Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-01-04
my father was the younger son of proud


" have no proofs of it. All | positively
know is this My mother was of humbl
station, pretty, with blue eyes and an apple
blossom face, and tender, appealing ways
She was the daughter of a widow, residing a
Brighton. The widow, my grandmother
kept lodging house, and my father, gay
dashing young fellow, came to lodge with
her. As might have been expected, he fell
in love with his landlady's daughter. Ii,
offered the young girl marriage, on condition
that the union should be kept secret unit
his affairs frightened and be chose to divulgt
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 landlady quietly, almost Sc.
cretly. Then be took his bride to London
TO cheap and obscure lodgings, where, year
later, | was born"
The wind for moment drowned his voice
rs it presently lulled he resumed recklessly
and with passionate bitterness
- For years my mother and lived in those
stuiiy, obscure lodgings until her bloom had
faded, and she had grown thin and wan and
nervous. My father visited as at stated
seasons, once or twice q week, but he never
4 brought any of his family to call upon us
/ | doubt if ms aristocratic 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
supposed to be bachelor, and that he went
+ into fashionable society, while my poor
mother and l lived obscurely. He was a
+ proillgate and a rout, but he had an air of
/ fashion that awakened my boyish miration
and aroused my mothers afectionate pride
I in him. She was always pleading TO be in
PRODUCED 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
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
=. \ nasty bit of weather =" said L9wder.
: And bad sky
= Yes, but I've seen as bad, returned
Ircssilian. :. We shall make port all right,
never fear We must be well on toward the
T Cape d 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
:. But about your father, Jasper - said
Tressilian, who had become deeply interested
in his companion story. d" w hat did be
do after your mother death ?"
a. | remained at tie ola Lodgings with our
single old servant month or more. nv
father visiting me several times, and ex-
pressing anxiety as u 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
D. taf hnr -
riches and houurs by these deaths. Al last,
deciding To rid himself Of me, he tsok me
down TO Brighton. to my Old grandmother.
Her sons were dead she had gwen up keep
Ing dodgers. and was grown misery. lie
promised her i've hundred pounds a year TO
keep me, and 70 keep also the secret OF my
paternity, solemnly promising to ackn0wl-
edge me some day as his son and heir. The
old woman agreed Il carry out his wishes.
She would have done anything tor money.
| never saw my father again. went 10
school, grew up, and II the age CT twenty
one came into my -randmother's money, the
fruits IF wears I'D saving, she dying al that
time Nv father bad deliberately abandoned
me did not know where to seek him, If [
had wished 10. | took my money ana came
abroad | had been two years on the CONT
ncut, and tad spent my little fortune when
] met YOU The rest YOU know
a. An odd. romantic story Eut why did
your father ataudon you p
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