The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-12-18
UNCLE INGOT.

| y o. -
pounds out of me, madam, before
die, 1 promise YOU you shall hav
five thousand; and I am a man O
my word" So spoke Mr.. lingo
Beardmore, drysalter and common
councilman in the city of London, t.
Dorothea Elizabeth, his widowed
sister-in-law, who had applied to hin
for pecuniary suecor about thre'
months after the death of his young
er brother Isaac, her husband
There were harshness and stubborn
determination in this reply, but Their
was no niggard cruelty. Mrs. Isaa'
wanted money, it is true, but onl,
in the sense in which we all want it
She was only poor in comparison
with the great wealth of this relative
by marriage. Her income was large
enough for any ordinary-Mr. Ingot
said Legitimate" e"-purpose, but moi
sufficient for sending her boy tc
Eton, and finishing him off at the
universities, as it was the maternal
wish to do. Mr.. Ingot hated such
genteel intentions; Christ's hospital
had been fashionable enough school
for him, and he had finished off, as
"a clerk at forty pounds year, in that
very respectable house of which he
was now the senior partner. With
the results of that education, as ex-
emplifed in himself, he was
perfectly satisfied, and if his
nephews only turned out half as
well, their mother, he thought, might
think herself uncommonly lucky.
Her family had given themselves airs
upon the occasion of her marrying
Isaac "allying herself with com
merce," some of them called it-and
Ingot had never forgiven them. He
gloried in his own profession, al
though government had never seen
fit to ennoble any member of it, and
perhaps all the more upon that ac-
count; for he was one of those radi-
calls who are not "snobs" at heart,
but rather aristocrats. He honestly
believed that noblemen and gentle
men were of the lower orders, and
those who toiled and strove, the
upper crust of the human pie
When he was told that the former
classes often toiled and strove in
their own way as much as the others,
he made gesture of contempt, and
''blew" like an exasperated whale.
1t was vulgar sort of retort, of
course, but so eminently expressive,
that his opponent rarely pursued the
subject.
He rather liked his sister-in-law
in spite other good birth, and would
have, doubtless, largely assisted her
had she consented to bring up her
children according to his views; but
since she preferred to take her own
ways, ne withdrew himself more and
more from her society," until they
saw nothing at all of one another.
He had no intention of leaving his
money away from his brothers chill
dren; he had much too strong
sense of duty for that; and as for
marriage, that was an idea that never
entered into his hard old head. He
had not made fool of himself by
falling in love in middle-age, as Isaac
had done Tin youth, he had not time
for such follies), and it was not likely
that at sixty-fve he should commit
any such imprudence. So his
nephews and nieces felt confident of
being provided for in the future. In
the present, however, as time went
Oh, and the education of both girls
and boys grew more expensive, Mrs.
Isaacs income became greatly strait
ened. Her own family applauded
the expensive way in which she was
up her children, and especi-
ally her independence of spirit with
to her tradesman brother-in
law, but they never assisted her with
a penny. The young gentleman at
Cambridge was therefore kept upon
very short allowance; and the young
ladies', whose beauty was something
remarkable, affected white muslin,
and wore no meretricious iewelry
Their pin-money was very limited,
poor things, and they made their own
clothes at home by the help of sew
If Uncle Ingot could
have seen them thus diligently en-
ployed, his heart would perhaps
have softened towards them, but, as
have said, they now never got that
chance. Julia, the elder, had been
but six years old when he had last
called at their highly-rented but
habitation in Mayfair, and
now she was eighteen, and had nev-
Or seen him since. Although she
lad of course grown out of the old
mans recollection, she remembered
MS fgure-head, as she wickedly called
MS rigid features, uncommonly well:
md, indeed, nobody who had ever
seen it would forgetit. His counten-
ance was not so much human as
igneous; aud his profile nephew
Jack had actually seen upon a nobbiy
rec in the lime walk of Clare Hall at
Jambridge-much more like than
my silhouette ever cut out of black
paper. They had laughed at the
I'D gentleman in early days, and
their fingers at his churlish-
less, but it had become no laughing
natter now.
That remark of Uncle Ingot's, eff