The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-01-07

| know the wish that lies nearest his heart He
wants me to return and marry Blanche. l
shrink from the proposed 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 kind and generous father,
whose very love for me causes him to urge on
this marriage"
as it?" said Lowder dryly, and with a
strange smile full of sneering bitterness. "My
experience has been widely different from
yours, Tressilian. Did ever tell you of my fa-
| ther?'
"No. 1 took it for granted that he is dead"
"Perhaps he is. 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.
I am in desperate mood to night. 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, then 2" asked Tressilian,
pressing his companions hand.
81 have no proofs of it. All positively know
| is this NY mother was of humble station,
pretty, with blue eyes and an apple-blossom
| face, and tender, appealing ways. She was
the daughter of widow, residing at Brighton.
The widow, my grand mother, kept lodging
house, and my father gay, dashing young
| fellow came to lodge with her. AS might have
! been expected, he tel III love with his land
| lady's daughter. He offered the young girl
marriage 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 penu-
rious. The result was the lover had his way,
| and married the daughter of his landlady
quietly, almost secretly. Then he took his
bride to London, to cheap and obscure lodgings,
| where, year later, was born"
The wind for moment drowned his voice.
| As = 1ulla a6 hn
| 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 q 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 reason
| to believe that he had fine lodgings at the
! West End, where he was supposed to be
| bachelor, and that he went into fashionable
society, while my poor mother and l lived
| obscurely. He was profgate and a roue but
he had an air OF fashion that awakened my
boyish admiration, and aroused my mothers
| affectionate pride i'll him. She was always
pleading to be introduced to his relatives, and
| to have her son publicly acknowledged. But
my father always put her off, saying that he
was not yet ready. Worn out and despairing,
my mOJleT uleu when was Gou years oIu'
Again the wind shrieked past, again the lit
tie 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 weather." said Lowder. "And
bad sky!'
eyes, but I've seen as bad," returned Tres
silian. "We shall make port all right never
fear We must be well 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.
"But about your father, Jasper ?" said Tres
silian, who had become deeply interested in
his companions story. "What did he do alter
your mothers death ~
81 remained at the old lodgings with our
single old servant a month or more, my father
visiting me several times, and expressing
anxiety as to what he should do with me.
week after my mothers death, he told me that
his brother was dead. A month later, his father
was killed by being thrown from his 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 grand
mother. Her sons were dead she had given
up keeping dodgers, and was grown miserly.
He promised her five hundred pounds year
trS = me, and to keep also the secret of my
p Fatty, soIe,Eply prom, i9ing s4-y7knewlAdge
me some day as his son and hei4. 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
grandmother'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. l took
my money and came abroad. had been two
years on the Continent, and had spent my lit
tie fortune when l met you. The rest you
know"
"An odd, romantic story But why did your
father abandon you?"
"That he might be freed of encumbrance to
make grand marriage. From what my grand
mother said at different times, conclude that
my father was in love with titled lady before
my mothers death. No doubt he married this
lady. If he lives, this lady's son may be his
acknowledged heir. Ny father has utterly dis
owned the son of his first hasty, ill-starred mar
riage. 1 have a fancy that shall meet him
some day." and Jasper's brow darkened to
deeper blackRess. "However, stand no chance
of ever receiving justice at his hands"
"What is your fathers name, Jasper 2" asked
Tressilian.
Lowder's face darkened He bit his lip saw
agely.
"What have told you about myself learn
ed from my own observation, or from chance
words of my parents and grandmother. My
mothers maiden name was jeanette Lowder.
At our London lodgings, my father bore the
name of Lowder. l 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, Tressilian, but
l never heard my fathers name. The clergy
man 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
other mumblings was the name of Devereux.
I shall never forget that name-DEvEREu1
Probably that was my fathers name-my own
rightful name. But as should never find him
| if sought him, and as he would .repulse me if
| | did find him, stand no chance of finheriting
| his property. He may be dead. He may have
| other sons who have succeeded him. 1t is all
| a mystery, but the prominent truth is that |
am an outcast, poor, disowned and friendless."
He leaned over the bulwark, the spray dash
| ing ever his face violently.
Tressilian's heart warmed to him.
"My poor friend !" he said "Must I say
again YOU are not friendless while live My
| father has influence enough to obtain for you
| a government appointment. This tangle may
straighten itself out some day. But II 1t don't,
you are resolute enough to make your own hap
| piness."
He grasped Lowder's hand, and looked with
warm bright eyes, full of sympathy, into Low
der's lowering face.
| There had been a temporary lull in the
| storm. But as the two stood there, the tempest
| revived and swept over the wild sea in mad
| dened rage.
| There was no time for talking now The
wind rose so high that words would scarcely
have been distinguished. The storm that had
| gone before had been but play to this awful
outburst The vessel drove on, creaking and
| eroaning, mere cookie shell on the billows.
"Mother of Mercies p walled the captain
"It's all up with us, signores. can't make
out the Cape in this darkness. We shall go on
the rocks. st. Anthony save us y
The seamen echoed his cries.
The two young Englishmen, omprehending
their peril, clasped hands in silence.
For the next few minutes it seemed that
Pandemonium reigned.
Then noise like the report of cannon sud
denly doomed through the storm and the dark
ness. The little vessel shivered, staggered,
and careened upon her side.
She had struck upon rock.
A moment later crew and passengers were
struggling in the waters.
A few moments of buffetings and tossings, of
vain struggles and agonized, involuntary
nraver. and then Jasper Lowder felt his senses
ain from him, and became unconscious.
When he came to himself, he waslying upon
a rocky beach of the Sicilian shore, sore,
bruised, and weak as a child.
He opened his eyes, The wind had spent its
fury. and now moaned along the coast with a
desolate, despairing wall. The waves beat
against the rocks.
Lowder struggled to his elbow.
0Wrecked % he muttered. 81 am cast ashore,