Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-01-05

| gard 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 aud told
me all his hopes and plans for the future,
| and entreated me TO continue worthy Of his
| innocent ward. and to keep my heart pure
! for her | 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 | shrink from the proposed mar
riage. dread going home. And dread
offending my dear father, whom love better
than any woman. It is hard, Jasper. TO re-
volt against the hopes and plans Of "A kind
and generous father, whose very love for me
causes him to urge on this marrsgel"
ais it," said Lowder dryly, and with a
strange smile full of sneerng bitterness.
4" NY experience has been widely different
from yours, Tressiian. Did | ever tell you
of my father p
ono took it for granted that he is
dead"
" Perhaps he is. / don't know" said Low
der, with a reckless laugh. " But if he is
living, he is a scoundrel. Don't start, Tres
hear my story. / am in desperate mood
to- night. This storm stirs up the bad within
me. Az nearly as | can disco fer, my father
was the younger son Of a proud old county
family"
+" You do not know. then p asked Tressi-
Ian, pressing his companions hand
q 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, residing at
Brighton. The widow, my grandmother,
kept q lodging house, and my father, a CAV
dashing young fellow, came to lodge with
her. As might have been expected, he fell
in love with his landladys 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 il.
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 landlady quietly, almost Sc
cretly. Then he took his bride to London, to
cheap and obscure lodgings, where, year
later, was born"
The wind for moment drowned his voice.
Az it presently lulled, he resumed reck!essly,
and with passionate bitterness
" For years my mother and lived in those
atuils, obscure IoupihSS uhtll neV pLopin hau
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. |
doubt if his aristocratc relatives even sus-
pected the existence of the faded wife and
son OF whom he was secretly ashamed. |
have good reason to believe that he had fine
lodgings at the West End where he was sup
posed to be a bachelor, and that he went into
fashionable society, while my poor mother
and lived obscurely. He was prohgate
and a roue, but he had an air of fashion that
awakened my bovsh admiration and aroused
my mothers ailectionate pride in him. She
was always pleading to be introduced to his
relatives, and to have her son publicly ac-
knowsiged. But my father always put her
OIL. saying that he was not yet ready. Worn
out and despairing, my mother died when ]
was ten years old
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.
"a nasty bit OF weather. said Lowder.
"And bad sky!"
Yes, but I've seen as bad, returned Tres
silian 4" We shall make port all right, never
fear We must be well on toward the Cape
Cape to Palermo"
" But the seven miles in this storm are
worse than seventy in good weather. These
coasts are dangerous, Tressllian."
Lowder shuddered as he surveyed sea and
sky.
. But about your father, Jasper2' said
Tressilan, who had become deeply Interested
in his companions story. " What dad he 10
after your mothers death?"
e remained at the old lodgings with our
single old servant a month or more, my ia
ther visiting me several times, and express
ing anxiety as to what he should do with
me. A 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 bor,e. My father came
into riches and honors by these deaths. AT
last deciding 10 rid himself of me, he took
me down to Brighton. to my old grandma
Their. Her sons were dead she had given
up keeping dodgers and was grown misery.
He promised her FIVE hundred pounds year
to keep me, and To keep also the secret Of my
paternity. solemnly promising to acknowl-
edge me some day as his son and heir. The
old woman agreed 10 carry out his Wishes
She would have done anything for money.
| went to school, grew up, at the age of
twenty one came into my grandmother's
money, the fruits of years of saving, she dv-
ing at that time. Ny father had deliberate
~ abandoned me. ! did not know where to
seek him, if hsd wished to. I took my
money and came abroad. had been two
years on the Continent. and had spent my
little fortune when met you. The rest YOU
know"
"An odd, romantic story. But why did
your father abandon your
"That he might be freed Of cucumbrance
TO make a grand marriage. From what my
grandmother said at different times, con
clude that my father Wa, in love with a Ii
tied lady before my mothers death, No
doubt he married this lady. If he lives,
this ludy's son may be his acknowledged