New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-17


Dunlap questioned whether, if any of them
knew what those dozen strong sentences
were, they would still be pledging Rose, and
sending their love glances across the brlm OF
their glasses. For now, the edge of appetite
being blUnted, one and another had some
word to say to Mr.. Marks about that even
ing paper.
"Not the most welcome newspaper to-
day, Mr.. Marks, was it?" exclaimed MIR.
Farren. "a very annoying affair to you
Disgusting remarks, too! Journalism has
reached a point where muzzling is too good
for it. Was your loss serious?"
81. was quite fully insured" said Mr..
Marks, grimly.
"That's Fortunate" said Lawrence Bur-
bridge, ''for it was one of the accidents not
to be foreseen. In fact, l don't know how the
burning of tenement house is to be helped.
should think it was to be calculated upon
with as much certainty as the return of
Encke's comet. Number of lives lost, l see.
Sad, but the stupid creatures were heavy
with drink, suppose"
Poor things! Oh, poor things!' cried
Rose, as she bent forward to listen, over her
suspended ice.
81 don't know" said Mrs. Burbridge,
ness as they all made their excuses for the
millionaire.
'If they had lived, they had so much to
suffer; and, as it is, they have made short
and swift exit, and are well over their trou-
BILE. l always hesitate to say whether l am
glad or sorry at such things. People as poor as
that sort OF vermin, you know; and certainly
fire is a great purifier. And then nobody is
to blame, suppose"
"Pardon, madame. One person was to
blame. Perhaps his sin was no more than
avarice or thoughtlessness but it was his
duty to see that his agents obeyed orders.
And dozen lives would have been saved,
according to the newspaper, if the fire-escape
had been in order on my house,"
6 y our house, papa!' cried Rose. And
her eyes opened wide with a sudden terror,
the color torsOok her lovely face, her lips
trembled, and she would have risen from the
room before one of all the ready escorts there
could reach her, but for Mr.. Dunlap's voice
at her side, with a ring of authority in it she
had never heard before.
"Mss Rose" he said, and said so that
she heard him through all the noise of the
other voices cchoing with question and an
swer around her: "Do not add to this
trouble! 1t is great enough without your ag-
itation. Comfort him, if you can ?'' She
turned, and gazed Mr.. Dunlap in the face.
The look there treasured her, perhaps
stilled her, at any rate. 1t was not the look
of admiration and adulation that she knew
so well in other eyes, it was that of some
one stronger than she and able to help. AS
she saw it, something within her conscious
ness, like that last stroke of nature in the
setting of a crystal, added that look to the
sum of many things-the gentle deeds, the
constant observances, the unobtrusve care,
the protecting shield, the fear lest she should
lose it all, the knowledge that it was pre-
scious and all at once it was that Rose
Marks recognized her master. 1t was only
one of the infnitesimal fractions of time in
which we sometimes feel as if we recalled all
another life that VIC have lived; and then,
with smile destroying that shadow of hor-
rOr and sadness on her face, she turned back
to her father, crying: sob, papa! We must
give our lives to make it up to those who
were spared!"
"That we will!" cried her father, slowly,
and went on with his dinner for his mind
had been decided as to his future conduct
this hour or more, and he needed something
to support him through his resolution. 1t
had such flash of lightning to open his eyes,
perhaps; but now they were open, indeed.
And when dinner was over, he waited upon
Rose himself up stairs to his own parlor.
Mr.. Dunlap stood at the foot of the stairs
when she came down again, little after O.
for she had been crying but she looked love-
lier to him than when all her lusters and col
Ors were about her, for new emotion, a
look OF womanliness, had kindled on her face,
that heightened and deepened the express
sion Of every other feeling there
AS she fingered on the last step but one,
Lawrence Burbridgc came up, and asked her
to pin the rosebud on his lapel. And, as
she did so, he bent to kiss the tingertip, for
Mr.. Dunlap was picking up flower she had
dropped upon the floor; but, with quick
flush, she snatched the hand away, though
she laughed.
is yonr father in his parlor, and may
go up to see him." whispered Lawrence.
"Of course you may" said Rose.
"When L come down." said he, in the
same tone, "perhaps 1 shall have the right
to take WHAT
But Rose sprang lightly past him, down
the step. She knew what he meant, and she
was no cOquette; but she was not unwilling
that gold or pinchbeck should be tested
So Lawrence knocked at Mr.. Marks door,
and was hidden to enter.
Mr.. Marks" said he, after some brief
formality, 81 have ought this interview
with purpose; and L do not know how to
do anything but proceed at once to the point.
You cannot but have noticed my admiration
VI your uituSntc Anu Tic paused, little
embarrassed, it may be.
81 have noticed it, sir" said the father,
looking up from the papers spread on the
table before him.
"And my desire to make her my wife,
resumed Lawrence, coming to the point, in
deed. But have not thought it consonant
with my ideas of propriety and the usages of
my family to address her until l had spoken
with YOURSELF
81 am glad Of that, sir" said Mr.. Marks.
" For when you have heard what have got
to say you may possibly prefer different
course"
"Indecd."
Yesterday, sir, my daughter was the
hciress of an immense fortune-a fortune in
gaining which l have strained every nerve
and spent two-thirds of my life. Tonight
she has agreed to surrender the whole OF it
and be deprived of everything but an an
nuity-sufficient, indeed, for comfort, but far
from wealth. The luxuries she now enioys.
horses, liveries, splendid dresses and Jewels
and open stalls, she will have from her hus-
band, or not; for the great body of this
wealth which L have accumulated for her is
now to go toward making restitution to the
poor of the city for the wrong her father has
done them. 1t has been sweated out of them.
as gold sweated out of the coin it is to be re-
stored to them, so far as it is possible. Tene-