Litchfield enquirer., 1873-10-16
me years, and probably shall never see

some years, and probably shall never see again. - -e-ss-
 | stopped: for Miss Kendall was lean- ing forward, her eyes 1xed on mine, and cleaninr wifh perfectly wild eaeerness, while her checks were pallid and her lips trembled. ss
 saTell me his namer' she cried.
 ''Stop, stop!" interposed her father. ''It cannot be anybody she knows. Or, stayi I think you had better tell her now. You had better satisfy her-it will drive some foolish chimefa out of her head" A
 ''There is no mystery about the matter, one way or the other," I said. '"The friend whose likeness thought saw in the man at the window was poor Charlie | Vest"
 Miss Kendall uttered scream; her fa- | ther gave vent to something between a groan and an oath.
 'I told you!' she said: and she turned with gesture of wild triumph toward her father. Ut was he! Alive OF dead, he was there! Oh, thank God that brought l me here!"
 ''Dear child, you amaze me. It could not be Charles Vest"
 ''Then it was his ghost come from the grave to warn me"
 ''The man who passed along the balco- ny was certainly no ghost, inteFposed.
 Il did think for the moment that his face was strikingly like that of poor Charlie West. But even that resemblance would be nothing very wonderful. I wish had not mentioned it, since it seems to have given Miss Kendall pain.''
 "Pain P she said, in tone that was al most fierce. "You have given me hope, when was down almost to despair; and you have, at least, satisfied me, and my father too, that am not becoming quite insane or idiotic. My course is clear"
 Jennie, dearest, do not say anything rashly." r'
 ''My dear, dear father you must not blame me. and you will not when you have considered. Let him not come to- morrow. If he does it will be of no use. l will not see him, and I take back my promise. Tell him so in any terms you like. I am for telling him plainly the whole truth. will see him for that pur- pose, if you like, but for nothing else"
 She hurried out of the room.
 All this was embarrassing, to say the least of it; and began some sort of apol- ogy to MT. Kendall for my presence and
 my 6Om0WudG 1uChuG1OuS WOEQHs
 :: My dear sir, he said, courteously but sadly, 'I welcome your presence just at this moment, although I would give a good deal that this extraordinary thing had not occurred. Your approaching connection With family we know so well gives me 8 sort of claim upon your pa- tience and your confidence, and shall be glad of some advice during the next day or two. am worn out and perplexed with all this, and want some counsel other than my own. Let me at once make friend of you and tell all.
 So he told me in as few and frank words as possible the trouble that was on him. There years ago his daughter met Charlie West, my old friend, then young man of great promise, and the son of man who seemed to be wealthy, and they fell in love. MT Kendall approved, so did Vests father, and they were engaged. Suddenly heavy calamity fell on poor Charlie. His father had to confess to utter ruin, which he had long attempted to conceal under an appearance of spien- dor; he had ruined with himself num- Der of creditors; he was not merely dis graced, but brought actually within the scope of the criminal law-and he escaped by suicide. Charlie came in utter de- spair to Miss Kendall, and insisted on re- nouncing his engagement. He declared that he could not marry her and could not endure to live in country where he had met her and where he had to give her up. So he left England for Mexico, where's at that time, there was delusive promise of success to ability and enterprise. Mir. Kendall frankly told me that he was glad Charlie had gone; that he by no means bo1 4hA 0R to the son of a disgraced and bankrupt suicide; and that when West1came up to him, and passionately appealing to his friendship and generosity, explained the course he intended to take and asked for his advice, Kendall assured him with cold and decisive promptness, that he was bound in honor to persist in renouncing his engagement, and even in withdrawing his very existence from Miss Kenqalls knowledge. Perhaps poor Charlie had had some wild hope that Kendall would have played the part of the generous fa- ther in romance and the drama, and bade him to think only of his love. But Ken dall told him to go; and he went, and not since been heard of.
 From that time not one day of happi- ness had shone upon father and daughter. Miss Kendall had been utterly miserable, fitful, wayward; sometimes seeming almost as if her mind were shaken. She did not seem to have had any suspicion of the part her father had taken in the banish- ment of her lover, and that was Kendall's onlyRcomfort When he found that his daughters heart was really bound up ir- revocably with her lover he made ener- getic efforts to discover poor Charlie's whereabouts, but without success.
 ''By God, Sir," he declared to me, stri- king the table as he spoke, ''I'd give half my fortune at this moment to find that uphappy young man. never cared for him. I was glad to be rid of him. But if his father had been a murderer or Q hangman, should not care, where my poor girls happiness is concerned. But Charles West, fancy, is either dead or utterly gone to the dogs"
 I had heard in China of the break k-down and suicide of Charlie's father, and that poor Charlie himself had disappeared. Indeed, heard afterward that some of his family had received tid1ngs of his death in Mexico or California. Of his engagement to Miss Kendall had not heard. t. t.D..
 Lately, MT. Kendall went on to tell me an offer of marriage of a most desirable kind had been made to his daughter by gentleman of large fortune and high char acter, member of Parliament, one who would still be called young for 8 public man-in short, just the sort of person Q respectable British father would accept with pride and delight as a son-in-law. All the influence Mir. Kendall could ex- ert he had brought to bear to induce his daughter to accept this gentleman, and at last sae had made kind of condition al surrender. She had promised to mar " MT. Patton, the suitor, provided he was still willing to be a suitor when he had heard fully the story of her love and her disappointment. And Mir. Patton, pre- sume was what would be called sensible man. He knew perfectly we'll that many of his personal friends lived very happily with wives who. according to all report, had been crossed in love before marriage; and he saw nothing to object to in the fact that Miss Kendall before she knew