressilian, at my unfilial speech
| Wait till you hear my story. / am in a
desperate mood tonight. This storm stirs
| up all the bad within me. AS nearly as
can discover, my father was the younger
son of a proud old county family"
"You do not know, them" asked Tres
silian, pressing his companions hand.
81 have no proofs of it. All positively
know is this. My mother was of humble
station, pretty, with blue eyes and an apple
blossom face, and tender, appealing ways.
| She was the daughter of a widow, resd-
ing at Brighton. The widow, my grand
mother, kept lodging house, and my
father, gay, dashing young fellow, came
| expected, he fell in love with his landlady' S
rage, on condition that the union should
| be kept secret until his affairs frightened
| and he chose to divulge it. The young girl
| loved him. Her mother was ambitious and
penurious. The lover had his way, and
married the daughter of his landlady qui-
city, almost secretly. Then he took his
bride to London, to cheap and obscure
lodgings, where, year later, l was born. y
The wind for moment drowned his
voice. AS it presently lulled, he resumed
| recklessly, and with passionate bitterness !:
"For years my mother and lived in
those stuffy, obscure lodgings until her
bloom had faded, and she had grown thin
and wan and nervous. My father visited
us at stated seasons, once or twice week,
but he never brought any of his family to
call upon us. l doubt if his aristocratic
relatives even suspected the existence of
his faded wife and son of whom he was
secretly ashamed. l have good reason to
believe that he had fine lodgings at the
| West End where he was supposed to be Y
| bachelor, and that he went into fashionable
society, while my poor mother and lived
obscurely. He was profigate and roue,
but he had an air Of fashion that awakened
my boyish admiration, and aroused my
mothers atfectionate pride in him. She
| was always pleading to be introduced to his
relatives, and to have her son publicly
acknowledged. Bat my father always put
her off, saying that he was not yet ready
Worn out and despairing, my mother died
when l was ten years DID,
Again the wind shrieked past, again the
| little vessel lurched, the sea sweeping her
deck.
The captain screamed his orders to his
men, and for few minutes disorder reigned.
ga nasty bit of weatherr' said Lowder.
"And a bad sky
eyes, but I've seen as bad" returned
Tressilian. "We shall make port all right,
| l. 81
the Cape di Gallo. And it's only seven
miles from the cape to Palermo"
But the seven miles in this storm are
worse than seventy in good weather.
| These coasts are dangerous, Tressilian."
Lowder shuddered as he surveyed sea
and sky.
"But about your father, Jasper?" said
Tressilian, who had become deeply inter
| ested in his companions story. "What
did he do after your mothers death ?"
81 remained at the old lodgings with
our single old servant a month or more,
| my father visited me several times, and
| expressing anxiety as to what he should do
with me. A week after my mother S death,
he told me that his brother was dead. A
month later, his father was killed by being
| thrown from a horse. My father came
into riches and honors by these deaths.
At last, deciding to rid himself of me, he
took me down to Brighton, to my old
| grandmother. Her sons were dead; she
had given up keeping dodgers, and was
grown misery. He promised her five hun
| bred pound year to keep me, and to keep
also the secret of my paternity, solemnly
promising to acknowledge me some day as
| his son and heir The old woman agreed
to carry out his wishes. She would have
done anything for money. never saw my
| father again. / went to school, grew up,
and at the age of twenty-one came into my
grandmonther's money, the fruits of years
of saving, she dying at that time. My
father had deliberately abandoned me. |
did not know where to seek him, if had
wished to. I took my money and came
abroad. l had been on the Continent, and
had spent my little fortune when l met
you. The rest you know
can odd, romantic story! But why did
your father abandon you?"
"That he might be freed Of encumbrance
to make grand marriage. From what
my grandmother said at different times, |
conclude that my father was in love with a
titled lady before my mothers death. No
doubt he married this lady. If he lives,
this lady's son may be his acknowledged
heir. My father has utterly disowned the
son of his first hasty, i'll starred marriage.
| have fancy that shall meet him some
day." and Jasper's brow darkened to deeper
blackness. "However, stand no chance
of ever receiving justice at his hands"
"What is your fathers name Jasper
asked Tressilian.''
Lowders face darkened. He bit his lips
savagely.
"What I have told you about myself
learned from my own observation, or from
chance words of my parents and grand
mother. My mothers maiden name was
jeanette Lowder At our London lodgings,
my father bore the name Of Lowder.
don't know his real name, but | should
know his face anywhere, although l have
not seen him in thirteen years. My mother
was actually married, Tressilan, but
never heard my fathers name. The cler-
gyman who married my mother was dead
the witnesses also. When my grandmother
was dying she tried to tell me the story
She had put it off too long. All that
could understand of her numblings was
the name of Devereux. l shall never for.
get that name DEvEREUx!' Probably
that was my fathers name-my own right.
full name. But as | should never find him