The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-24

whom you nave eXohanged letterBl
Eyes. My father formed project to have
me marry Blanche He did not wish us to
grow up together, lest we should learn to re-
gard each other as brother and sister. When
Blanche came to live at the Court my father
sent me to Germany. The night before l
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. 1 have never
yet loved any woman. And yesterday re-
ceived my fathers summons 10 come home
He has recalled me after FIVE years of absence.
| knew the wish that lies nearest his heart
He wants me to return and marry Blanche. |
shrink from the proposed marriage. L dread
going home; and dread offending my dear
father, whom L love better than any woman.
1t is hard, Jasper, to revolt against the hopes
and plans of a kind and generous father,
whose very love for me causes him to urge on
this marriage!"
''Is it?" said Lowder dryly, and with
strange smile fall of sneering bitterness.
''My experience has been widely different
from yours, Tressilan. Did 1 ever tell you
of my father?"
''No. took it for granted that he is dead"
Perhaps he is. don't know, said Lo gder,
with a reckless laugh. ''But if he is living,
he is a scoundrel. Don't start, Tressilian, at
story. am in desperate mood tonight.
This storm stirs up all the bad within me.
AS nearly as l can discover, my father WAS
the younger son of proud old county
family"
"You do not know, them" asked Tressilian,
pressing his companions hand.
81 have no proofs of it. All 1 positively
know is this. My mother was of humble
station, pretty, with blue eyes and an apple
blossom face and tendar annaalino Uavu
She was the daughter of widow, residing at
Brighton. The widow, my grandmother,
kept lodging house, aud my father, a gay,
dashing young fellow, came to lodge with her.
As might be expected, he fell in love with his
landlady's daughter. He offered the young
girl marriage, on condition that the union
should be kept secret until his affairs bright
ened and he chose to divulge it. The young
girl loved him. Her mother was ambitious
and penurious. The result was the lover had
his way, and married the daughter of his land
lady quietly, almost secretly. Then he took
his bride to London, to cheap and obscure
lodgings, where, a year later, was born.
The wind for a 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 sea-
sons, once or twice week, but he never
brought any of his family to call upon us. L
doubt if his aristocratic relatives even sus.
pected the existence of the 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 sup
posed to be bachelor, and that he went into
fashionable society, while my poor mother
and 1 lived obscurely. He was prohgate
and 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 introduced to his
relatives and to have her son publicly ac-
knowledged. But my father always put her
off, saying that he was not yet ready Worn
was ten ears old"
Again the wind shrieked past, and again
the little vessel lurched, the sea sweeping her
deck.
The captain screamed his orders to his
men, and for few minutes disorder reigned.
"a nasty bit of weather." said Lowder.
'And q bad sky!"
Eyes, but I've seen as bad, returned Tres
silian. ''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 are
worse than seventy in good weather. These
coasts are dangerous, Tressilian."
! Lowder shuddered as he surveyed sea and
sky:
'sBut about your father, Jasper?" said Tres
silian, who had become deeply interested in
! his companions story. "What did he dc
after your mothers death? 2"
81 remained at the old lodgings with oul
single old servant q month or more, my
father visiting me several times, aud express
sing anxiety as to what he should do with me-
week after my mothers death, he told me
that his brother was dead. month later,
his father was killed by being thrown from
bis horse. My father came into riches and
honors by these deaths. At last, deciding tc
rid himself of me, he took me down tC
Brighton, to my old grandmother. Her sons
were dead; she had given up keeping lodg
ers, and was grown miserly. He promised
her five hundred pounds 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 woult
have done anything for moaey. l neve
saw my father again. 1 went to school, grew
up, and at the age of twenty one came iat'
my grandmothers money, the fruits of year
of saving, she dying at that time. My fathe
had deliberately abandoned me. did no
know where to seek him, If l had wishe'
to. / took nv money and came abroad.
had been two years on the continent, an
had scent my little fortune when l met you
The rest you know.
San odd, romantic story! But why di'
your father abandon you ?"
''That he might be freed of eneumbranc
to make a grand marriage. From what N
grandmother said at different times cor
clude that my father was in love with title