The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-08-10
LOST IN THE PosTOFFICE.
From Routledge's Christmas Annual

: largecover which contained it, and which
bore the inscription R. Grey Esq, Mitre
, Buildings, The Temple, London" With
in it lay Hates destiny and mine
Whether we were to be married or no,
before our hair was gray, was the secret
wrapped up in its folds.
To go back to the beginning. My faith
er had been the jnnior partner in the
old bank of Fletcher and Slaney, of
= Thornbury, which had come to grief
after an honorable and old fashioned
e manner, paying off all its debts, according
/, to the custom of forty years ago, at the
expense of the firm, who thereupon be
came poor men. My father had many
; friends, and in those times, when political
influence had its finger in the bestowal of
all public offices worth having, the mem
bers of our tory borough had little diff
} Guilty in procuring for the ex, banker the
Office Of postmaster, then vacant. The
bank offices, occupying the ground floor
OF our residence, were altered somewhat
to suit the new purposes to which they
were put. The public business room be-
came sort Of outer Office, and nv faith
er's private apartment the stamping and
sorting place for the letters. The upper
portion of the partition wall was thrown
down, but leftEat sufficient height to screen
the inner room from the observation of
any person In the outer one; yet it was
open enough to make every word audible
in either ? IT, unless Intentionally spoken
in whisper In the course OF a few
years my father appointed me his head
clerk, upon the promotion of the previ-
Gus clerk to an office Of his own; and our
united salaries then amounted to G400
5 year, besides the numerous perquisites
: which at that time of day fellto the
share OF the postmaster such as private
a letter bags, and the postage upon local
: letters We had two under clerks, and
} the duties were light; very different
from what they have since become, as |
am told. The penny postage had only
just come in postage stamps were still
an institution of the future and money
orders had been recognized branch of
the establishment no more than two
years. Only four years before the stamp
duty on newspapers had been SID
apiece, and the widest wing had not yet
: dreamed Of penny paper. There were
hours in our postoffice when our two
subordinates were more than sufficient
for all the work Of the place, and my
fathers post was little else than sin
3, ecure.
One of the boroughmen, who had been
most active in procuring this comfortable
berth for us, was an old crony of my
father's-both of them were Masons and
both dabblers in chemistry-and also the
wealthiest man in the whole neighbor-
hood He was bachelor, and continued
to live very much in the simple and in
expensive style he had been used to in
poorer days. His money had grown by
lucky speculatlons and careful economy
A good number of his kindred lived
about the town. all moderately we'll off
and more or less successful in life, except
the brother next eldest to himself who,
having entered the church, had gained
. no higher promotion in it than poor
curacy in his native town, with an income
of e100 year. Old Lawrence treated
him with a kind of fretful, irritable
brotherliness, which was but poorly
plastered over by yearly gift, grudg-
ingly giveu, of another hundred. I need
scarcely say that all the kindred were spe.
cially afectionate to old Lawrence.
His niece, Kate Lawrence, the curate's
daughter, was-well! I shall not try to
describe what she was, except by saying
that was in love with her, and had been
ever since [ had first seen her in church,
listening with a beaming and loving
face, to her father, preaching one of his
t prosiest sermons. Everybody knew was
in love with Katie, for made no secret
of it; and Katie was just as simply and
frankly in love with me, and made no
secret of it either. Yet am quite sure
| had never asked her, in so many words,
if she would be my wife; but we were
tacitly, without pledge or promise given,
engaged to marry one another as soon as
tickle fortune would permit it, When
that would be, the most prophetic soul
could not foretell; for our lavish house.
hold expenditures at home, which had
not been materially reduced upon the
failure of theSbank, swallowed up the
> united income of my father and myself 7:
while my three sisters, now portionless,
did not seem in fair way to make
70 eligible settlements. There was only one
" chance, distant one-when old Law
renee died would he leave Katie or her
father any portion of his accumulated
wealth?
Six or seven years had passed without
any frightening Of our prospects, when,
quite unexpectedly, one morning old
Lawrence's housekeeper rushed in with
ID the news that she had found her master
dead in his bed. Only the night before
ne and my father had been trying some
chemical experiments and the shock to
the latter was so violent that he was in.
sensible for some time, and continued
Ispeechless after his consciousness had ap.
lparently returned. Of course, my mother