The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-28

teaching EaQilans aGd taz szfu- ~t
ng IS open 10 me now.
Fressilian turned bis handsom
face upon ais companion in surpris
and atfecti0aate reDroach.
Jasper he exclaimed, 20
/ talk strangely Do you suppose
have called you friend and brother 8
long, and loved you so we'll, to los
you noW2 / meant 10 have write
to my father concerning you and you
future. Jasper, but his sudden recall
received yesterday. causes me to re
| turn home without writing. / shal
telegraph from MarseiUes that so
/ will come home with me And 30
! viii, will you not? You viii no
! abandon me, my friend? L will charg
/ myself With your future, / will Sc
that you obtain the position to Whiol
your talents entitle you. You hav
10 ties 10 keep you on the Cont
nent
! A strange expression passed owe
Jasper Lowdsr's face.
sly.
=" Aud you will 90 home with ms2
What will your father say to ID
coming2" demanded Lowder. " FL
will think your generosity Qoizouc
lie viii dismiss from his house tlt
hired companion who dares to reseu-
Die his sou
A sudden lurch Of the little vessel
a wave sweeping over the deck, inter
rupted the sentence.
Youwrong my father, " said Tres
silian, his blue eyes kindling, when
the vessel had righied. " He is the
no5lest nan in the world. He will
welcome my friends as his own. You
will love him. Jasper, as | do, when
you know him.
He doesn't seem very affection
ate, " remarked Lowdsr. You have
been away from your home for five
years. and he has but just recalled
you'll"
Young Tressilian's cheeks flushed
as Lowder saw 10 the lurid glow that
momentarily lighted up the tempest
uous scene.
You know, or ean guess, the rea-
son, Jasper, he said, with something
of an effort. My father has a ward.
the daughter of an old friend. Ali
hear that wind shrek The gale is
increasingl
Yes" assented LoWder. And
the ward is Miss Irby-the golden
haired Blanche of whom you have
talked so much, aud with whom you
have exchanged letters?"
: Yes. My father formed a 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 be.
fore 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. | have done so, Jasper. l have
never yet loved any woman. And yes
terday | received my fathers sum-
mons to come hone. He has recalled
NE after five years of absence. |
know the wish that lies nearest his
hear. lie wants me to return and
marry Blanche. | shrink from the pro.
posed marriage. [ dread going home,
and l dread offending my dear father,
whom love better than any woman.
It is hard, Jasper, to revolt against
the hopes and plans Of q kind and
generous father, whose very love for
me causes him to urge on this mar
riage."
Is it?" said Lowder drily, and
with strange smile full of sneering
bitterness. " My experience has been
widely different from yours, Tressilian.
Did | ever tell you of nly fasher?"
" No. | took it for granted that
he is dead.
Perhaps he Is. I don't know,
said Lowder, with a reckless laugh. |
: But if he is living. he is a scoun-
1nflial speech. Wait till you hear |
ny story. | am in O desperate mood |
% nishs. This st.ssln sClrs up al 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, then?" asked |
pressing his companion 8 |
hand.
II have no proofs of it. All [ pos
lively know is this. My mother was
IF humble station, pretty, with blue
Eyes and apple blossom face, and ten
Ter, appealing ways. She was the |
daughter of a widow. residing at
Brighton. TIE widow, my grand
mother, kept lodging house, and ~
father a gay, dashing young .-,F, I
came to lodge with hers might |
have been expected, he Cell in love |
with his landlady's daughter. He Of |
fered the young girl marriage, on con-
dition that the union should be kept /
secret until his affairs frightened and |
be chose to divulge it. The young |
girl loved him. Her mother was am
bilious and penurious. The result
Was that the lover had his way, and |
the daughter OF his landlady /
Iuietly and almost secretly. Then he |
took his bride to London, to cheap |
md obscure lodgings, where a year
alter, ] was born"
The wind for a moment drowned his /
voice. As it presently lulled, he re-
3umed recklessly, and with passionate |
bitterness:
For years my mother and / lived /
IN those stufy 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 a week, but he never |
brought any of his family to call upon |
US. doubt if his aristocratic relatives |
even suspected the existence of the |
faded wife and son of whom he was |
secretly ashamed. l have good rea-
son to believe that he had fine lodg- |
ings at the West End, where he was
supposed to be bachelor, and that he |
went into fashionable society, while |
my poor mother and lived obseurely. |
He was a profigate and a roue, but he
had an air of fashion that awakened |
my boyish admiration, and aroused
my mothers affectionate pride in him.
She was always pleading to be intro
duced to his relatives. and to have
her son publicly acknowledged. But
10Y father always put her off, saying
that he was not ready. Worn out
and despairing, my mother died when
l was ten years old"
Again the wind shrieked past,
again the little vessel lurehed, the sea
sweeping her deck,
The captain screamed his orders to
his meD, and for few minutes dis
order reigned.
"A nasty bit of weather. said
Lowder. "And bad skyP
Yes, but I've seen as bad" re-
turned Tressilian. we shall make
port all right, never fear. We
must be we'll on toward the Cape di
Gallo. And it's only seven miles
from the Cape to Palermo"
But the seven miles in this storm
II